Game Shows: America's Funniest Home Videos

[dandaman2001]

"America's Funniest Home Videos," now about to finish its 21st season, has surpassed "What's My Line?" as network TV's longest-running prime-time network television game show--and is the longest-running entertainment series in the history of the ABC Television Network (via ABC.com's "AFHV" page).

The show was first conceived in late 1988 by Vin Di Bona, whose Saturday-morning game show "Animal Crack-Ups" was on its way off the air.

Vin was on vacation in Japan when he saw a Japanese variety show called "Fun with Kato and Ken," which had a segment featuring Japanese civilians sending in their funniest home videos in the hopes of earning money.

Upon his return to the U.S., Vin said to himself, "That's my next game show."

He rechristened the segment as an American television game show called "America's Funniest Home Videos," and just as he'd done with Alan Thicke of ABC's "Growing Pains" with "Animal Crack-Ups," Vin hired stand-up comedian Bob Saget (then starring as Danny Tanner on ABC's "Full House") to host the hour-long series pilot, which was broadcast on November 26, 1989 on the ABC Television Network in prime-time at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

7 weeks later, on January 14, 1990, "America's Funniest Home Videos" returned to the air, airing weekly on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT 30 minutes a week. By March 1990, Bob Saget became the first person since Arthur Godfrey 4 decades earlier to have 2 different successful series airing 2 different nights every week on the same network.

The surprise success of the series convinced Vin Di Bona to create a spin-off game show pilot called "America's Funniest People," with Bob's fellow stand-up comic and "Full House" castmate Dave Coulier hosting the pilot, airing on May 13, 1990 on the ABC Television Network.

"America's Funniest People" was picked up as a regular series in September 1990, airing with "America's Funniest Home Videos" for 4 full seasons as part of an ABC videos hour every Sunday night (per The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV shows, by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh).

In May 1997, after 8 seasons, Bob Saget grew tired of his game show host duties on "America's Funniest Home Videos" and left the series. He was replaced the following January as host by former MTV VJ Daisy Fuentes.

Soon after Fuentes (paired with stand-up comedian John Fugelsang) arrived, it was clear to ABC execs that "America's Funniest Home Videos" wouldn't last much longer, and in Spring 1999, after 10 seasons, ABC canceled "America's Funniest Home Videos" due to poor ratings.

All was not lost, however, as 2 years later, on July 20, 2001, ABC revived "America's Funniest Home Videos" as a weekly series, this time with TV personality Tom Bergeron (then hosting the syndicated game show "Hollywood Squares") presiding over hosting duties--a job he maintains today.

[BillCullen1]

I consider AFHV a reality show more than a game show, or perhaps an audience participation show, which is close to, but not quite a game show.