"AFV" Celebrates 800 Episodes of Funny Family Videos

AFV is still on the air, and rapidly approaching a major milestone with their 800th episode arriving next week.

What's Happening:

• The long-running hit ABC series, America's Funniest Home Videos (or AFV), has reached a major milestone in its history, clocking in at 800 episodes.
• To celebrate, current AFV host Alfonso Ribeiro was joined by director and executive producer Vin Di Bona to cut a celebratory cake featuring the show's logo.

• The show is going all out for their special milestone anniversary episode, which will air on ABC this Sunday, March 8, at 7:00 PM EDT. The special episode will also stream the next day on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

America, America, This Is You:

• One of the longest running primetime shows in U.S. television history, AFV originally was inspired by a Japanese variety show that featured a segment called "Funniest Home Videos."
• Producer Vin Di Bona adapted the idea and made it accessible for U.S. Audiences, first debuting back in November of 1989 on ABC as a special, turning into a series in early 1990, and airing on the alphabet network almost consitently since.
• When the show first launched, it was hosted by Full House star Bob Saget, and required viewers to send in VHS tapes of funny moments - typically falls, pets and kids doing crazy things, or accidents that ended humorously.
• The clips were played with a comedic narration, and audience voting determined a winner for each episode that could eventually take home a grand prize of $10,000.
• Saget left the show in 1997, ushering in a new era that had John Fugelsang and Daisy Fuentes hosting, but ratings dropped and the show was cancelled in 1999.
• Not for long though, as ABC realized the appeal of the series, bringing the show back to the network in 2001 with host Tom Bergeron. Now, with advancing technology, it was easy for viewers to submit their videos through digital uploads in lieu of submitting VHS tapes.
• In 2015, Ribeiro took over the show after Tom Bergeron departed.
• Now, as the series approaches episode 800, the new era is marked by social media style clips, along with special holiday episodes and themed specials. While many may ask with the advent of social media and websites like YouTube why this series still exists, there is still clearly a demand for a block of programming that features prat falls and family nonsense.