The promise comes from Albert Brooks himself in the comedy-laden prologue: Real Life will be the next big step in documentaries about real family life — a claim made in full awareness that, six years before its release, the An American Family (1973) series of PBS had already become a phenomenon. Here, the family in question is the Yeagers, from Phoenix. Brooks and his crew move into their home, cameras at the ready, and promptly begin to sow chaos.