| Wait Till Your Father Gets Home | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animated sitcom |
| Created by | |
| Directed by |
|
| Voices of | |
| Composer | Richard Bowden |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 48 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | |
| Producers | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndicated |
| Release | September 12, 1972 – October 8, 1974 |
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home is an American animated sitcom [1] produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that aired in first-run syndication in the United States from 1972 to 1974. [2] 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 . [3]
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 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. [4] 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. [4] Like The Flintstones and Top Cat , all the episodes feature a cold open, which is a small scene from the episode that takes place in medias res .
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 salesman appeared in another episode as an obvious parody of well-known Los Angeles car dealer Cal Worthington, Worthington sued Hanna-Barbera, the sponsors (Chevrolet) and the five NBC-owned stations that broadcast the show. [5]
In 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 Collection released the complete series on Blu-ray on January 28, 2025.
| Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete First Season | ||||
| Set details | Special features | Release dates | ||
| Retrospective look at the classic show | Region 1 (DVD) June 5, 2007 [6] | ||
| Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete Series | ||||
| Set details | Special features | Release dates | ||
| Retrospective Featurettes: "Animation for the Nation" & "Illustrating the Times" | Region A (Blu-ray) January 28, 2025 | ||