The Extras
The Extras
Rediscovering The 1970s Animated Sitcom Classic 'Wait Till Your Father Gets Home'
Animation enthusiasts and fans of television history are in for a treat as we unpack the animated sitcom "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home," which aired from 1972 to 1974, and is now available on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive. Joined by animation historian Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein from the Warner Archive, we promise a journey through the series' daring exploration of social issues, reminiscent of the era's cultural shifts. Discover how Hanna-Barbera's foray into adult-oriented animation paralleled the success of "All in the Family," breaking new ground in programming strategy. With creative input from Harvey Bullock and R.S. Allen, this lesser-known gem offers a fascinating lens into the evolution of animated sitcoms.
The episode doesn't stop at history; we also celebrate the show's unique aesthetic and lasting relevance. Playboy cartoonist Marty Murphy’s distinct artistic style brought an adult edge that set the series apart from typical Hanna-Barbera fare. Hear how the sharp writing and humor—highlighted by talents like Tom Bosley and Jack Burns—crafted a show with timeless appeal. Now restored on Blu-ray, "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" is being rediscovered by new audiences, sparking conversations about its significance and resonance in today's world. Join us in appreciating this animated classic that boldly addressed societal themes through its clever narrative and design.
Note: George also details the disc 6 replacement plan and the quality issues some viewers have noticed in season 2 episodes. The email to request a replacement Disk 6 is not yet available.
Purchase your copy:
WAIT TILL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME (1972-74) The Complete Animated Series Blu-ray
Also available:
TOM AND JERRY: The Complete CinemaScope Collection (1954-1958) Blu-ray
FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES-The Complete Animated Series (1966-67) Blu-ray
DAFFY DUCK’S QUACKBUSTERS (1988) Blu-ray
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Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group
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Hello and welcome to the Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me today are animation historian Jerry Beck and, of course, George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive. Hi guys.
George Feltenstein:Hello gentlemen, great to be with you.
Tim Millard:Yep. Well, just to let everybody know who was a little worried about all the fires in LA, we're here, we're safe, so that, hopefully, is behind us. And we're here to talk about some wonderful animation. And I thought, george, jerry, that we'd start off talking about the highly anticipated release of Wait Till your Father Gets Home, the complete animated series which aired between 1972 and 74. This is a very funny sitcom series which aired between 1972 and 74. This is a very funny sitcom and even though the topics are from the seventies the generation gap, conflict and many of the social issues I thought actually are pretty relevant still when you're watching it and it's really deftly handled by the writers. I thought the writing was fantastic, george, did they actually hire sitcom writers for this?
George Feltenstein:Well, the genesis of this. Jerry. You'll correct me if I'm wrong, because I may be, but my understanding was that these characters first appeared in a semi-pilot as a segment on the ABC broadcast. Paramount television produced series Love American Style, which was a series of anthology comedy pieces, and my understanding was they filmed it live action and animated and the animated one was the one that went on the air and I think I've read that there might have even been a second one intended. But Harvey Bullock and RS Allen, I believe, were the creators of Love American Style and they were behind this series. I think they had more input into this series than Bill Hanna or Joe Barbera did. That's just a guesstimate. I have no. I need to defer to the true animation historian, jerry, to tell me if I'm off base.
Jerry Beck:Well, I don't know all of the intricacies of the origins of it. I do know that you're right that it was on Love American Style. Hanna-barbera did two animated pilots technically that were shown on that show. I'm actually a fan of that show. It's very strange, it's very dated, it's a little corny, but they did a lot of interesting stuff. In fact, famously, happy Days came out of that. That was also a segment of Love American Style.
Jerry Beck:But you know, the reality is, of course, that that was the era of all in the family and, of course, the whole change in culture with the youth culture and anti-war sentiments and you know the generation gap. That was that period and you know, I think that Hanna-Barbera saw the opportunity, as they had 10, 12 years earlier to you knowstones, which was basically an animated take on the sitcoms of that time. Wait till your father gets home. The sitcom has now changed. It wasn't what it was and it was bold of them to do this. Clearly this is a more adult series and, george, you can tell us I'll throw it back to you about the. What was that? There was this new rule where they gave local channels back a half hour. Why don't you tell this show was shown not network prime time, but local prime time. George tell.
George Feltenstein:FCC decided that they would take away the 7.30 to 8 o'clock network programming time. Take it away from the networks, give it back to the local stations their own community-related programming, and not something that was nationally directed but something that would be for that specific area of 200 stations with 200 different programs. Of course that didn't happen at all because what the stations ended up doing was buying what was called first-run syndication. Syndicators saw this as an opportunity to create programming that they could sell into that time slot and that was much more preferential to the local stations than having to make something themselves Right, make something themselves Right. So I remember that there was a Canadian made Dr Kildare show. Oh, gary, merrill is Dr Gillespie. I forgot about that, and for one season. You know that was sold to the CBS owned and operated stations. The end NBC owned and operated stations bought wait till your father gets home. And that even reflects.
