America's Funniest Home Videos
Encyclopedia
America's Funniest Home Videos (often simply abbreviated to AFHV, or its on-air abbreviation AFV) is an American reality television program on ABC
in which viewers are able to send in humorous homemade videotapes. The most common videos usually feature slapstick
physical comedy arising from incidents, accidents and mishaps. Other popular videos include humorous situations involving pet
s or children, while some are staged practical jokes and various forms of act. The show is based on the Japanese series Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan
, which aired on the Tokyo Broadcasting System
.
Originally airing as a special on November 26, 1989, it debuted a regular weekly series on January 14, 1990. First hosted by Bob Saget
for the initial 1989 special and the show's first eight seasons, then by John Fugelsang
and Daisy Fuentes
for its ninth and tenth seasons; the series has been hosted by Tom Bergeron
, currently the show's longest-serving host, since 2001. America's Funniest Home Videos is currently in its 22nd season, which began on October 2, 2011.
, with co-executive producers Todd Thicke
and Michele Nasraway, it is currently the longest-running prime time entertainment program on ABC. It is 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 clip
s from their home movies
; Vin Di Bona Productions pays a royalty fee to the Tokyo Broadcasting System for the use of the format. Contestants can either send their videos in via mail on DVD
or VHS
, or, since 2008, upload them onto ABC's official website.
Due to its very low cost, the format has since been reproduced around the world, and AFV-inspired TV specials and series continue to emerge periodically in the United States. American television series inspired by AFVs format that are not related to the series itself include The Planet's Funniest Animals
, The World's Funniest!
, The World's Funniest Moments
, Funniest Pets and People and It Only Hurts When I Laugh
; however, most of the series inspired by AFV (with the minor exception of The Planet's Funniest Animals) have not matched the success of America's Funniest Home Videos and have not lasted as long. Several local television stations, even those not affiliated with ABC, also developed special funny home video segments in their newscasts during the early 1990s, inspired by the series.
Many videos are range from a few to a couple of seconds and are mostly related to the host's monologues. Videos usually feature people and animals getting into humorous to dangerous accidents caught on camera. A group of screeners view the submitted tapes, giving them a grade (on a scale of 1-10) based on that particular tape's humor; the videos deemed funniest by the screeners then go on to the show's producers, then is turned over to Di Bona and another producer for final approval. Home video material that involves staged accidents, or/and adults, children or babies getting seriously injured or the abuse of animals are generally not accepted, and will not appear on the show.
Every week, three 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, while the runner-up receives $3,000, and third place banks $2,000. Very early in the show's run, the second and third prizes were a new TV and VCR and a new camcorder, respectively. On the initial hour-long special, the grand prize was $5,000 with second and third places winning a new camcorder; the producer picked the winner, with no audience voting. Periodically beginning with the Tom Bergeron run of the series, the $100,000 winner at each season's final $100,000 contest will also win a free vacation package, supplied by either Adventures by Disney
or Disney Vacation Club
, in addition to the monetary prize.
The show produced a spin-off
titled America's Funniest People
, which began in 1990 and lasted until 1994. Another short-lived spinoff was created in 1996 with World’s Funniest Videos, which was cancelled after its first season. Show creator Vin Di Bona also created two series featuring home videos that are largely culled from those seen on AFHV and America's Funniest People: the first-run syndication series That's Funny, which ran from 2004 to 2006, and the Fox Family Channel
series Show Me The Funny
, which ran from 1998 to 2000. Many of the clips have been used internationally in various comedy compilation programs, with changes such as dubbing and subtitling. The title of the show is usually changed and the studio segments are omitted.
According to the closing credits of each episode, most of the videos have been edited for length due to time constraints. In addition according to the contest plugs, family members (both immediate or relatives) of employees of Vin Di Bona Productions
, ABC, Inc., its corporate parent The Walt Disney Company
and their related subsidiaries are ineligible for the show's contests and prizes.
On October 3, 2010, beginning with the 21st season premiere, America's Funniest Home Videos began broadcasting in high definition. Many of the videos, which are largely shot using standard definition camcorders, are now stretched horizontally
to fit 16:9 screens, instead of using pillarboxing.
to be unseated for the top spot in the Nielsen ratings for the first time in 12 years. AFHV finished the 1989-1990 season in the Top 10 watched shows, with an approximate average of 38 million viewers for each episode.
AFHV finished the 2009-2010 season at the 55th rank, with an approximate average of 7.52 million viewers, and finished in 69th in viewers 18-49, with 2.0/6.
(then starring in the ABC sitcom Full House
) as host. Saget was assisted in hosting the special by actress Kellie Martin
, then the star of fellow ABC series Life Goes On
, which would be the lead-in
show to AFHV in its early seasons. Prior to the airing of the initial special, in the fall of 1989, Vin Di Bona Productions took out ads in national magazines such as TV Guide
, asking people to send in their home videos featuring funny or amazing moments. Originally intended as a one-off special, it had became an unexpected hit, causing ABC to place an episode order for the show turning it into a regular weekly half-hour primetime series, it made its debut as a series on January 14, 1990. Ernie Anderson
served as announcer; once Anderson became too ill to continue, Gary Owens
took over as announcer in 1995 (though Anderson briefly returned until his death in 1997). Besides hosting the series, Saget also served as a writer for the series, alongside Todd Thicke and Bob Arnott. The success of AFHV led to a spinoff called America's Funniest People
, hosted by Saget's Full House
co-star Dave Coulier
(and co-hosted by actress/producer Arleen Sorkin
for the first two seasons, then model Tawny Kitaen
for the final two), focusing on videos featuring people doing celebrity impressions, committing pranks and doing short amateur comedy routines, among other things.
From the premiere of the America's Funniest Home Videos until the start of the fifth season, it aired Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET
; beginning with the fifth season, the show started the Sunday primetime lineup on ABC, airing at 7 p.m. ET, followed by America's Funniest People at 7:30 p.m. ET as part of an hour of funny home videos. Saget always ended each episode with the phrase "Keep those cameras safely rolling", and saying something to his wife who was (implied to be) watching the show.
Beginning about the middle of the first season, the show began featuring the "Assignment America" segment; which called for a series of videos to be sent in (collected or made) pertaining to a specific theme. Another segment introduced in the Saget era called "Backwards Classics" shows videos being played in reverse. Since the show's debut as a regular series, the show routinely includes two to three times per episode, a montage of themed videos set to a particular song, better known as the "Music Montage". In the fifth season, an animated sidekick was introduced named "Stretchy McGillicuddy", who was known for trying to tease Bob and other crazy things, one episode in the fifth season had him on the two large TV monitors on both sides of the set, and Bob had to turn him off with a remote. His catchphrase was: "Don't get a little touchy Bob, I'm just a little stretchy!" He was dropped at the end of the seventh season. His voice was supplied by Danny Mann
. Johnny Carson
made both the show and Saget regular targets of his monologues on The Tonight Show
.
In 1994, ABC canceled America's Funniest People after four seasons due to declining ratings, and had to decide what to do with the Sunday night 7:30 p.m. ET slot now vacant. After trying out the short-lived sitcom On Our Own
in the 7:30 p.m. slot after AFHV during the 1994-95 season, ABC then later chose to expand the show to one hour with back-to-back airings, first showing that week's new episode for the first half-hour and then showing a repeat from a previous season to fill the remaining time. On February 1, 1996, another spinoff of AFHV debuted called World's Funniest Videos; taped at Walt Disney World, this series was also hosted by Coulier, along with actress Eva LaRue
. Paired with a weekly version of the popular Before They Were Stars
specials on Thursday nights, World's Funniest Videos focused on funny or amazing home videos from around the world. However due to low ratings, it lasted after only one season; with ABC putting the show on hiatus a few weeks after its debut, and the remaining episodes were burned off that summer. For Saget's final season on AFHV, two new episodes would be shown.
