An American Family- The Complete Series (1973-2003)- VHS Rip (XviD)

"But leclisse...hardly anyone knows about the Loud family. Why in Gods name would you be posting such a trivial early seventies television program? So what if An American Family was the very first reality show ever, Lance Loud was the first openly gay person in the history of American television, and the program foreshadowed the ever-so-slow degradation of consumer based American society. That's boring!"

"Whatever..."

Here's An American Family. Welcome to the American Dream!


LoveAndSqualor's editorial note: We posted the first three episodes a while back, and then had some trouble uploading the rest of them to Megavideo. They're all streaming now, along with links for downloading.

The VHS rip quality is godawful, but it's still substantially better than the other versions out there. We will upgrade when we can (apparently, the library at NYU has a set of DVDs sourced from the masters, so if anyone has access and could make us a copy, we would be very very appreciative...)

leclisse note: This is a complete re-working of our older post, pre-Cinema Verite. I cannot believe what a crappy Lance Loud HBO got for the part. They (HBO) made the horrid mistake of giving the bad actor a David Cassidy hair-do too, and Lance would have never been caught dead with a David Cassidy hair-do. Did they not bother to watch the original program? Other than the Lance mis-step and the poor dialogue handed to James Gandolfini, Cinema Verite was a very interesting program. Tim Robbins and the oh-so-beautiful Diane Lane were the perfect Bill and Pat Loud.

For all you young retards out there in RetardLand that thought The Real Life was the first reality show...well...you were sadly mistaken. We have An American Family to thank, or curse.




From subci.com:

An American Family was television's first reality show, shot documentary style in 1971 and first aired in the United States on PBS in 1973. The show was twelve episodes long, edited down from about 300 hours of footage, and chronicled the experience of a nuclear family, the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California, during a period of time when parents Bill and Pat Loud separated (in a infamous and powerful on-camera sequence) and Pat filed for divorce.

The Louds had five children. One of them, Lance, was a gay 20-year-old man who occasionally wore lipstick and women's clothes and took his mother to a drag show in the second episode of the series. He lived in the Chelsea Hotel during its Warholesque heydey and this is captured in the second episode (Holly Woodlawn was his neighbor and appears in several scenes, along with Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis, and other famous drag queens of the time). Scholars sometimes mention that Lance came out of the closet on TV, but this is technically incorrect — he was simply gay without announcement or drama; his family says that they had known for quite a while. As such, Lance was the first openly gay character on television and has become something of a gay icon.

On airing, the show drew over 10 million viewers — phenomenal viewership for PBS in 1973 (or even presently) — and drew considerable controversy. The series was widely discussed in the media in 1973, and the Loud family appeared on the cover of the March 12, 1973 issue of Newsweek magazine.

In 1983, PBS broadcast AMERICAN FAMILY REVISITED, and in 2003 PBS broadcast A DEATH IN AN AMERICAN FAMILY, shot in 2001, visiting Lance and his family again at Lance's request. Lance was 50 years old, had gone through 20 years of addiction to crystal meth, and was HIV positive and dying of hepatitis C. In the winter of 2001, a few months after 9/11, Lance Loud was gone. Far from a conventional "happy ending", watching the entire arc of this brilliant masterpiece from start to finish is unforgettable: Lance's downfall from a young, vibrant and magnetically alive kid in 1973, to a man reaching middle age in 1983 (with shorter hair but still cheerful) to the incredibly painful final images of him in 2001(at the age of 50), walking with a cane, losing teeth, looking like a non-survivor of a concentration camp ... it is a truly shattering experience.




Technical Information:

Show Title: An American Family
Year: 1973
Country: USA

Source: VHS rip
Video Codec: XviD
Container: .avi
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 368x272
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG 4 @ ~848 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps

Audio: English- MP3 Stereo @ 99 kb/s
Subtitles: None




Episode: 01
Size: 355 MB
Length: 0:58:33


Episode 01 Megaupload Link




Episode: 02
Size: 346 MB
Length: 0:59:10


Episode 02 Megaupload Link




Episode: 03
Size: 332 MB
Length: 0:58:18


Episode 03 Megaupload Link




Episode: 04
Size: 370 MB
Length: 0:58:53


Episode 04 Megaupload Link




Episode: 05
Size: 369 MB
Length: 0:58:41


Episode 05 Megaupload Link




Episode: 06
Size: 332 MB
Length: 0:58:04


Episode 06 Megaupload Link




Episode: 07
Size: 336 MB
Length: 0:58:26


Episode 07 Megaupload Link




Episode: 08
Size: 364 MB
Length: 0:59:03


Episode 08 Megaupload Link




Episode:09
Size: 288 MB
Length: 0:58:48


Episode 09 Megaupload Link




Episode: 10
Size: 414 MB
Length: 0:58:21


Episode 10 Megaupload Link




Episode: 11
Size: 353 MB
Length: 0:58:27


Episode 11 Megaupload Link




Episode: 12
Size: 349 MB
Length: 0:58:33


Episode 12 Megaupload Link




Technical Information:

