Tooned In: Wait Till Your Father Gets Home
By No One Can Beat Megabucks on 9 January 2025
So I got a suggestion for this one, and I’d be hard pressed to resist.
Now, it’s almost a cliche to say, “Did you know The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc. etc. wouldn’t be here without The Flintstones?” And it is true, as they were the first prime-time animated series that came with adult sensibilities. Never mind that the spinoffs after the original watered the concept down into kid friendly shows involving teenage Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, a stone age Frankenstein’s Monster and his family, and the Flintstones and Rubbles as elementary school kids who trampled all over their own continuity for those sweet Muppet Babies ratings.
But there was another show that upped the adult theme ante for Hanna-Barbera : Wait Till Your Father Gets Home.
WTYFGH was a syndicated half-hour series that began in 1972 and ran for three seasons. It was spawned from an animated feature seen on Love American Style, and with some tweaks, we got the series proper. This was basically Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon version of All In The Family, unless you also count the Frankenstones, where Fred Flintstone is basically Archie Bunker if Archie was bigoted against monsters. On WTYFGH, they pretty much split Archie into two characters: our protagonist, a milder-tempered version of Archie, and another character consisting only of his extreme views. More on that in a bit.
The show focuses around the Boyle family, headed by Harry, who’s played by Tom Bosley, making Bosley a two-time father in series versions of Love American Style backdoor pilots (Happy Days being the other). He is a hapless character who clings onto old fashioned values while dealing with the antics of his wife Irma, and especially his children: Alice, their plus-size progressive daughter who looks more like a child of Velma Dinkley*; Chet, their live-at-home unemployed son; and Jamie, the youngest who is ahead of his time trying to make a quick buck. More voice actor trivia: Jamie is played by Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach, Not Robin in The Dark Knight trilogy, and people tell me he was Freddy Krueger, but I don’t acknowledge that…) Most episodes are about the wacky antics the Boyles get into, usually because of the generation gaps in the family.
* deep cut, Alice also looks like Bluto’s wife from Popeye and Son, and if you don’t remember Popeye and Son, what you don’t know won’t hurt you.
Now, remember when I said there were “two” Archie Bunkers on this show? Well meet Ralph Kane, Harry’s next-door neighbor who embodies the worst parts of ol’ Arch. A militant conspiracy theorist, Ralph is always ready to explain how everything happening around and to Harry is part of a communist plot, and the more minorities to blame therein, the better. Sadly his character remains timely to this day.
Later in the run, WTYFGH would frequently feature guest stars, some of which were directly lifted, character models and all, from The New Scooby-Doo Movies. These included the likes of: Phyllis Diller, Don Adams, and of double interest to me because of the obvious game show connection, Monty Hall. One time it turned out to not be so funny for Hanna-Barbera, as they used what was taken to be a veiled parody of a car salesman from Los Angeles on one episode, and wound up being sued by said dealer (alongside the sponsors and stations for the show). The episode plays to this day, even on MeTV Toons, with one of those “strictly coincidental” disclaimers preceding it.
I first saw Wait Till Your Father Gets Home back in the mid 90s on Cartoon Network, as part of a proto-Adult Swim mini block that aired on Sunday nights. It was comprised of that and Capitol Critters. MeTV Toons has given the show a similar spot, Sundays at 11:30 pm eastern US time, adding to my theory that 90s CN staffers MUST be working on the newer channel. Even after 6 years of The Simpsons, with South Park on the way, my almost-20-year-old mind was blown hearing these Hanna-Barbera characters talk about the Ku Klux Klan, nudie magazines, and a character trying to prove another was Japanese when he asked him to say “Rotsa ruck”.
So, let’s get to an episode now, shall we? As the series is in my Record List on Frndly, I’ll have a few to choose from.
This review is brought to you by Heathcliff and Dingbat. The Ruby-Spears door opens wider on January 15th!
MY WIFE THE SECRETARY
As with lots of MeTV Toons airings, cold opens are gone; here, it is just a preview of a select scene from the episode.
Harry goes to his African-American secretary’s wedding, despite being worried about what he’ll do at work, especially with a big deal with a guy named Brisbane on the line. Ralph would rather stay at home and watch nice family films with “John Wayne killing Indians.” But, as he notes, he’s not against minorities being happy. Harry spends most of the wedding asking her questions about what’s where in the office. In an It’s That Voice moment: the black minister at said wedding is still painfully obviously Lennie Weinrib, aka Scrappy-Doo, mark one. Anyway, Harry needs to find a new temp secretary…so he interviews a feminist with a Jay Leno (sorry, It Was A Thing On TV, I meant “Mr. Black”) chinline, a woman disappointed to be working with only married men, and a blonde bombshell.
At home, Irma suggests “Mrs. Turner”…and she stuns Harry and the kids when she mentioned he lived with her for years, but of course she meant her maiden name. Harry says no, and complains that she hasn’t done secretary work for 22 years. “Richard Nixon made a comeback,” Irma notes.
Nonetheless, she has a plan, and she goes incognito in a blonde beehive wig as “Mary Jones.” Jamie says if it doesn’t work out, she can always take her disguise and be a contestant on Let’s Make A Deal. Foreshadowing!
Oh, and Ralph picks up Irma’s abandoned typing from her night of working off her typewriter rust, and of course takes the gibberish as Russian language, and so there must be Russkie Antics brewing somewhere.
Hilarity then ensues when “Ms. Jones” gets the job (words never said when watching 2000 Nitros, am I right?), but then Irma mistakes Brisbane with a “deadbeat” Harry wanted kicked out. He’s not happy when He Gets Home (™), so Irma holds off blowing her cover. But the next morning Harry is actually pleased because “Mary” didn’t show up, and he told Brisbane it was a misunderstanding. Irma is there again ready to confess…only now, Harry suggests she play secretary to make him look important. When Brisbane returns, though, she has to use her Mary wig and voice to keep him from recognizing the woman who kicked him out of the office. Harry notices, yet he’s not upset when Irma explains. Which has been a theme this episode…aside from when “Mary” cost him his deal, he really doesn’t get uptight.
In fact, he says while she’s got that wig, he always wanted to kiss a blonde. Then, Brisbane comes back and calls off the deal after witnessing this hanky panky. Wow, lots of fake-out happy endings here! “Who said it’s over and no harm done?,” Harry wonders. Surprisingly again Harry remains mellow as the Boyles go out to eat…where they see Brisbane with the blonde secretary from earlier. Harry calls him out on it, and on him calling Irma a homewrecker, so he goes back on his quitting the deal. With all finally well, Harry insists the family go back to their meal because “if he could take his secretary to dinner, I can take mine!”
This episode came from the second season of the show, and it’s pretty basic….Harry has a problem, his family has a suggestion, Harry is too old-fashioned to accept it, somehow it works out, Ralph makes far right comments…it hits most of the marks. It was fine. It kind of tries to vary the misunderstanding angle by having a LOT of misunderstandings, and like I said, it’s interesting that Harry stays cool during most of it.
I’ll have to dig into my recordings for some more samples of the show. I also need to buy this beauty of a blu-ray set (Superfriends too, of course. No luck during the holidays, so gotta wait…)