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Weddings, birthday parties, family functions - every time one of these kinds of gatherings occur, someone tries to tell a story and fails.
ìLittle Suzy accidentally went to school with my house keys in her lunchbox! Isn't that hilarious ?î (No, not really.) ìI remember that one time you played in your piano recital and picked a big booger right in front of everyone. How funny was that?î (I have no idea, man.)
If you were actually present to experience the sagas that are endlessly recounted in the presence of friends and family, these stories might actually garner an earnest smile. But more often than not, those sitting around listening to Uncle Joe's stories - hey, they're at least making him laugh out loud - flash complacent grins and perhaps even drum up a pity laugh or two and that's that.
Vin di Bona and the America's Funniest Home Videos crew understand this implicitly and are, of course, far too savvy to fall victim to it.
I've been trying for hours to find a way to sound genuine when I call AFV the best show on TV, because most of my colleagues simply don't believe me. Time after time, AFV gets ghettoized to a kind of pseudo-reality TV section of the television lexicon and is immediately dismissed as being just another funny-ha-ha, your-pants-fell-down-at-your-wedding festival of goofs. But what those who haven't really sat down and thought about the show don't realize is that AFV may feature your-pants-fell-down-at-your-wedding antics, but it's not about that.
The advent of camcorder technology has allowed the content in the kinds of stories Uncle Joe and every other human being on Earth tries to finish correctly to be seen and not just discussed with in-joke histrionics that few truly comprehend. Instead of hearing about that one girl who screamed SO LOUD while riding in one of those sling-shot carnival rides, AFV allows us to see it. We don't just respond to our storyteller's glee in sharing such a ridiculous anecdote - we get to join in. And it's hilarious.
With clips that are either over in twenty seconds or go no longer than a couple minutes, viewers at home are invited into everyone else's homes for a moment to share in the hilarious sagas of families and tomfoolery that exist in every neighborhood in the country. Like a more benevolent, more intimate Real TV, when one watches America's Funniest Home Videos, one is watching the work of regular old Joe and Jane Schmoes like you and me. Yeah, executive producer Vin di Bona continues to count the vast majority of the immense monies the show has reaped over the 15+ years its been on the air (think about it; this could be one of the cheapest shows to produce ever and it hasn't strayed too far from the Top 20 Nielsen charts since Bob Saget was hot), but the real rewards of the show are made for us by us.
Using television - and now DVD - to bridge the gaps between people with laughter (absolutely nothing is funnier than watching somebody else accidentally do something silly), America's Funniest Home Videos is the technological equivalent of 10 million TV viewers sitting around sharing the uniquely human endeavor of humor together. Continue to underestimate it if you must, but just realize that in doing that, you're poo-pooing the greatest mass-media shared human experience the last one hundred years have produced.
It's the best show on TV.
The Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Like it should. These 4:3 full frame transfers are full of all the amateur filmmaking prowess you'd imagine from a symposium like AFV. But remember this as you watch the dropouts and inconsistent color variations and everything: You're paying for it. The charm of AFV is due mostly to the slapshot nature of these home movies. If you're looking for a reference-quality DVD edition of AFV, you're barking up the wrong tree.
The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
Again, there's nothing surprising here. The show's studio segments sound lovely and robust, and the home videos sound - well, they sound like somebody recorded them with a camcorder. Duh.
Also included are English Closed Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
The fourth disc of this collection has a bonus episode - the two-part 300th AFV show. It's a classic - it showcases favorites not just from the last few years, but from the AFV archives. Marvelous.
Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?
There are no DVD-ROM supplements on this DVD.
Final Thoughts
I'd like to give this America's Funniest Home Videos Vol. 1 collection five stars, but I suppose I can't. Transfers and mixes and perfectly fine and the special 300th episode is a hoot, but even while this is a spectacular show, I'm waiting for even more definitive DVD box set releases. Recommended (seriously).
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