Does the First Adult Cartoon Hold Up Now? | Wait Till Your Father Gets Home

[@BradleySmithYoutube]

What's the next adult animated show I should watch, and why is it The Nut shack?

[@bepisthescienceman4202]

Because the Nut Shack is a masterpiece

[@lornbaker1083]

Because... you gotta see the animation and budget to believe

[@BradleySmithYoutube]

@@lornbaker1083 there’s not much of a budget to see

[@SomeUsernameSomeoneElseTookIt]

IT'S THE

[@roxassora2706]

I want to see the meme come back from the dead.

[@rdkirk3834]

The first adult American cartoon was The Flintstones. When you consider the social context of the era, it was actually edgier than the live-action sitcoms of its day. Heck, they even showed Fred and Barney smoking and drinking on screen, and there were many allusions to sex.

[@stpaulimdog]

I still use the word Grand Poobah when referring to secret society higher ups

[@TJMagine]

They encouraged kids to smoke in those days, but I can agree that even though the humor wasn't raunchy like we have nowadays, The Flintstones as well as Rocky and Bullwinkle were meant to target adult audiences. But they weren't raunchy shows. Family Guy would not have been spun off from the Flinstones.

[@ElJefe3126]

100% normal in the 1960s for adults to drink and smoke in front of their kids. Expected behavior. The Flintstones was heavily influenced by The Honeymooners. Take a look at how closely Fred Flintstone is to Jackie Gleason.

[@MaxxRemKing1]

No the first was Fritz the Cat... If you know you know

[@TJMagine]

@@MaxxRemKing1 this movie came out in '72. The Flintstones still predated it by 12 years. Due to censorship laws until 1966, when they finally came out with the rating system, it wouldn't have mattered because there was no way we could have gotten by with the content shown in these 70's to now adult cartoons.

[@jamesrowles9249]

This show doesn't just hold up, it shows how things haven't changed in decades.

[@-originalLemon-]

Wow, cool.

[@brokkrep]

Sitcom

[@Unknown_Ooh]

You must be behind quite a bit

[@Don_Ramiro]

Wish things didn´t really changed

[@Laidengizer011]

Same old s***. It's really laughable how the activist always try to act like they're pioneers braving a bold new trail and doing things that people have never done before.

[@chefdeadpool8481]

Multi episode arcs were really rare in sitcoms back then. Mainly due to the fact that it was even more rare for the average person to own and be able to pick when they could watch the show. So they needed every episode to end where it began in terms of the characters so that anyone could start watching at any point in its airing and not feel like they've missed something important or are coming into a series thats half finished. It also allows for re runs to be played in any order also allowing for new viewers to find the show during a rerun but then watch the live first airing of the newest episode without issue.

[@gravityissues5210]

Yeah, this exactly. The idea of story arcs and character development were foreign to sitcoms before the 80s. Each story was stand-alone.

[@robb233]

But it was used exclusively for soaps.

[@jstevinik3261]

@@robb233 Arcs were exclusive to soap operas or one hour dramas. Sitcoms were lucky to have continuity between a couple episodes.

[@Naninspace]

I worked on that show on Burrard in Vancouver. I was a painter then a final checker. Paint and trace department. Lots of stories lol. Thanks for the review .. brought back memories. Great review

[@rangerscoolepicyoutubechan9296]

That's so cool!! Im in love with this type of animation. Would you mind sharing some stories?

[@roddmatsui3554]

That is remarkable. Very impressive work that has left a great impression on people over the decades. 💜

[@hannahmabbott7370]

Yes I would love to hear some stories.😊

[@JillCheese]

I would also love to hear about your experience working the show, please!

[@benm3382]

Do you remember which building? I pass Burrard every day, I'm so curious now!

[@harryjamesmiller]

it's always so funny to see what conventions shows take on because of their time. a laugh track in a cartoon seems so foreign to my 2023 brain but i guess it was just the way sitcoms were!

[@BradleySmithYoutube]

The canned laughs feel cheap, too, making the show harder to appreciate. So glad this has died out. However, I wish live action sitcoms would stop and go back to actual LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCES. That’d be dope. Make sitcoms feel more like live theater. But that could never translate to a cartoon.

