LOS ANGELES (AP) — There was Ozzy earlier than “The Osbournes” and Ozzy after “The Osbournes.”
For a lot of his life, the Black Sabbath founder and legendary heavy metallic frontman who died at 76 on Tuesday was identified to a lot of the general public as a darkish purveyor of deeds starting from decadent to downright Satanic.
Wild tales adopted him. Clergy condemned him. Dad and mom sued him.
However with the debut of his household actuality present on MTV, the world discovered what those that’d been paying nearer consideration already knew: Ozzy Osbourne was gentle and fuzzy underneath the darkness.
Throughout its comparatively quick run from 2002 to 2005, “The Osbournes” grew to become a runaway hit and made stars of his spouse Sharon and youngsters Jack and Kelly. However greater than that, it made a star of the domesticated model of Ozzy Osbourne, and within the course of modified actuality TV.
In 2025, when nearly each number of movie star has had a actuality present, it is onerous to see what a novelty the sequence was. MTV offered it as tv’s first “actuality sitcom.”
“Just the idea of the Black Sabbath founder, who will forever be known for biting the head off a bat during a 1982 concert, as a family man seems strange,” Related Press Media Author David Bauder wrote on the eve of “The Osbournes” premiere. However on the present, Osbourne was “sweetly humorous — and underneath the whole lot lots just like the put-upon dads you’ve been seeing in tv sitcoms for generations.”
Danny Deraney, a publicist who labored with Osbourne and was a lifelong fan, stated of the present, “You noticed some man who was curious. You noticed some man who was being humorous. You simply noticed just about the actual factor.”
“He’s not the guy that everyone associates with the ‘Prince of Darkness’ and all this craziness,” Deraney stated. “And other people cherished him. He grew to become so affable to so many individuals due to that present. As metallic followers, we knew it. We knew that’s who he was. However now everybody knew.”
Actuality exhibits on the time, particularly the favored competitors exhibits like “Survivor,” thrived on heightened circumstances. For “The Osbournes,” no stakes had been too low.
They sat on the sofa. They ate dinner. The now-sober Ozzy sipped Weight loss plan Cokes, and urged his youngsters to not bask in alcohol or medicine after they went out. He struggled to search out the Historical past Channel on his satellite tv for pc TV. They feuded with the neighbors as a result of, of all issues, their loud music was driving the Osbournes loopy.
“You were seeing this really fascinating, appealing, bizarre tension between the public persona of a celebrity and their mundane experiences at home,” stated Kathryn VanArendonk, a critic for Vulture and New York Journal.
The sitcom tone was obvious from its first moments.
“You activate this present and also you get this like little jazzy cowl theme tune of the tune ‘Crazy Train,’ and there’s all these shiny colours and fancy modifying, and we simply bought to see this like completely 180-degree completely different facet of Ozzy which was simply shocking and unimaginable to look at,” stated Nick Caruso, workers editor at TVLine.
Like household sitcoms, the love its leads clearly had for one another was important to its attraction.
“For some cause, we form of simply fell in love with them the identical method that we grew to like Ozzy and Sharon as like a marital unit,” Caruso stated.
What was possibly strangest in regards to the present was how not-strange it felt. The 2 Ozzies appeared seamless fairly than contradictory.
“You’re realizing that these things are personas and that all personas are these like elaborate complex mosaics of like who a person is,” VanArendonk stated.
“The Osbournes” had each a right away and a long-term have an effect on on the style.
Each Caruso and VanArendonk stated exhibits like “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica,” which adopted then-pop stars Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey after they married, was clearly a descendant.
And numerous different exhibits felt its affect, from “The Kardashians” to “The Baldwins” — the just lately debuted actuality sequence on Alec Baldwin, his spouse Hilaria and their seven youngsters.
“’The Baldwins’ as a reality show is explicitly modeled on ‘The Osbournes,’ VanArendonk said. ”It’s like you’ve gotten these well-known folks and now you get to see what their residence lives are like, what they’re like as dad and mom, what they’re consuming, what they’re taking over with them on trip, who their pets are, and they’re these form of cuddly, heat, eccentric figures.”
