Watch America's Funniest Home Videos Online

Produced by Vin Di Bona (with co-executive producers Todd Thicke and Michele Nasraway, it is currently the second longest-running entertainment program on ABC. It is based on the Tokyo Broadcasting System show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan, which featured a segment in which viewers were invited to send in video clips from their home movies. The format has since been reproduced around the world, and AFHV-inspired TV specials and series continue to emerge periodically in the United States. The episodes are rated TV-PG or TV-14

Every week, three 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, while the runner-up receives $3,000, and third place banks $2,000. Very early in the show's run, the second and third prizes were a new TV and a new VCR, respectively. On the initial hour-long special, the grand prize was $5,000 with second and third places winning a new camcorder; the producer picked the winner, with no audience voting.

Beginning about the middle of the first season, the show featured the "Assignment America" segment; which called for a series of videos to be made pertaining to a specific theme. Also, Saget's era produced a memorable segment called "Freeze Frame" which was a montage of videos with the song "Freeze Frame" played by The J. Geils Band. The show was so successful in its first year that in 1990 it spawned a spin-off entitled America's Funniest People.

• Official ABC Site: AFV
• TV.com: America's Funniest Home Videos

• Wikipedia: America's Funniest Home Videos