Our sucky TV culture is all PBS’s fault. In 1971, they put a camera crew into the home of Bill and Pat Loud and their children and, in 1973, put everything the crew filmed on TV. The show was called "An American Family," and viewers watched the Louds’ lives as though it was a TV show. It was a TV show. The Louds went from happy family to D-I-V-O-R-C-E  and America watched it happen. Their son Lance became the first totally out gay guy on TV (I guess no one counts the "Hollywood Squares" and "Bewitched"). When Lance died of hep C and complications from HIV years later, there was another TV show.

Before "An American Family," you would have bet your ass and your colonoscopy video that if you put TV cameras in a room with people, those people would behave better. They’d be kinder, wiser, more measured and more loving than they would be without the cameras. The whole world is watching, so be at your best.

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