@@BradleySmithRUclips well it was as you put it the first if you knew about it you knew about it I saw it on its rerun on Cartoon Network and Boomerang didn't even know it counted as the first of what is basically the adult family sticom cartoon but mind you that was cause like the Flintstones when I watched it all the more nuanced humor is just really out of date and flew over my and probably any other child or anyone else's heads unless you grew up during that time period it.
@@BradleySmithRUclips as a fan of this show as a kid when it played on cartoon newtork as reruns, i knew the family guy was more of a homage of wait til your father gets home than the simpsons especially harry's and erma's voices even seth mcfarlane himself said as such
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
The first adult animated sitcom was actually The Flintstones. It was intended for older audiences and originally aired in primetime. It became popular with all ages though so it became a Saturday morning staple in reruns and quickly became targeted towards kids.
Correct. In 1960. And the second was the Jetsons in 1962. Was this one the third? I can't think of another in between. When I was a kid (early '70s) the Flintstones was rerun daily around dinnertime along with Batman (Adam West). Later in the '70s it was joined by the Brady Bunch, Adam-12, the Monkees and others. Those weren't animated but that's the point. The Flintstones was just another 1960s prime time show for adults.
@@YumegakaMurakumothe GREATEST show of all ( HONEYMOONERS 🌙🌓🌠🌛) Ironically, The Honeymooners 🌕 inadvertently led me to this great show . At age 8 ,our mama sometimes let my twin + I stay up to watch The Honeymooners , this was 1972+ we went NUTS OVER it , and we soon spotted LOVE AMERICAN STYLE 🙂and would BEG I stay up to watch it ( it usually worked😃😃!) Next THIS GREAT show ( ThIS episode here I blv was first ep) was on as a Love American Style episode + ¹And Ohhhh Boy ; did we got Crazy over this also😃👌‼️ This quickly spun off as its own series in prime time We all got to watch it , together as it was earlier, prob 8oo pm , All 4 of us kids, our PHENOMOnal Dad , our phenOMonaL mama us 4 kids , even our pets all cozily watching this GREAT show 🌜✨🌓 watching it every🌙 chance I get.. Just A sent it over to my twin🌜✨🌠🌓📺✨🌛✨
Glad to see this show get some recognition. Hanna-Barbera actually made another adult animated show before this one: Where’s Huddles? in 1970. It only had one season, but it’s a personal favorite of mine. Maybe you could review that someday.
@@BradleySmithRUclips there were actually many attempts between the flintstones and Simpsons to make a prime time adult oriented tv animated show. At Paramount Ralph Bakshi was making a prime time cartoon adaptation of the Bickersons radio show(as well as a Laugh In type show) that got scrapped when Paramount shut down its animation department in 67 leaving only a partially complete test animation, In 1973 ABC commissioned Commercial house Focus Designs to make a tv pilot of Mad Magazine Comics. Unlike bickersons this was actually completed and was going on air that fall when it got shelved because of network fears of advertisers complaints related to the parody’s of commercials. Even MTM(Mary Tyler Moore’s company) got into the act and commissioned Murakumi Wolf to produce a pilot for Carlton Your Doorman an animated spinoff of the live action Rhoda show, the pilot aired in 1980 but CBS did not pick it up for series. Hanna Barbera worked on a adult oriented anthology show for NBC called Jokebook that was a production disaster that took 3 years to air thanks to a severely troubled production(animation had to go through retakes after the network rejected the initial episodes for poor animation, the network rejected several of the newly finished segments for being too crass, and helmed by a dirty old man who rejected everyone’s else’s ideas, and flaunted his connections to joe Barbera) was canned after only 3 episodes had aired and 7 being made. Hanna Barbera made a second mad magazine tv pilot in 1987 that was completed but never aired, Brad Birds family dog episode of amazing stories aired a mere month or so before the first Simpsons shorts. And while it wasn’t a pilot for a show it should be mentioned. There were many others that did not go past concept art, Filmation attempted one. And many others were done. I think it’s a good rabbit hole for you to explore
@@BradleySmithRUclips also in addition bakshi was sketching up another prime time tv cartoon called the pow show which was like a mad magazine sketch comedy show when paramount shut down the studio
I remember Where's Huddles, but I mostly recall seeing it on weekends in a late afternoon time slot, so its history has always been sort of patchy to me.
Sitcoms covering highly charged social and political topics was actually pretty common back in the 70s. All In the Family is probably the best known for it, but there were many others, including this and one of my favorites WKRP in Cincinnati.
I mean…sure, no one’s doubting that. But the whole point is that Wait ‘til Your Father Gets Home is an *animated* adult sitcom, which is what is innovative about it. And yes, people are saying The Flintstones came first. And yes, it was technically marketed towards adults. But The Flintstones was watched and enjoyed by kids and adults just the same and didn’t have nearly the edge and social commentary that WTYFGH had.
@@TundieRice My comment wasn't really in reference to the other comments in as much to Bradley's remark that he was surprised how politically charged this sitcom was for a show that aired in the 70s.
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
@@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.)
Many think of this show as the "first" adult-themed cartoon because of its relative frankness (for an animated cartoon). It came out a year after "All in the Family" debuted, but was actually a bit more light-hearted. It was also ground-breaking in that no network picked it up for either Prime Time or Saturday morning (it just wasn't oriented towards kids, nor was it designed to sell themed toys and "action figures" or lunch boxes as were so many kid's cartoons by then), WTYFGH was only syndicated, which was relatively new at the time.
Alice’s boyfriend looks like Fred from Scooby Doo. Bosley also did the voice for David the gnome. Also, the video game music in the video seems like it’s in every video!
@@BradleySmithRUclips nothing wrong with the music. I love being able to hear the melodies from the games I enjoy just it seems like it’s everywhere. Oh that’s music from Mario paper thousand year door. Oh That’s Zelda wind Waker,
@@BradleySmithRUclips fun fact the voice of fred is the famous voice actor frank welker using his actual voice and they modeled fred's look from frank's at that time he voiced him
I think laugh tracks in cartoons just fell out of favour, but it used to be very common. I'm surprised I never heard of this cartoon, from what I've seen here, it doesn't even feel that outdated. Very interesting.
