As everyone knows, the original Love, American Style spawned two spin-offs during its 5 year run (1969-74). The more famous one, of course, is Happy Days, which begat five more series. The other was Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home, which, amazingly, wasn't picked up by ABC, CBS, or NBC, but rather was sold into syndication by Hanna-Barbera. Locally, the then-ABC affiliate ran Father on Sunday nights.
Well, then, gang, let's take a time trip to 1972, and the pilot, which aired on Style, a few months before Father bowed. Tom Bosley, later of Happy Days, and Kristina Holland (The Courtship of Eddie's Father) are part of the ensemble, along with Jack Burns (ex-The Andy Griffith Show).
The minimalist animation style would prove to be Father's ultimate undoing.
Rating: B.
4 comments:
I remember seeing this when I was home sick one day as a kid. At the time, "Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home" aired on my local station WDCA-TV (channel 20) on Sunday mornings; of course at the time I had no idea that the show originated as an episode of "Love, American Style".
One interesting thing to note about this pilot is that here the Boyles only have 2 children. Their youngest son, the enterprising Jamie, is notably absent from this story; in his place however there was a sassy black maid (this was 1972, pre-Political Correctness, keep in mind) who likewise didn't make it to the series.
Sounds like they swapped out the maid for Jamie when they went to series.
I got a few chuckles out of this one - which is interesting since I don't recall the rest of the series proper being as entertaining or memorable.
I do agree the animation could have been much better - although I liked most everything else about this pilot.
It did set the tone for the show itself. Few remember that "Father" was a branch of the "Style" tree that also bore "Happy Days", and, well.....!
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