59-478: Growing Pains is an American television sitcom created by Neal Marlens that aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992. The series follows the misadventures of the Seaver family, including psychiatrist and father Jason, journalist and mother Maggie, and their children Mike, Carol, Ben, and Chrissy. The show ran for 7 seasons, airing 166 episodes. The show centers on the Seaver family of Huntington ,
118-458: A television show (the fictitious variety program The Alan Brady Show ) was written and produced. Many scenes deal with Rob and his co-writers, Buddy Sorrell ( Morey Amsterdam ) and Sally Rogers ( Rose Marie ). Mel Cooley ( Richard Deacon ), a balding straight man and recipient of numerous insulting one-liners from Buddy, was the show's producer and the brother-in-law of the show's star, Alan Brady ( Carl Reiner ). As Rob, Buddy, and Sally write for
177-504: A Protestant) is said to have alienated him from his fellow cast members, as he did not invite any of them to his 1991 wedding to Chelsea Noble (who recurred as Mike's on-off love interest-turned-girlfriend, Kate McDonnell, during the show's last three seasons). The creative clashes between Cameron and executive producers Marshall, Guntzelman and Sullivan also are said to have prompted the three showrunners (along with co-executive producer/writer David Kendall and director John Tracy ) to quit
236-509: A block called Giga from February 19, 1990, on the same network. Two books were published in French exclusively about Growing Pains : Cyrille Rollet, Ph.D. (EHESS, Paris), The show aired with the title Unser lautes Heim (Our noisy home) on ProSieben from 1993. The show aired in 1987 with the title Genitori in blue jeans (Parents in blue jeans) where the first two seasons original aired on Canale 5 then it moved to Italia 1 for
295-410: A comedy show, the premise provides a built-in forum for them to constantly make jokes. Other scenes focus on the home life of Rob, his wife Laura ( Mary Tyler Moore ), and son Ritchie ( Larry Mathews ), who live in suburban New Rochelle, New York . Also often seen are their next-door neighbors and best friends, Jerry Helper ( Jerry Paris ), a dentist, and his wife Millie ( Ann Morgan Guilbert ). Many of
354-415: A new life away from the entertainment industry. In 2000, Cameron revealed he apologized to his TV family for some of his prior behavior, saying, "If I could go back, I think I could make decisions that were less inadvertently hurtful to the cast--like talking and explaining to them why I just wanted to have my family at my wedding." In 1988 at age 19, Gold gained some weight over the production hiatus between
413-419: A scene for a stage play; Cameron, however, did the scene as written). Julie McCullough was cast as Julie Costello, a recurring character hired by Jason to work as a nanny for newborn Chrissy Seaver, during the fourth season in 1989, appearing in eight episodes until she was fired at the start of the fifth season. Though the show's producers have claimed that her character was never intended to be permanent—citing
472-431: A sepia toned photo (that morphed into color) of the cast at the end. Season 2 initiated the familiar show title over a live-action shot of the cast standing in front of the set of the house, before mixed imagery of clips from the show and photos of the cast when they were younger. At the end of the intro, the cast left their standing position to walk towards the house and a rotating member of the cast would lag behind. For
531-439: A town on Long Island, New York . Dr. Jason Seaver ( Alan Thicke ), a psychiatrist, works from home because his wife, Maggie ( Joanna Kerns ), has gone back to work as a reporter. Jason has to take care of the children, Ladies' man and rebellious troublemaker Mike ( Kirk Cameron ), his sister, bookish honors student Carol ( Tracey Gold ), and finally, rambunctious Ben ( Jeremy Miller ) who follows Mike as his role model and becomes
590-580: A troublemaker too. A 4th child, Chrissy Seaver (twins Kelsey and Kirsten Dohring; Ashley Johnson ), was added in Season 4 and, in Season 7, Luke Brower, a homeless teen, ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) was adopted into the Seaver family. Often mentioned but rarely seen are the Seavers's next door neighbors, the Koosmans, a reference to the 1969 Miracle Mets (and players Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman ). Soon after
649-647: Is an American sitcom created by Carl Reiner that initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961, to June 1, 1966, with a total of 158 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons. It was produced by Calvada Productions in association with the CBS Television Network, and was shot at Desilu Studios . Other producers included Bill Persky and Sam Denoff . The music for the show's theme song was written by Earle Hagen . The show starred Dick Van Dyke , Mary Tyler Moore , Rose Marie , Morey Amsterdam , and Larry Mathews . The Dick Van Dyke Show centered on