[@KEATONSTOOS]

You must not have watched the Flintstones or original Scooby doo then.

[@BlackPuma124]

@@BradleySmithKZbin the last sitcom with a studio audience I can think of is the Big Bang theory was they’re anything after that?

[@ssjup81]

To be fair, it's not like you can get a live studio audience for a cartoon series, so they used laugh tracks. Most live-action sitcoms though had a live studio audience back then and when I was growing up. Not much of a thing now and they used canned laughter.

[@ultraboombean]

@@BlackPuma124 yeah they were pretty common when i was growing up..born in 92. I remeber them in two and a half men and big bang theory...So i guess they fell more out of favor either in late 2000s or early 2010s.)

[@l.a.gothro3999]

I watched this when it first came out. Animated anything was a staple in our house, given my dad's love of the medium; I'm talking about a guy who, as a kid, saw the original color "Popeye" features at the movie theater when they were first released!

[@Scav-Goblin]

I Remember LOVING this show as a kid, it came on late night Cartoon Network, and i watched it all the time. i remember thinking "This is like a SUPER Early Simpsons!" and then later Family Guy came out, and i REALLY thought "Wow, this is like Wait till your Father gets home, but a bit Goofier" this was before Family Guy was Cancelled, i mean.

[@ToadySP]

"FaT rEprEsentAtion" "FrEd gAvE hEr aN EaTinG DisOrDer" Bro made her healthy, lean, and normal, and this dude's mad lol

[@Larry]

I used to watch this as a kid in the UK in the 80s, 6pm on BBC 2. Probably never got the majority of the references, but definitely enjoyed it! There was also the Barklays, basically the same all in yhe family premise, just with anthropomorphic dogs.

[@BradleySmithYoutube]

The Barkleys look like if Hannah-Barbara were furries. Gotta look into it and try to find the episodes!

[@Larry]

@@BradleySmithKZbin It's from Friz Freleng's short lived animation studio, when he briefly tried to do a Don Bluth, leaving Warner Bros/Looney Tunes and create his own empire. Also did a show called HoundCats, which probably wouldn't go down too well in today's climate.

[@acholl980]

@@Larry Depatie-Freleng ran from 1962 - 1980 after Warners shut down. Best known for The Pink Panther they tried to compete with H/B and Filmation with shows like Super Six, Here Comes the Grump. Doctor Dolittle, The Houndcats, The Barkleys and The Oddball Couple as a sample. After producing The New Fantastic Four and Spiderwoman for Marvel they sold the studio to said co. which would go through the '80s era.

[@TakumProti]

“Back in the ‘70’s, it was just HB, Fleischer Studios, and whomever did Pink Panther.” What about Filmation, Rankin-Bass and Ruby-Spears? And Fleischer Bros. was defunct by 1942.

[@evilkrug5160]

The first adult cartoon series is Flintstones. It was a satire of then contemporary life. It became a children's show later on.

[@fad23]

I feel like character arcs were forbidden in this era, before people could choose to find episodes of shows that they missed, most shows were one and done. That's EXCEPT for soap operas, where the whole point was to keep long storylines going.

[@JDjade1]

I still love this show to this day. Last time I saw it on was on Cartoon Network(Sunday nights) in the mid-late 90's. Its a shame the other two seasons probably won't ever be released, probably due to all the guest stars they included on the later episodes. I'm sure that would create some sort of royalty issue.

[@kilderok]

Same, that's where I discovered it too.

[@shavedape6679]

Same here

[@yaboiandrew2058]

The nut shack bit physically made me convulse, I thought that was far behind us.. I haven’t given that show a thought in years

[@JasontheCartoonFan]

