Collection Summary

The In the Life collection contains 197 episodes from television’s longest running LGBTQ+ news magazine. Created by Emmy Award-winning producer John Scagliotti and produced by In the Life Media, Inc., the monthly series of half-hour programs spanned 20 years between 1992 and 2012. In the Life features newsmagazine segments on topics including LGBTQ+ life, politics, arts, history, activism, health, religion, race, rights, and sports. The series featured hosts Kate Clinton and Katherine Linton, as well as a number of notable guest hosts including Madonna, Nathan Lane, Martina Navratilova, Margaret Cho, Alan Cumming, Billie Jean King, RuPaul, Angela Lansbury, and Esera Tuaolo. The collection features segments on many topics, including the complexity of the Latino LGBT experience; an interview between transgender model Isis King and advocate and editor Janet Mock; polar pioneers Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen; the lesbian members of ACT UP; spotlights on gay and lesbian churches in Los Angeles and Dallas; an addition to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and visual artists Leone & MacDonald. In the Life was acquired by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in 2012.

Collection Background

In the Life began in 1992 as a variety show and evolved to a news magazine program for the remainder of its run from 1993 and 2012. In the Life stopped airing in 2012, at which time it was acquired by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, which contributed the series to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting in 2022. The collection at UCLA includes unedited video interviews that are accessible through the Archive's Research and Study Center. Production files and publicity materials for the series are held by UCLA Library Special Collections.

In the Life Media won a number of awards, including the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Ribbon of Hope Award, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s 2011 Excellence in HIV/AIDS Coverage Award, the 2006 Siegenthaler Award for excellence in network television, and GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine, as well as two Emmy Award nominations and a 15th Annual Webby Award nomination.