Bob Saget’s America’s Funniest Home Videos

Adam Wintz: 0:00

This episode is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Bob Saget. Rest in peace.

Intro: 0:06

Take a time machine back to before the world went to hell, around the year 2000.

Chad Bishoff: 0:13

The 80s and 90s were so rad.

Adam Wintz: 0:16

The movies, the music, the TV, the games, that's what I want to talk about.

Intro: 0:21

Like and subscribe on your favorite podcast app and continue the conversation on Facebook and Instagram. And if you're cool enough, join the show on Patreon for exclusive bonus content. And now Less Than 2000 with Adam Wintz and Chad Bishoff

Adam Wintz: 0:44

Less Than 2000

Chad Bishoff: 0:45

Now part of the HyperX Podcast Network

Adam Wintz: 0:49

stories from your friends next door. They never told you might be a star tonight. So let that camera roll. You're the red, white and blue. Oh, the funny things you do. America, America. Oh, this is you doo doo doo doo doo doo. All right, yeah.

Chad Bishoff: 1:16

after we brought it really down to open we're like up on top now. Because I don't know how you can listen to that to that song and not immediately be a little gleeful. I mean, you just kind of have to be.

Adam Wintz: 1:31

It's a great jingle. It's it's a great jingle and. And that's funny that line stories from your friends next door. They never told. I always thought of your family at that time. I know you were across the street. But I always thought about what are the Bishoff's up to?

Chad Bishoff: 1:46

Well, yeah, because I mean, our doors faced each other. So essentially, it was like the friend next door. You know? And it's like, Hmmmm, what are the Wintz's doing?

Adam Wintz: 1:59

And unlike my family, your family had a VHS camera?

Chad Bishoff: 2:04

Yes. I think anybody who's a fan of the show knows this by now that the VHS cameras why we're friends. So this is this is a great, great, great, great episode, to not only pay tribute to Bob Saget, but also recount that, that's why we're friends. Bob Saget. And the VHS cameras. The reason why 40 You know, 30 years later, 30 some years later, we do this. I mean, you know, had that not happened, had Bob Saget. And Mark Bishoff not happened. I don't know, man.

Adam Wintz: 2:45

Obviously, we remained friends for other reasons other than that, but that's what really solidified our relationship, our friendship to begin with. Before that, we played Ghostbusters, we dug holes in the neighborhood, we played baseball. But we really truly became friends. Like BFFs, because of the VHS camera,

Chad Bishoff: 3:06

when we could turn a camera on ourselves and act out what was in our mind, that is when it became solidified. We don't often go down this path. But you know, in all seriousness, yes, that's where, you know, it was like, we had something creative to do. That gave us an outlet, which is where we bonded. That's ultimately where where that came from. But you also pushed me to do something that was so out of my comfort zone, and so outlandish in Chad brain that has actually stuck with me my entire life, and has been a huge benefit. And that's pushing me to go actually into the doorway, and join speech in in fifth grade. And it was the thought of standing in front of actual people and talking and especially when we were that little and, you know, our teacher was, you know, so much older and wiser than us. It was terrifying. But you pushed me to do it. And I ended up doing competitive speech for for all throughout high school.

Adam Wintz: 4:10

We were cool

Chad Bishoff: 4:11

and and but it's it's it's, I use it in my film. And, you know, daily business life now in the entertainment industry. And so, thank you for pushing me into that. We joke about the the reason we became friends, but truly there it was far beyond that.

Adam Wintz: 4:33

I appreciate the sentiment. I think it was funny because you were so reserved, you were very shy, and we were both, you know, awkward, but then we became the cool kids that did Speech and Drama, because that was so cool. Bob Saget passed away recently and and it's, it's just incredibly sad, younger than my parents, at least and it's it's just Wow, Time goes fast because some of my most fun memories of the early 90s was watching the show America's Funniest Home Videos with my family. It was event TV in our house. Seven o'clock Central every Sunday night, we gathered around after dinner. And one of my most fond memories is my is hearing my mom laughing, just laughing out loud, the whole family just gut laughing over the funny things you do. The stories from the friends next door they never told. And and, and I, this has such a soft spot, a warm place in my heart, the show. And Bob Saget.

Chad Bishoff: 5:53

I'm gonna have to I'm not contrasting this to, to argue. But what's funny is when you said when we said we should do this episode. My biggest takeaway from my youth, when it comes to America's Funniest evidence, was not the pleasant warm cackle of my mom's voice. Or my dad chuckling silently with a beer as he watches somebody get hurt on television or whatever was going on. It was what can Adam and I do to get on this show? Like everything and this is my problem in life is that when I'm witnessing something fun, I think I want to be a part of that. I mean, I get FOMO to this day, I mean, I get FOMO all the time. I don't like missing out on stuff. So when I see a cool thing like that, I was like, I wonder if Adam and I have anything funny that we could submit. And and because you can't recreate it, you got to capture it organically. You can try to fake it. But we all knew we all knew, you know, a fade you can spot fakes, you know, so you had to capture real comedic accidental genius moments to be able to get that. So I was let down watching that show because I wanted to be there.

