Disney DVD Request: "America's Funniest Home Videos: The Complete First Season"

[bengay]

Hello everyone,

Ben checking in, with a curious question for my fellow Disney enthusiasts: would you buy DVD sets of "America's Funniest Home Videos" in Season packages if they were available? My answer to that question is HELL YEAH!!!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, here's the Inside Information on Network TV's Longest-Running Prime-Time Game Show: "America's Funniest Home Videos."

The year is 1988. George H.W. Bush, age 64, is elected U.S. President; the Persian Gulf Crisis is in full effect; and rookie TV producer Vin Di Bona is on vacation in Japan with his wife, Gina.

During the vacation, Vin caught a glimpse of a Japanese variety show titled "Fun with Kato and Ken," a segment of which featured ordinary citizens competing against each other to earn the Japanese equivalent of the American dollar by sending in their funniest moments ever caught on film; upon his return to his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, California (by way of Cranston, Rhode Island), Vin decided to turn the segment into a Prime-Time Network TV Game Show.

Vin rechristened the segment into a Game Show called "America's Funniest Home Videos," hiring stand-up comic Bob Saget to host the series' hour-long pilot, which taped in Summer 1989 at Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles, California.

The hour-long pilot was telecast at 8 P.M. ET/PT on November 26, 1989 on the ABC Television Network; 7 weeks later, on January 14, 1990, "America's Funniest Home Videos" began airing every Sunday night at 8 P.M. ET/PT in a format that has remained unchanged throughout its long existence: America sends in its funniest moments ever caught on video in the hopes of earning a weekly prize of $10,000, with the weekly winners competing against each other at the end of each sweeps period for an additional $100,000; in addition to the $3,000 2nd place and $2,000 3rd place prizes, during the first season only, the 2nd and 3rd place winners won, respectively, an RCA TV and an RCA Video Camera.

By March 1990, "America's Funniest Home Videos" became such a huge hit, Vin quickly conceived a spin-off game show, "America's Funniest People," with stand-up comic Dave Coulier hosting (paired with Arleen Sorkin and later Tawny Kitaen); as with "Videos," the same prize structure was used on "People," except sequences on "People" were deliberately staged, some taped by amateurs and others taped by Vin Di Bona and his crew.

"People" aired from May 13, 1990 - August 28, 1994 for 4 seasons and 89 episodes; after its cancellation, "Videos" continued--at least for a little while.

In May 1997, after 8 seasons as host, Bob Saget left "America's Funniest Home Videos" and was replaced in January 1998 by former MTV VJ Daisy Fuentes (paired with stand-up comic John Fugelsang); the ratings soon after began to slip, and in May 1999, after 10 seasons, ABC, citing poor ratings, canceled "America's Funniest Home Videos," with the series finale, taped at House of Blues in Los Angeles, California, telecast on August 28, 1999 at 8 P.M. ET/PT

Was that the end? Nope, because 2 years later, on July 20, 2001, ABC successfully revived "America's Funniest Home Videos," this time with TV personality Tom Bergeron taking over as host--a job he maintained for 15 years before stepping down in March 2014, with his final regular episode telecast on May 17, 2015; on October 11, 2015, actor Alfonso Ribeiro became the series' new host and will begin his 2nd season this Fall--its 27th combined season.

In 2008, at the end of its 18th season, "America's Funniest Home Videos" surpassed long-time champ "What's My Line?" as Network Television's Longest-Running Prime-Time Game Show.

In addition, "America's Funniest Home Videos" is the longest-running Entertainment Series in the History of ABC.

I strongly urge you to persuade all the available Disney email contacts to PLEASE consider releasing "America's Funniest Home Videos" on DVD.

Between 2005 and 2007, SHOUT! Factory Home Entertainment, under license from Walt Disney Home Entertainment, released "Best Of" DVDs of "America's Funniest Home Videos."

But what I'd like for Disney to do is release, for the FIRST time EVER on DVD or anywhere else, "America's Funniest Home Videos: The Complete First Season," showcasing all 16 episodes (including the original hour-long pilot AND the hour-long $100,000 1st-season finale) of the DEBUT season of "America's Funniest Home Videos" COMPLETE, UNCUT AND UNEDITED, just the way that each episode aired on the ABC Television Network.

Before anyone here asks, I DID get in touch with SHOUT! Factory via Facebook for this request BUT unfortunately, SHOUT! told me privately their options to release MORE DVDs of "America's Funniest Home Videos" has expired--hence why I'm suggesting Disney releases DVDs themselves of "America's Funniest Home Videos" under its ABC Studios label on DVD.

Disney, I should point out, has owned "America's Funniest Home Videos" since 1995, even buying Syndication rights from original distributor MTM Enterprises (folded in 2000 into 20th Television).

Here's how and what I'd do to make this happen: I would have the DVD released on November 29, 2016 (the 27th Anniversary week of its debut), right between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Season 1 DVD of "America's Funniest Home Videos" would include TWO Bonus Features: a BONUS Episode, "The Summit with Saget," airing on ABC on November 29, 2009, where Bob Saget (who hosted the first 8 seasons of the show's original 10-year run before being succeeded as host by Daisy Fuentes) returned for one night only with Tom Bergeron (who stepped down last year as host, succeeded by Alfonso Ribeiro) in a 20-year Retrospective of the show; the OTHER Bonus Feature would be a Direct-to-DVD half-hour featurette titled "Vin Di Bona's Funniest Home Videos," in which Vin Di Bona hosts and presents HIS All-time Favorite Videos from throughout the show's History.

An ALTERNATE Bonus Feature, if "Vin Di Bona's Funniest Home Videos" is not included on the DVD, would be "America's Funniest Home Videos: An Inside Look," a 30-minute Mini-Documentary airing on the ABC Television Network on September 9, 1990, in between Seasons 1 & 2 of "America's Funniest Home Videos."

Who knows? If sales for Season 1 DVDs of "America's Funniest Home Videos" (which I PERSONALLY would own on DAY ONE), maybe Season 2 DVDs or even MORE Season DVDs of "America's Funniest Home Videos" will be released by ABC Studios (which operates for the show as ABC Entertainment).

Come on everybody: PLEASE help make this happen.

Thanks in advance for reading, and Remember: if you want somebody to be your friend, you've got to be a friend to them.

God Bless Everybody!!!

Ben Gay

[tlc38tlc38]

I'd buy the Bob Saget years. Once he left, I lost interest in the show.