Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete First Season
BY Ryan LaMarca / 2008-03-17
Perhaps one of Hanna-Barbera's more obscure and lesser known sitcoms is a show called Wait Till Your Father Gets Home that originally aired in syndication from 1972 to 1974. It's not your typical Hanna-Barbera show and tackles some very controversial issues surrounding the 1970s. The show revolves around the Boyle family, headed by the conservative father Harry (voiced by Tom Bosley of Happy Days) and his wife Irma, trying to find their place in a changing world. Harry always seems to be in conflict with his children in some way involving social issues from either the extremely liberal and socialist Chet and Alice to the materialistic con man Jamie. However, their neighbor Ralph Kane is a militant right-wing conservative always on the look-out for communists and leads the neighborhood group called the Vigilantes, along with the rambunctious Whitaker. Usually, when Harry is conflicted over a social issue, his kids provide the liberal position, while Ralph provides the conservative one, and he usually finds his place somewhere down the middle. Wait Till Your Father Gets Home has been a Hanna-Barbera fan favorite for years and has only recently been shown on Boomerang during the late hours of the night, the same treatment it received on Cartoon Network almost a decade earlier. I personally think it was very ambitious and risky for Warner Home Video to release such an obscure title as this, but if enough people remember how good this show is, I have a feeling it will do well.
This two-disc set features a total of twenty-four episodes. I must say that all of them are extremely well written and enjoyable. Almost all of them deal with some type of social issue in a familiar format. However, some very controversial topics were discussed throughout the series. On this set alone, we see discussions on racism, anti-Semitism, adultery, infidelity, the threat of communism, as well as a questioning of traditional morals and values. Also, don't be surprised when you hear the characters say words you'd never think you'd hear on a Hanna-Barbera cartoon: sex, bra, Negro, pervert, jackass, sex appeal, and orgy are only some in a long list of words and phrases that seemed awkward hearing on a classic cartoon series. However, because the show tackles the moral issues of the time and even talks about other shows on the air at the time, the show is very dated, but it never takes away from the overall enjoyment. The show also features a distinct art style not found on any other Hanna-Barbera show. The character models are very cartoony and the backgrounds and stationary objects are very bland and not very detailed.
My personal favorite episode from this collection is called "The Victim." In this particular episode, Harry and Ralph are walking home from a bowling game and Ralph stops in a grocery store and leaves Harry outside. When Ralph returns, he discovers Harry has been mugged. However, Harry is later able to identify the mugger in a line-up and the case goes to court. This episode shows the extreme of the two points of view portrayed in the show. Harry's older extremely liberal kids, Chet and Alice, read about the mugger's troubled past and want him to get off, even though he mugged their father. Ralph, on the other hand, being a militant right-winger, wants the mugger to be locked up or if possible, executed. What I really like is that they do state both different opinions and ideologies and don't tell you what to think. They tell you there are two different standings on an issue and the characters usually end up making their stand smack in the middle.
Season one of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home does come with two all-new retrospective featurettes. The first one, entitled "Animation for the Nation" is basically a retrospective of the entire 1970s from politics to history to culture to entertainment to celebrities to important events. It explains how the culture and the times influenced the production of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home and the featurette also goes into character analysis. The second retrospective is called "Illustrating the Times" and features a behind the scenes look at the show. It explains how the show got off the ground and displays various original storyboards and concept art as well as some cool footage from inside Hanna-Barbera Studios. Interestingly, among the interviews is the late Iwao Takamoto, a Hanna-Barbera veteran who recently passed away. The featurette is dedicated to Iwao's memory. Both of these featurettes are highly enjoyable and informative and should interest any fans of the show or just general Hanna-Barbera fans.
As with all of the recent Hanna-Barbera and classic animation releases cranking out from Warner Home Video, the transfers are good and acceptable, but there is always grain and cel dirt and scratches present. But, I have to say, it looks great for a thirty-year old show. The audio sounds great, and does not seem to have any problems. However, the biggest problem with this set, and with most recent Warner animation sets is the overall feeling of cheapness. The Hanna-Barbera Golden Collections no longer have the clear slipcases and multiple pieces of artwork, and worst of all, the border is off-black and does not match up with the other sets in my Hanna-Barbera collection, and quite frankly, it looks a bit jarring. Basically, they only had to create one new piece of artwork for this set and it was used for the cover art, the disc art, and the menu art. The menus are also very cheap: they're exactly the same as the box art with the theme song in loop. The theme song, while very catchy and clever, can grate on your nerves after awhile, so don't leave the menu running too long. And, as usual, the discs are overlapped, leading to extra frustration.
Even myself, a life-long die hard Hanna-Barbera fan had not seen this show in ages and had only seen maybe one episode before, so I had no idea what to expect. I can highly recommend the first season of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home as it is truly one of Hanna-Barbera's finest, yet overlooked works. It is a very funny, very entertaining, enjoyable show that is sure to bring on lots and lots of laughter. Hopefully, we will be able to see the rest of the series released sometime in the future.
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