Quoi de neuf, docteur ?

I know most of the people who comment on this probably were teenagers in th 1980's, I however was not. I first saw "Growing Pains" in 1999 as reruns . I fell in love with the show and later learned it was canceled already, then Disney threw it out the window. Fox Family picked it up three years later but they threw it out again. I really think this show is greatly missed by thousands of fans of the show. They say oh well the kids grew up times changed but their could have been so many more episodes and there should have been. I really think that the reruns should be picked up again and this time kept for a while or something like that. Look at the Brady Bunch most people I know hate that show and its a 70's show here its reruns play all the time constantly but yet a sit-com like growing pains from the 80's with more reality and morals is left behind. What's with that?

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.

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.

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!

I find it funny that most reviewed this poorly based on actor Kirk Cameron's life outside of the show.

It occurs to me that the reviews should be based solely on the content and not on the politics of real life. It would make sense if this was a political show but it's not.

Having grown up watching The Seavers, what was it that separated this from all the others ones in the pack and gave it 8 seasons?

Answer: relatability

You have two parents who have professional lives raising kids with decisively different paths. That's it.

It's not meant to be "reality" it's meant to have broad stroke appeal of life. And, frankly, the "lessons" being taught aren't preachy. Again, they are broad stroke enough that it encompasses a possible scenario your family may be going through.

But, as with most sitcoms that exceed 5 seasons, there is a downhill slide. You can sense when the storylines start to exhaust themselves.

Mike only has so many antics he can do before it gets tiresome. And the kiss of death of introducing new characters permeates through the end of the series.

Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns are a convincing married couple. And the children are convincing siblings. But, much like the often compared "Family Ties" The son (in this case Kirk Cameron) overshadows the rest of the cast.

There aren't laugh out loud moments here in 2022, but I will say there are nice smiles. This is a time capsule of its time. If you grew up in an era where there is no cell phones or social media, this will give you a warm feeling. For the younger crowd it may be too corny.

I would stop watching at season 5.