Sneak Peak: TV Family Animated Sequences

I'm really excited to share a sneak peak at two of the animated sequences in TV Family. These sequences introduce the different thematic segments of the documentary, and there are five of them. They were made by Phillip Niemeyer at Northern-Southern, who (lucky for me) is also a big fan of the graphic design work and art done in the 50s and 60s by William Golden and Ben Shahn. Original music in both is by Carlos Cooper.

The first is "The Family Sought," which investigates how NBC selected the Robertsons as the subject of Story of a Family, and how the program fit in postwar discourse on the family and TV.
The second is "The Real Story," in which the Robertsons discuss how the special distorted and omitted aspects of their lives.

Article in Corpus Christi Paper on TV Family

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times published an article on TV Family and Story of a Family today. The reporter (Erica Quiroz) interviewed me and Carrie Robertson Meyer.

Article in Port Aransas South Jetty

An article about TV Family was published in today's edition of the South Jetty, the newspaper in my hometown of Port Aransas, TX. Unfortunately, it's behind a pay wall for now. Hey, small town newspapers need to get paid!

Here's a photo of the article.

TV Family Outtake: Preserving Story of a Family

TV Family Outtake: How Ellen Preserved Story of a Family from Ethan Thompson on Vimeo.

In 1960, NBC gave the Robertsons a copy of Story of a Family on film. In this outtake from her interview for TV Family, Ellen explains how, when she worked at the Amarillo NBC affiliate in the 1980s, she and the crew there pieced the film together to convert it to video. This preserved the only complete copy of Story of a Family currently known to exist. The family was also given additional footage that was shot but not included in the broadcast.

TV Family featured on front page of TAMUCC web site

Just in time for the holidays, TV Family is featured on the front page of the Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi website.

Article on TV Family in Amarillo Globe-News

Documentary revisits Amarillo's Robertsons | Amarillo Globe-News



An excellent article has been published about TV Family, Story of a Family, and the Robertsons in the Amarillo paper. The author (Chip Chandler) interviewed me, Ellen, PJ, and Gini.

"Long before “Duck Dynasty” first squawked onto the TV landscape, another Robertson family closer to home had their lives turned into a television special."

UPDATE: Here's a scanned in copy of the article

A Recent Arrival

Real Mom Pauline Robertson introduces "recent arrival" Ellen Theresa to viewers at home.