The "Pink Panther" cartoons had laugh tracks in them as late as 1976. By the time Pink Panther switched networks from NBC to ABC in 1977, they no longer used the laugh track.
Jamie is also voiced by Jackie Earle Haley, best known for Rorschach in Watchmen. It's just fun to hear someone who is now known for gruff-violent characters as a soft voiced child.
He was eventually replaced by Willie Aames, who went on to do We’ll Get By, the Alan Alda-created sitcom about a family in the North Jersey suburbs. The cast featured Paul Sorvino (Mira’s father), Jerry Hauser (Summer of ‘42; The Brady Brides), Mitzi Hoag, and Devon Scott (daughter of George C., half-sister of Campbell; also originated the daughter role on the Tony Randall Show). Aames also did Eight is Enough and Charles in Charge. Alice was voiced by Kristina Holland, who played Bill Bixby’s secretary on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and did one of the first TV portrayals of a lesbian in an episode of Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law. Ralph was voiced by Jack Burns, part of the stand-up comedy team of Burns and Schreiber. Avery Schreiber did a series of some of the first TV commercials for Doritos.
I remember as a 12 yr old being very excited about this show, but oddly saw very few episodes. The intro theme was catchy and I always carried a place for this show in my brain (with the theme soundtrack) as the world forgot about it. Family Guy filled that hole beyond my wildest 12 year old dreams. Thank you for this great retrospective.
I remember Cartoon Network used to play this show late at night in the 90's along with another show called "The Roman Holidays" (which HB thought could replace the Flintstones). Casey Kasem must have been the easiest guest star to get since he was already voicing Shaggy, Robin, Sebastian from Josie & the Pussycats, and a bunch more for the studio
@@daisyviluck7932 My grandma made me watch Little House AND the Waltons, religiously, so it felt less like they were competing, and more like they were partnering together, to make my summer vacations a never-ending Oregon Trail nightmare dystopia. This was in a very quiet, religious, small, southern town, where there was only one Piggly Wiggly. So buying a tv guide and waiting until the Waltons came on was the highlight of everyone's day. I still have nightmares about it.
Yeah, I remember "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" during my pre-teen years on Cartoon Network during the late 90's too. When it came up in conversation with my friends and classmates, we all thought it was just the 70's version of "The Simpsons". I don't know my friends/classmates, but I ended up sticking with it during its run on Cartoon Network. And to my surprise, I ended up enjoying, and being pleasantly entertained by it; (not to mention it made me fell more like a grown-up after watching some of the episodes). (And I guess having a crush on the daughter Alice helped with my engagement of the show at the time too.)
Whoa, I remember watching this when I was a kid. I never forgot that theme song. It's amazing that anyone is still talking about it all these decades later.
I was expecting the Flintstones or the Jetsons. I didn't get the adult humor so I didn't watch it much after the first episode. Then again I was 6 years old at the time so go figure. I did like the opening song and sequence very memorable for my young self.
Ditto! I remember watching this as a kid and even though I haven't seen it in decades, that theme song will never leave my brain. The show was weird back then and it's still weird now. I love it!
Jackie Gleason nearly sued Hanna-Barbera over effectively "stealing" the Honeymooners but decided against it. The studio offered to do a show starring him, but it never came off. Gleason decided that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.
I remember watching this cartoon, back in the day. I still find myself singing the theme song, 50 years later. Interesting just how similar Family Guy and other modern toons are to this. Thanks for the flashback to a piece of my childhood.
I love the art style a lot, would love to see it done for a show today. with better/more interesting writing of course, something like bob's burgers could work
This series is basically Hanna-Barbera's attempt to take advantage of the success and popularity of Norman Lear's "All in the Family," which was a cultural force in television programming at the time, having debuted a couple of seasons earlier in 1971.
I remember a Saturday mornig cartoon called the Barkleys who were a family of dogs. The patriarch Arnie Barkley was a cross between Archie Bunker and Ralph Cramden.
@@bloppysloppy4057 Yes-I remember that too! It was by De Patie-Freleng studios, who had employed some of the same people previously at Warner Bros. The studio had done their own recycling of such famous characters as Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, but perhaps is best known for the Pink Panther and also the animated credits for “I Dream of Jeannie”. The interesting thing about Arnie on “The Barkleys” is he was modeled as you said partially from Ralph Kramden (“The Honeymooners”) and both characters drove a bus (although in this series we actually see Arnie as the driver, unlike Ralph who merely refers to it but consistently). Arnie was voiced by Henry Corden, who had replaced Alan Reed on “The Flintstones” and also as you said many of Arnie’s characteristics were also inspired by the loudmouths of all of those patriarchs: Ralph, Fred and of course the bigoted Archie on “All in the Family”. We still see that dynamic in today’s adult-oriented cartoons as well as the “sensible wife” and sometimes insightful kids.
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.
@@BradleySmithRUclips 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.
@@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.
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.
Fell asleep watching Cartoon Network (I think) at 7 years old, woke up to topless cartoon girl without nipples at 2:36, went my whole childhood doubting something like that could exist on TV at all. Now here am I, 29 years later, and it turns out the show did exist after all, it wasn’t a fever dream. This is the forefather of that experience like I had with Adult Swim shows like Xavier: Renegade Angel
( Ok I'm trying to remember this scene as best as possible, but I still love it!) Ralph: Harry you gotta get me outta here! Tell the Docs and Nurses that this is just Facepaint! I'm not a Negro! Black Patient: I wish you would. We've been trying to show America Black is beautiful, and he's going to set us back another 100 years!😂
YEAH!! That joke had me on the floor when I heard it. But so good that one of the best jokes/roasts in the show was against the character that we love to hate
Thanks for covering this cartoon. I used to watch this on Cartoon Network, late nights, back in the mid '90s, & never really thought much about the fact that it had such edgy adult material, in it! My mom was a fan of this series, so this also makes me think of her. R.I.P. Mom! This definitely inspired Family Guy & the Simpsons!
