Reality TV star Lance Loud was #BornOnThisDay June 26, 1951. Remembered for his 1973 role in An American Family, a #pbs series that featured his #comingout, at a time when very few #LGBTQ were in the media. Passed in 2001 (age 50) from #AIDS & hep C. #RIP #GoneTooSoon #Pride2022

An American Family


The Loud Family (Back, from left: Kevin, Grant, Delilah and Lance.
Front, from left: Michele, Pat and Bill)

Genre: Documentary/Reality
Original release
Network: PBS
Release: January 11 – March 29, 1973

An American Family is an American television documentary series that followed the life of a California family in the early 1970s. Widely referred to as the first example of an American reality TV show, the series drew millions of weekly viewers, who were drawn to a story that seemed to shatter the rosy façade of upper-middle-class suburbia. It also became a lightning rod for discussion about the precarious state of the American family in the early 1970s. An American Family ranks #32 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list.

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The Loud family

The popularity of the series, which was viewed by 10 million Americans per week, gave the Louds a form of celebrity. Family members profiled were:

• Bill Loud (1921–2018)
• Pat Loud (1926–2021)
• Lance Loud (1951–2001)
• Kevin Robert Loud (born 1953)
• Grant Loud (born 1954)
• Delilah Ann Loud (born 1955)
• Michelle Loud (born 1957)

Lance Loud is credited as the first continuing character on television who was openly gay,[10] and he subsequently became an icon within the LGBT community. He later became a columnist for the national LGBT news magazine The Advocate. Lance, who had been a pen pal of Andy Warhol, himself known for his commentary on celebrity, said the series fulfilled “the middle-class dream that you can become famous for being just who you are.”

One of the more notable moments of the series was when, after 21 years of marriage, Pat asked Bill for a divorce and to leave the house. Pat's saying to her husband, "You know there's a problem" – with Bill's response, "What's your problem?" – was chosen as one of the Top 100 Television Moments by TV Guide.

The series drew intense interest, millions of viewers, and considerable controversy. The family was featured in Newsweek on March 12, 1973, in the article "The Broken Family".

In 2003, PBS broadcast the show Lance Loud!: A Death in an American Family, which was filmed in 2001. Visiting the same family again at the invitation of Lance before his death, the family members participated in the documentary, with the exception of Grant. Lance was 50 years old, had gone through 20 years of addiction to crystal meth, and was HIV positive. He died of liver failure caused by a hepatitis C and HIV co-infection that year. The show was billed by PBS as the final episode of An American Family.

Subsequent to the showing of A Death in an American Family, Pat and Bill Loud moved back in together, granting one of Lance's last wishes. They lived very close to three of their four surviving children—Grant, Michelle and Delilah—and kept in close contact with Kevin and his family, who lived in Arizona. In 2012, Pat Loud released a book about her son's life called Lance Out Loud. Pat Loud died in her sleep from natural causes on January 10, 2021, at age 94. Bill died in July 2018.

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