Show Title: An American Family
Episode: Revisited: The Louds 10 Years Later
Year: 1983
Country: USA

Source: VHS rip
Video Codec: XviD
Container: .avi
Size: 297 MB
Length: 0:55:38
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 384x288
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG 4 @ ~747 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps

Audio: English- MP3 Stereo @ 104 kb/s
Subtitles: None


The Louds 10 Years Later Megaupload Link




Technical Information:

Show Title: An American Family
Episode: Lance Loud: A Death in an American Family
Year: 2003
Country: USA

Source: VHS rip
Video Codec: XviD
Container: .avi
Size: 405 MB
Length: 0:56:57
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 384x288
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG 4 @ ~994 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps

Audio: English- MP3 Stereo @ 104 kb/s
Subtitles: None


A Death in an American Family Megaupload Link




(Use JDownloader to automate downloading)

Complete Series Megaupload Links

Berlin Week: Matt Frei/Sam Hobkinson/David Vincent- Berlin: Dangerous Ideas, Ruined Visions and Ich bin ein Berliner (2009)- DVD Rip (XviD)

This documentary is EXCELLENT! Matt Frei weaves the history of Berlin seamlessly into a story that almost seems unbelievable at times. This documentary was one of the main reason for having Berlin Week, and although it's in XviD, the picture quality is excellent. But as always, we'll upgrade when we find the DVD. This is EXCELLENT!!!




From the Open University:

Berlin has seen everything from Nazi imperialism to the first gay mayor; it has been home to some of history’s most influential people including Bertholt Brecht, Marlene Dietrich and Einstein; and it’s a city that has been steeped in controversy and contradiction throughout the centuries. Co-produced by The Open University, Berlin is a new three-part documentary written and presented by award-winning, German-born, journalist Matt Frei, who unveils the turbulent and dramatic story of this city from the Prussian years right through to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Matt Frei, now Anchor of BBC World News America and host of ‘Americana’ on Radio Four, took up the post of the BBC’s Bonn Correspondent in Germany on the same day as the fall of the Berlin Wall, and revisits his own past in this series: “Making a film about a city I love, whose happiest milestone I was lucky enough to witness and where layers of history, good but mostly bad, have collided with consequences for the rest of the world is a gift for any journalist. To do it in both English and German was a first for me."




Drawing bold connections between events, characters, art and architecture from 200 years of turbulent history, the series – which is shot in English and German - reveals how the ideas, buildings and people of Berlin have become iconic symbols of our times. Travelling back and forth in time between the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the 18th century Prussian years, Hitler’s Third Reich and Cold War Berlin, we discover a city of contrasts – divided and shaped by its own history.

Dr Sylvia Warnecke, an expert in the cultural policy of the former East Germany, is The Open University’s academic consultant to the series and was involved in underground democratic political movements in East Germany in the 1980s. Sylvia said: “Unlike many other European cities, Berlin’s identity has moved and shifted as history has unfolded, something that has been reflected in its cultural scene. In a sense, Berlin is braver because of its turbulent past, and there is a real sense of endeavour and innovation. The series gets to the essence of this unique city, and brings a fresh view to a place that many viewers will think that they already know.”




Part 1 Technical Information:

Show Title: Berlin
Episode: Part 1: Dangerous Ideas
Original Airdate: November 14, 2009
Director: Sam Hobkinson
Writer/Presenter: Matt Frei
Country: UK

Source: DVD Retail
Video Codec: XviD
Container: .avi
Size: 745 MB
Length: 0:58:26
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 704x400
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Video: MPEG4 @ ~2000 kb/s
Frame Rate: 25 fps

Audio: English- Dolby AC3 Stereo @ 192 kb/s
Subtitles: None


Part 1: Dangerous Ideas Megaupload Link




Part 2 Technical Information:

Show Title: Berlin
Episode: Part 2: Ruined Visions
Original Airdate: November 21, 2009
Director: Sam Hobkinson and David Vincent
Writer/Presenter: Matt Frei
Country: UK

Source: DVD Retail
Video Codec: XviD
Container: .avi
Size: 745 MB
Length: 0:59:00
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 704x400
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Video: MPEG4 @ ~2000 kb/s
Frame Rate: 25 fps