@@BradleySmithRUclips yeah but in the 70s damn was on the same level as fuck, shit they were scared of rock and roll turning people satanic so if something like family guy aired even in its earlier seasons it would get pulled immediately
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.
The Flintstones was the first adult animated prime time show. It aired in 1960 on ABC for a total of six seasons. It was supposed to a animated version of the Honeymooners and geared towards adults, but children fell in love with the show and thats why they added Pebbles and Bam Bam in later seasons. The Flintstones also had adult oriented commercials for cigarettes 🚬 and other products.
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.
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
Oh Ralph...way before Dale Gribble and Stan Smith, THIS guy was always on the alert for those foreign devils, illegal immigrants and ofcoarse those Russians.😅
The Flintstones? Prime time, animated series, aimed at adults, 1960. Warner Brothers cartoons in the movie theaters, were aimed at adults back in the 1940’s.
As someone who remembered this show from my childhood, my very 1st impression when fam. guy came on the scene was that the look of the peter & family was inspired by this show.
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!
I remember seeing this on Cartoon Network at like 3am. This was well before Adult Swim, so they just showed unpopular cartoons like this and Roman Holidays to fill the time.
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.
"The Flintstones is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the Rubbles. It was originally broadcast on ABC from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, and was the first animated series to hold a prime-time slot on television.[2]"
Ahh, nostalgia. They was all over early Cartoon Network. It was one of my favorites, it was so wild from a modern perspective, while giving insights into the neuroses and anxieties of the era.
Thank you for doing this review and thank RUclips for recommending it to me! I'm pretty neutral with "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" (I love its theme song and character designs, though), but I do feel sorry for how people (even a couple of established animation historians) often forget about it, being like, "oh, 'The Simpsons' was the first prime-time animated sitcom since 'The Flintstones' ended," when that's false. This show warrants some respect for how ahead of its times its content is. BTW, the guys who made "Pink Panther" are DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.
i remember watching this show on late night tv in the '90s..... i loved it, but couldn't figure out where it came from! thank you for filling in the blanks! 💕
Excellent video! This was shown fairly regularly in the UK in ordinary BBC1 "kids cartoon" slots in the 70s (yes, I AM that old). It was a case of "Cartoon? Obviously for kids then!" But would also sometimes randomly air on BBC2 (the "arty/drama/culture" branch of the BBC) during the evening when they had a spare slot needing filling. I remember really enjoying it as a kid. I'm Autistic and found "regular" kids cartoons a bit annoying, but WTYFGH was quite fresh. The laugh track was really irritating, but back then, EVERYTHING imported from the US had canned laughs so you sort of tuned it out. Not many people in the UK seem to remember it - and I've asked a few when "What was the first adult mainstream animated series?" questions came up - but I guess I just have a pretty good audiovisual memory of my childhood. There can be benefits to being non-neurotypical! Again, thanks for a very entertaining review - it's nice to actually see a clean, noise-free print! We tended to get highly degraded prints sent over here on the Pan Am shuttles back then... Cheers! PS: Nice to meet you Bradley. I'm Bradley.
I guess broadcasters in my area had the same opinion that just because it was animated, it must be for kids, because when I watched it in the 1980's, it was a Saturday Morning Cartoon. They showed it, like, half an hour before the Smurfs. I only realized that it was "mature" when I caught reruns on Teletoon Retro in the 2000's.
I'm younger but I remember watching it on Cartoon Network in the US. Nobody that I know seems to remember it either from those days or older folks from back in the day. It definitely didn't strike me as "adult" back then but I wasn't very well supervised so I had always just watched whatever I wanted. It definitely comes across as much more adult than I had remembered.
I remember watching this show as a young teenager. Sort of an animated take on the Norman Lear sitcoms like All In The Family, Maude, etc. with some first rate voice talent. I would quibble that the first prime time animated sitcom geared toward adults was the Flintstones, which was mentioned here several times. It may be thought of as a kid's cartoon by some but that's because of the way it was syndicated, which was geared towards kids. But during its original run it was definitely for grown ups. Just take a look at the scripts.
I saw this on an early version of Cartoon Network that was primarily old reruns and I really thought it was something special at the time. I looked forward to "Wait Til Your Father Gets Home" and "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" as well as the "What A Cartoon" pilot show. Thanks for revisiting and adding those tidbits of context too.
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.
Any chance you could do an episode on _The Roman Holidays?_ I feel like that was a sitcom that even children could enjoy - which makes sense as it was a Saturday Morning Cartoon, initially. I watched it in the earliest form of Cartoon Network, at nights, alongside _Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch!_ and other things, myself.
Thank you for bringing us back in time, to this brilliant, animated gem from 50 years ago! Having said that, how could you not share with us and showcase the GREAT opening and closing theme songs? They are incredibly catchy and perfectly summate the basic premises the show conveys! Oh well, thank you for your efforts, overall job well done.
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 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"
Ralph and Whitacre stole the show. Harry's ultimate rejoinder: "Ralph, have you considered leaving your brain to science? They're still trying to find the perfect vacuum."
@@univon4892to be fair, he wasn't in the pilot on Love, American Style and I thought the flow of it was perfect. Jamie just sometimes pops up to either be a support character to the father or a destructive character to his siblings. He doesn't have much of a character himself
Jaime was a prototype for Alex Keaton (Michael J Fox) of "Family Ties". A mercenary little shit, but after the utter disappointment that Chet turned out to be, a ray of hope for Harry to continue the Boyle line.
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.
I'm from Australia and I remember reruns of this being shown after school alongside other kids cartoons such as Scooby Doo, I really enjoyed it at the time (even though I wouldn't have understood most of the jokes), I've never forgotten the theme tune either. Super catchy.
When I was a kid, we often didn't get cable, and the only channel we could get was Global (a Toronto based channel). They didn't run Saturday morning cartoons but you could often watch animated shows on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and I spent quite a few Sundays watching the family's shenanigans.