George Feltenstein:There were actually government restrictions. There was like the fair use doctrine which meant that you couldn't warp your broadcasting to one view or another. You had to give equal time. One of our past presidents got rid of that, who used to be the president of the Screen Actors Guild. You could figure out who I'm talking about.
George Feltenstein:So the FCC was really trying to do something good for local programming local programming and it ended up just being an opportunity to create new kinds of programming that was shown nationally, just not on a network, and at that time networks were limited to only owning stations in five markets. That's another rule that got thrown out the window as deregulation set in. But the NBC owned and operated stations New York, los Angeles, chicago, so forth. They were the home for Wait Till your Father Gets Home, and depending what market you lived in, it was on either a local, independent station or on a network affiliate. Yeah, and so this ran. Technically it's really only a two season show, but it ran technically for three seasons because there were four episodes in the second season that they bumped into a third season with reruns, right.
George Feltenstein:It was very popular and it is to all in the family, but the Flintstones is to honeymooners what Top Cat is to Sergeant Bilko. Right, it was very much of its time and Hanna-Barbera did have their ear to the ground in terms of what was going on in the world and I think it was very bold of them to do that. Yeah, what's really interesting about this is we here at Warner Brothers, at Warner Home Video uh, this was released on DVD for season one only by our live action television team, not by our animation family team. This was looked upon as a sitcom, not as kids animation, which was very, I think, a very intelligent decision, unlike years later when the kids team was handling the first seasons of South Park. South Park rights went to paramount shortly thereafter when we sold our half interest in Comedy Central as a byproduct of the lovely AOL years. You know this is very much adult oriented. The animation is very limited, it's almost barely there. It was the most modest animation that they could come up with and the budgets obviously reflected that. But the emphasis was on the writing, the comedy and the voice acting. I think the show really, really holds up and a lot of fans.
George Feltenstein:When we started Warner Archive. People were very hopeful that we would put out the rest of Wait Till your Father Gets Home on DVD. That never happened, but there were some clearances and various other issues that had to be sorted out. So now we're able to do the whole series on Blu-ray. And I do want to bring up something specific to the Blu-ray release. The Blu-ray release was supposed to contain on it two legacy special features that had been on the DVD and it was missed in QC that they weren't included. So a replacement disk six is already in production. I think it should be ready in about a week and we will be providing through various channels, an email address where people will be able to basically order that disk six at no cost to them and it will be sent as a replacement. So I just wanted to get that out there. We were made aware of the problem right away and initial product had been built that was shipped out. It was already two months delayed because we had said it was going to be a November release, and I've spoken ad nauseum on the extras here about the problems we faced, certainly in the last year, with replication delays and our schedule not really being able to be adhered to as often as we'd like. We're still working very hard to try to make changes in that regard so the consumer can get what they want when they expect it. So keep your eyes open. Check your favorite disc enthusiast website forum for updates on where to request a replacement disc six on this set.
George Feltenstein:I also wanted to talk about the quality. These are all new 4K masters from the original negatives but there is a very distinct difference in quality, especially in season two. Distinct difference in quality, especially in season two. Most of the animation for season one not all most was done by Hanna-Barbera's Australian brand new Australian affiliate.
George Feltenstein:Some of the animation for season two was outsourced to a Canadian animation company and those original negatives were not 35 millimeter, they were 16 millimeter and there is a noticeable difference increase in grain and a decrease in sharpness. That could not be helped. We did the best we could do. That was the original negative. It just happened to be in 16 millimeter. You just don't have the quality and the resolution. But ultimately the visuals here aren't as integral as the writing and the performances of the voice actors and I think everybody can take the series as a whole and it looks light years better than it had been looking from one inch videotapes made off 16 millimeter prints, which is what was shown on Cartoon Network and Boomerang and so forth and so on in recent years even get those additional seasons right before this.
Tim Millard:So I mean, you know you have to have a little less quality there from the 16 millimeter masters, but to get the full series is a real treat. So, and to those listeners of the extras, we'll provide that information also for that disc six so that you can get that here in our podcast show notes when it becomes available. But back to the look, jerry. Was there a reason for that aesthetic that they chose other than just cost, or was it primarily cost?
Jerry Beck:Well, it seems like you'd think it would be cost, but I think it wasn't. I think they A didn't want to be you know what's the right word here. I think they A didn't want to be you know what's the right word here. They didn't really want it to feel like the regular house design of Hanna-Barbera. So what they did was they actually went to a Playboy cartoonist named Marty Murphy, and it was a completely different design aesthetic and I think he worked on some of the later Hanna-Barbera shows. He might have worked on Hong Kong Fooey, I think, but he mainly this was his baby and actually so it has a different feel to it. It's in quote unquote a more adult feel to it.
Jerry Beck:The, as you said before, the writing is sharp. It's aimed at, totally aimed at, adults. It's not a Saturday morning show, something that I was telling George that when it was first on in that syndication most of the channels ran their local programming in 16 millimeter. We in york had some channels that ran 35 in syndication, but not this one 11, yeah, but the uh, but most of the other channels.