Numerous comedy skits were performed on the set during Saget's tenure as host. The set basically consisted of a living room design, similar to that of a sitcom. The beginning of each episode was tied in with a skit just before the transition was made from the introduction to Saget. This usually consisted of several actors in a fake room (usually in the upper part of the audience section or in another soundstage) pretending to get excited watching America's Funniest Home Videos. This technique was scrapped at the end of the fifth season.
Saget soon grew tired of the repetitive format and was eager to pursue other projects as an actor and director. Producer Di Bona held him to his contract, resulting in a frustrated Saget listlessly going through the motions, constantly getting out of character, and making pointed remarks on the air during his last two seasons. Saget's contract expired in May 1997, and he decided to leave the show afterward. His former Full House cast (except for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
) were present in the episode prior to the $100,000 season finale, which was his final episode.
He returned to America's Funniest Home Videos for a 20th anniversary special edition of the series, which aired on November 29, 2009. Saget co-hosted the episode with current host Tom Bergeron.
and model-turned-television personality Daisy Fuentes
took over as co-hosts of the show. Jess Harnell
also succeeded Owens as the show's announcer. The set was also revamped and show began to be alternately called AFV at this point (though the show officially continued to be titled America's Funniest Home Videos).
During this period, the show introduced a segment called "Bad News, Good News," which shows a video of an accident; then one of the hosts makes a humorous statement about the upside of what happened. This segment continued to appear occasionally until the fourth year of Tom Bergeron's current stint as host. Another notable segment was the "AFV Hall of Fame", in which a clip is shown, and co-host John Fugelsang reveals the moment of impact (a screen that shows a still picture of that clip) that occurred in it; this segment was scrapped at the end of the tenth season. Also featured was a segment called "Who Would You Like to See...", in which a random person is asked which celebrity they would like to see involved in a random humorous mishap, with a photo of a celebrity's face posterized over the face of the actual person in the video.
With the Sunday night 7 p.m. ET slot now occupied by Disney films aired as part of The Wonderful World of Disney, the show occupied constantly changing slots, from Monday nights to Thursday nights to Saturday nights. The ratings for the show suffered during this period, and both hosts left the show after two seasons in 1999. Their last episode was taped at the House of Blues
in West Hollywood, California.
star D.L. Hughley and Spin City
star Richard Kind
. The show moved to a much smaller soundstage and the set featured various video screens and monitors placed on shelves. A special sports version of the show that continues to be re-shown every New Year's Day, and until 2008 aired occasionally before NBA playoff games with a post 8:30 p.m. ET tip-off, was hosted by ESPN
anchor Stuart Scott
. A special entitled America's Funniest Home Videos: Deluxe Uncensored was hosted by Steve Carell
and taped on the set from the Fuentes/Fugelsang era. These specials (with the exception of the special sports edition) were not taped in front of a live studio audience, so applause and laugh tracks were used during commercial bumpers and just before, during, and after video packages.
. By this point, the show was expanded to a full hour-long episode, instead of being aired as two half-hour episodes. The show was now being seen on Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET; however, it went off the air for several months due in part to the September 11 attacks and in part to ABC airing specials and trying a new Friday night line-up. The new Friday night line-up was short-lived, and the show returned in December 2001. In his earlier episodes, Bergeron used the set from the AFV specials that aired in 2000, until the latter part of his first season, when a new set (with a studio audience) was introduced featuring a round video screen with several monitors.
In September 2003, the show returned to the timeslot of Sunday nights at 7:00 p.m. ET, still an hour long (though special episodes occasionally aired on Friday nights until 2007). Unlike Saget, who provided voiceovers to the clips, Bergeron humorously narrates them.
The Bergeron version added new segments, such as "Tom's Home Movies," where his face is digitally superimposed over the faces on the videos with varying expressions shown to match the person's reaction to their mishaps in the videos (a recurring gag referenced by Bergeron in this segment is on his superimposed head being larger than a person's head would normally be), various audience participation games using funny home videos including "Head, Gut or Groin," where Tom picks two members of the studio audience to guess whether the person in the video will be hit in the aforementioned three areas of the body (though occasionally, a video in this segment may feature a person getting hit in two of the three areas) in order to win an America's Funniest Home Videos compilation DVD
, and the "slo-mo gizmo", where a video is played first at normal speed and then again at a slower speed and telestrated
. Except in a few episodes, Bergeron always ends each episode with the phrase "If you get it on tape, you could get it in cash", which was later changed to "Upload to us. Get rich, get famous" by the 2008-09 season.
Other segments introduced in the Tom Bergeron era included "Vs.", "The Dog/Cat Park", "AFV Family of the Week", "Nincompoop Corner", "What's Up with the French?" "AFV Dictionary", "Pick the Real Video", "A Moment of... Ewww", "Kid, Cat, or Canine", What's Behind the Blue Blob", and "The Naughty File". Starting with the 2007–08 season, the series began allowing viewers to upload their funny home videos online at ABC.com, in addition to sending their videos via standard mail.
For the Fuentes/Fugelsang and Bergeron eras, only confetti would be dropped and the regular theme would be heard.
, who also wrote the lyrics with Stewart Harris. This version of "The Funny Things You Do" accompanied the opening and closing credits for the first seven seasons. This theme was reused once again for when Tom Bergeron introduced Saget as well as a montage of classic videos from the pilot episode and a segment showcasing Bob Saget's run on the show (the latter segment used the theme's original lyrics) in the AFV 20th anniversary special, which aired on November 29, 2009. During the final part of the $100,000 shows, bands as well as other artists would play the theme.
During the 1996–97 season (the final season with Saget as host), the theme was revamped (as well as the graphics and animation of the show's intro) featuring a duet of new vocals, Peter Hix (who had previously performed the theme song for America's Funniest People
) and Terry Wood. The new version was also in a different key than the original.
When AFHV returned for its ninth season with new hosts Daisy Fuentes and John Fugelsang and a completely new look, the current arrangement of "The Funny Things You Do" made its debut. Since that time, the theme has been an instrumental (also composed by Dan Slider) with a faster, ska/reggae beat, with the original key (of the 1989-96 version) restored, making it sound similar to "The Impression That I Get
" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
. An alternate version of this theme exists that is stripped of the trumpets (this version is only heard as the closing theme during the 2002-03 season in ABC and broadcast syndication runs, as well as in re-edited bumpers with added video clips from that particular episode in some 2002-03 season episodes in broadcast syndication). In reruns of the Fugelsang-Fuentes episodes on WGN America and the Tom Bergeron episodes on WGN America and ABC Family
, the theme is noticeably slowed down (albeit slightly) during the show's opening titles and commercial bumpers.
The current theme can be heard in its entirety at the Television Production Music Museum. The two themes used in the Saget era have not been released to this day, as they are reportedly being held by Vin Di Bona
for unknown reasons.
"The Funny Things You Do" was the theme song to the Australian version between 1991 and 2004. "The Funny Things You Do" was replaced by an instrumental version as part of the 2005 major revamp.
though for unknown reasons, the 1989–1994 Saget episodes, the 1994–97 Saget episodes, the 1998–99 Fugelsang/Fuentes episodes and the current Tom Bergeron episodes of AFV have virtually never been aired together in off-network broadcast or cable syndication; instead each era of the series has aired separately, with a minor exception for the 1994–97 Saget episodes and the Fugelsang-Fuentes episodes, which have never been aired in broadcast syndication. Until 2001, the Saget version was syndicated by 20th Television
, who assumed syndication rights from their purchase of MTM Enterprises
, which had syndicated the show from 1995–1998. Currently, Disney-ABC Domestic Television (formerly Buena Vista Television), the corporate cousin of one of the show's production companies ABC Productions, distributes all versions of the series.
The 1989–1994 Bob Saget episodes have aired in off-network syndication starting in September 1995, and also on TBS from October 2, 1995–September 1998, USA Network
from 1998–2001, and the Hallmark Channel
from August 5, 2001–2003 and January 4-February 25, 2010 (during the latter Hallmark run, DirecTV
on-screen program guides misstated the host as being "Tom Bergeron" rather than "Bob Saget", despite Hallmark only having rights to the Saget episodes; this error was later removed when the Hallmark Channel moved AFHV to the late night and afternoon graveyard slot
s), PAX TV (now Ion Television) on Monday-Thursday nights (Fridays were later added) from 2003–2005, and Nick at Nite
from April-October 2007. When Nick at Nite began airing the early Saget episodes (including the 1989 special) the first week the show aired, every $100,000 Grand Prize show (excluding those from 1994–1997) was aired to commemorate the show joining Nick at Nite's schedule.
