VHS Teacher To Appear On ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’

Danielle Mutovic’s dog has landed the Verona High School math teacher on “America’s Funniest Home Videos“, and not be because it ate her homework.

Mutovic’s miniature poodle, Betty, has a thing about seeing moving creatures on television. Mutovic can’t have Betty around if there are any dogs in a TV show, because Betty will bark non-stop. “It’s so obnoxious,” she says.

But even Mutovic was surprised at what happened when she and her husband were downloading a new Wii program two years ago. When the Mario character appeared, Betty began to chase it across the screen and even tried to bite it. Mutovic grabbed her camera phone, captured the action, and sent it to her family, who thought it was hilarious. So hilarious that Mutovic’s sister submitted it to AFV.

For two years, the family heard nothing from the TV show. Then, suddenly, a month ago, the phones began ringing: The producers needed clearances, information on pronouncing the family name and more, and needed it all immediately. Mutovic, who graduated VHS with the class of 2000, remained skeptical. Then, about a week ago, as Mutovic was dealing with a fender-bender, her sister called with the news. AFV would be flying Mutovic, her sister and Betty to Hollywood to tape a show.

The trio got on a plane early this morning. The show will be taped tomorrow, but we won’t know if they won the $10,000 first-place prize until the show airs on November 10. Only the studio audience will get to vote this time, but if Mutovic and Betty win, they will be entered into a $100,000 contest that has live viewer voting.

AFV now owns the rights to the video, so only it can show it. But Mutovic promises that it will be worth watching. “Every time Mario gets to the screen she’s tries to eat him,” she says of Betty. “It doesn’t do it justice to talk about it, but it is a pretty funny thing.”