'' (often simply abbreviated to '''''AFV''''') is an
ABC show in which viewers are able to send in
Videotape s containing humorous, silly, or just plain dumb acts featuring themes such as children, pets, personal injury, frequent kicks in the crotch, or slapstick physical comedy in the form of goofy mistakes (sometimes a set-up). It is produced by Vin Di Bona and Steve Paskay. It was based on the
Tokyo Broadcasting System show ''Fun with Ken and Kato Chan'', which featured a segment in which viewers were invited to send in their home video clips. Every week, 3 videos are chosen by the producers and voted on by the studio audience. The winner wins
US$ 10,000 and is in the running for the $100,000 prize at the end of the season, the runner-up receives $3,000, while 3rd Place banks $2,000. In 2005, the Muppets guest starred on the $100,000.00 show.
The show has a long history, beginning in
1989 with actor/comedian
Bob Saget as host and
Ernie Anderson as announcer. His trademark was to make humorous voices representing the video's subjects on the voiceover track (to this day, none of the following hosts have repeated this method, choosing instead to merely narrate the clips), and a segment called "Freeze Frame" which was a segment of videos with the song Freeze Frame played by the
J. Geils Band . He left the show after eight seasons in
1997 , but the show returned next season with new hosts, model
Daisy Fuentes and stand-up comedian
John Fugelsang , as well as a completely new look. Their trademark was the "Good-news, Bad-news" segment in which they show a segment of videos (and something funny happens), and in the end, they say something good about it. In
2000 , they both left the show after three seasons.
In
2001 , it was added onto the line-up again as mid-season filler with
Tom Bergeron , who continues to serve as the current host, and the show got another new look as well. His trademarks are a segment called "Tom's Home Movies", which was videos with Tom's head as the person in the video, and "VS.", which has two video categories facing off, but one video category wins in the end. In
2003 , the show moved from a Friday slot at 8/7c to its current time on Sundays at 7/6c, and is currently in its 16th season. The show is rerun on
WGN-TV and
ABC Family .
At the height of its popularity in the early 1990s, it spawned a spin-off, ''
America's Funniest People ''.
''America's Funniest Home Videos'' is ABC's third-longest running primetime series, behind only
20/20 and
Primetime . The show has had multiple specials including a "Best of the Best" special where they gave a trip to Hawaii away and a "Disney Dream Vacation" special where the grand prize winner won a trip to all 11
Disney theme parks around the world. Both specials were comprised of previous $100,000 winners.
AFV is also well known for the host's humorous (and often lame) wisecracking one-liners before or during the showing of a home video.
It is produced by
Vin Di Bona Productions and
ABC Productions . It was distributed by
MTM Enterprises from 1995-1998,
20th Century Fox Television from 1998-2000, and
Buena Vista Television from 2000-present.
Ernie Anderson , who was best-known as ABC's announcer who announced promos for TV shows (most notably his way of saying "
The Love Boat "...he pronounced it "The Looooooove Boat"), was the announcer for AFV from the show's start in 1989 until his death in early 1997.
America's Funniest Home Videos has received some criticism throughout its long run on ABC. The main criticism is the airing of and awarding of prizes for videos that are clearly staged. During the Bob Saget era, the video "Guy Drops Toilet Down Stairs" came under fire by critics for being staged yet still winning $10,000. It was argued that videotaping yourself carrying an old toilet up a stairwell was highly unlikely and the man's "accidental dropping" seemed like it was purposeful.
Another example is a tape that shows a wife driving down the street and saying to her husband (who was filming) that she just got gas for the car. The camera then shows the gas nozzle and the gas pump still dangling from the car with the hose cut. This tape was criticized as having been staged since it is unlikely for one to videotape one's wife driving down the street after refueling the car.
Another criticism during the Bob Saget era was that the third nominee was always the winner. This stopped shortly after the Bob Saget era. However, this is just a rumored criticism as subsquent viewings of the show have revealed that this is simply not true.
During the later years of the Saget era, the skits hosted by Saget during the show often fell flat with the audience and Saget would frequently bring up his hatred for the producers' suggestions and ideas for skits. These bizarre skits became awkward for audience members, live and at home, as they were unsure whether these recurring segments were legitimate complaints from Saget or merely an inside joke. Some of these skits include the producers suggesting Saget time his jokes with egg-timers or, in one particularly confounding situation, Saget showing the audience a live pig that had apparently eaten one of the producers (the producer could still talk to Saget though).
On many episodes with Tom Bergeron, Tom would say that the winner of the audience vote and $10,000 was "Tonight's funniest home video," though oftentimes some people believed that the winner and the runners-up were terrible compared to videos on the show that were not nominated.
Another criticism centers on the injuries suffered by video participants, including some injured during skiing or skateboarding accidents which resulted in the victims losing consciousness or even blatant car crashes.
ABC also added a
Laugh Track to some videos lacking the hosts' monologues.
Shows based on same concept around the world:
