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Welcome to another edition of mini-DVD reviews and our inaugural edition of Solomon's Weekly Rant. This week we take a look at Warner Home Video's Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete First Season. Wait Till Your Father Gets Home is the first-run syndicated animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera that ran from 1972-1974. It featured the voices of sitcom actors Tom Bosley (Happy Days), Kristina Holland (The Courtship of Eddie's Father) and Willie Aames (Charles in Charge). This 4-disc set contains all 24 episodes from the first season and several special features. See my mini-DVD review of Wait Till Your Father - The Complete First Season:



Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete First Season (Warner Home Video, $44.98)

Confronting the Era's Issues - One Laugh at a Time

The Age of Aquarius dawned. Harry Boyle forgot to set his alarm. From the era of the live-action All in the Family comes the animated generation-gap comedy Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. Tom Bosley provides the voice of Harry, an affable, 40-something Everyman and suburban father of three whose daily routine is anything but when he faces the burning questions of the make-love-not-war era. Women's lib, civil rights, hippies, sexuality, communes, music and the Cold War are some of the hot-button petals in the series' flower-powered laughfest. They're all part of Harry's world, where a man's home is his hassle. In Season One, the Boyles (Harry, Irma and kids Chet, Alice and Jamie) have adventures Andy Hardy's family never dreamed of. Like the time Alice joins the commune. Or when Irma makes the astounding decision to get a job. Or the day Harry is mugged and his kids are overcome with sympathy.

Wait Till Your Father Gets Home premiered in first-run syndication in the fall of 1972. It had first appeared as an one-time segment on Love, American Style called "Love and the Old-Fashioned-Father" on February 11, 1972. Lending their voices to the series were Tom Bosley as Harry Boyle, Joan Gerber as Irma Boyle, Kristina Holland as Alice Boyle, David Hayward as Chet Boyle, Jackie Haley as Jamie Boyle (episodes 1-11), Willie Aames as Jamie Boyle (episodes 12-48) and Jack Burns as Ralph. The second season featured celebrities including Don Knotts, Phyllis Diller, Don Adams, Rich Little, Jonathan Winters and Monty Hall. A total of 48 episodes (plus the pilot) were produced over two seasons.

The cover art features a cast photo of the Boyle family. The show logo is at the top of the box. A wood panel type background is used. On the back of the box, there is an additional cast photo and four other photos from the episodes. A synopsis of the set, a listing of the special features and the DVD specs are given. The main Digipak slides out from the right of the box. It features the same cast photo as the cover art. The episode titles are listd by disc on the inside panels. An orange and flower background is used. It would have been nice to have some type of episode guide included. The discs feature a different character and colored background on each one. Disc 1 has episodes 1-6, Disc 2 has 7-12. Disc 3 has 13-18. Disc 4 has 19-24.

The main menus feature a photo of the cast in a circle. There is a wood panel background, so the photo looks like a picture that you would hang on the wall. The catchy opening theme song is played in the background. There are options for Play (Play All) and Episodes on each main menu. When you select Episodes, it takes you to a sub-menu where there are different photos of the characters. Unfortunately, there are no chapter stops available within the episodes. You can't use the "next" button on the remote either. You can only fast forward through the episodes.

For being over 30 years old, these episodes look quite good. They probably have been remastered for the best picture quality possible. The colors are generally bright and vibrant. There is some dirt and debris present, but it's not overwhelming. I did notice that one episode (#15 "The Prowler") looked to have a picture that was much darker than the rest of the episodes. I'm not sure what happened there. All episodes appear to be unedited, running around 23 1/2 minutes in length. The total running time of the set is 589 minutes. The audio track is your basic Dolby Digital Mono track. The dialogue is at a good level and easy to understand. You'll notice that they used a laugh track on the episodes like a typical live-action sitcom. Closed-captioning is available on all of the episodes but not the bonus material. For the closing logo enthusiasts, there is orange and black logo for A Hanna-Barbera Productions - A Division of Taft Broadcasting Company.

A couple of short but interesting and informative special features are found on the fourth disc. Animation for the Nation (10:03) features interviews with Governor Gray Davis (Ret.), cultural historian Mary F. Conrey, author Michael Mallory ("Hanna-Barbera Cartoons), pop music icon Leif Garrett and actor Gary Owens. This featurette focuses more on the 1970's in general than the show itself. There is some stock footage of various historic events. They talk about the writing of the pilot, hippies, the characters on the show, the sexual revolution, women's liberation and the neighbor on the show, Ralph. Illustrating the Times (6:34) features interviews with production designer Iwao Takamoto, Michael Mallory and character designer Marty Murphy. They talk about the general history of the show and the style of chracters. This show was done with a low budget and a lack of a lot of action. They often omitted the floors, so it would look like the characters were floating on the screen. Various storyboards and sketches of the characters are shown. This featurette was dedicated to the memory of legengendary artist Iwao Takamoto who passed away on January 8, 2007. Three trailers are available for Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938 Vol. 1, Classic Cartoons from the Vault, and Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain Vol. 3.

Wait Till Your Father isn't terribly dated, and it's fun to hear all the pop culture references of the era. It was quite a groundbreaking series. Although a bit controversial at the time, it would be considered pretty tame by today's standards. It paved the way for other primetime animated sitcoms like The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad. If you like those types of shows and All in the Family, you'll probably enjoy this series. If you have never seen the show before, you can watch it on Boomerang or AOL's In2TV Service. Warner Home Video has done a very good job with the first season release. Unfortunately, the pilot episode was on Love, American Style, so the rights for that are owned by CBS DVD/Paramount. Maybe we'll see that on a "Best of" Love, American Style set in the future. Let's hope the second and final season is released to complete the series. This set would make a nice Father's Day gift for the dad in your family.

-- Reviewed by Todd
(4/5 stars)

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Wait Till Your Father Gets Home Wikipedia Page