The reason why some of the episodes don’t have a laugh track is because the masters with them intact were destroyed years ago, when the show went into syndication. In the 1980s, Hanna-Barbera’s shows with laugh tracks all received new masters for local broadcast syndication without them to make sound design of all the shows less off putting to the then-modern generation of viewers (especially kids). The original master negatives were then tossed away. When Turner Entertainment purchased Hanna-Barbera in 1990, they began an effort to locate the original audio for the studio’s cartoons that originally had laugh tracks and restore them for future TV broadcasts and home video releases, but sadly, though classic Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, and all but one episode (“A Date With Jet Screamer”) from the original run of The Jetsons had their original laugh track-filled audio fully recovered (ironically changing the course of history by making the versions WITHOUT the laugh tracks the rare masters, at least in English; their foreign dubs actually still lack the laugh track, which you can discover by toggling the audio options on those shows’ DVD releases), the rest haven’t been so lucky. Even as recently as 2021, the Blu-ray release of H-B’s Josie and the Pussycats cartoon is completely missing the original laugh track, as it’s been assumed by Warner Bros. (the current owners of most of Hanna-Barbera’s library) that the versions of all the show’s episodes with the laugh track simply no longer exist anymore.

[@wendymccoy1093]

They used to play this on CN in the 90s, and I loved it. I still remember the theme song lol

[@edgaralanfrog]

I remember my mom and I watching this cartoon back in the early/mid 90’s and I wish I could remember what channel it had been on. The theme song has always stuck in my head and for a bit I thought I had made the show up in my head. I wish I could afford to buy the DVDs and relive my weird ass childhood 😊

[@CeeJayThe13th]

Cartoon Network aired this show for a little while sometime in the 90s. Maybe that was it?

[@trevorbarnhill3399]

It came on late at night on Cartoon Network in the nineties.

[@bellaknightR597]

I dont mind laugh tracks, even if I'm watching tv alone the laugh tracks make it it feel like I'm not

[@AndyLehrer]

Surprised no one has mentioned that Ralph and Dale Gribble from King of the Hill are basically the same character.

[@user-vd2jk7dl3p]

Harry was right about the overpopulation stuff. The year 2000 was 23 years ago and we all have food. If nothing else this show highlights the progressive panics of today and yesterday don't really change even though they are always past off as the "new, enlightened" thing of the modern age but in reality it's the exact same thin your grandparents were saying, mostly fear based slogans that happen to be the "in vogue" thing to believe regardless of whether or not it holds up to any scrutiny which it almost never does.

[@Jabberwockybird]

As a conservative, I hate overpopulation becuase more people means more moral panics and less peronal space

[@michaelthomas8147]

I was going to suggest that they stop giving out specific dates, but then I remembered that they're never really held accountable for getting things wrong.

[@jbrown8601]

💯

[@videooblivion]

“Without _____, we wouldn’t have _____” is specious.

[@FoxoticTV]

I wasn't gonna go there but the main character legit looks like Christopher Meledandri, and therefore giving me straight up Joe's Crab Shack vibes

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

As a kid watching this in the early '70s, I assumed the show was based on All in the Family, with all the controversial topics in a family sitcom setting. Is nobody mentioning this?

[@ARK8844]

I get a spine shiver whenever someone mentions the Nut Shack...

[@shipper-of-heart8898]

You know for a 70s animated show, the animation seems pretty good

[@samp.8099]

Because it's prime time rather than saturday morning

[@SuperNormalMan]

It's amazing how stuff like this show is STILL funny, even after 50 years. Now, instead of hard-working, smartass dads, we have bumbling buffoon dads that make you want to beat their asses with a chair for being so annoyingly stupid, all because it's apparently trendy to make fun of father figures now.

[@Mataninja]

To be fair Bart did hit Homer with a chair one time.

[@SuperNormalMan]

@@Mataninja Not for the right reason, though. Honestly, writers for adult cartoons just aren't that funny, but still succeed thanks to the legions of mindless mutants that don't understand that humor is more complex than "haha stupid dad funny haha hurt himself haha"

[@Anonymous-yy7ur]

Truly the seventies were dark time indeed for American history.

[@permearljones2723]

The Flintstones were the first adult animated sitcom. Everyone knows because it came out on prime time in the 1960’s.

[@nealwhaley63]

Irma and my grandmother were carbon copies of each other. Not only did they not burn their bras, they always had a couple in reserve just in case.

[@LowellLucasJr.]

