Wait Till Your Father Gets Home

For the Roseanne episode, see Wait Till Your Father Gets Home (Roseanne).

"Jamie Boyle" redirects here. For other use, see James Boyle.

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]

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home
Genre	Animated sitcom
Created by	R.S. Allen Harvey Bullock
Directed by	Peter Luschwitz (1972–1973) Barrie Helmer (1973–1974) Charles A. Nichols (1974)
Voices of	Tom Bosley Joan Gerber Jack Burns David Hayward Kristina Holland Jackie Haley John Stephenson Frank Maxwell Len Weinrib
Composer	Richard Bowden
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	48 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Producers	R.S. Allen Harvey Bullock
Running time	22 minutes
Production company	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Original release
Network	Syndicated
Release	September 12, 1972 (1972-09-12) – October 8, 1974 (1974-10-08)

As of 2025, the series appears on the MeTV Toons channel.

Premise

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.

Episodes

Main article: List of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home episodes

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	24		September 12, 1972	February 20, 1973
2	20		September 11, 1973	January 29, 1974
3	4		September 17, 1974	October 8, 1974

Voice cast

• Tom Bosley as Harry Boyle
• Joan Gerber as Irma Boyle
• Kristina Holland as Alice Boyle
• David Hayward/Lennie Weinrib as Chet Boyle
• Jackie Earle Haley/Willie Aames as Jamie Boyle
• Jack Burns as Ralph Kane
• Veteran Hanna-Barbera voice talents such as Daws Butler, Don Messick, and John Stephenson provided minor roles.

Guest stars

• Don Adams as Don Gibson Jr. ("Don for the Defense")
• Richard Dawson as Claude ("The Hippie")
• Phyllis Diller as Phyllis Dexter ("The Lady Detective")
• Gene Eugene
• Monty Hall as himself ("Mama Loves Monty")
• Don Knotts as Charlie "Bumbles" Johnson ("The Beekeeper")
• Rich Little as himself ("Rich Little, Super Sleuth")
• Allan Melvin
• Joe E. Ross as Gunther Toody ("Car 54")
• Isabel Sanford as Betsy ("Help Wanted")
• Jonathan Winters as Maude Frickert ("Maude Loves Papa")
• Casey Kasem (uncredited) as George ("The Neighbors")
• Pat Morita (uncredited) "The New House"
• Ken Clark (Britain)

Other guest characters 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 salesman appeared in another episode as an obvious parody of well-known Los Angeles car dealer Cal Worthington, Worthington sued Hanna-Barbera, the sponsors (Chevrolet) and the five NBC-owned stations that broadcast the show.^[5]

Home media

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 Collection released the complete series on Blu-ray on January 28, 2025.

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete First Season
Set details		Special features	Release dates
24 episodes 528 minutes 4-disc set 4:3 standard		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
48 episodes 6-disc set 4:3 standard		Retrospective Featurettes: "Animation for the Nation" & "Illustrating the Times"	Region A (Blu-ray) January 28, 2025

See also

• List of works produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions