"Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home", Predecessor Of The Simpsons?

I know, I'm REALLY dating myself here! In 1972, Hanna-Barbera took a huge risk and put out this, for the time, very cutting edge prime-time cartoon (broadcast on NBC) known as "Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home", which chronicled the lives and misadventures of a typical American family of the early 1970's dealing with The Generation Gap, changing attitudes on sex and various other hot-button social/political issues of that time. The series ran from 1972-1974

The cast consisted of Harry Boyle (brilliantly voiced by Tom Bosley), a salt-of-the-earth conservative businessman and owner of a restaurant supply business, his loving wife Irma (voiced by Joan Gerber) who tried to stay neutral in all the inevitable conflicts that would arise between Harry and his hippie/slacker son Chet (voiced by David Hayward/Lennie Weinrib ) and vehemently feminist daughter Alice (voiced by Kristina Holland, who is now a practicing psychologist), while his enterprising youngest son Jamie (voiced by Jackie Earle Haley) was his staunchest ally and stood by him no matter what. Adding to Harry's vexations about the ever-changing world around him was his wacko neighbor Ralph Kane (voiced by comedian Jack Burns), an ultra-right wing conspiracy theory nut/vigilante group leader that was always on the lookout for some kind of Communist invasion. He darn near made organizations like the John Birch Society look positively sane by comparison.

Even when faced with vexing conflicts with his 2 older kids, Harry managed to keep his wits about him and face it with a razor-sharp wit and humor. An odd fact about this series, it shares a commonality with "Happy Days", in that both shows began as sketches on the old "Love American Style" series. In the case of this series, the pilot was "Love and The Old Fashioned Father".

"Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home" may well have been something that helped inspire the long-running "The Simpson's" with its examination of a dysfunctional family and its vexing neighbors and an ever-changing world that is not easily made sense of. I also wonder if "King of The Hill" might've taken a few cues from it as well (very similar themes but set in present day suburban Texas).

In any case, I'm glad to report that the first season of "Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home" has been released on DVD very recently and is HIGHLY recommended viewing, a look back at a comparatively simpler time, and just plain HILARIOUS!!