Audio: English- Dolby AC3 Stereo @ 192 kb/s
Subtitles: None


Part 2: Ruined Visions Megaupload Link




Part 3 Technical Information:

Show Title: Berlin
Episode: Part 3: Ich bin ein Berliner
Original Airdate: November 28, 2009
Director: Sam Hobkinson
Writer/Presenter: Matt Frei
Country: UK

Source: DVD Retail
Video Codec: XviD
Container: .avi
Size: 745 MB
Length: 0:58:55
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 704x400
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Video: MPEG4 @ ~2000 kb/s
Frame Rate: 25 fps

Audio: English- Dolby AC3 Stereo @ 192 kb/s
Subtitles: None


Part 3: Ich bin ein Berliner Megaupload Link

Adam Curtis- The Century of the Self (2002)- DVD Rip (DivX)

The Century of the Self is widely considered to be the best documentary ever made, and I agree. Its' the tits! But what's odd about this earth-rattling four-part documentary is that it's never had an official video release (in any format), with a horrible VHS rip (with tracking problems)the only option. Hmmmmmm...maybe this should have bee a Conspiracy Theory Jamboree post.So here's a hard-to-find upgrade from that horrid VHS. In no way is it perfect (BBC Worldwide logo throughout), bit it's a definite upgrade.

If you've never seen The Century of the Self, I'd have to wonder what rock you've been hiding under since 2002. Then I would implore you to download it, before it's too late and you end up purchasing an iPad and succumbing to The System. L&S wants to design an app for FTD (its icon eerily resembling an ethereal Canadian flag), but I'm all that stands in the way of "progress".

Enjoy some truth!



From BBC Four:

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud.

Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man's ultimate goal.




From BBC Four:

One: Happiness Machines

The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.

Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.

His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.

It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today's world.




Happiness Machines Technical Information:

Show Title: The Century of the Self
Episode Title: 1. Happiness Machines
Director/Host: Adam Curtis
Original Airdate: 29 April 2002
Country: U.K.

Source: DVD Rip- Not from a VHS source
Video Codec: DivX
Container: .avi
Size: 661 MB
Length: 01:07:30
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 632x480
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG4 @ 1367 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps

Audio: English- mp3 @320 kb/s
Subtitles: None


Synopsis: The first episode of the series introduces us to Edward Bernuys, Sigmund Freud's American nephew, and his groundbreaking ideas on population control.


1. Happiness Machines Megaupload Link




From BBC Four:

Two: The Engineering of Consent

The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses.

Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise - that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To stop it ever happening again they set out to find ways to control this hidden enemy within the human mind.

Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, provided the centrepiece philosophy. The US government, big business, and the CIA used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the savage barbarism that lurked just under the surface of normal American life.




The Engineering of Consent Technical Information:

Show Title: The Century of the Self
Episode Title: 2. The Engineering of Consent
Director/Host: Adam Curtis
Original Airdate: 30 April 2002
Country: U.K.

Source: DVD Rip- Not from a VHS source
Video Codec: DivX
Container: .avi
Size: 575 Mb
Length: 00:58:47
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 624x464
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG4 @ 1369 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps

Audio: English- mp3 @ 320 kb/s
Subtitles: None


Synopsis: Episode two looks into the theories of Edward Bernuys and Anna Freud, and how different organizations, CIA and corporate America included, applied them to society.


2. The Engineering of Consent Megaupload Link




From BBC Four:

Three: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed

In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the influence of Freudian ideas in America. They were inspired by the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, a pupil of Freud's, who had turned against him and was hated by the Freud family. He believed that the inner self did not need to be repressed and controlled. It should be encouraged to express itself.

Out of this came a political movement that sought to create new beings free of the psychological conformity that had been implanted in people's minds by business and politics.

This programme shows how this rapidly developed in America through self-help movements like Werber Erhard's Erhard Seminar Training - into the irresistible rise of the expressive self: the Me Generation.

But the American corporations soon realised that this new self was not a threat but their greatest opportunity. It was in their interest to encourage people to feel they were unique individuals and then sell them ways to express that individuality. To do this they turned to techniques developed by Freudian psychoanalysts to read the inner desires of the new self.




There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed Technical Information:

Show Title: The Century of the Self
Episode Title: 3. There Is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed
Director/Host: Adam Curtis
Original Airdate: 01 May 2002
Country: U.K.

Source: DVD Rip- Not from a VHS source
Video Codec: DivX
Container: .avi
Size: 486 Mb
Length: 00:57:54
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 640x464
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG4 @ 1174 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps

Audio: English- mp3 @ 320 kb/s
Subtitles: None


Synopsis: Part three addresses how the concepts established by Bernuys were re-assessed during the 1960s, and led to the creation of the "Me" generation in the USA.


