The earliest example of a modern reality show, this 13-part series followed the exploits of the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California. The story that unfolded of the Louds, who at the outset of the series seemed to epitomize the American dream, showed a married couple on the verge of divorce and children, ranging from 14 to 20 years old, in high and low moments. The "toothpaste‐bright affluence, California‐style" family, as described in 1973 in The New York Times, turned out to be "comfortably ordinary, sadly familiar, the kind of family most white middle-class Americans can identify with."