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WAIT TILL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME:
THE COMPLETE SERIES (1972-1974)
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 1175 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Directors: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
Cast: Tom Bosley, Joan Gerber, Jack Burns, Kristina Holland, Lennie Weinrib, Willie Aames
Hanna-Barbera's Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972-1974) was an early 70s animated sitcom targeted to adults, a slice of life look at 70's family life and the socio-political issues that families were concerned about. It originally started out as a one-time segment on the TV show Love, American Style called "Love and the Old-Fashioned Father", and it hit well with audiences and was rushed into production, lasting just three seasons, with season two and three quite shorter than the first, especially season three which is just four episodes long. Each of the episodes run 23-24 minutes long, had a cold open before getting into the opening titles, and the first season had a canned laugh track that was absent from seasons two and three.
Hanna-Barbera's Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972-1974) was an early 70s animated sitcom targeted to adults, a slice of life look at 70's family life and the socio-political issues that families were concerned about. It originally started out as a one-time segment on the TV show Love, American Style called "Love and the Old-Fashioned Father", and it hit well with audiences and was rushed into production, lasting just three seasons, with season two and three quite shorter than the first, especially season three which is just four episodes long. Each of the episodes run 23-24 minutes long, had a cold open before getting into the opening titles, and the first season had a canned laugh track that was absent from seasons two and three.
We have the conservative father Harry Boyle, voiced by Happy Days alum Tom Bosley, homemaker mother Irma Boyle voiced by Joan Gerber, chubby teenage daughter Alice, voiced by Kristina Holland (TV's Butch Cassidy); slacker adult son Chet, who was voiced by both David Hayward and Lennie Weinrib at different times, and the youngest son Jamie, an precocious kid with a mind for making money, who was variously voiced by both Jackie Earle Haley (Bad News Bears) and Willie Aames (Paradise).
The animated sitcom holds up fifty plus years later, the situational humor is still valid, still funny, and the societal elements have not changed all that much, at least not so much in that you would have hoped for. Harry is a good, well-meaning dad, his conservative views don't always jibe with the views and opinions of his kids, but interestingly he's not so stuck in his ways he doesn't occasionally change his tune after a bit of persuasion. The kids are always a riot, Chet is slacker and largely unemployed, the heavyset daughter is surprisingly not an easy target that I had imagined she would b, and the youngest kid is scheming to make money nearly all the time, sort of reminding me of a version of Alex P. Keaton from TVs Family Ties. There's also the family's dog, Julius. Throughout the 48 episodes they address his kids and wife getting jobs, the draft, family vacations to the beach and to the outdoors, first loves, infidelity, and of course, encounters with various guest stars and weird neighbors. The most regular neighbors is Ralph, voiced by Jack Burns, the announcer for TV's Fridays. His character is a racist, militant conspiracy nut, who regularly complains about government conspiracies, minorities and Jews, and how the government is brainwashing us through pornography and fluoride in the water. He would have made a good neighbor or buddy or neighbor for Archie Bunker from TV's All In The Family. We also get guest voice appearances by some notable people of the era, namely Don Adams (Get Smart), lady comic Phyllis Diller, funny man Don Knotts (Three's Company), and the men of a thousand voices Rich Little and Jonathan Winters, and of course other Hanna-Barbera voice talents such as Daws Butler (Yogi Bear) and Don Messick (Scooby-Doo). I also love the animation style, a departure from the usual Hanna-Barbera look, they brought in Playboy illustrator Marty Murphy to design the characters and look of the film, and I think it's pretty terrific, it definitely sets itself apart from the usual Hannah-Barbera look with a more adult but still comical vibe with a very minimalist background. Go back and look at some of the old Playboy cartoons which ran from 1963-2009 and you will certainly note his influence.
I love that Warner Archive has restored all 48 of these episodes so wonderfully, surely these have never before looked this spiffy, not even when they first aired do I imagine that they look this wonderful. If you're an animation fan or just a fan of classic sitcoms, animated or otherwise, this animated series, which is a fun time capsule of early 70's era, is a must-own set, and you might be surprised by how little things have changes since it first aired, and how arguably influential the animated sitcom was for it's era, and how boundary pushing it was for it's time.
Episodes:
Disc 1
Season 1
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
Disc 2
9. Chet's Fiancé
10. The Mouse
11. Duty Calls
12. Expectant Papa
13. The New Car
14. The New House
15. The Prowler
16. Mama's Identity
Disc 3
17. Papa, The Patient
18. The Swimming Pool
19. Sweet Sixteen
20. The Commune
21. The Music Tycoon
22. Accidents Will Happen
23. Papa ion New York
24. The Neighbors
Disc 4
Season 2
25. Bringing Up Jaime
26. Lady Detective
27. Permissive Papa
28. Boyles on TV
29. My Wife the Secretary
30. Papa the Housewife
31. Jamie's Project
32. Don for the Defense
Disc 5
33. Alice's Diet
34. Mama Loves Monty
35. Alice's Crush
36. Papa's Big Check
37. Mana's Charity
38. Chet's Pad
39. Papa the Coach
40. Birdman Chet
Disc 6.
41. Back To nature 42. Don Knotts the Beekeeper
43. Maude Loves Papa
44. Alice's Freedom
Season 3
45. Rich Little, Super Sleuth
46. Model Alice
47. Marriage Counselor
48. Car 54
Audio/Video: All 48 episodes of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (1972-1974) arrives on a 6-disc Blu-ray set from Warner Archive in 1080p HD framed in the original 1.33:1 fullscreen broadcast aspect ratio. The restorations looks terrific, the film grain is intact, the animation lines look organic, and the colors of the cell animation and backgrounds look vastly superior to the previous DVD edition. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. The tracks are clean and well-balanced, the voice cast sounds terrific, and the music and effects are nicely balanced.
The sole extras is the archival Retrospective Featurette: Animation for the Nation, Illustrating the Times: How the show's artistic styles perfectly captured its era. Th 6d0sc set arrives in an oversized keepcase that utlizies two flipper trays to house the discs, and we get a single-sided sleeve of artwork on the wrap.
Special Features:
- Retrospective Featurette: Animation for the Nation, Illustrating the Times: How the show's artistic styles perfectly captured its era
Screenshots from the Warner Archive Blu-ray Set:
Buy it:
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