America's Funniest Home Videos

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America's Funniest Home Videos
AFV logo
The America's Funniest Home Videos current title screen
Genre Variety
Running time Approx. 30 minutes/60 minutes
Creator(s) Vin Di Bona
Starring Tom Bergeron
(2001–present)
John Fugelsang
(1998–2000)
Daisy Fuentes
(1998–2000)
Bob Saget
(1989–1997)
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Original channel ABC
Original run November 26, 1989 (as a special); January 14, 1990 (regular series)–present
No. of episodes 343 +
IMDb profile

America's Funniest Home Videos (often simply abbreviated to AFV after 1998, previously AFHV from 1989-1997) is an American reality television program on ABC in which viewers are able to send in videotapes containing humorous, silly, or just plain dumb acts featuring themes such as children, pets, personal injury, frequent various injuries to the crotch, or slapstick physical comedy in the form of goofy mistakes (sometimes a set-up). It is currently the longest running entertainment program on ABC. It is produced by Vin Di Bona. It was based on the Tokyo Broadcasting System show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan, which featured a segment in which viewers were invited to send in video clips from their home movies. Every week, 3 videos are chosen by the producers and voted on by the studio audience. The winner wins US$10,000 and is in the running for the $100,000 prize at the end of the season, the runner-up receives $3,000, while 3rd Place banks $2,000. Very early in the show's run, the second and third prizes were a new TV and a new VCR, respectively.

Contents

[edit] History

The show has a long history, beginning on November 26, 1989 (as an hour-long special produced by Vin Di Bona and Steve Paskay, later a weekly half-hour primetime series since January 14, 1990) with actor/comedian Bob Saget as host and Ernie Anderson as announcer. Saget's trademark was to make humorous voices representing the video's subjects on the voiceover track (except for a few times by John Fugelsang, none of the following hosts have repeated this method, choosing instead to merely narrate the clips); Saget's era also produced a memorable segment called "Freeze Frame" which was a montage of videos with the song "Freeze Frame" played by the J. Geils Band. He left the show after eight seasons in 1997, but the show returned on January 9, 1998, with new hosts, model Daisy Fuentes and stand-up comedian John Fugelsang, as well as a completely new look. Their trademark was the "Good-news, Bad-news" segment in which they show a segment of videos (and something funny happens), and in the end, they say something good about it. In 2000, they both left the show after three seasons.

In 2001, it was added onto the line-up again as mid-season filler with Tom Bergeron (who had previously hosted Hollywood Squares), who continues to serve as the current host, and the show also got another new look. His trademarks are a segment called "Tom's Home Movies", which are videos with Tom's head as the person in the video, and "VS.", which has two video categories facing off, but one video category wins in the end. In 2003, the show moved from a Friday slot at 8/7c to its current time on Sundays at 7/6c, and is currently in its 16th season. The show is rerun on Superstation WGN, and ABC Family. The Fuentes/Fugelsang and Bergeron-era episodes are currently seen most often on Superstation WGN, while ABC Family currently only reruns Saget-era from 1994 to the rest of the 1997 show run season on episodes. The Pax network aired the 1989-93 Saget-era shows until rebranding as i in 2005.

At the height of its popularity in the early 1990s, AFHV spawned a spin-off, America's Funniest People.

America's Funniest Home Videos is ABC's third-longest running primetime series, behind only 20/20 and Primetime. The show has had multiple specials including a "Best of the Best" special where they gave a trip to Hawaii away and a "Disney Dream Vacation" special where the grand prize winner won a trip to all 11 Disney theme parks around the world. Both specials were comprised of previous $100,000 winners. In 2005, the Muppets guest starred on the $100,000.00 show.

To celebrate the end of its 16th season on ABC, AFV showcased a countdown of the 20 funniest home videos of all time, with the winner receiving $250,000. This special season finale aired on May 19, 2006, and was filmed at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

It is produced by Vin Di Bona Productions and ABC Productions. It was distributed by MTM Enterprises from 1995-1998, 20th Century Fox Television from 1998-2000, and Buena Vista Television from 2000-present.