3. There Is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed Megaupload Link




From BBC Four:

Four: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

This episode explains how politicians on the left, in both Britain and America, turned to the techniques developed by business to read and fulfil the inner desires of the self.

Both New Labour, under Tony Blair, and the Democrats, led by Bill Clinton, used the focus group, which had been invented by psychoanalysts, in order to regain power. They set out to mould their policies to people's inner desires and feelings, just as capitalism had learnt to do with products.

Out of this grew a new culture of public relations and marketing in politics, business and journalism. One of its stars in Britain was Matthew Freud who followed in the footsteps of his relation, Edward Bernays, the inventor of public relations in the 1920s.

The politicians believed they were creating a new and better form of democracy, one that truly responded to the inner feelings of individual. But what they didn't realise was that the aim of those who had originally created these techniques had not been to liberate the people but to develop a new way of controlling them.




Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering Technical Information:

Show Title: The Century of the Self
Episode Title: 4. Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering
Director/Host: Adam Curtis
Original Airdate: 02 May 2002
Country: U.K.

Source: DVD Rip- Not from a VHS source
Video Codec: DivX
Container: .avi
Size: 486 Mb
Length: 01:08:37
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 632x464
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Video: MPEG4 @ 1369 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps

Audio: English- mp3 @320 kb/s
Subtitles: None


Synopsis: The final chapter explains how contemporary politicians on both sides of the Atlantic adopted and applied the ideas and techniques studied in this series.


4. Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering Megaupload Link

Nick Hornby/Marcel Theroux- The State of Russia: Death of a Nation (2006)- TV Rip (XviD)

I don't quite remember how I stumbled upon Marcel Theroux's excellent documentary on the state of modern Russia, but I'm glad I did. This is a very sobering look at the underbelly of this proud nation, and although the country's population growth has improved since this documentary aired in 2006, Putin has become Dictator for Life, HIV/AIDS is still a silent epidemic, and nationalism (which doesn't bode well for non-Caucasian Russians) is rearing its ugly head.

We'll soon be posting two other documentaries on Russia that also aired on More4, so look for them in future posts, that is, if you liked this one.

On a personal note:

If I was a Russian who came onto this site and saw this post, I'd more than likely be offended by it. I'm not trying to come off all P.C. here, but I do realize that this doc is made by a Brit who is outside looking in. Also, I come from a country that is so fucked up in so many ways that I feel "who am I to judge...", thus the ambivilence about this post. And besides, I don't want to get kicked from RU Tracker, or end up with Polonium poisoning over this.

My daddy didn't raise no fool.




From Anna Picard at Bloomberg:

``Death of a Nation'' is Theroux's love letter to the nation he fell for as a teenager. It is also a depressing portrait of provincial Russia today. Since the end of communism in 1991, the average life expectancy of a man has fallen to 56 years, equivalent to that of Bangladesh or Bosnia. Worse still, the birth rate is plummeting.

Trouble at Mills

Ivanova was once the textiles center of the entire Soviet Union. Now, half of its mills are closed, and many of its citizens are homeless. About 50 percent of the city's newborns are sickly, and the abortion rate outnumbers that of live births. In Irkutsk, in the heart of Siberia, of the 17,000 local HIV sufferers, only 25 are on anti-retroviral drugs.

In Krasnodar, home to 30,000 Meshket Turks, the Cossack paramilitaries have revived religious nationalism. Kidnapped by one of their commanders, Theroux and his team are taken to a grocery store, where ``Mein Kampf'' has pride of place on the bookshelf, and are forced to drink moonshine. Thankfully, their abductors are too drunk to carry out their threat to decapitate the film crew, and settle for whipping the director.

``Death of a Nation'' raises some worrying questions. With nationalism increasing, and rising disenchantment with democracy among Russia's young people, what will the country be like in 20 years, when its population is halved? Who will run the nuclear reactors, the hospitals, the armed forces? And can Vladimir Putin be trusted to address these issues before it is too late?




Technical Information:

Title: The State of Russia: Death of a Nation
Year: 2006
Country: UK
Director: Nick Hornby
Writer/Presenter: Marcel Theroux

Source: Television
Video Codec: XviD
Container: .avi
Size: 499 MB
Length: 0:46:59
Programs used: Unknown

Resolution: 640x352
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Video: MPEG4 @ ~1200 kb/s
Frame Rate: 25 fps

Audio: English- AAC Stereo @ 128 kb/s
Subtitles: None





Death of a Nation Megaupload Link