Jerry Beck:If it was local, it was uh, it was uh. The quality wasn't that good and I remember as a kid being both excited to see this show and disappointed in that sparse look that. That, that's that millimeter, not primetime look. It really turned me off, actually, and I always gave this show kind of a lukewarm, you know five on a scale of 10. Now I'm saying that, but now that I've seen oh, my God, my opinion has completely changed.
Jerry Beck:Seeing this Blu-ray, the ones that were done in 35, seeing them today, with fresh eyes, decades later, and as you mentioned, tim, that the relevancy of the writing is, I mean I feel like I'm watching a brand new show. I feel like I'm watching something that was made recently. It feels like I don't want to say family guy, but it feels like a contemporary show about contemporary issues. The artwork is great, especially if you see it restored. It somehow looks cheap when it's two generations later in 16mm, two generations later in 16 millimeter, but when it's uh, when it's uh, you know, in 35, uh, you know, on blu-ray, it just it just looks new, it looks brand new and contemporary and I, I, I'm, I've done a complete 180 on this show. I love it now. I always liked it. I love it now it's. I think it's a classic. I think it's an overlooked hanna-Barbera classic and, you know, I highly recommend it to everybody. It's one that's really, in my opinion, been overlooked throughout the years, and I'm raving about it, so I'll let it go with that.
Tim Millard:Yeah, I mean, I felt exactly the same way, except for I knew nothing about this show, but when I watched it, that minimalistic style I thought actually was really in its favor, because you just really focus on the voice and the writing and the topic and it's very, very humorous. And having the laugh track, of course, makes it feel more like a sitcom.
George Feltenstein:They were absolutely going for an adult audience. This was not a show meant for kids. The fact that some kids like Jerry and myself watched it might be attributable to the fact that we were focused on things that might have been for older people, but I always thought it was very funny. It was like appointment television for me. I loved it, just as I loved as a little kid all in the family, and I liked the fact that the show took on social issues. And I am of the opinion that if there was a re-release of this, let's say If there was a re-release of this, let's say 20 years ago, of the full series, it wouldn't have felt as topical as it does now. Yeah, given the state of the world at the moment, it just feels very prescient. Yeah, and good writing doesn't date.
Tim Millard:And this show is very well written and talented voice artists. Yeah, we should mention a few of those artists.
George Feltenstein:Voice artists George he became the dad on Happy Days, which is how most people know of him. But prior to all of this, what really made him famous was starring in the Broadway show Fiorello, playing Fiorello LaGuardia I think that was like 1959. And that's kind of what made him from a nobody to a known quantity. And he did a lot of television and a lot of supporting roles in movies and small things. But his career really took off with Happy Days and of course it's ironic that Happy Days had its roots in being an episode of Love, American Style.
Tim Millard:Bosley, I thought I mean he is in many ways the show. I mean he just carries, he carries the point of view. He's the dad who I mean it's, it's a lot. He's. You know it's dealing with these teenagers, the son that doesn't go to work, I mean it's just hilarious, all the issues. I mean I love the 70s references too, the hippies and the nudist sunbathing and the, you know, the commie, his neighbor who's always looking for the commie infiltrators and all of these things. It sets it in its time and yet it's still to your point, george. It still has a lot of relevance to today and I love that, absolutely the neighbor, which is Jack Burns.
Jerry Beck:you know the comedian who was. I think he was on one of the Mayberry shows.
George Feltenstein:He took over the deputy role on Andy Griffith for one season after Don Knotts left, but he was part of the comedy team Burns and Schreiber with Avery Schreiber of my Mother the Car fame.
Jerry Beck:Yeah, he's got the role where you know he's pretty much a bigot, you know and the things, and he's a gun owner and he I mean everything you know. It's all relevant today. That's all I'll say.
Tim Millard:Yeah, yeah it's all relevant today, that's all. Yeah, yeah, it's really good. So well, just, I think we're all repeating that now to have this all in one set is fantastic, and I don't think anybody's going to go wrong getting this. You're going to really, really, really enjoy it, so it was worth the wait. George, thank you so much for bringing this to the fans.
Tim Millard:We're delighted this to the fans. We're delighted Well, it's always great to hear from George and Jerry and get their perspective on these releases. Lots of good stuff here with Wait Till your Father Gets Home, and there is the replacement of disc six. We don't yet have the information on where to get that, so if you already ordered your copy and received it and you're going to need a replacement disc, look for that here or on our Facebook page. We'll post that when it is made available For animation fans. We have a few other podcasts with George and Jerry that will be coming out very soon. One will be on Frankenstein Jr and the Impossibles and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, and then we'll have a separate podcast for the release of the Tom and Jerry CinemaScope collection. So keep a lookout for those. They will be coming very soon, as we did record them all at once, but they are being posted as separate episodes Until next time. You've been listening to Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed about animation.