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Book Cover
Streaming video

Title TV family / a documentary by Ethan Thompson ; produced and directed by Ethan Thompson
Published Northampton : Media Education Foundation, [2015]
[San Francisco, California, USA] : Kanopy Streaming, 2015

Copies

Description 1 online resource (1 streaming video file, 55 min.) : sound, color with black and white sequences
Series MEF Media Studies & Communication Collection
Contents The family sought -- Show & tell -- The real story -- History now -- Conclusion
Summary In 1960, NBC aired what is widely considered to be the first "reality television" show in American broadcast history. Hosted by Jane Wyatt of Father Knows Best fame, and billing itself as a "new kind of visual reporting," it was called Story of a Family, and it purported to document the day-to-day lives of the 10-member Robertson family of Amarillo, Texas. While the show has since faded from public memory, media scholars and television historians have long recognized its significance as a precursor to the unscripted television programming that dominates American television today. In TV Family, filmmaker Ethan Thompson draws on the recollections of several of the children featured in the show to offer a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the making of Story of a Family. Weaving personal anecdotes from the Robertsons with commentary from TV historians and cultural critics, Thompson tells the story of how the show's producers carefully choreographed the way they wanted the family to appear to the American public -- all in the name of authenticity. The result is an eye-opening look at one of the television industry's earliest attempts to shape the "reality" of family life in commercially viable ways
Credits Edited by Ethan Thompson and Megan Bercaw ; theme and score, Carlos Cooper
Performer Featuring Pauline Durrett Robertson, Robyn Montana Turner, PJ Robertson Pierce, Gini Robertson-Baker, Laurel Robertson, Ellen Robertson Green, Carrie Robertson Meyer
Event Originally produced as a motion picture in 2015
Audience Grade 9+
Subject Television and families -- United States
Reality television programs -- United States -- History and criticism
Families -- Texas
Families.
Reality television programs.
Streaming video.
Television and families.
Texas.
United States.
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Documentary films.
Feature films.
Internet videos.
Nonfiction films.
Documentary films.
Nonfiction films.
Feature films.
Internet videos.
Feature films
Documentaires.
Films autres que de fiction.
Vidéos sur Internet.
Form Streaming video
Author Thompson, Ethan, film producer, film director, editor of moving image work.
Bercaw, Megan, editor of moving image work
Cooper, Carlos, composer (expression)
Media Education Foundation, publisher.
Other Titles Available from some providers with title: TV family : behind the scenes of America's first reality television show
Available from some providers with title: TV family : behind the scenes of the first reality television program
First reality television program
Behind the scenes of America's first reality television show