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#1732791075751708-473: Is giving birth, with the family ushering her back to the house while the theme music finishes. The remainder of season 4 again had the family standing in front of the house set, now with the youngest member (infant Chrissy) depicted. The remainder were again vintage photos of the cast. Kirk Cameron, who was an atheist in his early teens, became a born again Protestant Christian when he
767-579: Is known for work on the television series Growing Pains , The Wonder Years and Ellen , all with his wife, fellow television producer/writer Carol Black . Neal Marlens is one of two sons, with brother Steve, of Al and Hanna Marlens, respectively a Newsday managing editor and later an editor at The New York Times , and a Long Island school psychologist born in Vienna, Austria , in 1928 and who escaped The Holocaust by moving first to Cuba and then New York City, and who died in 2008. Neal Marlens
826-579: The Disney Channel from September 1997 to September 2001. The cable rights for the show moved to sister network ABC Family , where it ran from 2001 to 2004. It has also aired on ION Television during the fall of 2006 into the spring of 2007. Nick at Nite began airing Growing Pains on February 12, 2007, launching with a marathon from 9:00 PM–1:00 AM. It was pulled from the line-up shortly after, and reruns later moved to sister network Noggin (as part of its teen block, The N ). TeenNick re-aired
885-597: The 2004 reunion special), Alvy Moore , Isabel Randolph , Burt Remsen, Johnny Silver , Doris Singleton , Amzie Strickland , George Tyne , Herb Vigran and Len Weinrib . Frank Adamo, who served as Van Dyke's personal assistant and stand-in, also played small roles throughout the show's five seasons. The Dick Van Dyke Show was filmed before a live audience (one of the few sitcoms at the time to do so) at Desilu-Cahuenga Studios in Hollywood, California , with audience " sweetening " performed in post-production. Many of
944-404: The Season 6 episode "Carol's Carnival", which features a scene in which Carol looks at herself in a carnival mirror and describes to another character the distorted image in her head. By 1991, her disorder had devolved into bulimia nervosa , having lost a massive amount of weight through both self-starvation and vomiting, causing her to be admitted to a hospital for treatment in early 1992. Gold—who
1003-480: The beginning of the 90s, and subsequently in La 2 (Spanish TV channel) , Antena 3 (Spanish TV channel) y Factoría de Ficción The show aired at the beginning of the 1990s on Turkey's first private TV channel, Star TV . The show was previously aired on Nickelodeon 's block, Nick at Nite from 2006 to 2009. Neal Marlens Neal Marlens (born November 8, 1956) is an American television producer and writer. He
1062-607: The cancelation of The Four Seasons , Joanna Kerns auditioned for a new series in late 1984, called Growing Pains , which was being developed by screenwriter Neal Marlens, alongside executive producer Mike Sullivan . She auditioned with Alan Thicke , who was coming off the failure of his syndicated late-night talk show Thicke of the Night . Kerns joked in many interviews that she and Alan had immediate chemistry, especially when she kissed him on his nose by accident during their audition together. Kerns and Thicke's chemistry won them both
1121-481: The cast on locations. This was similar to the ottoman gag on The Dick Van Dyke Show however there were far more variations. The opening theme song, "As Long As We've Got Each Other", was written by Steve Dorff with lyrics by John Bettis . The end theme was an jazzy instrumental version of the song. In the first season, the song was performed by B.J. Thomas , with Jennifer Warnes added for season 2. In seasons 3 and 4, Thomas and singer Dusty Springfield performed
1180-450: The cast reunited for The Growing Pains Movie , followed by Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers in 2004. Before the premiere of The Growing Pains Movie , Kirk Cameron described his regrets over how his relationship with his cast mates changed after his religious conversion during the production of the series, admitting, "I definitely kind of made an about-face, going toward another aspect of my life," and "I shifted my focus from 100% on
1239-601: The centerpieces of the short-lived TGIF spinoff block I Love Saturday Night ), which saw the show—which had seen a steady erosion in viewers over the past few seasons, while still remaining in the Nielsen Top 30 through Season 6—experience a dramatic decline in viewership from #27 to #75, resulting in ABC and the show’s producers agreeing to end the series at the conclusion of its seventh season. The hour-long series finale ("The Last Picture Show", which incorporated clips from
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#17327910757511298-576: The character Reiner played, Rob Petrie, was recast with a different actor. The season one episode "Father of the Week" was partly based on this pilot. At least four episodes were filmed without a live studio audience: "The Bad Old Days", which featured an extended flashback sequence that relied on optical effects that would have been impractical to shoot with a live audience in the studio; "The Alan Brady Show Presents", which required elaborate set and costume changes; "Happy Birthday and Too Many More", which