Hey just wanted to thank you for reviewing wait till your father gets home! It is a personal favorite series of mine that I actually watched back on Cartoon Network (if you could believe they'd shoe something like that! Even Boomerang around 2005.) I too also bought the DVD box-set right before it jumped up to the $84 mark when those still around $40 or less. Also, in your own opinion, do you think it's worth getting the rest of the seasons? I'm a little suspicious about that website as well

[@BradleySmithYoutube]

It's awesome to see a few people already connecting with the video cuz they knew about WTYFGH! And, I mean... Backtothe80s got ME the full dvd series plus a free commercial from the 80s disc. So I guess I sponsor them?

[@dalegribble01]

I know I'm late to this but I do remember watching this whole cartoon Network and nobody believed me I remember it came on like a early morning block of Hanna-Barbera cartoons

[@LowellLucasJr.]

@@dalegribble01 well Mr. Gribble, I would watch out for Harry cuz I think he has it out for you! Also, when the show first aired on Cartoon Network, they would come under the evenings but I still found it kind of funny even though I watched it as a kid and we'll try to watch it whenever it would re-air much later... Which would probably explain why you're even watching the AM's because during that time, I'll probably going to school

[@dalegribble01]

@@LowellLucasJr. I will definitely watch out for him, but yeah I remember it came on early morning like 1 or 2 a.m. Friday night into Saturday morning and I remember this showing because the neighbor that was the neighborhood watch guy was talking about a black neighbor moving in and how they're taking over the neighborhood and I remember thinking cartoon Network aired this. But as a palate cleanser I remember the next block of cartoons was The New adventures of Jonny quest reruns so it made my early Saturday morning.

[@doctorinsomnia5410]

The first prime-time cartoon was the Flintstones, and it lasted 6 years. It was also sponsored by Winston cigarettes, and there would be actual commercials with Fred and Barney smoking instead of working. Wait till your father gets home wasn't a network show, back in the early 70s, they FCC ruled that the networks had to give a half hour of prime-time back to local stations. Many urban areas would show wait till your father gets home, rural areas might show heehaw. Just thought you might want to be aware of those details....

[@MrMegaManFan]

The Flintstones used to openly advertise cigarettes and how great they are. The references have been scrubbed out of syndication but there's no doubt it was meant for adults (and aired in prime time). It wasn't meant for kids and well predates WTYFGH.

[@hubertvale5132]

Every so often I hear the theme song in my head and wondered if anyone else ever saw this show. Thanks for the memories!

[@shaylawatson1244]

I always thought wait till your father get home was like the original family guy

[@kuroneko334]

I remember watching this in the 90s late at night on cartoon network as a kid

[@agentD99]

Do I know what the First adult animated sitcom was? Why yes, yes I do. It was The Flintstones, which first aird at 8:30pm on September, 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966. Now, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. That one first aird september 12, 1972 to October 8, 1974.

[@sonnysantana5454]

actually i grew up watching this , but the flintstones was the 1'st adult cartoon as it premiered at 7:30pm in the early evening not the usual after school 3:pm cartoon slot

[@HereForTheComments]

This show used to sneak up on me when I was up in the absolute dead of night/birth of dawn watching Cartoon Network. Because I just refused to go to bed. I was just too curious about what was on TV.

[@MirlitronOne]

Infamously, when the BBC first aired this show in the UK in the 1970s they thought it was a kids show and put it on at 5.30 pm. I was a teenager and absolutely loved it. When the second series aired, it was moved to 10.00 pm! Luckily, I was old enough to stay up to see it. In the 1980s I worked with an older American lady who also loved it and she is the only other person I've met who remembered it. I particularly liked the strong resemblance that Ralph bore to "Tricky Dicky" Nixon.

[@eggsamillion]

Ralph is like the Dale Gribble of the series.

[@connorgillespie6305]

The kingdom hearts music in the background is so nostalgic. Thank you :)

[@jedd.0322]

Nah bruh his neighbor ain't right at all

[@BradleySmithYoutube]

Alex Jones meets Cartman

[@pkmcburroughs]

Oh, dear God. I forgot all about this show (I'm old btw), and yet when I saw the title, the theme song immediately popped back into my head.

[@dasdiesel3000]

You say you "don't know what that was" after 2:15, but I know... That was a spot on impression of Tom Kenny doing a Patchy Pirate

[@Insane-Howl-Cowl]

I can still hear the theme song echoing in my head even years after it left Adult Swim.

