Walt Disney Television Programming: "America's Funniest Home Videos"

[Steve Arino]

Hello Everyone,

In Honor of its impending 30th Anniversary Season set to debut on Sunday, September 29 at 7 P.M. ET, I'd like to start a discussion on Network TV's Longest-Running Prime-Time Game Show: "America's Funniest Home Videos."

I'm doubtful anyone is unfamiliar with the show, but in case I'm incorrect, here's the Inside Information on Network TV's Longest-Running Prime-Time Game Show.

The year is 1988. George "Daddy" Bush, age 64, is President-Elect; the War of the Gulf is in full effect; and 44-year-old rookie TV producer Vin Di Bona (whose Saturday-morning Game Show "Animal Crack-Ups" is on its way off the air), a former staff writer for the hit Paramount Television series "MacGyver" (created by Henry Winkler), is on vacation in Japan with his then-wife, Gina Di Bona.

During the vacation, Vin caught a glimpse of a Japanese variety show called "Fun with Kato and Ken," a segment of which had ordinary Japanese citizens sending in their funniest moments ever caught on film in the hopes of earning cash and prizes; upon his return to Los Angeles (by way of his hometown of Cranston, Rhode Island, where he was born 75 years ago on April 10, 1944), Vin decided to turn what he saw into his next TV Game Show, eventually calling it "America's Funniest Home Videos" and hiring stand-up comedian Bob Saget to host the series' Hour-Long Pilot, which taped in Summer 1989 at Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles, California and was telecast at 8 P.M. ET on November 26, 1989 on the ABC Television Network against "Murder, She Wrote" on CBS starring British actress Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher.

7 weeks later, on January 14, 1990, "America's Funniest Home Videos" began airing weekly every Sunday night at 8 P.M. ET in a Game Show format that's remained unchanged throughout its long run, with 3 Studio Contestants per show competing against each other for a weekly Grand Prize of $10,000 by sending in their funniest moments ever caught on then-new VHS Tape.

By March 1990, the series became such a surprise hit that, after discovering many of the videos sent in were deliberately staged as opposed to spontaneous and unrehearsed, Vin Di Bona quickly conceived a spin-off Game Show, "America's Funniest People," hiring Impressionist Dave Coulier to host the series' Pilot Episode telecast on May 13, 1990 at 8 P.M. ET on ABC, with both shows airing weekly starting on September 16, 1990 at 8 P.M. ET as part of an ABC "Videos" Hour every Sunday night, with the parent show leading in to its spin-off (Coulier was initially joined as spin-off host by actress Arleen Sorkin for the first 2 seasons before Sorkin was replaced by Tawny Kitaen for the final 2).

Whereas "Videos" had contestants per show sending in unintentionally funny moments caught on videotape, on "People," sequences were deliberately staged, with ordinary Americans performing stunts and gags for the camera; some clips were shot by amateurs like on "Videos," while other gags were videotaped across America by Vin Di Bona and his crew; the same prize structure on both shows were used, with a weekly grand prize of $10,000 earned on both shows.

In May 1994, after 4 years, ABC cancelled "America's Funniest People" due to low ratings; the parent show remained on the air--for awhile, at least: in May 1997, after 8 seasons, Bob Saget stepped down as host of "America's Funniest Home Videos," after which he was replaced as host by former MTV VJ Daisy Fuentes (paired with stand-up comic John Fugelsang) to disastrous results.

In May 1999, after 10 seasons and nearly 300 episodes, ABC cancelled "America's Funniest Home Videos" due to low ratings, primarily caused by the show moving out of its Sunday timeslot 4 times in 18 months (including on Mondays in January 1998, Thursdays in September 1998 and Saturdays in April 1999, where it was paired with the Vin Di Bona game show "The Big Moment").

But wait, there's more: 2 years later, on July 20, 2001, ABC successfully brought back "America's Funniest Home Videos" as a regular series, initially airing Friday nights at 8 P.M. ET for 2 years until moving permanently in September 2003 to Sunday nights at 7 P.M. ET, where it's remained ever since.

