An American Family - Legacy and Influence

Legacy and Influence

In 1974, the BBC made its own similar programme, called The Family. The programme consisted of 12 half-hour episodes, showing the daily lives and concerns of the working-class Wilkins family, of Reading, Berkshire, England.

In 1979, Albert Brooks spoofed the series in his film Real Life.

In 1983, HBO broadcast An American Family Revisited: The Louds 10 Years Later.

The series inspired the MTV reality television series The Real World.

In 2003, PBS broadcast the show Lance Loud!: A Death in an American Family, shot in 2001, visiting the family again at the invitation of Lance before his death. The same 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 live very close to three of their surviving children, Grant, Michelle and Delilah, and keep in close contact with Kevin and his family, who live in Arizona.

In April 2011, PBS rebroadcast the entire original series in a marathon format on many of its member stations, also coinciding with the then upcoming release of the HBO film Cinema Verite, based on the series.

On July 7, 2011, most PBS stations presented An American Family: Anniversary Edition, a two-hour film by Alan and Susan Raymond that featured selected moments from the documentary series, in tribute to the 40 years since the series began filming in 1971. It was subsequently released on DVD.