[@futurewario9591]

RALPH IS MEGA BASED!

[@Kellerwerks]

Surprised that you didn't mention All In the Family, which was the show's primary inspiration...

[@ducksoup80]

At 2:15 Bradley sounded like the wizard from Gundar.

[@Lethgar_Smith]

Im sorry but, The Flinstones is the first animated TV show for adults. Wait Till Your Father Gets Home was a deliberate attempt to create a Flintstone like show for modern audiences. And all animated shorts created for theatrical release, such as the Warner brothers stuff in the 1950s, was made for adults.

[@Metalchick36]

I remember watching this cartoon when it re-ran on Cartoon Network. For sure, I saw it as a product of it’s time. Looking back, it was definitely similar to All in the Family, which showed people then how dumb being bigoted was.

[@jonkeiser6092]

I had no idea this was for adults back then, because I used to watch it all the time on Cartoon Network.

[@4ReasonsWhy]

You should do a video on the cartoon Home Movies. I've always thought it was so underappreciated.

[@nateescobales6930]

13:52 Snap-Ola, That's a dude who was the very first voice actor to play Shaggy... in the very original Scooby-Doo cartoon show.

[@thecoreelementsmoto]

I remember watching reruns of this in the early days of cartoon network.

[@Stephen-to7jx]

Ironically. Tom Bosley''s other show, Happy Days also originally was a segment on Love American Style originally titled Love and the Television.

[@kascnef]

This was the first to be shown in syndication for an adult cartoon

[@brianarbenz1329]

Wait til You Father Gets Home was so prescient. It foresaw the militia of the '90s, the cultural clashes of this time. It was eerily predictive.

[@veronho1ness]

This used to be shown on ITV in the 70's usually around 11pm

[@irabel01]

Fun. Almost completely forgot about this. Almost. Thanks for reviewing

[@West_Coast_Mainline]

5:48 I can’t believe you, Sweden, why would you do that!?

[@themanwithaplan_]

i like how the nutshack is kinda making a come back

[@joshuasmith8742]

Finally someone other than myself remembers this show 😂. Early 90's cartoon network had this in rotation at night grandma was wild

[@misterkite]

@0:16 no it wasn't. The Flintstones was the first primetime animated sitcom. The first 3 seasons aired on Fridays at 8:30pm.

[@kenives6548]

I remember this show being a live action show with an animated opening

[@poochersmontgomery8825]

I remember being a kid discovering this on cartoon network in the early 90s

[@thefurrybastard1964]

I remember this being shown over here in the UK back in the 70s. It quickly became *_Must See_* TV.

[@timsroom4606]

I was waiting for years for someone to talk about this show.

[@sarkastikleader4708]

I remember my mom putting me on to this cartoon when I was a kid. I never heard of anyone ever talking about it till now.

[@ShintogaDeathAngel]

Ha, the "cute boring guy" looks exactly like Fred from Scooby Doo!

[@shivyyz]

Ralph and that old lady are like Dale and Cotton

[@OldGuyStudent]

Feeding the algorithm in your favor. Great video. This is a precursor to All in the Family. You can see the styles that eventually become known HBU characters.

[@samp.8099]

This was after All in the Family

[@richdurbin6146]

If I remember correctly this first appeared as a segment on Love American Style. I watched it as a kid.

[@Seeqer6619]

I REMEMBER this show!!! I was too young to watch it, but I loved it anyway. I had no idea what it was called.

[@LowellLucasJr.]

11:25 And now ..another Ralph moment!

[@stephendavis5530]

I'm from the UK and I remember this cartoon being shown at the seriously odd time of around 3 or 4pm on a Sunday afternoon!! I was only 10 in 1973, so many of the jokes will have gone over my head. I'm amazed this was shown. I imagine the audience for it here would be minascule.

[@Barnaclebeard]

I remember this show as a kid and this video makes me feel fucking ancient.

[@tobe1207]

Flintstones are also kind of an adult oriented show.