Ernie Anderson, who was best-known as ABC's announcer who announced promos for TV shows (most notably his way of saying "The Love Boat"...he pronounced it "The Looooooove Boat"), was the announcer for AFV from the show's start in 1989 until 1995. Gary Owens then took over as announcer for the remainder of the Saget run. The show's current host is Tom Bergeron. The current announcer is Jess Harnell.

[edit] Criticism

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America's Funniest Home Videos has received some criticism throughout its long run on ABC. The main criticism is the airing of and awarding of prizes for videos that appear to be staged. During the Bob Saget era, the video "Guy Drops Toilet Down Stairs" came under fire by critics claiming the video was staged yet still won $10,000. It was argued that videotaping yourself carrying a toilet up a stairwell was highly unlikely, and the man's "accidental dropping" seemed like it was purposeful. The situation rose again when a video with a car driving away down the street had the gas nozzle dangling from the car won $10,000, although it seemed staged to some. It should be noted, however, that one of the show's recurring segments Assignment America actually invites viewers to send in videos about a particular subject, subtly encouraging 'staged' videos.

During the later years of the Saget era, the skits hosted by Saget during the show often fell flat with the audience, and Saget would frequently bring up his hatred for the producers' suggestions and ideas for skits even though it was Saget who wrote them. These bizarre skits became awkward for viewers as they were unsure whether these recurring segments were legitimate complaints from Saget or merely an inside joke. Some of these skits include the producers suggesting Saget time his jokes with egg-timers or, in one particularly confounding situation, Saget showing the audience a live pig that had apparently eaten one of the producers (the producer could still talk to Saget, though).

One common criticism of the program was that videos with babies or pets often won large prizes despite the fact that there really wasn't much humorous about them, just that they were cute. For example, in one episode near the end of the Saget era, a video showing nothing more than a close-up of feeding a baby (with nothing really funny happening) was picked as a finalist (but did not win the grand prize). This was evidenced when viewers complained that the winner of "Funniest Video of All-Time" and $250,000, ("The Quad Squad") beat out the arguably more humorous "Texas Chainsaw Brothers".

The show gained major critiscism from fans and viewers alike when a video containing a 2 year old child singing the theme song to The Mickey Mouse Club won the weekly $10,000 prize, and the $100,000 grand prize. This spawned controversy on the internet, with people claiming that the video was not funny at all and that the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, rigged the contest.

Some viewers complained that the show should end because there are too many tapes that are arguably similar and more painful or lacking humor including extensive uses of laugh tracks.

[edit] $100,000 Grand Prize

In the 1991-92 Season, a new contest was introduced called "The $100,000 Contest". This process went the same way as the usual version, except one of them is going to win $100,000. Two ABC Stations (5 in 1992, later reduced to 3 in 1993) around the country were joined via satilite to cast their votes along with the Los Angeles audience (Saget Version only).

List of Guests on the $100,000 show (Including ABC Stations via satellite)

At the end of the show, the $100,000 winner is announced. Three Grand Prize episodes (One in the 1991-92, 1992-93, and 1993-94 Seasons) grand prize episodes were done each season. A set of $10,000 winners were eligible for the grand prize.

  • 1991-92: All $10,000 Winners
  • 1992-93: All $10,000 Winners
  • 1993-94: All $10,000 Winners
  • 1994-95: 7, 7, 6 $10K winners
  • 1995-96: 7, 7, 5 $10K winners
  • 1996-97 and beyond: 9 $10K winners

Ernie Anderson made an appearence in the very first $100,000 grand prize episode of the series.

When the $100,000 winner is announced. A variety of bands/singers did the AFHV theme song.

  • 1991-92: Regular Theme Song
  • 1992-93: Marching Band Version
  • 1993-94: Same as 1991-92
  • 1994-95(a): Hawaian Version (Steel Drums)
  • 1994-95(b): Pipe Band Version
  • 1994-95(c): Dixie Band
  • 1995-96(a): Disco Version
  • 1995-96(b): Country Version
  • 1995-96(c): Performed by Freddy Cannon
  • 1996-97(a): Choir Version
  • 1996-97(b): 1997 Version of AFHV Theme
  • 1996-97(c): Same as 1996-97b

[edit] Big winners

  • 2005: Costume Comedy ($100,000)
  • 2006: Dancing Machine ($100,000)
  • "Funniest Video of All-Time": The Quad Squad ($250,000)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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