How a new docuseries pieced together the most damning exposé of the Duggars yet
If you casually watched an episode or two of "19 Kids and Counting" on TLC in the 2010s, you might have assumed that parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar had it all figured out. The show presented a cheerful, sitcom version of life in a huge, fundamentalist Christian family in which the biggest problems were logistical: Just how did Michelle Duggar do 10 loads of laundry a day or grocery shop for a family of 21?
That wholesome illusion was punctured in 2015, when allegations that eldest child Josh Duggar had molested numerous young girls, including several of his sisters, became public. And it unraveled completely in December 2021, when Josh, by then a father of seven, was convicted of possessing and receiving child pornography, charges for which he is now serving a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
The new docuseries "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets" goes beyond the placid reality TV façade to examine the family's connections to the Institute in Basic Life Principles, an ultraconservative, highly influential religious ministry. Its founder, Bill Gothard, promoted total female submission to male authority, urging his followers to shun birth control, short skirts and public school. He resigned in 2014 amid allegations of sexual misconduct involving numerous women and girls.
Premiering this" makes the case that "19 Kids and Counting" and spinoff "Counting On," which aired for a combined 21 seasons and were among TLC's highest-rated programs, put an anodyne gloss on the Duggars' extreme fundamentalism and essentially functioned as a televised ministry for IBLP.
