Why America's Funniest Home Videos Lives On

For years after 1989, when the first episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos, aka AFV, aired in prime time on ABC, creator Vin Di Bona trained millions of amateur videographers to mail him their best material. Thanks in part to the ceaseless influx of submissions, AFV grew into a major entertainment franchise, and Di Bona became gatekeeper of the nation’s backyard bloopers, silly pet videos, and funny clips of octogenarians losing their dentures.

But along came the Internet, and suddenly people no longer needed a TV show to share their kid’s hilarious trampoline accident with a mass audience. All they had to do was upload it to YouTube. “To say that there was panic in my eyes is an understatement,” Di Bona says. “There was a time when I was really fighting YouTube tooth and nail.”