1357-585: The characters in The Dick Van Dyke Show were based on real people, as Carl Reiner created the show based on his time spent as head writer for the Sid Caesar vehicle Your Show of Shows . Carl Reiner portrayed Alan Brady who is a combination of the abrasive Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason , according to Reiner, refuting rumors that Alan Brady was based on Caesar. Van Dyke's character was based on Reiner himself. Moore's character's "look"
1416-531: The cost of each episode. In 2016, several episodes were colorized by West Wing Studios and aired on CBS. Main : Supporting : Recurring : A group of character actors played several different roles during the five seasons. Actors who appeared more than once, sometimes in different roles, included Elvia Allman (as Herman Glimscher's mother), Tiny Brauer , Bella Bruck, Jane Dulo , Herbie Faye , Bernard Fox , Dabbs Greer , Jerry Hausner , Peter Hobbs , Jackie Joseph , Sandy Kenyon (who also appeared in
1475-470: The idea of Mike being in a committed relationship went against his characterization as an “immature imp […] ill-equipped to deal with a grownup world on all levels”—and Cameron stated in his 2008 memoir Still Growing that he did not call for her firing, it is alleged McCullough's termination from the show was a result of Cameron's objections to her having posed nude in Playboy , prompting Cameron to claim to
1534-506: The later four seasons. This was also the name of an Italian comedy film from the 60s. The show aired in 1986 with Dutch broadcast organization AVRO as Growing Pains in English with subtitles in Dutch . In Spain the series aired with the title Los problemas crecen (Growing problems) and was dubbed to Spanish . Originally aired in La 1 (Spanish TV channel) from the end of the 80s to
1593-505: The main cast in the role of Luke Brower, a homeless teenager who is taken in by the Seaver family at the behest of Mike (who, by then, was a substitute teacher at the high school where Luke had masqueraded as a student). Co-star Joanna Kerns recalled DiCaprio being "especially intelligent and disarming for his age," but also mischievous on set. Then-15-year-old DiCaprio was cast in a bid to appeal to teenage female viewers (similar to how Cameron gained heartthrob status with that demographic during
1652-467: The middle of with his family, his colleagues – Buddy Sorrell ( Morey Amsterdam ), Sally Rogers ( Rose Marie ), Mel Cooley ( Richard Deacon ) – and his neighbors Millie ( Ann Morgan Guilbert ) and Jerry Helper ( Jerry Paris ) and friends. The series won 15 Emmy Awards . In 1997, the episodes "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth" and " It May Look Like a Walnut " were ranked at 8 and 15 respectively on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time . In 2002,
1711-446: The parts of lead characters Maggie and Jason Seaver, and the two became great friends off the show; both of them had many things in common, including being newly divorced single parents. Tracey Gold auditioned for the role of Carol Seaver, but was passed over in favor of Elizabeth Ward , who had starred alongside Gold in the 1983 ABC Afterschool Special The Hand-Me-Down Kid . However, test audiences did not find Ward to be suited for
1770-472: The producers (and, allegedly, in a phone call with then-ABC Entertainment President Bob Iger ) they were promoting pornography by hiring McCullough. Cameron reportedly did not reconcile with McCullough, who claims that Cameron refused to speak to her during a later encounter. She remains critical of him, stating that the public criticism she endured during the controversy damaged her career. Cameron's conversion (specifically his subsequent behavior after becoming
1829-695: The role of Carol, and Gold promptly replaced her; scenes featuring Ward in the original pilot were subsequently reshot with Gold for the broadcast version. Marlens and most of the original writing and producing staff (including wife Carol Black , who had quickly ascended from story editor to co-executive producer during the first half of the season) were let go from the series midway through its first season; replacing Marlens and joining Sullivan as showrunners were Steve Marshall and Dan Guntzelman (who met and formed their writing partnership while working on WKRP in Cincinnati ). In 1991, Leonardo DiCaprio joined
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1888-463: The role of Rob Petrie, but Sheldon Leonard selected Van Dyke based on his Broadway performance in Bye Bye Birdie . CBS had intended to cancel the show after its first season, but Procter & Gamble threatened to pull its advertising from "the network's extremely lucrative daytime lineup" and the show was renewed, keeping its Wednesday night time slot. The show jumped into the top 10 by
1947-412: The series following the sixth season. ( Dan Wilcox replaced Marshall, Sullivan and Guntzelman for what would be the show’s final season.) Cameron did not maintain contact with his former co-stars and did not speak to Gold for eight years after the series ended. Cameron has stated that this was not due to any animosity on his part toward any of his former cast members, but an outgrowth of his desire to start
