Growing Pains

Growing Pains is one of the greatest shows of the 1980's. However, because of "The Cosby Show" and "Family Ties" and other great shows during the late 80's, the show is constantly overlooked and very underrated. The show had very good acting. It is a shame that this show is constantly overlooked when we talk about the greatest shows in the 80's

When I first saw "Growing Pains" I referred to it disparagingly as "The White Cosby Show". In 1984, sitcoms were the junk food of the television diet. They lacked quality, and were relegated to the basement of the Nielsen ratings. Then, in 1984, NBC showed that a sitcom could be #1 in the ratings with "The Cosby Show". I greeted "Growing Pains", ABC's apparent attempt to cash in with a new family sitcom in 1985, with cynicism, and watched every week for them to drop the ball. I watched, in the beginning to see this show crash and burn, and was very surprised to find, in a few weeks that I liked it!

In a time before shows about dysfunctional families like "Married...With Children" and "Roseanne" (good shows in their own way) "Growing Pains" showed a reasonably functional family in a basically caring environment, Mike's constant put-downs of Carol being his way of handling the affection he felt for his sister but felt uncomfortable showing.

The members of this family liked each other, and their feelings were infectious. I liked being able to hang out with the Seaver family for half an hour every week, and daily when the syndicated reruns began. I haven't been able to see GP reruns in at least 4 years. When the twice-a-day reruns of "Seinfeld", "Friends", and "The Simpsons" begin to lose their steam, I hope "Growing Pains" is given another opportunity.

I still love the fantastic wit Growing Pains has! Even in reruns, this show still makes me laugh--a lot. With a talented cast like this, I'm surprised none of them made it big in Hollywood (except for you-know-who from Titanic). The Seavers were one of my favorite TV families and I was sad when the show left the air. I also loved the recent reunion movie!

This show was one of the best shows of the eighties at its peak. From the '88-89 season on however it got worse and worse with each subsequent year, until it just collapsed by the time the early nineties arrived. Starting off a little slow but still funny, the show kicked it into overdrive during its second and third seasons ('86-87 and '87-88). Not only did it have smart, original humour based in pop culture references and 'Moonlighting' style in-jokes with the audience, but it was also touching, even if it did cross over into the realm of sappiness on occasion. The '88-89 season however brought with it a bunch of problems, Kirk Cameron's mullett style haircut the least of them. The baby was born, breaking up the show's focus on the core family. Mike graduated high school, diminishing a lot of the funny supporting characters like Boner, Eddie, Coach Lubbock, Principal Dewitt etc. They still showed up from time to time (some of them in their own series) but it wasn't the same. I know that there was no way of preventing this, but taking Mike and then eventually Carol out of this enclosed, familiar environment made the show uneven, with new characters and settings coming and going each week. Julie the babysitter, Grandma Erma, Wally, and Luke all brought nothing to the show except bad episodes.

The shift in the characters clothing from bright colorful pastels to dark earth tones was another turnoff, at least from a viewer's standpoint. Again this might be just due to the changing of the times. I think a new producer came aboard after the show sold into syndication and that's why the series got so lame from this point on. Also I heard that because of his religion, Kirk Cameron was editing the scripts to make sure they fit in with his conservative beliefs. Whatever the reason, this show went out with a whimper when it left the air in 1992, and probably totaled more years as a bad show, than I think it should have as the good one that most people remember.

Growing Pains was a truly funny family show that walked the line between being "too mature" for young audiences and being corny (like Full House). The cast actually likes each other and still gets together to reminisce regularly. This chemistry comes through on screen.

Everything from the opening song to the closing credits is great. My only issues with the series were the fat jokes made at Tracey Gold's expense. The producers told her to lose weight, leading her down the dark path to anorexia. Even when she'd dropped from 133 to 112 lbs, they STILL included the occasional fat joke!

As any man will tell you, calling a woman 'fat' is the worst thing you can do. Calling a teenage girl fat on national TV every week is beyond cruel. Nevermind the fact that she never WAS fat!

Beyond that, I have no complaints about the show. I do prefer the first 3 seasons before "Luke" and "Chrissy" came in (and before Kirk converted to radical Christianity). Alan Thicke's character seemed harsher and meaner around Season 5, which I didn't like. Oh, and the "Carol's Carnival" episode is just sad and creepy.

This is sounding like a negative review, but I assure you it's not. Compared to some of the other crap that was on TV during these years, Growing Pains is a brilliant show that stands the test of time.

Long Live the Seavers!