OMG thank you for doing this video, I remember this show! I wasn't even aware they did a third season of it! Strangely enough I didn't remember how edgy the show was. I did think it reminded me a little of All In The Family
my first introduction to this show was a tumblr clip where irma says "excuse me, i think i'll go have a nervous breakdown" and had NO idea how to feel beyond "ah, mood"
As someone born in 1968, these subjects weren't considered sensitive at the time. They were considered common sense. I remember learning about over population in school during the late 70s, and how the west would become drought ridden and burn every yr. The 70s were all about conservation and inclusion. We used to be a somewhat intelligent country. I'm glad to see that intelligence coming back around.
It was the Flintstones that was the first 'adult' animated cartoon show that debut on ABC TV in 1960. ' Not Wait Till Your Farther Gets Home.' the second 'adult' cartoon that debut in the '70'S on NBC.
In the early 90's, I used to catch this show on Cartoon Network sometimes. I was little, so I thought it was really boring. But the theme song stuck and still plays in my head sometimes. I kind of thought it was a fever dream or mixed-up memory until I saw this video, lmao!
The Flintstones ran from 1960 to 1966 in prime time and was about as adult as most sitcoms got on those days. Which is to say, it was considered kid friendly - cigarette ads were not yet restricted - but featured a lot of gags adults would really get, usually plays on celebrities or consumer products and concerns.
I remember watching this back in 1977....it was a rerun and I was 6 years old. I got to see the generation gap, the hippie life and the sexual revolution in one cartoon.
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 😊
The Flintstones came before Wait Til Your Father Gets Home. The Flintstones were originally an adult show airing around 8 to 8:30pm. That's why there are cigarette commercials with them. They were an adult show.
What's the next adult animated show I should watch, and why is it The Nut shack?
Because the Nut Shack is a masterpiece
Because... you gotta see the animation and budget to believe
@@lornbaker1083 there’s not much of a budget to see
IT'S THE
I want to see the meme come back from the dead.
Heard of this cartoon but, man is it crazy to actually see someone talk about it and not just have it show up in passing.
I started working on this 10 months ago and was continuously shocked no one else made a video about it. 🙏
@@BradleySmithRUclips well it was as you put it the first if you knew about it you knew about it I saw it on its rerun on Cartoon Network and Boomerang didn't even know it counted as the first of what is basically the adult family sticom cartoon but mind you that was cause like the Flintstones when I watched it all the more nuanced humor is just really out of date and flew over my and probably any other child or anyone else's heads unless you grew up during that time period it.
@@BradleySmithRUclips as a fan of this show as a kid when it played on cartoon newtork as reruns, i knew the family guy was more of a homage of wait til your father gets home than the simpsons especially harry's and erma's voices
even seth mcfarlane himself said as such
@@CharlesChristinaWH Wait they use to do reruns of this show on CN
It wasn’t up there with Family Guy… or even the Roman Holidays
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.
I still use the word Grand Poobah when referring to secret society higher ups
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.
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.
No the first was Fritz the Cat... If you know you know
@@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.
This show doesn't just hold up, it shows how things haven't changed in decades.
Wow, cool.
Sitcom
You must be behind quite a bit
Wish things didn´t really changed
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.
The first adult animated sitcom was actually The Flintstones. It was intended for older audiences and originally aired in primetime. It became popular with all ages though so it became a Saturday morning staple in reruns and quickly became targeted towards kids.
*reads first line* AAAAA WHY I WATC-
*reads the last line* Oh
I was looking for this comment. The Flintstones was also inspired by The Honeymooners.
Also, The Flintstones ran for six seasons, so Wait Til Your Father Gets Home is not the first prime time animated series to last more than one season.
Correct. In 1960. And the second was the Jetsons in 1962. Was this one the third? I can't think of another in between.
When I was a kid (early '70s) the Flintstones was rerun daily around dinnertime along with Batman (Adam West). Later in the '70s it was joined by the Brady Bunch, Adam-12, the Monkees and others. Those weren't animated but that's the point. The Flintstones was just another 1960s prime time show for adults.
@@YumegakaMurakumothe GREATEST show of all ( HONEYMOONERS 🌙🌓🌠🌛) Ironically, The Honeymooners 🌕 inadvertently led me to this great show . At age 8 ,our mama sometimes let my twin + I stay up to watch The Honeymooners , this was 1972+ we went NUTS OVER it , and we soon spotted LOVE AMERICAN STYLE 🙂and would BEG I stay up to watch it ( it usually worked😃😃!)
Next THIS GREAT show ( ThIS episode here I blv was first ep) was on as a Love American Style episode + ¹And Ohhhh Boy ; did we got Crazy over this also😃👌‼️
This quickly spun off as its own series in prime time We all got to watch it , together as it was earlier, prob 8oo pm , All 4 of us kids, our PHENOMOnal Dad , our phenOMonaL mama us 4 kids , even our pets all cozily watching this GREAT show 🌜✨🌓 watching it every🌙 chance I get.. Just A sent it over to my twin🌜✨🌠🌓📺✨🌛✨
Glad to see this show get some recognition. Hanna-Barbera actually made another adult animated show before this one: Where’s Huddles? in 1970. It only had one season, but it’s a personal favorite of mine. Maybe you could review that someday.
Definitely, I need to! Thanks for mentioning that one.
@@BradleySmithRUclips there were actually many attempts between the flintstones and Simpsons to make a prime time adult oriented tv animated show. At Paramount Ralph Bakshi was making a prime time cartoon adaptation of the Bickersons radio show(as well as a Laugh In type show) that got scrapped when Paramount shut down its animation department in 67 leaving only a partially complete test animation, In 1973 ABC commissioned Commercial house Focus Designs to make a tv pilot of Mad Magazine Comics. Unlike bickersons this was actually completed and was going on air that fall when it got shelved because of network fears of advertisers complaints related to the parody’s of commercials. Even MTM(Mary Tyler Moore’s company) got into the act and commissioned Murakumi Wolf to produce a pilot for Carlton Your Doorman an animated spinoff of the live action Rhoda show, the pilot aired in 1980 but CBS did not pick it up for series. Hanna Barbera worked on a adult oriented anthology show for NBC called Jokebook that was a production disaster that took 3 years to air thanks to a severely troubled production(animation had to go through retakes after the network rejected the initial episodes for poor animation, the network rejected several of the newly finished segments for being too crass, and helmed by a dirty old man who rejected everyone’s else’s ideas, and flaunted his connections to joe Barbera) was canned after only 3 episodes had aired and 7 being made. Hanna Barbera made a second mad magazine tv pilot in 1987 that was completed but never aired, Brad Birds family dog episode of amazing stories aired a mere month or so before the first Simpsons shorts. And while it wasn’t a pilot for a show it should be mentioned. There were many others that did not go past concept art, Filmation attempted one. And many others were done. I think it’s a good rabbit hole for you to explore
@@BradleySmithRUclips also in addition bakshi was sketching up another prime time tv cartoon called the pow show which was like a mad magazine sketch comedy show when paramount shut down the studio
Technically, the Flintstones was originally aimed at adults.
