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Growing Pains was an American television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from 1985 to 1992.

The show was about the Seaver family. Dr. Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke), a psychiatrist who works from home because his wife, Maggie (Joanna Kerns), has gone back to work as a reporter. Jason has to take care of his kids: 15-year-old troublemaker Mike (Kirk Cameron), 14-year-old honors student Carol (Tracey Gold), and rambunctious 9-year-old Ben (Jeremy Miller). The show was relevant in the mid-1980s as women going to work was becoming more and more common, as were stay at home dads.

The 1989–1990 season was retconned out of existence as a dream of Mike Seaver's after Kirk Cameron insisted that new castmate Julie McCullough be fired for posing for Playboy magazine. Cameron later apologized for his actions (see below). The previous season had ended on a cliffhanger in which Mike asked Julie to marry him. Initially the character of Julie abandoned Mike at the altar; there was a backlash by fans and she was brought back later to reconcile. McCullough did not find out she was being fired until showing up to film what she thought was a wedding episode.

Because of his religious conversion, Cameron's beliefs frequently interfered with production of the show. He insisted that no "adult themes" be incorporated into episodes, and he often demanded that entire episodes be re-written when he objected to the content (when one planned episode revolved around Julie giving Mike the key to her apartment, Cameron objected to the sexual connotations, and he forced a new script to be written). At one point Cameron publically referred to several of the producers as "pornographers", due to the content of some of the episodes. Three of the producers quit as a result of his actions and statements.

In 2003, according to the article "The Rebirth of Kirk Cameron" in Christianity Today, Cameron "admits he made some mistakes common to new believers — such as distancing themselves so far from the world that they do no good for anyone ... In time, however, he realized his missteps. In 2000, he rejoined his former cast members for a Growing Pains reunion movie. With a decade of spiritual growth under his belt, he stood in front of his TV family and apologized. 'I was a 17-year-old guy trying to walk with integrity, knowing that I was walking in the opposite direction from many other people. I didn't have the kind of maturity and graceful way of putting things perhaps that I would now,' he says. Cameron's fellow actors immediately embraced him."

At the beginning of the last season, a new character, Luke Brower, was introduced, played by a then unknown Leonardo DiCaprio in an attempt to salvage ratings. The show, however, was cancelled at the end of the season.

In 2004, there was a second reunion movie. On February 7, 2006, Warner Bros. released the complete first season, with the first 22 episodes of the series, on Region 1 DVD. In conjunction with the release, the cast reunited for a CNN Larry King Live interview which aired on that same date.

Trivia

  • Despite the character of Mike being older than Carol, Kirk Cameron was actually one year younger than Tracey Gold.
  • Actress Tracey Gold was absent for most of the final season due to her personal struggle with an eating disorder.
  • The character of Chrissy was "jumped" five years in age over the course of only one year to bring more interest to the show and to give the writers more to play with in terms of storylines.
  • Reruns aired on the Disney Channel at the end of the 1990s; the episodes featuring Leonardo DiCaprio were given special emphasis in an attempt to draw in tween crowds who had recently seen him in the 1997 blockbuster Titanic.
  • The theme song ("As Long As We Got Each Other") was performed by B. J. Thomas, Jennifer Warnes (1986–1988, 1989–91, 1992), and made a hit with Dusty Springfield (1988). An a cappella version was used in the sixth season and for some episodes in the final season.
  • Elizabeth Ward was cast as the original Carol Anne Seaver, but was replaced by Tracey Gold (who had auditioned for the part but at first didn't get it) after the pilot was shown to test audiences with poor results prior to the network premiere of the show.
  • Julie McCullough was fired after nude photos of her were published in Playboy. It is rumored that Kirk Cameron was behind the termination because of his strict Christian faith.

Main cast

Minor Recurring Characters

Notable Guest Stars

External links

1980s TV shows in the United States | 1990s TV shows in the United States | ABC network shows | Sitcoms | TV shows produced/distributed by Warner Brothers | Disney Channel shows | Television shows set in New York

Growing Pains | 成长的烦恼

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Growing Pains".

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