- Meet the Seavers in this hilariously successful late eighties sit-com about a family of five living out on Long Island. Maggie has recently rejoined the workforce as a journalist, leaving Jason, a psychiatrist, to juggle his responsibilities to his patients and his three kids by working from home. Mike’s the oldest and possibly the most difficult to handle! Whether it’s for girls, dirt bikes or Th
Meet the Seavers in this hilariously successful late eighties sit-com about a family of five living out on Long Island. Maggie has recently rejoined the workforce as a journalist, leaving Jason, a psychiatrist, to juggle his responsibilities to his patients and his three kids by working from home. Mike’s the oldest and possibly the most difficult to handle! Whether it’s for girls, dirt bikes or The Boss, Mike uses his charming smile to finagle his way into trouble. The youngest, Ben, tries to tag along with his big brother learning to be a little con-artist in his own right. And amid the chaos, Carol, the middle child, tries to keep her head on straight and maintain her straight-A status at school. Join the Seavers as they experience the growing pains of family life, including a few disputes sprinkled in among lots of love and laughter. This four-disc set offers two welcome opportunities to be reunited with the Seaver family. The first is all 22 episodes of this 1985 sitcom’s inaugural season, which resurrected the career of failed talk-show host Alan Thicke, and catapulted Kirk Cameron to teen-idol status. The second is a near-half-hour present-day campfire chat with all the cast members, including Joanna Kerns (conflicted working mom Maggie), a hearty and seemingly healthy Tracey Gold (brainy daughter Carol), and Jeremy Miller (precocious younger son Ben). Joined by writer Tim O’Donnell, they share memories of how each was cast, their fond memories of the show and dealing with fan adulation. Growing Pains did not really suffer any. It cracked the Top Ten in its first season, and while the cast members are not the most natural comic actors, by season’s end their bond is palpable and the characters really do seem like family. Thicke’s Dr. Jason Seaver is a sitcom anomaly: a work-at-home dad. He has moved his psychiatric practice into the den after Maggie takes a job as a journalist. His belief system is put to the supreme test by his three children, especially 15-year-old Mike (Cameron), whom Maggie calls “a hormone with feet.” In the pilot episode, no sooner does Jason agree to give Mike more independence, then Mike is jailed for joyriding in his older friend’s car.
Growing Pains does have a tendency to go for the easy laugh by having the kids–especially 9-year-old Ben–spout age-inappropriate jokes (“It was all so clinical,” he complains at one point to Maggie after Jason bandages a scrape). But the series did admirably touch on some hot button family issues. In “The Seavers vs. the Cleavers,” Annette Funicello guest stars in a rare mean role as a parent who disapproves of Maggie choosing to work “just when her children need her the most” (a nifty little retro joke: “Ward, I’m worried about the Seavers”). In “Superdad!,” Maggie is upset that Carol turns to the ever-present Jason and not to her for advice. Refreshingly, not all problems are solved by episode’s end. In the same episode, a boy the esteem-challenged Carol has an unrequited crush on does not miraculously materialize to ask her to the dance. In addition to the cast reunion, this set contains an interesting extra: the unaired version of the pilot with a less telegenic (but perhaps more in character) Elizabeth Ward in the role of Carol. For those who grew up with the Seavers, and in need of a retro blast of ’80s nostalgia, Growing Pains will still, to quote the theme song, show you that smile again. –Donald Liebenson
Buy “Growing Pains – The Complete First Season” For Only $5.77
Related Blogs
- Related Blogs on Complete
April 8, 2010
#1
My wife, myself, and our four kids (ages 4 to 10) found Growing Pains boring, unrealistic, and sometimes offensive. Shows often focused on parents’ insecurities, not on the kids. The parents displayed the insecureties typical of children, while the children displayed the confidence and arrogance typical of adults.
Episodes were unrealistic and offenive; like when the oldest boy looses the black dog he was watching for his girl friend and, instead of looking for the lost dog, he somehow gets a white dog look-a-like, dyes it black, gives it to his girl friend. When the dye washes off this beautiful girl loves him for the deception as she suddenly discovers that neither she nor her family never really liked the lost dog. No interest at all in the fate of the poor lost dog. Its all about what makes them feel real good, right now. This is fantisy for the immature and the self-absorbed!
Then there was the one where a teenage girl, dressed and acting like a hooker, stops by to visit the oldest boy. She was invited into the living room, chats with the family, and casually says she just broke-up with her boy friend and was looking for some action with their son. This is unrealistic and revolting! This is not funny and not for family viewing.
Our family voted unanimously to discontinue Growing Pains after the 8th episode. We gave it a chance and it only got worse. We’re returning to good family entertainment like The Brady Bunch, Partridge Family, Full House, and The Cosby Show.