2006-551: The series on Monday, September 13, 2010, in a 5:00 AM hour block, and aired its final showings on December 27, 2010. Growing Pains aired on Up TV from January 2015 to July 2017. Antenna TV began airing the series in December 2017. It is currently available on the Roku channel (streaming app) as of November 2019. The show aired with the title Quoi de neuf docteur? (What's New Doctor?) on Antenne 2 from 1987 then as part of
2065-565: The series was ranked at 13 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time and in 2013 it was ranked at 20 on their list of the 60 Best Series. Also in 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked it #14 on their list of the 101 Best Written TV Series. The two main settings are the work and home life of Rob Petrie ( Dick Van Dyke ), the head writer of a comedy/variety show produced in Manhattan. Viewers are given an "inside look" at how
2124-539: The show based on his own experiences as a TV writer, played Robbie Petrie. Laura Petrie was played by Barbara Britton , Buddy Sorrell by Morty Gunty , Sally Rogers by Sylvia Miles , Ritchie by Gary Morgan , and Alan Sturdy, the Alan Brady character, was played by Jack Wakefield, although his face was never fully seen, which was also the case with Carl Reiner's Alan Brady for the first three seasons of The Dick Van Dyke Show . Although broadcast on CBS as an episode of
2183-550: The show on its daytime schedule from July 1988 to August 1989. The show originally aired at 11:00 AM (ET) until January 1989, when Ryan's Hope was canceled and Home was expanded to an hour from 11:00 AM–noon. The reruns moved to noon. In the fall of 1989, the show was sold to local syndication, which continued until 1997. The show also aired on TBS for several years premiering in October 1993 at 6:35 PM. The show continued to air on TBS until September 1996. Reruns aired on
2242-548: The show's archives were donated to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York . The show's theme was by Earle Hagen , who also wrote many other TV series themes, including those for The Andy Griffith Show , Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. , I Spy , and The Mod Squad . In a 2004 TVLand Awards appearance, Van Dyke revealed Morey Amsterdam's lyrics for the show's theme song: The Dick Van Dyke Show
2301-402: The show's plots were inspired by Reiner's experiences as a writer for Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour , both of which starred Sid Caesar . Reiner based the character of Rob Petrie on himself, but Rob's egocentric boss Alan Brady is not based on Caesar, but is a combination of the abrasive Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason , according to Reiner. Johnny Carson was a finalist for
2360-518: The show's seven-year run) aired on April 25, 1992, a night that also saw fellow veteran ABC series Who's the Boss? (also as a special one-hour episode) and MacGyver end their runs. Growing Pains spawned the spin-off series, Just the Ten of Us , which featured Coach Graham Lubbock, Mike and Carol's gym teacher, moving to California with his large family to teach at an all-boys Catholic school after he
2419-609: The show, to 100% on [my new life], and left 0% on the show—and even the friendships that were a part of that show." Warner Home Video released the first two seasons on DVD in Region 1. Seasons 3-7 were released via the Warner Archive Collection as manufactured-on-demand titles, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com. On February 28, 2023, Warner Bros. released Growing Pains: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. ABC aired reruns of
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2478-484: The show’s earlier seasons), but was written out towards the end of Season 7, in order to allow DiCaprio to begin work on the 1993 biographical drama film This Boy's Life . Still, the addition of DiCaprio—who would earn a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Television Series for his work as Luke—did not improve the show's ratings. The opening credits varied from traditional sitcoms by having sight gags involving specifically shot scenes with
2537-833: The show’s third and fourth seasons. For Season 4, scripts called for Carol to be the brunt of fat jokes from her brothers, Mike and Ben, for many episodes in a row. By October of that year, Gold lost a total of 23 lbs. (dropping from a weight of 133 lbs to about 110 lbs) after going on a medically supervised 500-calorie-a-day (2,100 kJ) diet, though scripts continued to include occasionally fat jokes made at Carol’s expense. In her 2003 memoir Room to Grow: an Appetite for Life , Gold revealed that she became increasingly obsessed with food and her physical appearance between 1989 and 1991, and continued to slowly and steadily lose weight. In 1990, Gold began group therapy in an eating disorder program but only learned more ways to lose weight. Gold’s body image issues were touched upon slightly in