The 1998–99 Fugelsang-Fuentes episodes aired on ABC Family
from the fall of 1999 (known as Fox Family and owned by News Corporation
at the time), until the fall of 2003; the 1994–97 Saget episodes also aired on the network from the fall of 2003 to September 2007, usually on Monday-Saturday nights, and occasionally Sundays if a movie ended before 11 p.m. ET. The Tom Bergeron episodes began airing on ABC Family on October 1, 2007, and usually airs 3–6 nights a week with episodes regularly airing at 6 p.m. ET (depending upon the night's schedule), and a four-hour block on Fridays from 6-11 p.m. ET (as of September 2010, these episodes are misidentified by DirecTV as episodes from the Saget era). The Tom Bergeron and Daisy Fuentes/John Fugelsang episodes have aired on WGN America since 2004, although the channel mostly shows the Tom Bergeron run, which airs weeknights at 7 p.m. ET, along with Saturday primetime and Sunday afternoon blocks; the Fugelsang-Fuentes episodes air on occasions (more frequently from 2004 to 2010, due to primetime movie overruns) when a sporting event airing on WGN-TV
Chicago not cleared to air on WGN America forces the preemption of its simulcast of WGN-TV's 9 p.m. newscast outside of Chicago. Atlanta independent station WPCH-TV (channel 17, known as "PeachtreeTV"; formerly the local Atlanta feed of TBS
) aired the entire Saget run, the first (and so far, the only) channel ever to do so since the original ABC run, from 2007 to 2009. The Tom Bergeron episodes of AFV, with some minor editing for suggestive content (generally blurring backside nudity of babies and toddlers, which is usually permissible on television), began airing in off-network syndication on September 14, 2009; WGN America also aired the off-network syndicated episodes in late night until September 2011, while alternate versions of the Bergeron (and sometimes the Fugelsang-Fuentes) episodes with the Buena Vista Television tag before the end credits aired in the evening.
Outside the United States, family-oriented Canadian cable channel YTV has aired AFV on Saturday nights since September 2009. Canadian broadcaster Citytv
also began airing a simulcast of AFV episodes from the current or previous season on Sundays at 7 p.m. ET, as it airs on ABC in the United States (but factoring simultaneous substitution
), starting in the Spring of 2010.
The Saget and Bergeron episodes on ABC Family and the Saget episodes on Pax, after Bob or Tom close the show, showed the credits in a network generic format (or in a squeeze-down format in Hallmark Channel airings) to allow promotion for network programs. In Pax airings of the Saget run, when back-to-back episodes aired, the opening titles of the second episode was cut and replaced with an announcer saying "Now don't go away, here's more of America's Funniest Home Videos" before cutting to Ernie Anderson introducing Bob Saget (this was done possibly due to time constraints). Nick at Nite and WPCH airings replaced the Saget era contest plugs with the more recent plugs, though the old plugs were kept in airings of the Saget run elsewhere (although, some episodes aired on Hallmark Channel removed the plugs). Some airings of the Saget run on Pax TV, Hallmark and Nick at Nite cut the interviews with the winners in some episodes, likely due to time constraints because of the longer ad breaks that were not seen on U.S. broadcast television at the period the episodes originally aired on ABC. Also because of time constraints, some of the Hallmark episodes have the opening titles (as well as various portions of the show) sped up, which many viewers have found it to be inconvinient and unnecessary as the speeding messes up the rhythm and melody of the theme song and video clips in the show's opening and commercial bumpers.
, Shout! Factory
(the distributor of AFV' s compilation DVDs) and Vin Di Bona Productions over a tape filmed in 1992, which originally aired on the July 5, 2002 episode, in which a couple of friends of the then-Boston University
student shaved a smiley face on his chest while a shirtless Sawicki was passed out drunk following a New Year's Eve party. Sawicki charged in the suit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court that he never gave approval for the video to be broadcast, alleging the show was negligent when it disregarded a policy of requiring releases "from all identifiable persons depicted in the video". Sawicki said he did not know who had sent in the video to the show, and alleged emotional distress from the exhibition of the video.
, Shout! Factory
, and Slingshot Entertainment has released numerous compilation releases of America's Funniest Home Videos on VHS and DVD in Region 1.
released a board game in 1990. Graphix Zone released a hybrid CD-ROM titled America's Funniest Home Videos: Lights! Camera! InterAction! in 1995. Imagination Games
released a DVD game in 2007.
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
in which viewers are able to send in humorous homemade videotapes. The most common videos usually feature slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
physical comedy arising from incidents, accidents and mishaps. Other popular videos include humorous situations involving pet
Pet
A pet is a household animal kept for companionship and a person's enjoyment, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful...
s or children, while some are staged practical jokes and various forms of act. The show is based on the Japanese series Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan
Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan
was a popular Japanese television variety show aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System around the mid-1980s. Starring Ken Shimura and Cha Kato, former members of the group The Drifters from Hachiji Dayo! Zen'in Shugo, the irreverent and satirical program would poke fun at contemporary society in Japan,...
, which aired on the Tokyo Broadcasting System
Tokyo Broadcasting System
, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
.
Originally airing as a special on November 26, 1989, it debuted a regular weekly series on January 14, 1990. First hosted by Bob Saget
Bob Saget
Robert Lane "Bob" Saget is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Although he is best known for his roles as Danny Tanner in Full House, host of America's Funniest Home Videos and Future Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, Saget is also known outside of television for his blue...
for the initial 1989 special and the show's first eight seasons, then by John Fugelsang
John Fugelsang
John Fugelsang is an American actor, television personality and stand-up comedian.-Stage and screen:...
and Daisy Fuentes
Daisy Fuentes
Daisy Fuentes is a Cuban-American television host, model, and comedian. Daisy Fuentes broke barriers as MTV's first Latina VJ , and as Revlon's first Latina spokesperson to be signed to a worldwide contract.-Early life:Fuentes was born in Havana, Cuba to a Cuban father and Spanish mother...
for its ninth and tenth seasons; the series has been hosted by Tom Bergeron
Tom Bergeron
Tom Bergeron is an American television personality and game show host, best known as the host of the ABC reality series Dancing with the Stars and host of America's Funniest Home Videos . He was also host of Hollywood Squares and a fill-in host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire...
, currently the show's longest-serving host, since 2001. America's Funniest Home Videos is currently in its 22nd season, which began on October 2, 2011.
Synopsis
Executive produced by Vin Di BonaVin Di Bona
Vincent John "Vin" Di Bona is a television producer for many American television shows such as America's Funniest People, MacGyver and Entertainment Tonight as well as America's Funniest Home Videos...
, with co-executive producers Todd Thicke
Todd Thicke
Todd Thicke is a television writer and producer. He is the brother of Alan Thicke and uncle of Robin Thicke.-Biography:Thicke moved from Toronto to Los Angeles in 1982 writing The Wil Shriner Show, Animal Crack-Ups, Rick Dees Into the Night, Growing Pains and Candid Camera.In 1989, his work began...
and Michele Nasraway, it is currently the longest-running prime time entertainment program on ABC. It is based on the Tokyo Broadcasting System
Tokyo Broadcasting System
, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan
Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan
was a popular Japanese television variety show aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System around the mid-1980s. Starring Ken Shimura and Cha Kato, former members of the group The Drifters from Hachiji Dayo! Zen'in Shugo, the irreverent and satirical program would poke fun at contemporary society in Japan,...
, which featured a segment in which viewers were invited to send in video clip
Video clip
Video clips are short clips of video, usually part of a longer recording. The term is also more loosely used to mean any short video less than the length of a traditional television program.- On the Internet :...
s from their home movies
Home movies
A home movie is part of the motion picture filmmaking process made by amateurs, often for viewing by family and friends. When the hobby began, home movies were produced on photographic film, but accessibility of video production with video cameras and low cost data storage devices has made the...
