Editing An American Family (section)

==Critical response==
According to the ''[[New York Times]]'' in 2011, "critical and popular reaction varied," and it suggested the series reflected America in a "counterculture hangover."<ref name="lens"/>

Some critics praised the raw honesty of the series. The anthropologist [[Margaret Mead]] called it "an extraordinary series" and said that "nothing like it has ever been done."<ref name="Yardley">{{Cite news |last=Yardley |first=William |date=2020-04-13 |title=Craig Gilbert, 94, Dies; Created Groundbreaking 'American Family' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/arts/television/craig-gilbert-dead.html |access-date=2022-11-08 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Mead also proclaimed that ''An American Family'' was "as new and significant as the invention of drama or the novel.”<ref name="lens"/> Others were put off, viewing the Louds as a sign of the nuclear family's demise.<ref name="lens"/>

[[Jean Baudrillard]], a French philosopher and sociologist, described ''An American Family'' as a symptom of the way TV has changed our relationship with reality itself.<ref name="lens"/>

The Louds' response to the series was positive at first, it seemed. Shortly after filming wrapped, Pat Loud wrote in a letter to Gilbert: “I think you’ve handled the film with as much kindness as is possible and still remained honest. I am, in short, simply astounded, enormously pleased and very proud.”<ref name="Washington Post"/>  But the Louds' feelings soon soured. They began to vocalize criticism of Gilbert's emphasis on the negative parts of their lives.<ref name="lens"/> In an appearance on [[The Dick Cavett Show|Th''e Dick Cavett Show'']] in 1973, Pat Loud said the series “makes us look like a bunch of freaks and monsters."<ref name="lens"/>

In 1988, Gilbert reflected on the legacy, stating, “I stand behind every frame of that series, yet I understand why it made so many people uncomfortable. This was a film about all of us. About how we’re all trying, and usually failing, to make sense out of life."

A 1973 review by John J. O'Conner in the ''New York Times,'' called it "quite extraordinary" and "unusually sensitive," and maintained: "It might be challenged and attacked. It cannot be dismissed."<ref name="The New York Times"/>