Wait Till Your Father Gets Home is an animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that aired in first-run syndication in the United States from 1972 to 1974. The show originated as a one-time segment on Love, American Style called "Love and the Old-Fashioned Father". The same pilot was later produced with a live cast (starring Van Johnson), but with no success. The show was the first primetime animated sitcom to run for more than a single season since fellow Hanna-Barbera show The Flintstones more than ten years earlier, and would be the only one until The Simpsons seventeen years later. The show was inspired by All in the Family.
Premise
The show features Harry Boyle, wife Irma, daughter Alice, and sons Chet and Jamie. Harry, a restaurant supply wholesaler, often butts heads with most of his family about the social issues of the day. Contrasting that is Harry's neighbor and friend, Ralph Kane, a paranoid right-wing militia fanatic whose extreme opinions and often dangerous actions Harry can barely tolerate as much as his kids' ideas.
Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track created by the studio. For this show, the studio added a third belly laugh to add a little more "variety" (the only TV series made by Hanna-Barbera to have this added laugh). In addition, the laugh track was also slowed considerably.
Episodes
Voice cast
Tom Bosley as Harry Boyle
Joan Gerber as Irma Boyle
Kristina Holland as Alice Boyle
David Hayward/Lennie Weinrib as Chet Boyle
Jackie Earle Haley/Willie Aames as Jamie Boyle
Jack Burns as Ralph Kane
Veteran Hanna-Barbera voice talents such as Daws Butler, John Stephenson, and Don Messick provided minor roles.
Guest stars
Don Adams
Phyllis Diller
Gene Eugene
Monty Hall
Don Knotts
Rich Little
Allan Melvin (also appeared on All In The Family) Joe E. Ross Isabel Sanford (also appeared on All In The Family) Jonathan Winters Casey Kasem (uncredited) Pat Morita (uncredited) "The New House" Ken Clark (Britain)
Other "guests" on the series included thinly disguised versions of celebrities who did not provide their own voices, such as guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. When a crooked car dealer on another episode was perceived by real-life Los Angeles car salesman Cal Worthington as being a send-up of him, he sued Hanna-Barbera, the sponsors (Chevrolet) and the five NBC-owned stations that carried the show.
Home media
On June 5, 2007, Warner Home Video released Season 1 of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home on DVD in Region 1 for the Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. Warner Archive has yet to release season 2 and Season 3.
