Reality TV Anniversary-Television ate An American Family

Lance Out Loud by Pat Loud
Includes moving essays
by his family, friends and colleagues

On January 11, 1973 PBS began airing An American Family, credited as being the first reality show. We followed the lives of the Loud Family. Parents were Bill and Pat. 

They had four kids, Lance, Kevin, Grant and Delilah. The original series ran through the end of March 1973.

We saw Pat ask her husband for a divorce. They'd been married 21 years. 

Their son Lance came out to his family (and all the viewers) as being gay.

I read that the Louds complained some of what was aired had been edited and then crafted the way "nonfiction narratives are fashioned." 

Critics noted that the cameras encouraged family members to act in ways they wouldn't normally act in order to make good television. Was this the start of people's becoming famous for being famous?

 Lance Loud appeared on The Dick Cavett Show with his siblings

The original plan with a show like this was that you'd get a version of Cinema Verite, the viewer observing the family as they behave day to day. Is that possible when they know they're being filmed?

I'd heard that reality television editors had a special category in the Emmy Awards. The limited research I was able to do did not show this to be true. 

In 1974, a UK version, The Family appeared on BBC TV
We met the Wilkins Family

The debate between reality show performers and editors about who is responsible for what's seen in the final product goes on to this day.

Viewers revisited the Loud family on a few occasions since the 1970s. In 1983, HBO broadcast An American Family Revisited: The Louds 10 Years Later.  

A quote from Lance Loud: "Television ate my family."

In 2003, PBS broadcast the show Lance Loud!: A Death in an American Family. The program was shot in 2001, visiting the family again at the invitation of Lance before his death. Lance Loud died in December 2001 of liver failure as a result of hepatitis C and a co-infection with HIV.

Nightwatch 1954-1955 was a radio show that offered audio recordings of police ride-alongs. I've only heard a few episodes but there is a stark contrast to any reality TV show I've ever seen. Episodes have titles like Scum, Beastwork and Phone Burglar, Nude Prowler, Orange Balls & Bridge Jumper and Aunt Suicide.

Some of the episodes are hard to listen to because the people you're hearing are being given terrible news or they're in a frightening situation. Some of the episodes promise to be humorous. This would probably be a predecessor to a show like Cops. This and other old law and police shows are available on MP3.

Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV


Remember Smile! You're on Candid Camera?! There was actually a radio version of that show, too. Not sure if they cared if you smiled on the radio version... Question is, if it matters, how real can it be if anyone knows that filming/recording is going on.

How do you feel about reality television? What do you watch? Competition shows like Project Runway and Top Chef? Jersey Shore, Sister Wives, Honey Boo Boo or The Kardashians? 19 Kids and Counting, Cops or Wife Swap? What makes a good reality show and at what point does a good one go bad? 

With privacy at a premium in our society today, some of us are struggling to get more and more exposure. I know of someone who was upset to find her photos online, taken by a stranger and used without her knowledge. It's a new world. We're on candid camera.


Resources:
Writers Guild of America
Emmy Awards web site
Wikipedia

How Reality TV Works David Rupel; Writers Guild of America, West

Deaf Theatre, Call for Entries- Art Show, Disabled Performers

Flying Solo - July 23, at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. "An evening of monologues from theater artists representing Deaf West Theatre, Gallaudet University, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the National Theatre of the Deaf & Quest: Arts for Everyone." (Photo from Deaf West Theatre production of Big River)

Call for Entries: Artwork, 09/11 deadline. In conjunction with the city's DEAFestival, Los Angeles citywide Deaf Awareness Month Art Competition. The art competition is open to all individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing and deaf blind residing in the greater Los Angeles area. Entrants may be middle school through high school students under the age of 19. All entry information is available online.

Call for Entries, Films, 10/25/09 deadline. Feature length and short films (30 minutes or under) are now being accepted for showcase in the first annual 2009 Different from what? Film Festival. The festival will be held in Tempe, AZ Jan 29-31, 2010.

Call for Entries, Films, will begin 11/01/2009 for The 2010 Superfest International Disability Film Festival. Keep checking their web site.

VSA arts is seeking performing artists/groups with disabilities who are interested in performing at the International VSA arts Festival in Washington, D.C. From June 6-12, 2010.

"VSA arts - the premier arts and disability organization - will bring together artists, educators, researchers, and policy makers with disabilities from around the world for a multicultural celebration of the arts and arts education." (Photo from the VSA Arts web site.)

The festival will feature visual, performing, literary and media artists from all corners of the globe. Applications and materials must be received by August 3, 2009.

Support India's Ability Unlimited dance company. Don't know when or if they are auditioning for new performers.

Instant Soap Opera: Write, Act, Film and appear on YouTube

Has your life become a melodrama? When you're finally catching your breath after particularly heated moments, do you swear that you hear violins and organ music?

Are you working on a way to loudly hang up on someone over your cell phone? (Pressing the "end" button really hard and snapping the little phone shut like a Venus fly trap just doesn't have the same impact that slamming down the receiver did. Darn it.) I have a strange interest in carnivorous plants, but we'll talk about that some other time.

Well, if you're living your own little soap opera, why not head on over to Godstone in the UK where the good people at the Orpheus Centre are doing an intriguing sounding workshop called The Instant Soap Opera. It just may help to get out some of that pent up drama. You may go into the workshop just another name in the crowd and come out a star ... on YouTube at least?!

"On this course, you can create, write, star in, film and edit 3 episodes of your own soap opera – in a week! Then broadcast it on You Tube for all your friends to see. You’ll look at what makes a good soap, then as a group you’ll come up with characters and storylines, learn about scriptwriting and acting on television, and put the whole thing together for a world premiere screening to an audience on the Friday evening, before seeing your work broadcast online!" Runs July 26-August 1

The Orpheus Centre is a residential performing arts centre for young disabled people. "We don't set out to train our apprentices to be actors, singers or musicians. We use their enthusiasm for the performing arts to teach skills for living and improve self-knowledge, self-confidence and teamwork." (Photo above is from their web site.)

The main tutors, Pete Lawson & Jenny Sealey, are very experienced in The Biz. Pete is an acclaimed playwright and screenwriter, with experience of creating work for adults and young people from the National Theatre to Radio 4. Jenny’s directing career started with Interplay Theatre Company. Her reputation for devising signed plays for deaf audiences and creating multi-sensory theatre enabled her to become Artistic Director of Graeae in 1998. You can read more about them on the Orpheus pages.

I'll put YouTube links here when they become available.

(Venus Flytrap photo from flytrapcare.com)

Casting Call: Project Artist, Project Runway's new little sibling

Back in April, I wrote a blog post dreaming of what a season of Project Jewelry Designer, a fictional take-off on the Bravo tv show, Project Runway, might be like.

I've just read, thanks to Alyson B. Stanfield, the ArtBizCoach, that Bravo is having an open casting call for a yet unnamed Art program.

The casting site says they're looking for "emerging or mid-career artist with a unique, powerful voice that demands a bigger stage."

Casting runs July 11-18 in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and New York. The casting site will tell you all about eligibility, what to bring with you, etc.

Project Runway, season 6 is on Lifetime tv this August.

What do you think? Want to go for it?! Do you like to watch?