“Why didn’t I look at this in the very beginning and say, ‘this is misogyny’?” This poignant question comes from Cori Shepherd Stern, the executive producer behind the Prime Video docuseries, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets. Stern reflects on the initial perception of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, a show that offered a seemingly wholesome glimpse into the lives of the Duggar family from Arkansas.
For those unfamiliar, the Duggars, led by Jim Bob Duggar, a former Arkansas House of Representatives member, and his wife Michelle, became household names between 2008 and 2015. Their burgeoning family, eventually reaching 19 children, was showcased on Discovery-owned TLC. Shiny Happy People aptly describes the original series as a “modern-day freak show,” highlighting both the sheer scale of managing such a large family and the Duggars’ deeply ingrained evangelical Baptist beliefs. These beliefs included strict gender roles, a heavy emphasis on religion in homeschooling, and a focus on procreation.
The seemingly idyllic facade of 19 Kids and Counting began to crumble when news surfaced in 2015 about Josh Duggar, the eldest son, and allegations of molestation against his siblings from over a decade prior. While Josh Duggar was not formally charged in that instance and was sent to a faith-based counseling program by his parents, the fallout was immediate. Advertisers withdrew their support, leading to the cancellation of the flagship show. However, the Duggars remained on TLC with a spin-off, Counting On, focusing on the lives and reproductive choices of some of the Duggar children, including Jill Duggar Dillard. Jill, notably, is one of Josh’s alleged victims and the only Duggar child to participate in Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.
Counting On also faced cancellation after Josh Duggar’s 2021 arrest on child pornography charges. His subsequent conviction and expected prison sentence until late 2032 marked a definitive end to the Duggar family’s wholesome image on TLC. Shiny Happy People quickly moves past Josh Duggar’s legal journey, signaling that the four-part series delves into much deeper and more systemic issues than just the controversies surrounding reality television and the Duggar family.
Directors Olivia Crist and Julia Willoughby Nason utilize the Duggar narrative as a gateway to explore the larger, arguably more significant story of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), a Christian organization founded by Bill Gothard in 1961. The IBLP’s increasingly influential teachings were embraced and practiced by the Duggars, who, in turn, broadcasted these principles to millions of TLC viewers. Cori Shepherd Stern, who had a Southern Baptist upbringing, expressed immediate interest when Crist and Nason elucidated the connection between the Duggars and IBLP.
Journalist and pastor Josh Pease draws a compelling parallel in Shiny Happy People, stating, “For Scientology, the gateway for most people was Tom Cruise. In a lot of ways that’s exactly what the Duggars were” for IBLP and Gothard. The TLC series, 19 Kids and Counting, presented Gothard’s teachings without critical commentary. These teachings, as described by former IBLP followers in Shiny Happy People, included the concept of “eye traps” – the notion that women and girls possess characteristics that incite uncontrollable urges in men – and advocated for severe physical discipline, including prolonged spanking of children. All of this occurred while Bill Gothard faced numerous allegations of sexual assault and harassment. Gothard resigned from IBLP amidst these claims, and an internal investigation acknowledged his inappropriate conduct, though not deemed criminal. Gothard has consistently denied all accusations, and a civil suit was dismissed in 2018 due to statute of limitations issues. Now in his late 80s, Bill Gothard reportedly resides in the Chicago area.
Executive producer Blye Pagon Faust clarifies that Shiny Happy People is “not a takedown of TLC.” She notes, “We did a very strong outreach to numerous people who work on the different seasons of the shows, and we just didn’t have anybody who was willing to speak on the record.” The Shiny Happy People team encountered challenges in determining the extent of knowledge within TLC regarding the problematic aspects of the Duggars’ belief system during the production of their shows.
Significantly, many of Bill Gothard’s more extreme teachings were subtly presented or omitted entirely from the TLC Duggar series. Former followers in Shiny Happy People reveal examples such as Gothard’s claim that Cabbage Patch Kids creator Xavier Roberts was a warlock. He allegedly urged followers to discard their televisions and mandated that men remain clean-shaven. Gothard’s expectations for church members to shun popular culture staples like pop music, Pokémon, and Disney were softened in TLC’s portrayal of the Duggars, framed as quaint, harmless eccentricities rather than unsettling methods of isolation and control. Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets serves to pull back the curtain, exposing the deeper, more troubling secrets behind the shiny happy facade presented to the world.
