The Osbournes was an Emmy Award-winning American reality television program broadcast by MTV

Reality TV - The Osbournes

The Osbournes

Genre Reality TV
Creator(s) Jonathan Taylor
Starring Jack Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
Kelly Osbourne
Sharon Osbourne
Melinda Varga
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 52
Production
Running time 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel MTV
Original run March 5, 2002 – March 21, 2005
Links
CBS Armed and Famous Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Osbournes was an Emmy Award-winning American reality television program broadcast by MTV in the U.S., by CTV in Canada, Channel 4 in the UK and MTV UK and Ireland in Ireland and the UK, RTÉ Two in Ireland, Network Ten, MTV Australia in Australia and TV2 in New Zealand. The show features the domestic life of rock and roll singer Ozzy Osbourne and his dysfunctional family. It premiered on March 5, 2002, and in its first season, was cited as the most-viewed series ever on MTV. The final episode of the final season aired March 21, 2005.

In addition to famous Black Sabbath star Ozzy, the show features his wife Sharon; his son Jack; his daughter, fledgling singer Kelly; and, since the second season, his adopted son Rob. His other daughter, Aimee, has refused to participate in the show, and publicly criticizes her parents for their antics on the show. In most family photos shown on the show, she is either absent or blurred.

The series was noted for its frequent use of foul language, which was bleeped during MTV broadcasts (at least in the United States); this became something of a running joke with the series. The Canadian broadcasts on CTV and UK broadcasts on Channel 4 are uncensored (in an interview Ozzy himself stated that, while he was happy that the Canadian broadcasts were uncensored, he preferred the censored version because the cursing was more noticable due to the bleeps), and some episodes were also aired uncensored to Australian audiences when shown on Network Ten. It is broadcast uncensored on MTV Australia. It was revealed, however, in a "MADtv" episode, in which Jack and Kelly both guest-starred, that they did not swear as much as it seemed they did, and that it was only edited to make it seem that way.

Concurrent with the success of the series, Kelly Osbourne launched a moderately successful career as a singer, while Sharon Osbourne hosted the talk show, The Sharon Osbourne Show. The series also followed the family as they dealt with major events such as Sharon's battle with cancer, and the aftermath of a ATV accident that nearly killed Ozzy. The family also parodied their TV series during a cameo appearance in Austin Powers in Goldmember. The continuous swearing remains censored, in order to receive a PG-13 rating instead of R, and also to parody MTV's censorship of the show.

The theme song for the show is a cover of Ozzy's song "Crazy Train", done in a jazz-swing style by Pat Boone. The cover is often misattributed to Richard Cheese who also does covers in a jazz-swing style.