On January 11th, 1973, An American Family documentary series premiered on PBS. The show featured the real daily lives and experiences of the Loud family from Santa Barbara, California – decades before the Osbournes or the Kardashians were on the air. Over seven months, producers filmed the family and then edited their lives for audiences at home. During the filming, Lance Loud came out as gay, making him one of the first openly gay people on television. The show is especially timely with the death of family matriarch, Patricia Claire Russell Loud who was born on October 4, 1926, and died yesterday, January 10th, at her home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 94.