I remember Where's Huddles, but I mostly recall seeing it on weekends in a late afternoon time slot, so its history has always been sort of patchy to me.
Sitcoms covering highly charged social and political topics was actually pretty common back in the 70s. All In the Family is probably the best known for it, but there were many others, including this and one of my favorites WKRP in Cincinnati.
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.
@@spankynater4242 "We must stop that man before he promotes again".
I mean…sure, no one’s doubting that. But the whole point is that Wait ‘til Your Father Gets Home is an *animated* adult sitcom, which is what is innovative about it.
And yes, people are saying The Flintstones came first. And yes, it was technically marketed towards adults.
But The Flintstones was watched and enjoyed by kids and adults just the same and didn’t have nearly the edge and social commentary that WTYFGH had.
@@TundieRice My comment wasn't really in reference to the other comments in as much to Bradley's remark that he was surprised how politically charged this sitcom was for a show that aired in the 70s.
You couldn't get All in the Family, the Jeffersons, or Sanford & Son on the air nowadays. It's sad.
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
That's so cool!! Im in love with this type of animation. Would you mind sharing some stories?
That is remarkable. Very impressive work that has left a great impression on people over the decades. 💜
Yes I would love to hear some stories.😊
I would also love to hear about your experience working the show, please!
Do you remember which building? I pass Burrard every day, I'm so curious now!
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.
Yeah, this exactly. The idea of story arcs and character development were foreign to sitcoms before the 80s. Each story was stand-alone.
But it was used exclusively for soaps.
@@robb233 Arcs were exclusive to soap operas or one hour dramas. Sitcoms were lucky to have continuity between a couple episodes.
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!
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.
You must not have watched the Flintstones or original Scooby doo then.
@@BradleySmithRUclips the last sitcom with a studio audience I can think of is the Big Bang theory was they’re anything after that?
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.
@@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.)
I remember watching 'Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home' as a kid.
I enjoyed it even then.
Many think of this show as the "first" adult-themed cartoon because of its relative frankness (for an animated cartoon). It came out a year after "All in the Family" debuted, but was actually a bit more light-hearted. It was also ground-breaking in that no network picked it up for either Prime Time or Saturday morning (it just wasn't oriented towards kids, nor was it designed to sell themed toys and "action figures" or lunch boxes as were so many kid's cartoons by then), WTYFGH was only syndicated, which was relatively new at the time.
Alice’s boyfriend looks like Fred from Scooby Doo. Bosley also did the voice for David the gnome. Also, the video game music in the video seems like it’s in every video!
Ha ha, I gotta change up my music I see. 😅 and that was an homage to Fred in that episode
@@BradleySmithRUclips nothing wrong with the music. I love being able to hear the melodies from the games I enjoy just it seems like it’s everywhere. Oh that’s music from Mario paper thousand year door. Oh That’s Zelda wind Waker,
@@BradleySmithRUclips fun fact the voice of fred is the famous voice actor frank welker using his actual voice and they modeled fred's look from frank's at that time he voiced him
I know that I knew that voice! I thought it was the dad from "Happy Days" lol!
@@BradleySmithRUclips use some boards of canada
"Chet may look like a hippie but he's so talk and no action"
So.......a hippie? Lol
I think laugh tracks in cartoons just fell out of favour, but it used to be very common.
I'm surprised I never heard of this cartoon, from what I've seen here, it doesn't even feel that outdated. Very interesting.
That's the neat thing about late 60s/early 70s adult animations. As rare as they were... a lot of them are hauntingly relevant to this very day.
The "Pink Panther" cartoons had laugh tracks in them as late as 1976. By the time Pink Panther switched networks from NBC to ABC in 1977, they no longer used the laugh track.
The Pride Flag crap is overrated.
@@RobinTheMetaGod call it the used kitty litter flag...... cats pride!
reimoo ❤️
I remember seeing this on TV as a kid. The cartoon was one of the reasons why I think the seventies was a lot more hip than the decades that followed.
We were still able to have a sense of HUMOR, before "political correctness" ruined everything.
Um, wasn't the 1970s when parents had full control over what cartoons got made and how?
@@selfdohmm
@@selfdo Cry harder when IASIP still exists
@lilwerner1518 That seems like a you problem.
Jamie is also voiced by Jackie Earle Haley, best known for Rorschach in Watchmen. It's just fun to hear someone who is now known for gruff-violent characters as a soft voiced child.
That's pretty cool to know.
He was that young then
He's actually probably better known for his character in the Bad News Bears movies.
He was eventually replaced by Willie Aames, who went on to do We’ll Get By, the Alan Alda-created sitcom about a family in the North Jersey suburbs. The cast featured Paul Sorvino (Mira’s father), Jerry Hauser (Summer of ‘42; The Brady Brides), Mitzi Hoag, and Devon Scott (daughter of George C., half-sister of Campbell; also originated the daughter role on the Tony Randall Show). Aames also did Eight is Enough and Charles in Charge.
Alice was voiced by Kristina Holland, who played Bill Bixby’s secretary on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and did one of the first TV portrayals of a lesbian in an episode of Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law.
Ralph was voiced by Jack Burns, part of the stand-up comedy team of Burns and Schreiber. Avery Schreiber did a series of some of the first TV commercials for Doritos.
@@vincegay986 Willie "Bible-Man" Aames?
if the wife is the inspiration for Louis, then the dynamic between Harry and Alice has got to be the influence for Peter and Meg
This was on when I was a child in the 70s, and when Family Guy first started I identified it immediately as a very direct remake.
