Growing Pains

One of my all time favorite TV shows is back on with a vengence...Growing Pains! Reruns of this classic series have been running on Ion and Nick at Nite on an almost daily basis in hour long blocks. Though often overshadowed by greater 80's family sitcoms such as The Cosby Show and Family Ties, Pains ran from 1985 to 1992 chronicling the life of the Seavers. The Seavers faced the typical family sitcom issues of first dates, bratty siblings and..well, you know, growing pains. The show exuded genuine family warmth while depicting an upper middle class brood (Mom's a TV reporter while Dad's a psychiatrist) with genial problems and a lot of free time to handle matters together. Kirk Cameron excelled as the slacker prankster pretty boy Mike Seaver until he became religious to the point he beat all the creativity out of the show. Tracy Gold also did well as girl next door brain Carol Seaver until anorexia became a real threat to her life. And Alan Thicke! What can you say?

The show's peak years from '85 to '90 represented a pleasant escape and a nostalgic look back to Reagan America. Big bold color clothes, record players and slutty Madonna jokes bring back the 80's in style. Future stars like Leo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Matthew Perry all made appearances. Although the show wasn't groundbreaking or challenging, Growing Pains knew how to play its storys with the right amounts of TV predicatability and post modern snarkiness (the best friend was named "Boner"!). Eventually the show sank under the weight of Cameron's restricitive moral demands and failure to replace him (even Leo DiCaprio failed to do this during his stint on Pains and no this was not an intentional Titantic reference).

Growing Pains' world of pleasant people with comical issues and financial comfort still has a great deal of appeal to me. Is it realistic? No, not even close. But the dream of rational, happy people who can face problems with pragmatism and care is still attractive (Alan Thicke was almost as sanctimonious as Mike Brady on the Brady Bunch, but funnier in a dorky way). The show's 80's approach of providing Middle American values with gentle humor stands out, particularly compared to today's TV family world of perverts, idiots and head cases (like The War At Home). Wow, I'm sounding more like Kirk Cameron every day. I guess TV can have an affect on people. Show me that smile again...or else you'll be Left Behind!