Discover how a documentary series became a media sensation 50 years ago and birthed a new television genre.
An American Family at 50 premieres Monday, March 4, 2024 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV.
Fifty years ago, PBS broadcast An American Family, a 12-week documentary series unlike any program that had been seen on broadcast television. Chronicling seven months in the lives of the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California, it became a catalyst for a national conversation about American culture, society, and family. Ten million viewers a week watched, making the series a watercooler conversation across the nation. No one involved with the production anticipated the level of attention and commentary — both supportive and critical — that the series and the Loud family would receive. Newsweek Magazine put the series on its cover, TV appearances included “The Dick Cavett Show,” and even anthropologist Margaret Mead called it “as new and significant as the invention of drama or the novel. An American Family at 50, premiering Monday, March 4, 2024 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV, revisits the original series and explores its significance.
Photo: The Loud Family • Credit: The WNET Group