I remember as a 12 yr old being very excited about this show, but oddly saw very few episodes. The intro theme was catchy and I always carried a place for this show in my brain (with the theme soundtrack) as the world forgot about it. Family Guy filled that hole beyond my wildest 12 year old dreams. Thank you for this great retrospective.
I remember Cartoon Network used to play this show late at night in the 90's along with another show called "The Roman Holidays" (which HB thought could replace the Flintstones). Casey Kasem must have been the easiest guest star to get since he was already voicing Shaggy, Robin, Sebastian from Josie & the Pussycats, and a bunch more for the studio
Don't forget THE GOOD OLD DAYS, that was made to compete with THE WALTONS.
@@PotterPossum1989 and The Waltons was already competing with Little House On The Prairie
Josie & The Pussycats was my favorite show in 2nd grade!
@@daisyviluck7932 My grandma made me watch Little House AND the Waltons, religiously, so it felt less like they were competing, and more like they were partnering together, to make my summer vacations a never-ending Oregon Trail nightmare dystopia. This was in a very quiet, religious, small, southern town, where there was only one Piggly Wiggly. So buying a tv guide and waiting until the Waltons came on was the highlight of everyone's day. I still have nightmares about it.
Yeah, I remember "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" during my pre-teen years on Cartoon Network during the late 90's too. When it came up in conversation with my friends and classmates, we all thought it was just the 70's version of "The Simpsons". I don't know my friends/classmates, but I ended up sticking with it during its run on Cartoon Network. And to my surprise, I ended up enjoying, and being pleasantly entertained by it; (not to mention it made me fell more like a grown-up after watching some of the episodes).
(And I guess having a crush on the daughter Alice helped with my engagement of the show at the time too.)
Whoa, I remember watching this when I was a kid. I never forgot that theme song. It's amazing that anyone is still talking about it all these decades later.
The theme song is what most people remember.
I was expecting the Flintstones or the Jetsons. I didn't get the adult humor so I didn't watch it much after the first episode. Then again I was 6 years old at the time so go figure. I did like the opening song and sequence very memorable for my young self.
Ditto! I remember watching this as a kid and even though I haven't seen it in decades, that theme song will never leave my brain. The show was weird back then and it's still weird now. I love it!
@@bloppysloppy4057that’s common for me
Technically the Flintstones in season one was an adult cartoon as a parody of The Honeymooners.
Jackie Gleason nearly sued Hanna-Barbera over effectively "stealing" the Honeymooners but decided against it. The studio offered to do a show starring him, but it never came off. Gleason decided that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.
Not the first season, the whole run. It was on primetime TV.
I remember watching this cartoon, back in the day.
I still find myself singing the theme song, 50 years later.
Interesting just how similar Family Guy and other modern toons are to this.
Thanks for the flashback to a piece of my childhood.
The scary thing about laugh tracks is the fact that they're usually filmed years in advance so most of those people laughing are gone by now
And now thier ghosts
You stole that from a RUclips Short
@@ABlueyFan I don't know what RUclips short that I stole but I didn't mean it
@@Gage-jk4pm no not you. What Jason said
@@ABlueyFan oh sorry
I love the art style a lot, would love to see it done for a show today. with better/more interesting writing of course, something like bob's burgers could work
This series is basically Hanna-Barbera's attempt to take advantage of the success and popularity of Norman Lear's "All in the Family," which was a cultural force in television programming at the time, having debuted a couple of seasons earlier in 1971.
Worked for the Flintstones which lifted The Honeymooners. Although at least they waited for that show to end.
@@jarvindriftwoodI don't think HB Productions "waited" as they took a familiar situation and applied it to the Prehistoric Era.
I remember a Saturday mornig cartoon called the Barkleys who were a family of dogs. The patriarch Arnie Barkley was a cross between Archie Bunker and Ralph Cramden.
@@bloppysloppy4057 Yes-I remember that too! It was by De Patie-Freleng studios, who had employed some of the same people previously at Warner Bros. The studio had done their own recycling of such famous characters as Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, but perhaps is best known for the Pink Panther and also the animated credits for “I Dream of Jeannie”. The interesting thing about Arnie on “The Barkleys” is he was modeled as you said partially from Ralph Kramden (“The Honeymooners”) and both characters drove a bus (although in this series we actually see Arnie as the driver, unlike Ralph who merely refers to it but consistently). Arnie was voiced by Henry Corden, who had replaced Alan Reed on “The Flintstones” and also as you said many of Arnie’s characteristics were also inspired by the loudmouths of all of those patriarchs: Ralph, Fred and of course the bigoted Archie on “All in the Family”. We still see that dynamic in today’s adult-oriented cartoons as well as the “sensible wife” and sometimes insightful kids.
@@anthonysimpsonanygoround8749 Joan Gerber did the voice of Irma on WTYFGH and Arnie's wife on The Barkelys.
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.
The Barkleys look like if Hannah-Barbara were furries. Gotta look into it and try to find the episodes!
@@BradleySmithRUclips 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.
@@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.
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.
Fell asleep watching Cartoon Network (I think) at 7 years old, woke up to topless cartoon girl without nipples at 2:36, went my whole childhood doubting something like that could exist on TV at all.
Now here am I, 29 years later, and it turns out the show did exist after all, it wasn’t a fever dream. This is the forefather of that experience like I had with Adult Swim shows like Xavier: Renegade Angel
( Ok I'm trying to remember this scene as best as possible, but I still love it!)
Ralph: Harry you gotta get me outta here! Tell the Docs and Nurses that this is just Facepaint! I'm not a Negro!
Black Patient: I wish you would. We've been trying to show America Black is beautiful, and he's going to set us back another 100 years!😂
YEAH!! That joke had me on the floor when I heard it. But so good that one of the best jokes/roasts in the show was against the character that we love to hate
I just posted the clip of that joke on my Twitter!
@@BradleySmithRUclips awesome! Could u send me a link?