[@ChinacatSunflower0]

Hi Bradley, some more research for this show you may like to know, if you haven't found it since the video was uploaded... The series was reported to have been picked up for a 3rd season in a February 11, 1974 Tribune-Herald (Sunday) newspaper brief, as it was "being seen in 75 cities" at the time. The suit by Worthington, was reported in Omaha World-Herald as having been placed on April 22, 1974 (Tuesday), and in that report was against N B C Television and H-B productions (Hanna Barb.) In the OWH, it was stated that he filed a $1-million slander case, which was a Superior Court case. In another report on the matter, from Cincinnati Post (April 25, 1974 (Thursday), it was stated that the suit was $525,000. The show continued airing into the 70s, notably 1975- up until 1979 from what I found. Would be interesting to see if any documents from the case were still around, or properly archived, or if the writing team had unused scripts that may be in someone's attic, all these decades later...

[@caraqueno]

My dear Bradley Smith, great video! If you're wondering about the laugh track. I have a lot to say about that since I was 13-15 years old when "Wait 'Til You Father Gets Home" was shown. It shows the rate at which pop culture of the '70's has been erased.

[@galacticgalaxyonezerone7235]

I remember when I was little in the 90s seeing this on and watching it and parents would get mad at my brothers and I for watching it.

[@ScarFeiss]

The clips on this video alone are meme gold

[@Morgil27]

I think I remember seeing a couple of episodes of this on Boomerang years ago.

[@ClassifiedRanTom]

2:54 - Wait a second, a fictional Batman character invented this show?

[@hueydabigbro2170]

Wait wasn’t the flintstones the first animated prime time family sitcom and it went on for 6 seasons

[@kaylaturnis9486]

Harry Boyle is Mr. Cunningham from Happy Days. Ralf is The New Deputy from The Andy Griffith Show.

[@keeneboy7700]

According to Wikipedia, the 4 3rd season episodes had a different director. That might be what caused the tonal shift.

[@MichaelBoyce-tm2vw]

Tom Bosley from Happy Days provided the voice.

[@HardcoreRGProdigyXTR]

15:30 Mirisch-Geoffrey-DePatie-Freleng were responsible for Pink Panther, on behalf of MGM.

[@criticmann]

Good video - I remember watching this show as a teen in the 70s. One correction, however - it was not the first adult cartoon in prime time. That honor goes to the Flintstones.

[@Laidengizer011]

That neighbors sounds pretty good to me. May not be exactly right all the time, but pretty much knows what the deal is.

[@ParsonNathaniel]

OMG! I watched this show with my mom as a kid. And when I talk about it, people stare at me like I'm nuts. So few people know about it and/nor remember it. Thanks for easing my mind I wasn't having a Mandela Effect episode. "Wait 'til your father gets, until your father gets...Wait 'til your father gets home!"

[@guyrocketram9698]

1:15 BRO SUPER MILK CHAN WAS HERE??? FRICCIN WAS OBSESSED WITH THAT SHOW!!! SO SHOULD HAVE WON FOR REAL!!!! super underated and super sureal.

[@ericagriswold1709]

Wait..... This was on cartoon network in the 90s

[@peepshow090]

I saw this show on UK TV back when it came out in '73, it was shown at the end of kids programming before the news so I think that in the UK this is a kids show.

[@brianlehman7624]

I hope to find this somewhere. There were a few times I laughed out loud just watching this video. Im not sure if I missed it in the video, but Ralph definitely has some influence on Dale Gribble. Also, is that Yoshi Island music you use?

[@FishingwithMetal]

I remember watching this show on Boomerang in the early 2000s

[@philiphanan1493]

Nice Patchy the Pirate impression.

[@Kevin-jb2pv]

Honestly, if I had to guess, there was probably an internal debate about the laugh track. Someone who was in favor of it said, "Fine! Just look at how much it sucks without it" and just started airing bits with the awkward dead silence. "See? It's weird without the laugh track!" and then just refused to listen to rebuttals about the pacing being wrong because the show was written for the laugh tracks. Either that, or someone was finally allowed to make the decision to test going without the track, but themselves did not fully understand that the pacing of the show has to be changed for the lack of a laugh track to work. Final theory: They started cutting laugh tracks because they were trying to compress the run time.

[@rajo741]

Loved watching this back then. It’s likely to cause some eye rolling or even mild astonishment now.