Wait Till Your Father Gets Home
Encyclopedia
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home was an animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...

 that aired in first-run syndication in the United States from 1972
1972 in television
The year 1972 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1972.For the American TV schedule, see: 1972-73 American network television schedule.-Events:...

 to 1974
1974 in television
The year 1974 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1974.For the American TV schedule, see: 1974-75 American network television schedule.-Events:...

 (airing on most NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 stations on Sunday nights at 10:30, except for the ones whom had moved their late-night news to that slot). The show originated in a one-time segment on Love, American Style
Love, American Style
Love, American Style is an hour-long TV anthology produced by Paramount Television and originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974...

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 The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...

more than 10 years earlier and would be the only one until The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

15 years later. The show was inspired by All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...

.

Premise

The 49 episodes feature Tom Bosley
Tom Bosley
Thomas Edward "Tom" Bosley was an American actor. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the long-running ABC sitcom Happy Days. He also was featured in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote, and Father Dowling Mysteries...

 as Harry Boyle, a long-suffering suburban everyman
Everyman
In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify easily, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances...

 dad and restaurant equipment dealer. The Boyle family consists of father Harry; wife Irma (voiced by Joan Gerber
Joan Gerber
Joan Gerber is an American voice actress for a variety of cartoons.- Filmography :* 1959: Matty's Funday Funnies : Additional Voices...

); large-figured and teen-age women's libber daughter Alice; lazy and perpetually unemployed
Slacker
The term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....

 long-haired young adult son Chet; and precocious, if rather mercenary, younger son Jamie. Harry often bickers with the more liberal Alice and Chet over various social issues of the day, with Irma endeavoring to remain neutral while Jamie is more sympathetic to his father's beliefs.

Despite Harry's conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

, it pales against his neighbor Ralph Kane, who is a John Birch
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....

-like ultra-right-winger who is fanatically intolerant and obsessed with every absurd conspiracy theory
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...

. Following Ralph with his cause is senior citizen
Senior citizen
Senior citizen is a common polite designation for an elderly person in both UK and US English, and it implies or means that the person is retired. This in turn implies or in fact means that the person is over the retirement age, which varies according to country. Synonyms include pensioner in UK...

 Sara Whittaker, whom he addresses as "Sergeant". Although Harry considers Ralph a close friend, he is annoyed at Ralph's extreme attitudes and rarely hesitates to dispute his opinions or preempt his more threatening ambitions.

Many of the stories revolve around the generation gap
Generation gap
The generational gap is and was a term popularized in Western countries during the 1960s referring to differences between people of a younger generation and their elders, especially between children and parents....

 between Harry and his children, in which the series' sympathy is typically on his side, leading the character to usually win his arguments. Like most cartoon shows of the period, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home contained a laugh track
Laugh track
A laugh track is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles "Charley" Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into television programming of comedy shows and sitcoms.The term "laugh track" does not apply to the genuine audience laughter on shows that shoot in...

. During the 1972-73 season, the DePatie-Freleng studio had an animated Saturday morning series called The Barkleys
The Barkleys
The Barkleys is an animated television series that ran from 1972 to 1973 on NBC and was produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.-Story:The cartoon was inspired by CBS's hit sitcom All in the Family; it lasted only one season. The series featured a dog family consisting of Arnie, a bus driver and...

with a very similar family, only they were all dogs. Joan Gerber was also the voice of the "mom" on that show, Agnes. The Barkleys had married couple Arnie and Agnes, teenage kids Terry and Roger, and pre-teen Chester.

Voice cast

  • Tom Bosley
    Tom Bosley
    Thomas Edward "Tom" Bosley was an American actor. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the long-running ABC sitcom Happy Days. He also was featured in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote, and Father Dowling Mysteries...

     as Harry
  • Joan Gerber
    Joan Gerber
    Joan Gerber is an American voice actress for a variety of cartoons.- Filmography :* 1959: Matty's Funday Funnies : Additional Voices...

     as Irma
  • Kristina Holland as Alice
  • David Hayward/Lennie Weinrib
    Lennie Weinrib
    Lennie Weinrib was an American actor, voice actor and writer. He is best known for playing the title role in the children's television show H.R...

     as Chet
  • Jackie Earle Haley
    Jackie Earle Haley
    Jackie Earle Haley is an American film actor. Establishing himself from child actor to adult Academy Award-nominee, he is perhaps best known for his roles as Moocher in Breaking Away, Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears, pedophile Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children, the vigilante Rorschach in...

    /Willie Aames
    Willie Aames
    Willie Aames is an American actor, film and television director, television producer, and screenwriter. He played Tommy Bradford on the 1970s’ Eight Is Enough and Buddy Lembeck on the 1980s’ Charles in Charge.-Early life:...

     as Jamie
  • Jack Burns
    Jack Burns
    Jack Burns is an American comedian and voice actor.-Biography:In 1959, he began his career as a comedy team with George Carlin when both were working for radio station KXOL in Fort Worth, Texas...

     as Ralph
  • Veteran Hanna Barbera voice talent such as Daws Butler
    Daws Butler
    Charles Dawson "Daws" Butler was a voice actor originally from Toledo, Ohio. He worked mostly for Hanna-Barbera and originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound.Daws Butler trained many working actors...

