| Genre: | Animated sitcom |
| Creator: | |
| Director: |
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| Voices: | |
| Composer: | Richard Bowden |
| Company: | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 3 |
| Num Episodes: | 48 |
| List Episodes: | List of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home episodes |
| Executive Producer: | |
| Producer: | |
| Runtime: | 22 minutes |
| Network: | Syndicated |
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 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.[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 will release the complete series on Blu-ray on November 26, 2024.
| 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" &<br />"Illustrating the Times" | Region A (Blu-ray) November 26, 2024[7] | ||