History Series / AmericasFunniestHomeVideos

* TheAnnouncer: ABC staff announcer Creator/ErnieAnderson was the announcer until his death in 1997, except for a few episodes in Seasons 1 and 2 where Charlie O'Donnell (''Series/WheelOfFortune'', ''Series/AmericanBandstand'') filled in for him. Gary Owens (best known for ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'') announced the show from 1995 to 1997, and voice actor Creator/JessHarnell took over after Owens left.

The show can be considered the proto-RealityShow concept, as it existed through audience interaction. ''AFV'' has gone through three "eras", being originally hosted by comedian Creator/BobSaget until 1997, then by Daisy Fuentes and Creator/JohnFugelsang from 1998-99. Over 1999-2000 it existed as occasional specials rather than a regular series, but it returned to the old format in 2001 with Creator/TomBergeron as host and has remained an [=ABC=] fixture since. (A ''lot'' of people are only familiar with the Bob Saget version, which is odd since the Bergeron version has since surpassed the Saget version in terms of seasons, not to mention the Bergeron episodes were the only ones that ever aired on ABC until his retirement. And the show is heavily promoted, so you'd have to have lived under a rock since the late 1990s to ''not'' know it was still on with a different host.)

** Tom Bergeron's first season as host has this too. The set doesn't have the slick neon design, Bergeron's hair is black instead of grey, he tried to make silly voices over the videos much like Bob Saget did, the audience members dressed much more casually than they do now, and perhaps the most startling of all, Bergeron occasionally did a lot of BitingTheHandHumor; making jokes about how he's only hosting this show because he can't get work elsewhere, or that he's waiting for a better break to come by. You'd ''never'' hear him make a joke like that on his later episodes.

*** The show's logo appeared on a television set against a sky-like background with yellow star wipes, and the logo appeared on a title card at the start of each segment. For the rest of the Saget run, the logo was inside a blue circle with the familiar "stars and stripes" animation, and segments were usually introduces with shots of the audience and/or the logo at the back of the set.

* TransatlanticEquivalent: In the UK, there's the Creator/{{ITV}} show ''You've Been Framed!'', which has nearly been going on as long, having begun in April 1990 and still running to this day. The main difference (aside from the obvious host, clips and presentation difference) is that apart from in an early series, no competition for the best clip is held, instead giving £250 to everyone who has their clip shown on the show.

* KidsHateVegetables: An early grand-prize-winning video showed a young girl hiding vegetables in her napkin. She tells her off-screen parent “I ate three carrots and three celery.”
“You’re not lying to me, are you?”
“No.”

''America's Funniest Home Videos'', often abbreviated as ''AFV'', is a [[LongRunners long-running]] television series that features home video clips sent in by viewers. It has aired on Creator/{{ABC}} since its debut as a special in November 1989. At the end of most episodes, the producers pick three clips for the studio audience to vote on for prizes of $4,000, $6,000, and $20,000[[note]]$2,000, $3,000, and $10,000 respectively prior to Season 33[[/note]]; the big money winner goes on to compete with other weekly winners for a $100,000 prize later in the season.

* ShoutOut: Plenty given the nature of the show, including the occasional GeniusBonus. For example:

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: The season 25 finale, Tom Bergeron's last episode as host, has him get on a golf cart driven by [[spoiler: Bob Saget]] and drive off into the night, planning on doing something new.

* FromSpecialToSeries: It began as an hour-long special hosted by Bob Saget and Kellie Martin in November 1989; it was brought back as a weekly series two months later with Saget in tow, and has aired ever since with three host changes since then (with the minor exception of a period from the fall of 1998 to the summer of 2001, when in an inversion of this trope, it was reduced to a series of specials).

* BitingTheHandHumor: An unusual case -- the show has its [[EnforcedPlug enforced plugs]] for ABC's corporate parent Disney (see below), but aside from those grand prize shows Disney hasn't stopped them from running home videos that don't paint the Ride/DisneyThemeParks in the best light, such as costumed characters falling off of parade floats or scaring toddlers, and a memorable clip of ''The Hall of Presidents'''s Abraham Lincoln animatronic slowly falling backwards at the waist during his big speech. Even better, one season finale shot at Disney World had Bergeron joke that when his daughters go there, the three things they're most excited to see are "Mickey, Minnie, and Daddy's Wallet." Most likely the reason they're okay with it is because it's free advertisement for their theme parks and the videos just show silly things happen that can happen anywhere rather than [[RonTheDeathEater painting a bleak, cynical picture of their theme parks]].

* EnforcedPlug: In the Bergeron era, there's plenty of shilling for the show's website, where videos can be viewed and/or posted for future contests, as well as the occasional visit from performers from other ABC reality shows (such as ''Dancing with the Stars'', also hosted by Bergeron). Above all is the constant hyping of Ride/DisneyThemeParks: Disney owns ABC and most grand prizes now include trips to them or whatever their newest vacation venture is. That means that several episodes, usually season finales, have been filmed at the hyped locales and have Bergeron visiting the rides and whatnot. There have also been segments during non-event shows that were nothing more than ads for ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'' and ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'', and clips "presented" by Denny's, Pepperidge Farm, etc.

* SigningOffCatchPhrase: Bob Saget would always say "keep those cameras safely rolling" and follow it up with "And honey... [''[[MadLibsCatchPhrase insert comment to wife here]]'']." Tom Bergeron's was "If you get it on tape, you could get it in cash" and was later changed to "Upload to us, get rich, get famous." Ribeiro uses "Send your video to me, get yourself on TV."; he occasionally lampshades this after he says the line.

** MusicalSlapstickMontage: Every show has at least one; in the Bergeron era there are usually two. One uses a radio favorite (old or new), and one uses an instrumental, usually a public domain classical piece.

* SplittingPants: One video titles "Weightlifter pants split" shows a guy from behind squatting with a barbell on his shoulders. At the end of the video, he squats, and the back of his pants rips open.

* ThreeDimensionalEpisode: Which also happened to be a ''Series/FullHouse'' ReunionShow during an ABC 3-D gimmick week. Incredible awkwardness ensued as poor Saget had to toss objects at the screen to indulge the annoying gimmick while everyone else was there to see the freaking cast of ''Full House'' for the first time in two years after the show's cancellation. Oh, and it was also Saget's second-to-last episode.

From 1990-94, ABC aired a SpinOff titled ''Series/AmericasFunniestPeople'', which focused more on intentionally staged comedy sketches. Like ''AFV'', it was hosted by a ''Full House'' alumnus; Creator/DaveCoulier in this case. Other spin-offs include ''World's Funniest Videos'' (also hosted by Coulier and featured clips sent in from around the world), ''Videos After Dark'' (a failed adult-oriented version hosted by Saget that aired in March 2019), and ''America's Funniest Home Videos: Animal Edition'' (an animal-oriented version that started airing on Creator/NatGeoWild in June 2021, with Ribeiro continuing to host).

* TransatlanticEquivalent: In the UK, there's the Creator/{{ITV}} show ''You've Been Framed!'', which has nearly been going on as long, having begun in April 1990 and still running to this day. The main difference (aside from the obvious host, clips and presentation difference) is that no competition for the best clip is held, instead giving £250 to everyone who has their clip shown on the show.

-->--'''Tom Bergeron''', on the show

It has been [[Webcomic/DinosaurComics described]] as the [[UrExample ur-]]Website/YouTube (or the ur-[[http://failblog.org/ FAIL Blog,]] in some aspects), only with more Bob Saget.