Only surviving because the producers are PAYING to keep it on. MTM should have said "No!" to syndicating the reruns!

Moax429

I agree with everybody else who said they DESPISE this sorry program. I certainly CAN'T stand Bob Saget ("Full House" also stunk), and Tom Bergeron isn't any better. And one critic was right on when he said this show is "just an excuse for people to make asses of themselves to win money" (I have a better title for it: "The Hour for the Artistically Challenged and Money-Hungry"). Simply put, this show is an insult to one's intelligence!

I think the only reason "America's Funniest Home Videos" is still surviving is because the producers are PAYING ABC to keep the show on. But, if it's any consolation, the network has pitted it against "60 Minutes" on CBS Sunday nights at 7:00 P.M. Eastern time, so here's hoping "60 Minutes" continues to trounce "America's Funniest Home Videos'" ass in the ratings!

Equally surprising was that when "America's Funniest Home Videos" was first syndicated in 1996 (a BIG mistake), the producers tapped MTM Enterprises, which former Chicago Sun-Times TV critic and nationally syndicated columnist Gary Deeb called "the class act of television," to distribute the reruns. Certainly, MTM had much better, and more intelligent, shows during its 28-year history, such as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Rhoda," "WKRP in Cincinnati," and "Hill Street Blues." I am VERY certain the only reason why MTM said yes to distributing the reruns of "America's Funniest Home Videos" is because they knew they were then flirting with bankruptcy, and since their other quality shows were failing, they were desperate to stay alive! Since Mary Tyler Moore was at that time still the Chairwoman of the Board of MTM, she herself should have told the producers of "America's Funniest Home Videos" "NO!" to syndicating this show, and to go find another distributor! (MTM was dropped as an affiliated company by the Television South Corporation, better known as TVS, of London, England, near the end of 1995 after seven years - the result of poor management of the property on TVS' part - but was rescued in early 1996 by International Family Entertainment, Inc., a company spun off from the Christian Broadcasting Network. Two years later, however, IFE itself was purchased by 21st Century Fox, Inc. (formerly NewsCorp), parent company of 20th Century Fox; that buyout, sadly, meant the end of MTM as it was absorbed into 20th Century Fox Television. Now Fox syndicates the reruns of "America's Funniest Home Videos;" this program, in all honesty, seems more appropriate for a company like Fox to distribute, but if Rupert Murdoch and Co. were smart, they SHOULDN'T pay any more residuals to the untalented and brainless turkeys who submitted the "material" to this waste of time!)

Here's also hoping ABC wises up after 16 years and drops "America's Funniest Home Videos" for good. I sure WOULDN'T miss it if and when it goes away!

(Postscript, September 21, 2019: When the FCC rescinded the 1971 "fin-syn" rule in late 1998 which stated that networks couldn't syndicate the shows they produced themselves, Disney/ABC broke off their distribution ties with Fox and assumed syndication of "America's Funniest Home Videos" (although, ironically, the film division of Fox is now owned by Disney).

Disney/ABC can *HAVE* those syndication rights!)

score 1/10

Moax429 24 June 2006

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1401142/