@@LowellLucasJr. twitter.com/bradleysmithyt/status/1637576391901294592?s=46&t=Rg8q4pMtbKkRO0hGFs_jbQ
Thanks for covering this cartoon. I used to watch this on Cartoon Network, late nights, back in the mid '90s, & never really thought much about the fact that it had such edgy adult material, in it! My mom was a fan of this series, so this also makes me think of her. R.I.P. Mom! This definitely inspired Family Guy & the Simpsons!
The Family Guy of the 70s.
people need to stop ripping off Family Guy!
it was a lot less gross than Family Guy
@@SpamEggSausage very VERY true
@@BradleySmithRUclips yeah but in the 70s damn was on the same level as fuck, shit they were scared of rock and roll turning people satanic so if something like family guy aired even in its earlier seasons it would get pulled immediately
I loved this show as a kid and still do. It was basically All In The Family animated.
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.
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
Technically the Flintstones was originally made for adults
Surprised no one has mentioned that Ralph and Dale Gribble from King of the Hill are basically the same character.
The Flintstones was the first adult animated prime time show. It aired in 1960 on ABC for a total of six seasons. It was supposed to a animated version of the Honeymooners and geared towards adults, but children fell in love with the show and thats why they added Pebbles and Bam Bam in later seasons. The Flintstones also had adult oriented commercials for cigarettes 🚬 and other products.
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.
I do remember seeing this show on TV as reruns when I was a kid back in the 90s. The theme song remains locked in my memory to this day.
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
Oh Ralph...way before Dale Gribble and Stan Smith, THIS guy was always on the alert for those foreign devils, illegal immigrants and ofcoarse those Russians.😅
I actually had never heard of the term “Rooskie” before checking out this show.
The Flintstones?
Prime time, animated series, aimed at adults, 1960.
Warner Brothers cartoons in the movie theaters, were aimed at adults back in the 1940’s.
That 7:32 is actually a VOLUPTUOUS figure (or what USED TO be called one) - not "supper skinny" one.
I don't think these modern wokists differentiate THAT way.
As someone who remembered this show from my childhood, my very 1st impression when fam. guy came on the scene was that the look of the peter & family was inspired by this show.
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!
It's amazing how many gems just get buried like this one.
The first adult cartoon series is Flintstones. It was a satire of then contemporary life. It became a children's show later on.
I remember seeing this on Cartoon Network at like 3am. This was well before Adult Swim, so they just showed unpopular cartoons like this and Roman Holidays to fill the time.
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.
"The Flintstones is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the Rubbles. It was originally broadcast on ABC from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, and was the first animated series to hold a prime-time slot on television.[2]"
I get a spine shiver whenever someone mentions the Nut Shack...
I really like this show’s look. It looks premium, not cheap
I'm 55, I watched that as a little kid. Makes me laugh seeing it again, Shout Factory - this is a job for you.
Ahh, nostalgia. They was all over early Cartoon Network. It was one of my favorites, it was so wild from a modern perspective, while giving insights into the neuroses and anxieties of the era.
The THEME SONG certainly holds up. One of the most dangerously tenacious earworms of all time.
Thank you for doing this review and thank RUclips for recommending it to me! I'm pretty neutral with "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" (I love its theme song and character designs, though), but I do feel sorry for how people (even a couple of established animation historians) often forget about it, being like, "oh, 'The Simpsons' was the first prime-time animated sitcom since 'The Flintstones' ended," when that's false. This show warrants some respect for how ahead of its times its content is.
BTW, the guys who made "Pink Panther" are DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.
i remember watching this show on late night tv in the '90s.....
i loved it, but couldn't figure out where it came from!
thank you for filling in the blanks! 💕
Excellent video! This was shown fairly regularly in the UK in ordinary BBC1 "kids cartoon" slots in the 70s (yes, I AM that old). It was a case of "Cartoon? Obviously for kids then!" But would also sometimes randomly air on BBC2 (the "arty/drama/culture" branch of the BBC) during the evening when they had a spare slot needing filling.
I remember really enjoying it as a kid. I'm Autistic and found "regular" kids cartoons a bit annoying, but WTYFGH was quite fresh. The laugh track was really irritating, but back then, EVERYTHING imported from the US had canned laughs so you sort of tuned it out.
Not many people in the UK seem to remember it - and I've asked a few when "What was the first adult mainstream animated series?" questions came up - but I guess I just have a pretty good audiovisual memory of my childhood. There can be benefits to being non-neurotypical!
Again, thanks for a very entertaining review - it's nice to actually see a clean, noise-free print! We tended to get highly degraded prints sent over here on the Pan Am shuttles back then... Cheers!
PS: Nice to meet you Bradley. I'm Bradley.
I remember watching this on BBC back in the late 70s. I watched anything animated back then, especially Hanna-Barbera shows.
I guess broadcasters in my area had the same opinion that just because it was animated, it must be for kids, because when I watched it in the 1980's, it was a Saturday Morning Cartoon. They showed it, like, half an hour before the Smurfs. I only realized that it was "mature" when I caught reruns on Teletoon Retro in the 2000's.
I'm younger but I remember watching it on Cartoon Network in the US. Nobody that I know seems to remember it either from those days or older folks from back in the day.
It definitely didn't strike me as "adult" back then but I wasn't very well supervised so I had always just watched whatever I wanted. It definitely comes across as much more adult than I had remembered.
I'm autistic too
I remember it in UK in 1979s too. Used to love it.
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
I remember watching this show as a young teenager. Sort of an animated take on the Norman Lear sitcoms like All In The Family, Maude, etc. with some first rate voice talent. I would quibble that the first prime time animated sitcom geared toward adults was the Flintstones, which was mentioned here several times. It may be thought of as a kid's cartoon by some but that's because of the way it was syndicated, which was geared towards kids. But during its original run it was definitely for grown ups. Just take a look at the scripts.
Cartoon Network used to air this before Adult Swim came along. I remember watching this😂
So this cartoon will return to TV on June 29/30 on Metv Toons, a new all cartoon channel coming to free tv. It will air at midnight.
💤
Truly the seventies were dark time indeed for American history.
