Wait Till Your Father Gets Home

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home is an adult animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera that aired in first-run syndication in the United States from 1972 to 1974. The series originated as a one-time segment on Love, American Style titled "Love and the Old-Fashioned Father." The same pilot was later produced with a live cast (starring Van Johnson), but with no success. The series was the first primetime animated sitcom to run for more than a single season since The Flintstones more than ten years earlier and would be the only one until The Simpsons fifteen years later.

The series aired on the USA Network's Cartoon Express block from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s and on Cartoon Network from 1993 until 2000, when it along with most of the network's classic animation library was moved from Cartoon Network to the new Boomerang network.

Despite being classified as an adult animated program, this show is considered tame in today's standards, unlike the newer prime time animated shows with even edgier adult themes, such as Family Guy and South Park. This program was made during the Seal of Good Practice, as several themes were limited for television until 1983.

Plot
The series stars Tom Bosley as Harry Boyle, a long-suffering suburban everyman dad and restaurant equipment dealer. The Boyle family consists of father Harry; wife Irma; pretty-faced teen feminist daughter Alice who is amply contoured but usually okay with her figure; lazy and perpetually unemployed long-haired post-adolescent son Chet; and precocious, yet rather greedy, 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 it all, Harry loves his family, and usually tries to support them.

Despite Harry's conservatism, it pales against his neighbor Ralph Kane, who is a John Birch-like ultra-right-winger who is fanatically anti-Communist and obsessed with every absurd conspiracy theory. Following Ralph with his cause is senior citizen Sara Whittaker, whom he addresses as "Sergeant." They have both turned one end of the block into, basically, an armed camp. 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 episodes revolve around the generation gap between Harry and his children, in which the series' sympathy is typically on his side, leading the character to usually win his arguments. During the 1972-73 season, the DePatie-Freleng studio had an animated Saturday morning series called The Barkleys with a very similar family, only they were all dogs. Joan Gerber was also the voice of the "mom" on that series, Agnes.

Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track created by the studio. For this series, the studio also 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.

Cast

 * Tom Bosley - Harry
 * Joan Gerber - Irma
 * Kristina Holland - Alice
 * David Hayward/Lennie Weinrib - Chet
 * Jackie Earle Haley/Willie Aames - Jamie
 * Jack Burns - Ralph

Season One

 * 1) "The Fling"
 * 2) "Alice's Dress"
 * 3) "The Hippie"
 * 4) "The Beach Vacation"
 * 5) "Help Wanted"
 * 6) "Love Story"
 * 7) "The Victim"
 * 8) "Chet's Job"
 * 9) "Chet's Fiancee"
 * 10) "The Mouse"
 * 11) "Duty Calls"
 * 12) "Expectant Papa"
 * 13) "The New Car"
 * 14) "The New House"
 * 15) "The Prowler"
 * 16) "Mama's Identity"
 * 17) "Papa the Patient"
 * 18) "The Swimming Pool"
 * 19) "Sweet Sixteen"
 * 20) "The Commune"
 * 21) "Music Tycoon"
 * 22) "Accidents Will Happen"
 * 23) "Papa in New York"
 * 24) "The Neighbors"

Season Two

 * 1) "Bringing Up Jamie"
 * 2) "The Lady Detective"
 * 3) "Permissive Papa"
 * 4) "Boyles on TV"
 * 5) "My Wife, The Secretary"
 * 6) "Papa, the Housewife"
 * 7) "Jamie's Project"
 * 8) "Don for the Defense"
 * 9) "Alice's Diet"
 * 10) "Mama Loves Monty"
 * 11) "Alice's Crush"
 * 12) "Papa's Big Check"
 * 13) "Mama's Charity"
 * 14) "Chet's Pad"
 * 15) "Papa the Coach"
 * 16) "Birdman Chet"
 * 17) "Back to Nature"
 * 18) "Alice's Freedom"
 * 19) "The Beekeeper"
 * 20) "Maude Loves Papa"

Season Three

 * 1) "Rich Little, Supersleuth"
 * 2) "Model Alice"
 * 3) "Marriage Counselor"
 * 4) "Car 54"

Home Media Release
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. Seasons two and three have yet to be released by Warner Archive.