; Vin Di Bona Productions pays a royalty fee to the Tokyo Broadcasting System for the use of the format. Contestants can either send their videos in via mail on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
or VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
, or, since 2008, upload them onto ABC's official website.
Due to its very low cost, the format has since been reproduced around the world, and AFV-inspired TV specials and series continue to emerge periodically in the United States. American television series inspired by AFVs format that are not related to the series itself include The Planet's Funniest Animals
The Planet's Funniest Animals
The Planet's Funniest Animals is a United States television program featured on the Animal Planet cable channel.-Background:Following a similar format as America's Funniest Home Videos and others, the program shows a series of home movies on video submitted by viewers featuring humorous and odd...
, The World's Funniest!
The World's Funniest!
The World's Funniest! is an American reality show that aired on Fox in 1997. It was hosted by NFL sportscaster James Brown and announced by Mark Thompson...
, The World's Funniest Moments
The World's Funniest Moments
The World's Funniest Moments is a myNetworkTV reality television series from the 2008-2009 season, produced by Associated Television International and hosted by Arsenio Hall. Taped in front of a live audience, the show features humorous video clips taken from the Internet and submitted by viewers...
, Funniest Pets and People and It Only Hurts When I Laugh
It Only Hurts When I Laugh (TV series)
It Only Hurts When I Laugh is an American television series that premiered on TruTV on October 22, 2009. This program showcases hilarious painstaking moments caught on tape...
; however, most of the series inspired by AFV (with the minor exception of The Planet's Funniest Animals) have not matched the success of America's Funniest Home Videos and have not lasted as long. Several local television stations, even those not affiliated with ABC, also developed special funny home video segments in their newscasts during the early 1990s, inspired by the series.
Many videos are range from a few to a couple of seconds and are mostly related to the host's monologues. Videos usually feature people and animals getting into humorous to dangerous accidents caught on camera. A group of screeners view the submitted tapes, giving them a grade (on a scale of 1-10) based on that particular tape's humor; the videos deemed funniest by the screeners then go on to the show's producers, then is turned over to Di Bona and another producer for final approval. Home video material that involves staged accidents, or/and adults, children or babies getting seriously injured or the abuse of animals are generally not accepted, and will not appear on the show.
Every week, three 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, while the runner-up receives $3,000, and third place banks $2,000. Very early in the show's run, the second and third prizes were a new TV and VCR and a new camcorder, respectively. On the initial hour-long special, the grand prize was $5,000 with second and third places winning a new camcorder; the producer picked the winner, with no audience voting. Periodically beginning with the Tom Bergeron run of the series, the $100,000 winner at each season's final $100,000 contest will also win a free vacation package, supplied by either Adventures by Disney
Adventures by Disney
Adventures by Disney provides planned and guided family vacations to various domestic and international destinations. It is jointly managed between Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and the Walt Disney Travel Company, Incorporated...
or Disney Vacation Club
Disney Vacation Club
Disney Vacation Club is a vacation timeshare division owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying real estate interest in a DVC resort. Disney Vacation Club's President is Claire Bilby....
, in addition to the monetary prize.
The show produced a spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
titled America's Funniest People
America's Funniest People
America's Funniest People is an American reality series on ABC that debuted on May 1, 1990 as an hour-long special, and later as a weekly half-hour prime time series from September 8, 1990 to August 28, 1994. It was hosted by Dave Coulier and Arleen Sorkin from 1990 to 1992. Tawny Kitaen replaced...
, which began in 1990 and lasted until 1994. Another short-lived spinoff was created in 1996 with World’s Funniest Videos, which was cancelled after its first season. Show creator Vin Di Bona also created two series featuring home videos that are largely culled from those seen on AFHV and America's Funniest People: the first-run syndication series That's Funny, which ran from 2004 to 2006, and the Fox Family Channel
ABC Family
ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
series Show Me The Funny
Show Me The Funny
Show Me The Funny was a British reality show in which a group of ten comedians of varying experience visit ten different cities around the UK, performing tasks that are somehow meant to equip them with local knowledge to work into five-minute-long new live routines, which they then showcase in...
, which ran from 1998 to 2000. Many of the clips have been used internationally in various comedy compilation programs, with changes such as dubbing and subtitling. The title of the show is usually changed and the studio segments are omitted.
According to the closing credits of each episode, most of the videos have been edited for length due to time constraints. In addition according to the contest plugs, family members (both immediate or relatives) of employees of Vin Di Bona Productions
Vin Di Bona Productions
Vin Di Bona Productions is a United States television production company that was established in 1986 by Vin Di Bona. The company's first show was Animal Crack-Ups, which ran from 1987-1990. Its most popular show is America's Funniest Home Videos, which premiered on November 26, 1989 on ABC and its...
, ABC, Inc., its corporate parent The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
and their related subsidiaries are ineligible for the show's contests and prizes.
On October 3, 2010, beginning with the 21st season premiere, America's Funniest Home Videos began broadcasting in high definition. Many of the videos, which are largely shot using standard definition camcorders, are now stretched horizontally
Stretch-o-Vision
Stretch-o-Vision is a neologism used to describe the practice of upconverting video from a standard aspect ratio to a widescreen aspect ratio. HDTV programming is broadcast in the 16:9 aspect ratio, a widescreen image. However, most SDTV programming is usually broadcast in the 4:3 aspect ratio....
to fit 16:9 screens, instead of using pillarboxing.
Season averages
America's Funniest Home Videos became an instant hit with audiences, with the original special in November 1989 averaged a 17.7 rating and 25 share, finishing at ninth place in the Nielsen ratings that week. When it debuted as a weekly Sunday night series in January 1990, the show averaged a 18.0 rating/27 share, finishing at 16th place. It placed within Nielsen's Top 5 highest-rated weekly series within weeks of its debut; by March 1990, AFHV became the #1 primetime series for a short time, causing CBS' 60 Minutes60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
to be unseated for the top spot in the Nielsen ratings for the first time in 12 years. AFHV finished the 1989-1990 season in the Top 10 watched shows, with an approximate average of 38 million viewers for each episode.
AFHV finished the 2009-2010 season at the 55th rank, with an approximate average of 7.52 million viewers, and finished in 69th in viewers 18-49, with 2.0/6.
Bob Saget (1989–1997)
The show debuted on November 26, 1989 as an hour-long special, produced by Vin Di Bona and Steve Paskay, with actor/comedian Bob SagetBob Saget
Robert Lane "Bob" Saget is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Although he is best known for his roles as Danny Tanner in Full House, host of America's Funniest Home Videos and Future Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, Saget is also known outside of television for his blue...
(then starring in the ABC sitcom Full House
Full House
Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
) as host. Saget was assisted in hosting the special by actress Kellie Martin
Kellie Martin
Kellie Noelle Martin is an American television actress who is known for her roles as Rebecca Thacher on Life Goes On, Christy Huddleston on Christy, Lucy Knight on ER, and Samantha Kinsey on Mystery Woman.-Early life:...
, then the star of fellow ABC series Life Goes On
Life Goes On (TV series)
Life Goes On is a television series that aired on ABC from September 12, 1989 to May 23, 1993. The show centers on the Thacher family living in suburban Chicago: Drew, his wife Elizabeth, and their children Paige, Rebecca, and Charles, who is known as Corky...