I saw this on an early version of Cartoon Network that was primarily old reruns and I really thought it was something special at the time. I looked forward to "Wait Til Your Father Gets Home" and "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" as well as the "What A Cartoon" pilot show. Thanks for revisiting and adding those tidbits of context too.
“Without _____, we wouldn’t have _____” is specious.
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.
Same, that's where I discovered it too.
Same here
Any chance you could do an episode on _The Roman Holidays?_ I feel like that was a sitcom that even children could enjoy - which makes sense as it was a Saturday Morning Cartoon, initially. I watched it in the earliest form of Cartoon Network, at nights, alongside _Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch!_ and other things, myself.
Thank you for bringing us back in time, to this brilliant, animated gem from 50 years ago! Having said that, how could you not share with us and showcase the GREAT opening and closing theme songs? They are incredibly catchy and perfectly summate the basic premises the show conveys! Oh well, thank you for your efforts, overall job well done.
I remember catching it late nights on Cartoon Network. Then they did the Oh Canada animated block.
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.
To be fair Bart did hit Homer with a chair one time.
@@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"
@2:00 I was really expecting the whole Super Mario song to played there. 4.4/100 for getting my hopes up.
man they should really make a rerelease of this show and maybe even put it on hbo or something
That would be cool since it's not like it's garbage! There would be an audience for it. Remaster and rerelease on a streaming platform.
As if Velma is THAT bad enough
It's on Me-TV toons now.
Ralph and Whitacre stole the show. Harry's ultimate rejoinder: "Ralph, have you considered leaving your brain to science? They're still trying to find the perfect vacuum."
Alice and Chet are my favorite characters they're such a mood. Jamie kinda sucks though, they kinda just threw him in the pot for no reason.
I see where you coming from.
@@univon4892to be fair, he wasn't in the pilot on Love, American Style and I thought the flow of it was perfect. Jamie just sometimes pops up to either be a support character to the father or a destructive character to his siblings. He doesn't have much of a character himself
Jamie was comedic relief insert plain and simple. The forgotten, youngest child.
Maybe so, but with Jamie you can see the seeds of the Alex P. Keaton character that ended up defining Family Ties.
Jaime was a prototype for Alex Keaton (Michael J Fox) of "Family Ties". A mercenary little shit, but after the utter disappointment that Chet turned out to be, a ray of hope for Harry to continue the Boyle line.
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.
They used to play this on CN in the 90s, and I loved it. I still remember the theme song lol
“Owns a modest truck delivery company?” WRONG. Harry Boyle was a restaurant supply wholesaler.
I'm from Australia and I remember reruns of this being shown after school alongside other kids cartoons such as Scooby Doo, I really enjoyed it at the time (even though I wouldn't have understood most of the jokes), I've never forgotten the theme tune either. Super catchy.
When I was a kid, we often didn't get cable, and the only channel we could get was Global (a Toronto based channel). They didn't run Saturday morning cartoons but you could often watch animated shows on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and I spent quite a few Sundays watching the family's shenanigans.
A modern reboot of this show would be amazing
A transgender family with no father?
we already had that
it was called King of the Hill
No please something should just as they were. That's why family guy is here enjoy that. Lol
@@greenmonkey2995 ew no. Family Guy fell off so hard.
@@urgae9125 👈 dig the user name lol and yeah it did. I just didn't want this show to be mixed in with those hip new shows today lol
OMG thank you for doing this video, I remember this show! I wasn't even aware they did a third season of it! Strangely enough I didn't remember how edgy the show was. I did think it reminded me a little of All In The Family
Just found out the show’s coming out on Blu Ray in its entirety! 1080p video from 4K scans, remastered audio and extras!!! I can’t wait!!!
I remember this show reruns on tv in the 80s, I thought family guy was a sequel to this show.
my first introduction to this show was a tumblr clip where irma says "excuse me, i think i'll go have a nervous breakdown" and had NO idea how to feel beyond "ah, mood"
This was so ahead of its time, it’s doing even more than it’s live action contemporaries.
I dont mind laugh tracks, even if I'm watching tv alone the laugh tracks make it it feel like I'm not
The Flintstones were the first adult animated sitcom. Everyone knows because it came out on prime time in the 1960’s.
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.
yogi bear is missing transparency in his arm space. it haunts me.
Are you nitpicking a super small photoshop detail from a quick edit? I love you. 🙏
As someone born in 1968, these subjects weren't considered sensitive at the time. They were considered common sense. I remember learning about over population in school during the late 70s, and how the west would become drought ridden and burn every yr. The 70s were all about conservation and inclusion. We used to be a somewhat intelligent country. I'm glad to see that intelligence coming back around.
It was the Flintstones that was the first 'adult' animated cartoon show that debut on ABC TV in 1960. ' Not Wait Till Your Farther Gets Home.' the second 'adult' cartoon that debut in the '70'S on NBC.
The series was in syndication not NBC.
I was expecting a mention of All in the Family. That show definitely influenced this show.
It also influenced "Happy Days", and was one of the reasons Tom Bosley had the series-long run as Cunningham patriarch Howard.
All In The Family definitely influenced The Paul Lynde Show
I actually got to watch this as a kid during the 90's.
In the early 90's, I used to catch this show on Cartoon Network sometimes. I was little, so I thought it was really boring. But the theme song stuck and still plays in my head sometimes.
I kind of thought it was a fever dream or mixed-up memory until I saw this video, lmao!
I always thought the first ancestor would be the flinstones, but maybe it's more a precursor than a member of the adult cartoon
The Flintstones ran from 1960 to 1966 in prime time and was about as adult as most sitcoms got on those days. Which is to say, it was considered kid friendly - cigarette ads were not yet restricted - but featured a lot of gags adults would really get, usually plays on celebrities or consumer products and concerns.
I remember watching this back in 1977....it was a rerun and I was 6 years old. I got to see the generation gap, the hippie life and the sexual revolution in one cartoon.
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 😊
Cartoon Network aired this show for a little while sometime in the 90s. Maybe that was it?
It came on late at night on Cartoon Network in the nineties.
The Flintstones came before Wait Til Your Father Gets Home. The Flintstones were originally an adult show airing around 8 to 8:30pm. That's why there are cigarette commercials with them. They were an adult show.