Late November, 1989. It’s a Sunday. Post-church brunch at the Ramada Inn, which was always great cause they had really good pancakes and table-top arcades. On our way home I convinced my parents to hit up The Game Store and I bought Detective Comics #607. $1.25 plus 8% sales tax.
Evening comes around and we’d been seeing ads all week for a TV special called America’s Funniest Home Videos so my brother and I were really looking forward to that. And Bob Saget hosting? We’re in. I remember the winner being some lady stuck in the dishwasher.
In the schoolyard the next morning, it’s all anyone could talk about. We had taped it, so my brother and I watched it again, night after night. Then the weekly series come along a month or so later. There was definitely some “gathering with the family on Sunday night” ritual prior to AFHV — TV movies and what-not — but nothing had made that kind of impact in my family. And the show’s cultural impact, 15-16 years before YouTube, is undeniable.
The Bob Saget tributes have been heart-warming this evening. And although Full House was a big deal, later discovering his stand-up, Dirty Work (can’t believe we’ve lost Norm and Bob in the span of a few months) the Comedy Central roast, his Aristrocrats segment, it’s the memory of those Sunday nights, laughing along with my family, that I cherish. RIP.