, which would be the lead-in
Lead-in
A lead-in is a short phrase, usually five words or less, that starts off a photo caption in a newspaper, high school yearbook, magazine or other publication.Lead-ins are used to catch the reader's attention and "lead in" to the main caption...
show to AFHV in its early seasons. Prior to the airing of the initial special, in the fall of 1989, Vin Di Bona Productions took out ads in national magazines such as TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
, asking people to send in their home videos featuring funny or amazing moments. Originally intended as a one-off special, it had became an unexpected hit, causing ABC to place an episode order for the show turning it into a regular weekly half-hour primetime series, it made its debut as a series on January 14, 1990. Ernie Anderson
Ernie Anderson
Ernie Anderson was an American disc jockey, and television and radio announcer/voiceover artist...
served as announcer; once Anderson became too ill to continue, Gary Owens
Gary Owens
Gary Owens is an American disc jockey and voice actor. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offers deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated as the announcer on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Owens is equally proficient in straight or silly assignments and is...
took over as announcer in 1995 (though Anderson briefly returned until his death in 1997). Besides hosting the series, Saget also served as a writer for the series, alongside Todd Thicke and Bob Arnott. The success of AFHV led to a spinoff called America's Funniest People
America's Funniest People
America's Funniest People is an American reality series on ABC that debuted on May 1, 1990 as an hour-long special, and later as a weekly half-hour prime time series from September 8, 1990 to August 28, 1994. It was hosted by Dave Coulier and Arleen Sorkin from 1990 to 1992. Tawny Kitaen replaced...
, hosted by Saget's Full House
Full House
Full House is an American sitcom television series. Set in San Francisco, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who, after the death of his wife, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and...
co-star Dave Coulier
Dave Coulier
David Alan "Dave" Coulier is an American stand-up comedian, impressionist, television and voice actor, and television host. He is well-known for his role as Joey Gladstone on the ABC sitcom Full House, which ran from 1987 to 1995....
(and co-hosted by actress/producer Arleen Sorkin
Arleen Sorkin
Arleen Sorkin is an American actress, screenwriter, presenter and comedienne. Sorkin is known for portraying Calliope Jones on the NBC daytime serial Days of our Lives and for voicing Batman DC comic supervillainess Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series and the many animated series and...
for the first two seasons, then model Tawny Kitaen
Tawny Kitaen
Julie "Tawny" Kitaen is an American actress and media personality. She became famous in the 1980s for appearing in several hard rock videos for the band Whitesnake, including the hit "Here I Go Again". Kitaen was married to Whitesnake lead singer David Coverdale from 1989–1991...
for the final two), focusing on videos featuring people doing celebrity impressions, committing pranks and doing short amateur comedy routines, among other things.
From the premiere of the America's Funniest Home Videos until the start of the fifth season, it aired Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
; beginning with the fifth season, the show started the Sunday primetime lineup on ABC, airing at 7 p.m. ET, followed by America's Funniest People at 7:30 p.m. ET as part of an hour of funny home videos. Saget always ended each episode with the phrase "Keep those cameras safely rolling", and saying something to his wife who was (implied to be) watching the show.
Beginning about the middle of the first season, the show began featuring the "Assignment America" segment; which called for a series of videos to be sent in (collected or made) pertaining to a specific theme. Another segment introduced in the Saget era called "Backwards Classics" shows videos being played in reverse. Since the show's debut as a regular series, the show routinely includes two to three times per episode, a montage of themed videos set to a particular song, better known as the "Music Montage". In the fifth season, an animated sidekick was introduced named "Stretchy McGillicuddy", who was known for trying to tease Bob and other crazy things, one episode in the fifth season had him on the two large TV monitors on both sides of the set, and Bob had to turn him off with a remote. His catchphrase was: "Don't get a little touchy Bob, I'm just a little stretchy!" He was dropped at the end of the seventh season. His voice was supplied by Danny Mann
Danny Mann
Daniel "Danny" Mann is an American voice actor, writer, singer, musician, and production manager. He is best known for his voice of Hector from Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats, Freeway, Cloudraker and Lightspeed in Transformers, Backwoods Beagle in DuckTales, Kaltag in Balto, Ferdinand from Babe,...
. Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
made both the show and Saget regular targets of his monologues on The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
.
In 1994, ABC canceled America's Funniest People after four seasons due to declining ratings, and had to decide what to do with the Sunday night 7:30 p.m. ET slot now vacant. After trying out the short-lived sitcom On Our Own
On Our Own (1994 TV series)
On Our Own is an American sitcom that aired on ABC during the 1994-1995 season. The series starred six real life siblings: Jazz, Jocqui, Jake, Jojo, Jurnee, and Jussie Smollett....
in the 7:30 p.m. slot after AFHV during the 1994-95 season, ABC then later chose to expand the show to one hour with back-to-back airings, first showing that week's new episode for the first half-hour and then showing a repeat from a previous season to fill the remaining time. On February 1, 1996, another spinoff of AFHV debuted called World's Funniest Videos; taped at Walt Disney World, this series was also hosted by Coulier, along with actress Eva LaRue
Eva LaRue
Eva Maria LaRue is an American model and actress. She is best known as Doctor Maria Santos on All My Children, and is now a cast regular on CSI: Miami, portraying Detective Natalia Boa Vista of the Miami-Dade Police Department.-Early life:LaRue was born Eva Maria LaRuy in Long Beach, California to...
. Paired with a weekly version of the popular Before They Were Stars
Before They Were Stars
Before They Were Stars is a 1996 30-minute American ABC television show which was hosted by Scott Baio, with John Cramer as announcer and narrator; it was preceded by four specials, each an hour long....
specials on Thursday nights, World's Funniest Videos focused on funny or amazing home videos from around the world. However due to low ratings, it lasted after only one season; with ABC putting the show on hiatus a few weeks after its debut, and the remaining episodes were burned off that summer. For Saget's final season on AFHV, two new episodes would be shown.
Numerous comedy skits were performed on the set during Saget's tenure as host. The set basically consisted of a living room design, similar to that of a sitcom. The beginning of each episode was tied in with a skit just before the transition was made from the introduction to Saget. This usually consisted of several actors in a fake room (usually in the upper part of the audience section or in another soundstage) pretending to get excited watching America's Funniest Home Videos. This technique was scrapped at the end of the fifth season.
Saget soon grew tired of the repetitive format and was eager to pursue other projects as an actor and director. Producer Di Bona held him to his contract, resulting in a frustrated Saget listlessly going through the motions, constantly getting out of character, and making pointed remarks on the air during his last two seasons. Saget's contract expired in May 1997, and he decided to leave the show afterward. His former Full House cast (except for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen are American actresses and entrepreneurs.Both have appeared in television and films since infancy. Since then, they have continued their celebrity through numerous television programs, films, interviews, as well as commercial endorsements...
) were present in the episode prior to the $100,000 season finale, which was his final episode.
He returned to America's Funniest Home Videos for a 20th anniversary special edition of the series, which aired on November 29, 2009. Saget co-hosted the episode with current host Tom Bergeron.
Daisy Fuentes and John Fugelsang (1998–1999)
After Saget's departure from the series, ABC sidelined America's Funniest Home Videos from the 1997-98 fall network schedule, choosing to bring it back as a mid-season replacement. The series returned for its ninth season on January 5, 1998, with new hosts and an overhauled look; comedian John FugelsangJohn Fugelsang
John Fugelsang is an American actor, television personality and stand-up comedian.-Stage and screen:...
and model-turned-television personality Daisy Fuentes
Daisy Fuentes
Daisy Fuentes is a Cuban-American television host, model, and comedian. Daisy Fuentes broke barriers as MTV's first Latina VJ , and as Revlon's first Latina spokesperson to be signed to a worldwide contract.-Early life:Fuentes was born in Havana, Cuba to a Cuban father and Spanish mother...
took over as co-hosts of the show. Jess Harnell
Jess Harnell
Jess Q. Harnell is an American voice actor and singer, best known for voicing Wakko Warner on Animaniacs. Harnell has been the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos since 1998.-Life and acting career:...
also succeeded Owens as the show's announcer. The set was also revamped and show began to be alternately called AFV at this point (though the show officially continued to be titled America's Funniest Home Videos).
During this period, the show introduced a segment called "Bad News, Good News," which shows a video of an accident; then one of the hosts makes a humorous statement about the upside of what happened. This segment continued to appear occasionally until the fourth year of Tom Bergeron's current stint as host. Another notable segment was the "AFV Hall of Fame", in which a clip is shown, and co-host John Fugelsang reveals the moment of impact (a screen that shows a still picture of that clip) that occurred in it; this segment was scrapped at the end of the tenth season. Also featured was a segment called "Who Would You Like to See...", in which a random person is asked which celebrity they would like to see involved in a random humorous mishap, with a photo of a celebrity's face posterized over the face of the actual person in the video.
