Series Description

Growing Pains was a 30 minute family comedy series on ABC. The Seaver family was headed by a father who worked in a home office as a psychologist and a mother who was a newpaper reporter. Their 15-year-old son Mike was mostly into having good times which resulted in his often finding trouble. He cared less about petty things like school work! Their 14-year-old daughter Carol was the complete opposite of her older brother. She had a very "reserved" personality and would much rather study for an exam than waste her time going to parties. The youngest child was 9-year-old Ben who, to his parents dismay, worshiped every move his older brother Mike made. Growing Pains episodes pretty much featured storylines about common problems between parents and their children and between siblings with a few serious social issue episodes sprinkled in for good measure.

Growing Pains Cast

Alan Thicke .... Jason Seaver
Joanna Kerns .... Maggie Seaver
Kirk Cameron .... Mike Seaver
Tracey Gold .... Carol Seaver
Jeremy Miller .... Ben Seaver
Ashley Johnson .... Chrissy Seaver
Leonardo DiCaprio .... Luke Brower
Andrew Koenig .... Richard "Boner" Stabone

Growing Pains Theme

Title: "As Long As We Got Each Other"

By: "Steve Dorff and John Bettis"

Show me that smile again. (Show me that smile)
Don't waste another minute on your cryin'.
We're nowhere near the end (nowhere near)
The best is ready to begin.

Oooohhh. As long as we got each other
We got the world spinnin' right in our hands.
Baby you and me, we gotta be
The luckiest dreamers who never quit dreamin'.

As long as we keep on givin'
we can take anything that comes our way
Baby, rain or shine, all the time
We got each other Sharin' the laughter and love.

Growing Pains Trivia:

The Seaver family lived on Long Island in New York.

There were 166 episodes of the Growing Pains TV Show that aired from 1985-1992.

The newspaper that Maggie Seaver worked for was the "Long Island Herald". The name that she used on the articles she authored was her maiden name, "Maggie Malone".

Growing Pains created a "spin-off series" when Graham Lubbock, the lousy teacher who was played by actor "Bill Kirchenbauer" moved to a new series titled, "Just the Ten of Us"! Lubbock moved his family to Eureka, California to become a coach at an all boys Catholic school.

On episode #96 of Growing Pains titled, "Fish Bait", a love interest (Kate MacDonald) for Mike Seaver was added to the series. Kate was played by actress Chelsea Noble who would become Kirk Cameron's real-life wife just 21 months later! It's notable that Kirk and Chelsea are still together today with 17 years of marriage! It is possible for show people to make successful relationships!

Andrew Koenig who played the part of "Boner" on Growing Pains was the son of acter Walter Koenig who played the role of "Ensign Chekov" on the classic 1960s TV series, "Star Trek".

On October 26, 1988 in the Growing Pains episode titled, "Birth of a Seaver", the Seaver kids got a new little sister named, "Chrissy". Amazingly, two years later, in 1990, Chrissy had somehow become seven-years-old!

In addition to being a fine actore, Alan Thicke wrote the theme songs for the series "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life" but not for Growing Pains, his own series!

During the sixth season, Growing Pains ratings were getting pretty bad. In episode #138, "Not With My Carol You Don't", a 16-year-old Leonardo Dicaprio was added to the cast as a homeless teenager that the Seaver's took in off the street. The producers had hoped that Leonardo would bring in more teenage viewers but it the only thing that helped was DiCaprio's career. Shortly after Growing Pains was canceled, he got a major role in the 1993 film, "This Boy's Life" and became the superstar that he remains today!