    , John Stephenson
    John Stephenson (actor)
    John Stephenson is an American actor and voice actor. He has also been credited as John Stevenson...

    , and Don Messick
    Don Messick
    Donald Earl "Don" Messick was an American voice actor best known for his work for Hanna-Barbera. Perhaps his most well-known voice creations include Scooby-Doo, Papa Smurf, and Dr. Benton Quest....

     provided minor roles.

Guest stars

  • Don Adams
    Don Adams
    Don Adams was an American actor, comedian and director. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart in the television situation comedy Get Smart , which he also sometimes directed and wrote. Adams won three consecutive Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Smart...

  • Phyllis Diller
    Phyllis Diller
    Phyllis Diller is an American actress and comedian. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes jokes about a husband named "Fang" while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder...

  • Gene Eugene
    Gene Eugene
    Gene "Eugene" Andrusco was a Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musician. Andrusco was best known as the leader of the funk/rock band Adam Again, a member of The Swirling Eddies and as a founding member of the roots music supergroup Lost Dogs.-Acting:Andrusco was a child...

  • Monty Hall
    Monty Hall
    Monte Halperin, OC, OM , better known by the stage name Monty Hall, is a Canadian-born MC, producer, actor, singer and sportscaster, best known as host of the television game show Let's Make a Deal.-Early life:...

  • Don Knotts
    Don Knotts
    Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...

  • Rich Little
    Rich Little
    Richard Caruthers "Rich" Little is a Canadian-American impressionist and voice actor. He has long been known throughout the world as a top impersonator of famous people, resulting in his nickname, "The Man of a Thousand Voices"....

  • Allan Melvin
    Allan Melvin
    Allan Melvin was an American character actor who appeared in several television shows, including the roles of Corporal Henshaw on The Phil Silvers Show; Alice's boyfriend Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch; and Archie Bunker's friend Barney Hefner on All in the Family and Archie Bunker's...

  • Isabel Sanford
    Isabel Sanford
    Isabel Sanford was an American actress best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Jefferson on the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family and The Jeffersons .-Career:...

  • Jonathan Winters
    Jonathan Winters
    -Early life:Winters was born in Bellbrook, Ohio, the son of Alice Kilgore , a radio personality, and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an investment broker. He is a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio...

  • Casey Kasem
    Casey Kasem
    Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem is an American radio personality and voice actor who is best known for being the host of the nationally syndicated Top 40 countdown show American Top 40, and for voicing Shaggy in the popular Saturday morning cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.Kasem, along with Don Bustany and...

     (uncredited)
  • Pat Morita
    Pat Morita
    Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was an American actor of Japanese descent who was well-known for playing the roles of Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the The Karate Kid movie series, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.-Early life:Pat...

     (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
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...

 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...

. When a crooked car dealer on another episode was perceived by real-life Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

-area car salesman Cal Worthington
Cal Worthington
Calvin Coolidge "Cal" Worthington is a well-known car dealer throughout the West Coast of the United States. He is best known for his unique radio and television advertisements for the Worthington Dealership Group. He was usually joined by "his dog Spot", except that "Spot" was never a dog...

 as being a send-up of him, he sued the studio (Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...

), the sponsors (Chevrolet
Chevrolet
Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

) and the five NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

-owned stations that carried the show Sundays at 10.30 p.m. EST.

Credits

  • Animation Director: Peter Luschwitz
  • Production Designer: Iwao Takamoto
    Iwao Takamoto
    Iwao Takamoto was a Japanese-American animator, television producer, and film director. He was most famous as being a production and character designer for Hanna-Barbera Productions shows such as Scooby-Doo....

  • Story Director: Paul Sommer
  • Story: Jack Elinson, Norman Paul
  • Associate Producer: Zoran Janjic
  • Producers: R.S. Allen, Harvey Bullock
    Harvey Bullock (writer)
    Harvey Bullock was an American television and film writer and producer. His work with R.S...

  • Executive Producers: William Hanna
    William Hanna
    William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. When he was a young child, Hanna's family moved frequently, but they settled in Compton, California, by...

    , Joseph Barbera
    Joseph Barbera
    Joseph Roland Barbera was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century....


DVD release

On June 5, 2007 Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...

 released Season 1 of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home on DVD in Region 1 for the H-B classics collection
Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection
The Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection is a series of two-to-four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Bros.' home video unit Warner Home Video, usually containing seasons and complete series of various classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows...

. Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

has yet to release the remaining 24 episodes from seasons two and three on an upcoming DVD set.
DVD Name Ep # Release Date
Season 1 Wait Till Your Father Gets Home article from Toon Tracker featuring stills from the series.
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