With the Sunday night 7 p.m. ET slot now occupied by Disney films aired as part of The Wonderful World of Disney, the show occupied constantly changing slots, from Monday nights to Thursday nights to Saturday nights. The ratings for the show suffered during this period, and both hosts left the show after two seasons in 1999. Their last episode was taped at the House of Blues
House of Blues
House of Blues is a chain of 13 live music concert halls and restaurants in major markets throughout the United States. House of Blues first location was in Cambridge's Harvard Square. It was opened in 1992 by Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of Hard Rock Cafe, and Dan Aykroyd, star of The Blues Brothers...
in West Hollywood, California.
Brief end as regular series and reduction to specials (1999-2000)
In May 1999, ABC announced that it would discontinue America's Funniest Home Videos as a regular weekly series, but the show returned occasionally as a series of specials hosted by various ABC sitcom stars including The HughleysThe Hughleys
The Hughleys is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 22, 1998 to April 28, 2000 and on the UPN network from September 11, 2000 to May 20, 2002. It starred comedian D. L...
star D.L. Hughley and Spin City
Spin City
Spin City is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 17, 1996 until April 30, 2002 on the ABC network. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, and originally starred Michael J. Fox as Mike...
star Richard Kind
Richard Kind
Richard John Kind is an American actor known for his roles in the sitcoms Mad About You and Spin City .- Early life :...
. The show moved to a much smaller soundstage and the set featured various video screens and monitors placed on shelves. A special sports version of the show that continues to be re-shown every New Year's Day, and until 2008 aired occasionally before NBA playoff games with a post 8:30 p.m. ET tip-off, was hosted by ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
anchor Stuart Scott
Stuart Scott
Stuart Scott is a sportscaster and anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter.-Early life and career:Scott attended Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and went to college at the University of North Carolina. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity...
. A special entitled America's Funniest Home Videos: Deluxe Uncensored was hosted by Steve Carell
Steve Carell
Steven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...
and taped on the set from the Fuentes/Fugelsang era. These specials (with the exception of the special sports edition) were not taped in front of a live studio audience, so applause and laugh tracks were used during commercial bumpers and just before, during, and after video packages.
Tom Bergeron (2001–present)
In October 2000, ABC announced its decision to return America's Funniest Home Videos as a regular weekly series, ordering an eleventh season consisting of thirteen episodes. On July 20, 2001, the show returned again in its third format, this time with host Tom BergeronTom Bergeron
Tom Bergeron is an American television personality and game show host, best known as the host of the ABC reality series Dancing with the Stars and host of America's Funniest Home Videos . He was also host of Hollywood Squares and a fill-in host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire...
. By this point, the show was expanded to a full hour-long episode, instead of being aired as two half-hour episodes. The show was now being seen on Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET; however, it went off the air for several months due in part to the September 11 attacks and in part to ABC airing specials and trying a new Friday night line-up. The new Friday night line-up was short-lived, and the show returned in December 2001. In his earlier episodes, Bergeron used the set from the AFV specials that aired in 2000, until the latter part of his first season, when a new set (with a studio audience) was introduced featuring a round video screen with several monitors.
In September 2003, the show returned to the timeslot of Sunday nights at 7:00 p.m. ET, still an hour long (though special episodes occasionally aired on Friday nights until 2007). Unlike Saget, who provided voiceovers to the clips, Bergeron humorously narrates them.
The Bergeron version added new segments, such as "Tom's Home Movies," where his face is digitally superimposed over the faces on the videos with varying expressions shown to match the person's reaction to their mishaps in the videos (a recurring gag referenced by Bergeron in this segment is on his superimposed head being larger than a person's head would normally be), various audience participation games using funny home videos including "Head, Gut or Groin," where Tom picks two members of the studio audience to guess whether the person in the video will be hit in the aforementioned three areas of the body (though occasionally, a video in this segment may feature a person getting hit in two of the three areas) in order to win an America's Funniest Home Videos compilation DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, and the "slo-mo gizmo", where a video is played first at normal speed and then again at a slower speed and telestrated
Telestrator
A telestrator is a device that allows its operator to draw a freehand sketch over a moving or still video image. The telestrator is most famously recognized in sports and weather broadcasts to diagram and analyze sports plays or incoming weather patterns. The talent typically draws on a...
. Except in a few episodes, Bergeron always ends each episode with the phrase "If you get it on tape, you could get it in cash", which was later changed to "Upload to us. Get rich, get famous" by the 2008-09 season.
Other segments introduced in the Tom Bergeron era included "Vs.", "The Dog/Cat Park", "AFV Family of the Week", "Nincompoop Corner", "What's Up with the French?" "AFV Dictionary", "Pick the Real Video", "A Moment of... Ewww", "Kid, Cat, or Canine", What's Behind the Blue Blob", and "The Naughty File". Starting with the 2007–08 season, the series began allowing viewers to upload their funny home videos online at ABC.com, in addition to sending their videos via standard mail.
$100,000 contest
Near the end of each season, the $10,000 winners from selected episodes are brought back to participate in a contest called to win an additional $100,000. Three $100,000 contests air each season, though only one aired in the first season. During the Saget era, the set would be decorated with balloons, and a revolving gag involved the "money" being guarded in some bizarre way from Saget on-stage, including a security guard or a force field. Once the winner is announced, a marching band would often appear on stage playing the theme song (other times the regular theme would be heard), and balloons are dropped from the ceiling. All of this was scrapped after Saget left the show.For the Fuentes/Fugelsang and Bergeron eras, only confetti would be dropped and the regular theme would be heard.
Voting
- Saget version: ABC stations (five in the first season, three from 1990 to 1993, and two from 1993 onward) around the country were joined via satellite to cast their votes along with the Los Angeles audience. (The final $100,000 show of Season 2 was decided by a telephone vote)
- Fuentes version (1998–1999): Only the Los Angeles audience voted (although Minneapolis, Minnesota joined via satellite in one episode).
- Bergeron version (2001–present): Viewers log onto abc.com to cast their votes with the LA audience.
Other contests
- 2002 "Battle of the Best": The Quad Squad ($25,000 and trip to Maui)
- 2004: Disney Dream Vacation ($100,000 and free vacations to all 11 Disney theme parksWalt Disney Parks and ResortsWalt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds, and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises...
around the world) - 2006: Dancing Machine ($100,000 and free vacations to 500+ places for 48 years)
- "Funniest Video of All-Time": The Quad Squad ($250,000)
- 2009: Birthday Blowout ($100,000 and free vacations to 500+ places for 50 years)
Theme songs
The first theme was "The Funny Things You Do", composed by Dan Slider and performed by Jill ColucciJill Colucci
Jill Colucci is an American songwriter and vocalist. She initially rose to prominence in 1988, singing the main scores to the film Mystic Pizza. She sang the ABC promo campaigns Something's Happening and America's Watching ABC...
, who also wrote the lyrics with Stewart Harris. This version of "The Funny Things You Do" accompanied the opening and closing credits for the first seven seasons. This theme was reused once again for when Tom Bergeron introduced Saget as well as a montage of classic videos from the pilot episode and a segment showcasing Bob Saget's run on the show (the latter segment used the theme's original lyrics) in the AFV 20th anniversary special, which aired on November 29, 2009. During the final part of the $100,000 shows, bands as well as other artists would play the theme.
During the 1996–97 season (the final season with Saget as host), the theme was revamped (as well as the graphics and animation of the show's intro) featuring a duet of new vocals, Peter Hix (who had previously performed the theme song for America's Funniest People
America's Funniest People
America's Funniest People is an American reality series on ABC that debuted on May 1, 1990 as an hour-long special, and later as a weekly half-hour prime time series from September 8, 1990 to August 28, 1994. It was hosted by Dave Coulier and Arleen Sorkin from 1990 to 1992. Tawny Kitaen replaced...
