Who were the REAL Loud Family?
For seven months, the William Loud family of Santa Barbara, CA, allowed their lives to be filmed, day in and day out. Three hundred hours of film were edited down into WNET’s famous 12-part series, An American Family. During the seven months of filming, son Lance Loud (who died on Dec. 22, 2001) came out as a homosexual and Pat and William’s 20-year-old marriage ended. Unfortunately, the series is not currently available on video; however, An American Family: A Televised Life by Jeffrey Ruoff is available from University of Minnesota Press. The Louds now have their own official web site at thelouds.com.
