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'Growing Pains' The Complete Second Season DVD Review

Growing Pains: Season Two (1986-87)
Show & DVD Details
Creator: Neal Marlens / Executive Producers: Steve Marshall, Dan Guntzelman, Mike Sullivan
Writers: Tim O'Donnell, Tom Walla, David Kendall, Susan Beavers, Melody Rowland, David Tyron King, Dan Guntzelman, Steve Marshall, Carolyn Shelby, Christopher Ames, Martin Sage, Sybil Adelman, Kate Boutilier
Regular Director: John Tracy / 1-Episode Director: Dan Guntzelman
Regular Cast: Alan Thicke (Jason Seaver), Joanna Kerns (Maggie Seaver), Kirk Cameron (Mike Seaver), Tracey Gold (Carol Seaver), Jeremy Miller (Ben Seaver)
Recurring Characters: Josh Andrew Koenig (Richard 'Boner' Stabone), K.C. Martel (Eddie), Kevin Wixted (Bobby Winnet), Lisa Capps (Debbie), Rachel Jacobs (Shelley), Gordon Jump (Ed Malone), Betty McGuire (Kate Malone), Bill Kirchenbauer (Coach Lubbock), Melanie Gaffin (Trudy Sullivan), Mya Akerling (Heidi Deforest)
Notable Guest Stars: Dan Barrows (Dave Sacks), Raymond Singer (Rick), Jonna Lee (Becky Zwarkin), Christa Denton (Elaine Dooley), Jamie Abbott (Louis Vasco), Katy Boyer (Annie), Michael McManus (Buddy Koosman), Michael Kenworthy (Kris Koosman), Olivia d'Abo (Terry), Danny Nucci (Scooter Krassner), John La Motta (Salvatore Babotz), Lou Richards (Braxton Hicks), Hallie Todd ('The Kid' a.k.a. 'Nancy Reagan'), Jill Whitlow (Kim), Tina Casparay (Jamie), Renée Estevez (Robin), Jamie Luner (Sheena Berkowitz), Heather Graham (Samantha), Kristy Swanson (Rhonda), Brooke Theiss (Stacy Sullivan), Patrika Darbo (Judy Jones), Dawn Wells (Myrtle Deforest), Julie Cobb (Grace Thornton), Dan Lauria (Dan Columbo), Mimi Lieber (Susan Columbo), Kari Lizer (Stewardess), Bruce Baum (Frightened Passenger), Douglas Seale (Jimmy), Candace Cameron (Jenny Foster), James Sloyan (Max Drummond), Linda Carlson (Margo Drummond)
Running Time: 524 Minutes (22 episodes) / Rating: Not Rated
1.33:1 Fullscreen (Original Broadcast Ratio) / Dolby Stereo 2.0 (English)
Subtitles: English for Hearing Impaired, French; Not Closed Captioned
Suggested Retail Price: $29.98; DVD Release Date: April 26, 2011
Season 2 Airdates: September 30, 1986 - May 11, 1987
Three single-sided, dual-layered discs (DVD-9s); Clear Keepcase in Cardboard Box

Buy Growing Pains on DVD from Amazon.com: The Complete Second Season Season • The Complete First Season

At what point did sitcoms start needing a hook to make it on the air? I can't imagine a network show getting on primetime today without a distinctive angle or star personality. That's not a bad thing. Comedy is an ever-changing art and the move away from multiple cameras, laugh tracks, and outlandish premises has undoubtedly brought an increase in sophistication. But the subject of this review illustrates that when the old ways worked, they really worked.

The simple way to describe 'Growing Pains' to somebody is to say that it is about a family. From there, you might go into some detail. Say that the Seavers are an upper middle class family (of course) living in Long Island (not that it matters beyond the occasional location reference or snowy establishing shot). By this point, you'd realize that the personalities and the family dynamic are what make the show so enjoyable.

Character descriptions are no substitute for spending time with this family and getting to know and like its members. But as this is a review and my first of this show, I see no task more fitting than acquainting or reacquainting you with the Seavers.

The father of the family, Jason (played by Alan Thicke), is a psychiatrist who works from home, counseling patients (something we see very little of by Season 2) in his office. His wife, Maggie (Joanna Kerns), has a successful career as a newspaper reporter. The couple is grounded and tested by their three kids. Mike (Kirk Cameron, the show's de facto star) is the mischievous one, always with a scam and the opposite sex in mind. Fellow teen Carol (Tracey Gold) is the brainy one, expected -- and usually -- on her best behavior. Rounding out the lot through the first three seasons is Ben (Jeremy Miller), the blonde boy whose youth distinguishes him.

I've enjoyed 'Growing Pains' for as long as I can remember. I have fond memories of making a habit of catching its daily reruns, one summer back in the middle of the 1990s and about five years ago on ion television. It's a show I can't imagine anyone strongly disliking, particularly anyone who had a remotely comparable nuclear family experience during the show's 1985-1992 run.

Much like 'Family Ties', whose own seven-season stretch began three years earlier, 'Growing Pains' satisfies with its depictions of relatable family life and interactions. It's funny, smart, and comforting. Sure, there is the air of artifice that lingers over almost all television and is one of the sitcom's long-defining features. Problems are tidily resolved in a little over 20 minutes and emotional growth is soon forgotten. That is all normal for a sitcom, and 'Growing Pains' is about as prototypical a sitcom as there is for someone of my generation.

I don't think I'm alone in being able to demand less and overlook more when it comes to sitcoms. People don't turn to multi-camera comedy expecting pathos, to be moved, or to ever really go anywhere or do anything. It's just fun to peek in at a family, enjoy how they reflect your own (or don't, as the case might well be) and follow them through years of scripted situations. It's easy to intellectualize the medium, deconstruct the methods, and point out the artistic limitations. But I find it easier still to enjoy the ride for what it is. And 'Growing Pains' offers an agreeable ride that any sitcom fan should enjoy taking.

As if the seven-year run didn't make that clear, 'Growing Pains' was quite a popular program. It ranked 19th among all primetime shows in its first season. By season 2, it jumped to eighth and settled in as the strong center of ABC's high-performing Tuesday night lineup, where it aired in between fellow Top 10ers 'Who's the Boss?' and 'Moonlighting.'

In its fourth season, 'Growing Pains' was moved to Wednesday nights, where it spent three years getting decent ratings but less than it had in its Tuesday glory. In its final season, the one that introduced Leonardo DiCaprio as a regular cast member (perhaps the show's greatest claim to fame for the young and unfamiliar today), 'Growing Pains' was exiled to Saturday nights where it languished along with its original Tony Danza lead-in, also cancelled at year's end. The Seaver house would live on, mildly refurbished for the 1992 pilot of 'Hangin' with Mr. Cooper', a fact observed in Alan Thicke's baton-passing cameo there. The 'Growing Pains' cast (minus DiCaprio) would also reunite twice last decade for a pair of ABC television movies: 2000's The Growing Pains Movie and 2004's Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers.

Though coming at the height

Growing Pains Complete Series