) and Terry Wood. The new version was also in a different key than the original.
When AFHV returned for its ninth season with new hosts Daisy Fuentes and John Fugelsang and a completely new look, the current arrangement of "The Funny Things You Do" made its debut. Since that time, the theme has been an instrumental (also composed by Dan Slider) with a faster, ska/reggae beat, with the original key (of the 1989-96 version) restored, making it sound similar to "The Impression That I Get
The Impression That I Get
"The Impression That I Get" is a song by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and the lead single from their 1997 studio album Let's Face It. It is the band's most successful and popular song. The track reached #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart. In...
" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. Since the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky Barrett, bassist Joe Gittleman, tenor saxophonist Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton and dancer Ben Carr have remained constant members...
. An alternate version of this theme exists that is stripped of the trumpets (this version is only heard as the closing theme during the 2002-03 season in ABC and broadcast syndication runs, as well as in re-edited bumpers with added video clips from that particular episode in some 2002-03 season episodes in broadcast syndication). In reruns of the Fugelsang-Fuentes episodes on WGN America and the Tom Bergeron episodes on WGN America and ABC Family
ABC Family
ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
, the theme is noticeably slowed down (albeit slightly) during the show's opening titles and commercial bumpers.
The current theme can be heard in its entirety at the Television Production Music Museum. The two themes used in the Saget era have not been released to this day, as they are reportedly being held by Vin Di Bona
Vin Di Bona
Vincent John "Vin" Di Bona is a television producer for many American television shows such as America's Funniest People, MacGyver and Entertainment Tonight as well as America's Funniest Home Videos...
for unknown reasons.
"The Funny Things You Do" was the theme song to the Australian version between 1991 and 2004. "The Funny Things You Do" was replaced by an instrumental version as part of the 2005 major revamp.
Reruns/syndication
All episodes of AFHV are currently in syndicationTelevision syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
though for unknown reasons, the 1989–1994 Saget episodes, the 1994–97 Saget episodes, the 1998–99 Fugelsang/Fuentes episodes and the current Tom Bergeron episodes of AFV have virtually never been aired together in off-network broadcast or cable syndication; instead each era of the series has aired separately, with a minor exception for the 1994–97 Saget episodes and the Fugelsang-Fuentes episodes, which have never been aired in broadcast syndication. Until 2001, the Saget version was syndicated by 20th Television
20th Television
20th Television is an American television production and syndication company that was formed in 1992 by 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, a division of the Fox Entertainment Group, part of News Corporation....
, who assumed syndication rights from their purchase of MTM Enterprises
MTM Enterprises
MTM Enterprises was an American independent production company established in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker to produce The Mary Tyler Moore Show for CBS...
, which had syndicated the show from 1995–1998. Currently, Disney-ABC Domestic Television (formerly Buena Vista Television), the corporate cousin of one of the show's production companies ABC Productions, distributes all versions of the series.
The 1989–1994 Bob Saget episodes have aired in off-network syndication starting in September 1995, and also on TBS from October 2, 1995–September 1998, USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
from 1998–2001, and the Hallmark Channel
Hallmark Channel
The Hallmark Channel is a cable television network that broadcasts across the United States. Their programming includes a mix of television movies/miniseries, syndicated series, and lifestyle shows that are appropriate for the whole family...
from August 5, 2001–2003 and January 4-February 25, 2010 (during the latter Hallmark run, DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
on-screen program guides misstated the host as being "Tom Bergeron" rather than "Bob Saget", despite Hallmark only having rights to the Saget episodes; this error was later removed when the Hallmark Channel moved AFHV to the late night and afternoon graveyard slot
Graveyard slot
A graveyard slot is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast programming is considered far less important. Graveyard slots are usually in the early morning hours of each day, when most people are asleep...
s), PAX TV (now Ion Television) on Monday-Thursday nights (Fridays were later added) from 2003–2005, and Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite is the nighttime Cable network that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon on Sundays from 8.p.m.-7.am., Monday through Fridays from 9 p.m.-7 a.m. and Saturdays from 10 p.m.-6 a.m. . Though it shares channel space with Nickelodeon, A.C. Nielsen Co...
from April-October 2007. When Nick at Nite began airing the early Saget episodes (including the 1989 special) the first week the show aired, every $100,000 Grand Prize show (excluding those from 1994–1997) was aired to commemorate the show joining Nick at Nite's schedule.
The 1998–99 Fugelsang-Fuentes episodes aired on ABC Family
ABC Family
ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
from the fall of 1999 (known as Fox Family and owned by News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
at the time), until the fall of 2003; the 1994–97 Saget episodes also aired on the network from the fall of 2003 to September 2007, usually on Monday-Saturday nights, and occasionally Sundays if a movie ended before 11 p.m. ET. The Tom Bergeron episodes began airing on ABC Family on October 1, 2007, and usually airs 3–6 nights a week with episodes regularly airing at 6 p.m. ET (depending upon the night's schedule), and a four-hour block on Fridays from 6-11 p.m. ET (as of September 2010, these episodes are misidentified by DirecTV as episodes from the Saget era). The Tom Bergeron and Daisy Fuentes/John Fugelsang episodes have aired on WGN America since 2004, although the channel mostly shows the Tom Bergeron run, which airs weeknights at 7 p.m. ET, along with Saturday primetime and Sunday afternoon blocks; the Fugelsang-Fuentes episodes air on occasions (more frequently from 2004 to 2010, due to primetime movie overruns) when a sporting event airing on WGN-TV
WGN-TV
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
Chicago not cleared to air on WGN America forces the preemption of its simulcast of WGN-TV's 9 p.m. newscast outside of Chicago. Atlanta independent station WPCH-TV (channel 17, known as "PeachtreeTV"; formerly the local Atlanta feed of TBS
TBS (TV channel)
TBS , stylized in the logo as tbs, is an American cable television channel owned by Time Warner that shows a variety of programming, with a focus on comedy. TBS was originally known as WTCG, a UHF terrestrial television station that broadcast from Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1970s...
) aired the entire Saget run, the first (and so far, the only) channel ever to do so since the original ABC run, from 2007 to 2009. The Tom Bergeron episodes of AFV, with some minor editing for suggestive content (generally blurring backside nudity of babies and toddlers, which is usually permissible on television), began airing in off-network syndication on September 14, 2009; WGN America also aired the off-network syndicated episodes in late night until September 2011, while alternate versions of the Bergeron (and sometimes the Fugelsang-Fuentes) episodes with the Buena Vista Television tag before the end credits aired in the evening.
Outside the United States, family-oriented Canadian cable channel YTV has aired AFV on Saturday nights since September 2009. Canadian broadcaster Citytv
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
also began airing a simulcast of AFV episodes from the current or previous season on Sundays at 7 p.m. ET, as it airs on ABC in the United States (but factoring simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requiring Canadian cable, direct broadcast satellite and multichannel multipoint distribution service television distribution companies to substitute the signal of a foreign or...
), starting in the Spring of 2010.
The Saget and Bergeron episodes on ABC Family and the Saget episodes on Pax, after Bob or Tom close the show, showed the credits in a network generic format (or in a squeeze-down format in Hallmark Channel airings) to allow promotion for network programs. In Pax airings of the Saget run, when back-to-back episodes aired, the opening titles of the second episode was cut and replaced with an announcer saying "Now don't go away, here's more of America's Funniest Home Videos" before cutting to Ernie Anderson introducing Bob Saget (this was done possibly due to time constraints). Nick at Nite and WPCH airings replaced the Saget era contest plugs with the more recent plugs, though the old plugs were kept in airings of the Saget run elsewhere (although, some episodes aired on Hallmark Channel removed the plugs). Some airings of the Saget run on Pax TV, Hallmark and Nick at Nite cut the interviews with the winners in some episodes, likely due to time constraints because of the longer ad breaks that were not seen on U.S. broadcast television at the period the episodes originally aired on ABC. Also because of time constraints, some of the Hallmark episodes have the opening titles (as well as various portions of the show) sped up, which many viewers have found it to be inconvinient and unnecessary as the speeding messes up the rhythm and melody of the theme song and video clips in the show's opening and commercial bumpers.
