American Family Revisited presents a video scrapbook of the events of 1973 and represents an exclusive document of the making of media celebrities in America.
The documentary begins with narration over film excerpts of the series. to briefly describe its purpose and content. This is followed by an edited selection of the vast public and harsh media response and is intercut with the family’s reaction to these negative comments. The family quickly learned to use the media and an edited sequence shows their appearances on The Dick Cavett Show, The Phil Donahue Show, The Dinah Shore Show, The Dating Game and the overwhelming media coverage later enjoyed by the Loud family.
A segment of the film provides an updated profile of the family in 1983 and shows their current life situations. As a continuing example of American families, and especially those divorced, the seven Louds live in four different cities and are all individually pursuing their own careers.
The documentary also reexamines the most dramatic and controversial event from the original series - the moment Pat asks Bill for a divorce. Revisited intercuts this sensitive footage with five different perspectives of those present that night to try to make audiences understand how such an intimate and painful experience became filmed.
Interviews with each family member elicit their comments upon the original series experience and reveal seven distinctively different perceptions. Excerpts from the original PBS series are intercut with their recollections and juxtapose time/past and time/remembered. As always, the Loud family’s comments are deeply personal and profoundly moving
This film portrait stands as a valuable document of not just one family but the changing American family. The Louds can still be considered a typical American family who have suffered the effects of a divorce. However, the Loud family have experienced a uniquely American phenomenon of media examination and exposure that is unequaled to any other family. The story of the Loud family will always remain a fascinating and historically important journey.
The documentary also reexamines the most dramatic and controversial event from the original series - the moment Pat asks Bill for a divorce. Revisited intercuts this sensitive footage with five different perspectives of those present that night to try to make audiences understand how such an intimate and painful experience became filmed.