Adam Wintz: 7:18

But it had it had to be organic, and it couldn't be staged. And whenever you felt like there's always there's always at least one clip per show where my mom would say"that was staged." And it just took it took the shine off of it. Because it was supposed to be the organic. The kids saying something inappropriate. The kid the guy hurting himself, the person fainting at at the altar. Those were some of my favorites. Locking knees, and then just just just completely, like a stiff board falling. And so they made America's Funniest People that ran for four or five years after that with Dave Coulier. for the stuff that was specifically staged, or they even had like, stand up comedy, or they had like, it was stuff at malls, kind of like talent show kind of stuff. America's Funniest people was so lame because America's Funniest Home Videos got all the organic, just hilarious, candid stuff that happened to be caught on tape.

Chad Bishoff: 8:28

Yeah. And to look back on it. Because we've come so far in, in technology in the universe. There. I mean, there was a time before the internet. And this was it. There wasn't I mean, there wasn't any way people had these funny moments at home. You couldn't upload it to the internet. Now all that would just be on YouTube. You literally had to send your tape to the producers of the show that Bob Saget rolled his eyes at a lot. And, you know, get picked get selected and flown out to be on it. They've kind of provided the the YouTube roadmap before YouTube even came out. Think about that. Because back then there was no internet. There was no you could barely share anything but text right? It even in the early 90s. So there was this was it. The thought of video, being streamed into homes, individually by people was out of the way. I think YouTube stole from this concept because they thought if people are willing to share their dumb funny stuff on national television, we'll surely they're dumb enough to make us a lot of money by uploading those videos right to us.

Adam Wintz: 9:53

And now we have Star Wars Kid. That's and that that came from this kind of thing. This was Before, way before there were smartphones, so this is not people just ever, the odds of catching something wacky and funny and candid on on tape now is is pretty good. Somebody will bust out something and videotape whatever is happening. This is this had to be a reason why a very small percentage of homes in the late 80s, early 90s had VHS. They were so expensive. They were so like only rich people have them. You know what I mean?

Chad Bishoff: 10:34

Moderatly well off well off, and above and above.

Adam Wintz: 10:39

But they were like$700 in '89 Man, this is like, this is a big investment. And so it had to be like a wedding or a big soccer game or a baby's first meal, or it's really remarkable how much stuff they got, especially for the time nowadays. They've got YouTube, everybody's got this stuff. But it really it really is a genius show and it actually came out it was based on a Japanese show was originally where it came from a Tokyo Broadcasting System Program. Fun TV with Cato Chan and Ken Chan. It was a segment it was a segment that America's that ABC had to pay them for for years, even though this other show fun TV with Cato Chan and Ken chan went off the air in 92. But ABC still had to cut them a check.

Chad Bishoff: 11:38

Well, good for them. They should if you're gonna blatantly rip off an idea. I doubt they're giving you YouTube is giving any money for that. But anyway, whatever. I mean, I want people to think about this. This is a modern day phone camera video camera. You could even make

Adam Wintz: 11:57

He's holding up an iPhone, everybody.

Chad Bishoff: 12:00

Yeah, exactly.

Adam Wintz: 12:00

Well, This was an audio medium. Dude. I know we have video but

Chad Bishoff: 12:05

Oh, that's right. See on Patreon, now's insert Patreon plug on Patreon, you can see the extra fun and longer stuff that we do on this show.

Adam Wintz: 12:17

So start over again, what you were holding up was an iPhone, and now continue

Chad Bishoff: 12:22

No that's going to be in the show, it's going to be in the full thing I want everybody to know, you called me out. Because I was thinking about our Patreon fans, not just just the, you know, subscribers on the podcast. So today we have a cell phone that takes video and pictures. It's everywhere, right? Back in the day, those cameras, shoulder mounted long, you had to put your hand up through a little sleeve to like wrap your hand your palm around the front heavy thing to like, balance it out. And then you had to use your fingers to zoom in and out. And dads would walk around holding this large contraption on their shoulder trying to capture their one year old or five year old or their pets actions to find something funny. But it was so awkward to pick up. It's not like you went oh man and quickly pulled out a phone and snippety snap and you're done. You were literally like oh my god its shoulder mounted, I'm recording. I can record for six hours. I'm just going to keep recording because it's going to take just as much time for me to put it down. I'll never get it up and on and time to capture anything good. So dad's would like continue to walk around and just record it. And then I don't know about you know about your household like even at like Christmas time and things like that. We'd come around and be like No, no do that again. I got the camera now is like is like the documentation had to be had to be there. And it started with that. I mean it started with the VHS camera you didn't put down it's time to tap in with the hyper X quad cast as microphone. The stunning hyper X quad cast S features dynamic customizable RGB lighting, a convenient tap to mute sensor and four selectable polar patterns. So we can broadcast crystal clear audio, whether you're gaming, streaming, podcasting, or impressing your remote colleagues and classmates. So what are you waiting for? Join the quad squad and tap in today with the hyper X podcast s microphones