Upon the series' 2001 revival, TV personality Tom Bergeron (then doing double Game Show duty as "Hollywood Squares" host) became the series' host, a job he maintained for 15 years until March 2014, when Tom announced he was stepping down as host, with his final regular episode airing on May 17, 2015.

After Tom's departure, Alfonso Ribeiro became the series' regular host, a role he began on October 11, 2015 and will begin his 5th year as series' host.

In September 2019, ABC announced that a Retrospective Episode, "AFV: America, This Is You!" will air on December 8, 2019 at 8 P.M. ET on ABC, with Tom Bergeron set to return for the Retrospective along with Bob Saget.

In August 1995, The Walt Disney Company officially purchased the ABC Television Network along with corporate siblings ABC Productions, ABC Circle Films, and ABC Entertainment, making "America's Funniest Home Videos" a permanent part of The Walt Disney Company family (though syndication rights were officially owned by MTM Enterprises, Inc. and later 20th Television from 1995-2000, when Buena Vista Television purchased Syndication rights).

"America's Funniest Home Videos" is produced by ABC Entertainment in association with Vin Di Bona Productions and is Distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television Distribution (formerly known as Buena Vista Television).

 

[fuzzygobo]

I don't know if I'd call it a game show in the strictest sense. A number of times I watched it, the 3 final videos to be voted on, one usually featured a young toddler . More often than not, the video with the toddler won. So unlike other game shows where there's a modicum of skill required, here it comes down to luck. "My kid is cute! Vote for me! " And since ABC and Disney are so intertwined, sometimes a Disney vacation is thrown in. And who is going to deny some kid a chance to meet Mickey?

Call me a cynic, but one time they had three families competing(all three with young kids), they all won trips to Disney World, but one winner got ten grand in top of that.
And part of that ties in with the Millennial generation where there are no losers, everybody gets a trophy, and nobody has to face the pain of losing.
But might I digress.
Actually, some of my favorite funny videos involve pets. They should have one round with just pets. If they lose, they don't care if they don't go to Disney World. Give them a treat and they'll be just as happy.

 

[minor muppetz]

I started watching America's Funniest Home Videos and America's Funniest People around 1991, at the time time I was starting to get into Full House. With both shows being hosted by a Full House male adult, that made Jesse my least favorite of the three male leads (just because he didn't host one).

I always liked America's Funniest People better. I guess Dave Coulier is funnier than Bob Saget, and the Jackalope was hilarious. Back then I assumed the difference was that one showed home videos and the other showed/focused on people (though the Jackalope is an animal, not a person). I eventually figured out that they were basically the same without thinking more on what makes them which (and it wasn't until I got a copy of the 1996 edition of Total Television back in 1998 that I learned the difference).

Was America's Funniest People generally seen as the better of the two, even though that one was only on for a few years while Home Videos, as far as I know, is still on the air? The Dinosaurs episode "Family Challenge" has them mention back-to-back programs "Pangea's Funniest Home Injuries" and "Pangea's Second Funniest Home Injuries", with Earl saying he likes the second one better (which could reflect that the public thought or could just be the absurdity that Earl would prefer one of two similar-sounding shows). And until I was an adult I missed the reference.

There's a YouTube channel called Memory Hole which I think shows the videos sent (without the alterations made on the show). I found out about it after seeking a clip that I remembered seeing, I remember it being on People but the comments say it was on Home Videos (obviously one of us remembers incorrectly), and found an interview with somebody running the channel mentioning that he had access to a lot of home videos sent to a show, obviously America's Funniest Home Videos but without actually naming the show (I recall they said "if you've been aware of TV in the past few decades you can figure it out....").

There was also either a series or series of specials called The World's Funniest, I guess it was another channels attempt to cash in on this success, but I think Dave Coulier hosted those as well.

Rugrats spoofed the show as "America's Funniest Home Movies". Back to the comment on how the winner was always a cute kid, that episode had Stu and Drew disappointed over the winner (which was a young kid, I can't remember what he did) and deciding that they're kids do funnier stuff (though subverted when Grandpa records them getting into an accident, sends it in, and wins).