Seasons
| Season | First airdate | Last airdate |
| Season 1 | January 14, 1990 | May 20, 1990 |
| Season 2 | September 16, 1990 | May 12, 1991 |
| Season 3 | September 22, 1991 | May 17, 1992 |
| Season 4 | September 20, 1992 | May 16, 1993 |
| Season 5 | September 19, 1993 | May 22, 1994 |
| Season 6 | September 18, 1994 | May 21, 1995 |
| Season 7 | September 17, 1995 | May 19, 1996 |
| Season 8 | September 22, 1996 | May 18, 1997 |
| Season 9 | January 9, 1998 | May 1998 |
| Season 10 | 1998 | 1999 |
| Season 11 | July 20, 2001 | December 2001 |
| Season 12 | January 4, 2002 | May 2002 |
| Season 13 | September 27, 2002 | May 9, 2003 |
| Season 14 | September 28, 2003 | May 23, 2004 |
| Season 15 | September 26, 2004 | May 13, 2005 |
| Season 16 | October 2, 2005 | May 19, 2006 |
| Season 17 | October 1, 2006 | May 18, 2007 |
| Season 18 | October 7, 2007 | May 16, 2008 |
| Season 19 | October 5, 2008 | May 15, 2009 |
| Season 20 | October 4, 2009 | May 16, 2010 |
| Season 21 | October 3, 2010 | May 15, 2011 |
| Season 22 | October 2, 2011 | 2012 |
Lawsuit
In 2002, David Sawicki filed a $1 million lawsuit against ABC, its corporate parent The Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
, Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
(the distributor of AFV
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
student shaved a smiley face on his chest while a shirtless Sawicki was passed out drunk following a New Year's Eve party. Sawicki charged in the suit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court that he never gave approval for the video to be broadcast, alleging the show was negligent when it disregarded a policy of requiring releases "from all identifiable persons depicted in the video". Sawicki said he did not know who had sent in the video to the show, and alleged emotional distress from the exhibition of the video.
VHS/DVD
ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
, and Slingshot Entertainment has released numerous compilation releases of America's Funniest Home Videos on VHS and DVD in Region 1.
| VHS/DVD Name | Release Date | Studio |
|---|---|---|
| The Best of America's Funniest Home Videos | June 27, 1991 | ABC Home Video CBS-Fox Video |
| America's Funniest Pets | 1992 | ABC Home Video CBS-Fox Video |
| America's Funniest Families | 1992 | ABC Home Video CBS-Fox Video |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Animal Antics | October 12, 1999 | Slingshot Entertainment |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Deluxe Uncensored | June 6, 2000 | Slingshot Entertainment |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Family Follies | June 6, 2000 | Slingshot Entertainment |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Volume 1 with Tom Begeron | July 26, 2005 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Home for the Holidays | October 4, 2005 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: The Best of Kids and Animals | December 27, 2005 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Nincompoops & Boneheads | June 13, 2006 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Athletic Supporters | August 1, 2006 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Battle of the Best | September 12, 2006 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Sports Spectacular | September 12, 2006 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Love and Marriage | September 12, 2006 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Salute to Romance | January 9, 2007 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Motherhood Madness | April 17, 2007 | Shout! Factory |
| America's Funniest Home Videos: Guide to Parenting | July 17, 2007 | Shout! Factory |
Games
Parker BrothersParker Brothers
Parker Brothers is a toy and game manufacturer and brand. Since 1883, the company has published more than 1,800 games; among their best known products are Monopoly, Cluedo , Sorry, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija, Aggravation, and Probe...
released a board game in 1990. Graphix Zone released a hybrid CD-ROM titled America's Funniest Home Videos: Lights! Camera! InterAction! in 1995. Imagination Games
Imagination Games
Imagination Games is a multi-platform game company that creates, produces and distributes interactive entertainment. It has developed socially interactive games across a number of formats including traditional games and puzzles, DVD and mobile.-History:...
released a DVD game in 2007.
See also
- America's Funniest PeopleAmerica's Funniest PeopleAmerica's Funniest People is an American reality series on ABC that debuted on May 1, 1990 as an hour-long special, and later as a weekly half-hour prime time series from September 8, 1990 to August 28, 1994. It was hosted by Dave Coulier and Arleen Sorkin from 1990 to 1992. Tawny Kitaen replaced...
, a spinoff of America's Funniest Home Videos - Australia's Funniest Home Video ShowAustralia's Funniest Home Video ShowAustralia's Funniest Home Videos is an Australian television show on the Nine Network that presents home videos sent in by viewers.The show is similar in content to You've Been Framed and America's Funniest Home Videos,...
, a 1990–2004 show also created by Vin Di BonaVin Di BonaVincent John "Vin" Di Bona is a television producer for many American television shows such as America's Funniest People, MacGyver and Entertainment Tonight as well as America's Funniest Home Videos... - Australia's Funniest Home Videos, a post-2005 show also created by Vin Di BonaVin Di BonaVincent John "Vin" Di Bona is a television producer for many American television shows such as America's Funniest People, MacGyver and Entertainment Tonight as well as America's Funniest Home Videos...
- Australia's Naughtiest Home VideosAustralia's Naughtiest Home VideosAustralia's Naughtiest Home Videos is a controversial Australian television comedy program which was broadcast on Nine Network on 4 September 1992. It was a one-off special spin-off of Australia's Funniest Home Video Show, depicting videos of sexual situations and other sexually explicit content...
, a half-off similar show also created by Vin Di BonaVin Di BonaVincent John "Vin" Di Bona is a television producer for many American television shows such as America's Funniest People, MacGyver and Entertainment Tonight as well as America's Funniest Home Videos... - You've Been FramedYou've Been FramedYou've Been Framed is a British television show, produced by ITV Studios for ITV where viewers send in humorous home videos. It is currently narrated by the comedian Harry Hill....
, the UK version of this show. - Video GagVideo gagVideo Gag is a French television show that airs weekly on French broadcast channel TF1. It is essentially a French version of "America's Funniest Home Videos" or the British "You've been framed!" and uses funny videos sent in by viewers...
, the French equivalent. - It Only Hurts When I LaughIt Only Hurts When I Laugh (TV series)It Only Hurts When I Laugh is an American television series that premiered on TruTV on October 22, 2009. This program showcases hilarious painstaking moments caught on tape...
, a TV show on truTV similar to AFV but mainly involving painful injuries (hence the title). - The Planet's Funniest AnimalsThe Planet's Funniest AnimalsThe Planet's Funniest Animals is a United States television program featured on the Animal Planet cable channel.-Background:Following a similar format as America's Funniest Home Videos and others, the program shows a series of home movies on video submitted by viewers featuring humorous and odd...
, a Animal PlanetAnimal PlanetAnimal Planet is an American cable tv specialty channel that launched on October 1, 1996. It is distributed by Discovery Communications. A high-definition simulcast of the channel launched on September 1, 2007.-History:...
series similar to AFV but mainly involving animals doing crazy things. - Sprockets, which featured an AFV spoof, "GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's Most Disturbing Home Videos", narrated by guest Karlheinz Schoeltker (Kyle MacLachlanKyle MacLachlanKyle Merritt MacLachlan is an American actor. MacLachlan is best known for his roles in cult films Blue Velvet as Jeffrey Beaumont, Showgirls as Zack Carey, as Paul Atreides in Dune, and Ray Manzarek in the Oliver Stone film The Doors...
). - The World's Funniest MomentsThe World's Funniest MomentsThe World's Funniest Moments is a myNetworkTV reality television series from the 2008-2009 season, produced by Associated Television International and hosted by Arsenio Hall. Taped in front of a live audience, the show features humorous video clips taken from the Internet and submitted by viewers...
, a series similar in format to both AFV and America's Funniest People
External links
- Official website
- America's Funniest Home Videos page from Shout! FactoryShout! FactoryShout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...