April 8, 2010
#2
Didn’t the Supreme Court abolish cruel and unusual forms of punishment? So, why are prisoners at Sing Sing forced to watch “Growing Pains?” My goodness, even these harden criminals don’t deserve that type of treatment. …To say the very least, “Growing Pains” was a very poor and irresponsible sitcom. Thank goodness it is no longer in coast-to-coast syndication. And, from what I have heard, there will be absolutely no more DVD sets because the first one was a behemoth failure!
I used to watch this show as a child growing up. At the time it was on, I never realized how detrimental and harmful “Growing Pains” was to the majority of American nuclear families. I was just a very small child, so I would laugh at the stupidity that was promulgated on this show. As an adult, when I watch this show, I am sincerely disgusted and equally disappointed that network TV would allow such a farce like this to pollute the airwaves.
Alan Thicke played Jason Seaver; a psychiatrist who worked out of his home. And, Joanna Kerns portrayed his wife, Maggie; that was the typical cliche for the working 80′s woman. Why do American sitcoms always portray the white families as upper class? The husbands are always doctors or lawyers and the wives (if they do work) have some boring and inconsequential job. Doesn’t the writers realize how out of touch this is with society? I can only think of two TV shows in the past 40 years of television that portrayed the working American family, Roseanne and of course, All in the Family.
Then there’s Kirk Cameron who played the perennial underachiever, Mike. Mike was a lot like Bart Simpson because he was just as cartoonish, childish, lazy and ignorant. As you may know, Kirk Cameron’s character was the “breakout star” of this episodic conundrum which only made this vulgar and grotesque caricature of a teenager even more sickening to view. Even as an adult Mike was a screw up. This man-child simply was intent on living like a low-life.
Where were Mike’s parents? Why didn’t Maggie and Jason care enough to try to help their son? At the end of the day, no matter how “with it” or “cool” they were, it would have been much more beneficial to properly raise their children as authoritative figures who take an (active) interest in their kids’ live? Instead, they were a couple of yes-men who were more like school-friends, than parents. Again, many TV shows were like this, as far as the parenting was concerned. (And, I would assert that this was purely due to lazy and uninspired writing.) But as far as Mike Seaver was concerned, I would say a good portion of the blame starts and stops with his parents.
As far as Kirk Cameron was concerned, the cartoon character and the human being have totally blurred into a coagulated eyesore. That line separating fiction and realism has been forever erased. But, Kirk Cameron, was so much more than just a loudmouth windbag. As a teen, he was totally irresponsible; he would drink and hop from bed to bed. And then all of a sudden in the late 80′s he “found relig*on,” and became an even bigger sanctim*nious hyp**rite. You might remember, he caused a furor when he had sweet Julie Costello fired from the show because she dared pose for a men’s magazine. Just who does Cameron think he is?
….It all comes back to the bottom line. Money. They knew that this bony, nappy-headed, zit-face was their big cash-cow. Or, he was at least for the first few years of the show. He did start to slip and by the final season he was a repugnant joke. Do you remember watching “Growing Pains?” Mike Seaver, in the last season was extraordinarily tragic to watch. Here was a 20-something man, that was uneducated, who did not have any motivation, who didn’t have a career and who apparently had a severe (yet undiagnosed) learning disability!
Leonardo DiCaprio came by for the last season to clean up the mess; that was Kirk Cameron. And, it goes without saying that even this young child had more talent than this entire troupe of ninnies. According to numerous published reports in the MSM, Kirk Cameron was very envious of Mr. DiCaprio. And now that Leonardo DiCaprio has become a huge world-wide sensation, Cameron is even more distraught. He can be even be seen crying into his cornflakes every morning, “it should have been me…. why wasn’t it me…?”
April 8, 2010
#3
i enjoyed the dvds 2-4,but the first one will not play because it had to big scuffs in it
April 8, 2010
#4
Growing Pains was not the best sitcom. It was the poor sibling to Family Ties. While the plot was simple, the casting was first rate of under-rated Joanna Kerns and Alan Thicke as the parents. They were a great couple. Then there was the children. Teens Michael Seaver played by Kirk Cameron who was the teen heart throb of my generation. Carol Seaver was first played by Elizabeth Ward in the pilot who did an admirable job but they went alternative with Tracey Gold, Missy Gold’s sister who played the governor’s daughter on Benson. The youngest sibling was played by Jeremy Miller as BEnjamin. The Seavers were the ideal family in all respects. They loved and respected each other. While the show was popcorn silly and tame, it was still worth watching time and time again. For all the plots and the sitcoms today, Growing Pains was the ideal family situation. I guess I wished that I was Maggie Seaver with the loving husband and kids.
April 8, 2010
#5
I ordered this item about a year ago. I’m sorry this review didn’t get out sooner. I thought the product was going to be better. I used to like the show Growing Pains, but having not been born when this first season came out, made it that much tougher to watch and understand. Otherwise, it was a good product. Each episode lasted about 20-25 minutes(whereas each episode at original on TV, would have lasted 30 minutes[due to difference in non-advertising on this DVD]).