Adam Wintz: 14:51

can you imagine being the producers or more likely interns that had to sit there and watch all of the crap that got mailed in

Chad Bishoff: 15:01

all of the non funny stuff?

Adam Wintz: 15:03

Yes. Like you said six hours of a Christmas day just record the whole damn thing. And they got to sift through this whole tape to find the five seconds that might actually make the show. Bob Saget was he made the show, Bob Saget had sort of this kind of dark edge to him. Where he's like, he's talking crap on the producers. He's kind of sometimes mocking the contestants. He but but he was so versatile because he's he did so many voices. He did like animal voices. He did baby voices. He narrated the stuff he would sometimes throw out packages. Okay, here's the theme about animal stuff. But most of the time he was like, kind of narrating the videos as they went along with a with a big range of voices and stuff. And this isn't Dave Coolier who did the spin off show. And Dave Coulier, who was known for having all the cut it out and all the funny zany voices. This is Bob Saget, who was more of the straight man. And he showed it on a wide range of comedic chops.

Chad Bishoff: 16:15

Yeah. Which made it even funnier when he did that kind of stuff. Because let's be clear. Bob Saget is America's dad.

Adam Wintz: 16:26

Mm hmm.

Chad Bishoff: 16:27

I mean, he went from Full House. I know he's done a ton of stuff. But think about this Full House what he what he became known for. Then he goes, and does America's Funniest Home video, you got America's dad standing on stage playing funny videos from submissions all over America. And then he gets to drop in his eye rolling quips real edge that Bob was known for, yet subtly, because his stand up was dark. So like, you know, he plays America's dad now inviting dads to submit tapes and moms to submit tapes of their kids, and the funny things that they see. And then he's gonna kind of rip on it a little bit and have a little fun. It was genius. I mean, it was a way to kind of show a little edge have fun, while still kind of portraying the persona of Bob Saget.

Adam Wintz: 17:26

You know what else was genius? Was that glorious mullet? He rocked for, the poofy mullet that he rocked in the early seasons? I I mean,

Chad Bishoff: 17:38

you're such a mullet guy you're I don't know. I have never had this obsession with mullets. You want to talk about mullets? You're the guy walking by a guy saying that's a glorious mullet. I've never done that. I never stop and go like man. Look at that. Never done it. But you're a mullet guy.

Adam Wintz: 18:00

I love the mullet. I can appreciate the mullet and and he had this this like business I call it a businessman mullet. It was not a it was not a Joe Dirt style mullet where you're like, you really need to get your he had that sort of it wasn't as much of a mullet as it was just kind of that flowy old 80s Like,

Chad Bishoff: 18:24

no, I get it. I get it. We could talk all night about glorious mullets, and, and funny videos. But I think what I liked about this show, is the fact that no matter who you were, where you were at, or what age you were, This show could bring people together. It wasn't a demographic that had to be you had great times with your with your family and your mom's laugh and all that kind of stuff. But you could also watch the show and enjoy it and laugh at it the way you wanted to see it through your lens. So it's cool that a show like this existed. Didn't know is still on today. But it's cool that this kind of thing can exist even today with YouTube and all the all the mindless, you know, bazillion hours of content that's out there. And and and that's cool. And I think that's what made it special. But especially for us and we were growing up.

Adam Wintz: 19:29

Bob Saget man. He held the show together. He made it work. He he did not. The show was insanely popular. By March of 1990. America's Funniest Home Videos become the number one primetime series and had 38 million viewers. And that's all these families sitting around watching this every week watching Bob Saget in his deadpan delivery and zany delivery. America's dad like you said it Bill Cosby. We can no longer have that title. It is it is officially. Danny Tanner, who had been Did you know that a Full House ran from 87 to 95. And they had 192 epsiodes?

Chad Bishoff: 20:14

No, I didn't know went that long.

Adam Wintz: 20:17

So this is America's dad Bob Saget, rest in peace. Thank you for giving so many families, such great memories, those uncomfortable moments. You were extremely talented man. You had a beautiful mullet, especially in the early 90s. And it just meant a lot to me and my family. So thank you, Bob and rest in peace.