2596-455: The song in the episode). [1] The remainder of season 3 was similar to season 2, with updated show clips and old photos of the cast. With the introduction of the pregnancy storyline, the first episode of season 4 depicted a pregnant Joanna Kerns with the rest of the cast standing before the house set. For the second episode of the season, as the family begins to move towards the house, the theme music fades and Kern's character announces that she
2655-405: The summer anthology series The Comedy Spot on July 19, 1960, the pilot was unsuccessful, which led Reiner to rework the show with Dick Van Dyke playing the central character (who went by Rob, not "Robbie", and pronounced his last name PET-tree rather than the pilot's PEE-tree.) Producer Sheldon Leonard later saw Reiner's script and concluded that the show could be successful if
2714-497: The theme song. In season 5, the theme returned to a slightly altered Thomas/Warnes performance. Season 6 introduced an a cappella version of the tune, before again returning to the Thomas/Warnes version. The last few episodes of season seven brought back the a cappella version of the song. In addition to the changes in the theme song, the imagery depicted on screen varied. In season1, vintage photos of families played, with
2773-558: The third episode of its second season, helped by coming directly after The Beverly Hillbillies , the number one show at the time. The week of the final broadcast in June 1966, LIFE magazine reported: “The series is not being killed by the network. CBS is drooling to continue this consistent entry in the Nielsen top 20. But the five-year-old show decided to retire. ‘We wanted to quit while we were still proud of it,’ said Van Dyke.” In 2019
2832-486: The third season opening two-part Hawaiian episodes, the family was depicted standing in front of the Maui Prince Hotel, with the clips interspersed with the vintage cast photos from the episode itself. The closing credits music (over scenes from the episode) was an instrumental version of the song "Swept Away", written for the episode by Dorff, Bettis and Christopher Cross (who also performed the full version of
2891-448: The title character. At about age 14, starting during the show’s sixth season, Jeremy Miller received numerous letters from an older male stalker, who was later arrested and convicted on stalking charges. ABC had moved Growing Pains from its longtime Wednesday slot to Saturday nights at the start of the 1991–92 season (joined by fellow ABC comedy veterans Who's the Boss? and, by midseason, Perfect Strangers , all of which became
2950-473: The work and home life of television comedy writer Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke), the head writer for the fictitious variety show The Alan Brady Show in New York , who lived in suburban New Rochelle, New York with USO dancer turned housewife Laura Petrie ( Mary Tyler Moore ) and young son Ritchie ( Larry Mathews ). The series portrayed daily life, comic scenarios that charming, goofy Rob Petrie found himself in
3009-444: Was 17, during the height of his career on the show. After converting to Christianity, he began to insist that the show’s plotlines be altered to remove anything he thought was too inappropriate, objecting to even mild innuendo in show scripts (one such example involved a segment from the teaser scene of the Season 6 episode "Midnight Cowboy", which cut to his character, Mike, and a girl talking in bed, only to reveal they were rehearsing
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#17327910757513068-550: Was estimated to have been near 80 lbs. at her lowest weight—was suspended from the show following production of the Season 7 episode "Menage a Luke”, due to her skeletal appearance that was fairly obvious in some scenes. Gold’s absence is addressed several episodes later in “Don’t Go Changin’”, which features a subplot in which Ben films a video letter for Carol, who in-canon is studying abroad in London. Photos of Gold's emaciated body were plastered all over tabloid magazines, and she
3127-454: Was filmed on November 26, 1963, only four days after President Kennedy's assassination ; and "The Gunslinger", which was filmed on location. "The Last Chapter" was the last episode that aired; "The Gunslinger" was the last episode filmed. Reiner considered moving the production of the series to full color as early as season three, only to drop the idea when he was informed that it would add about US$ 7,000 (equivalent to $ 70,000 in 2023) to
3186-481: Was fired from Thomas Dewey High School. Alan Thicke later made a cameo appearance as himself in the pilot episode of fellow ABC sitcom Hangin' with Mr. Cooper in September 1992. The pre-credits teaser scene in which Thicke appeared alongside series star Mark Curry humorously referenced the pilot episode being filmed on the same set that had previously been used as the Seavers' home on Growing Pains . In 2000,
3245-521: Was influenced to some extent by that of Jackie Kennedy , who was at the time First Lady of the United States . The Dick Van Dyke Show was preceded by a 1960 pilot for a series to be called Head of the Family , filmed at Gold Medal Studios , with a different cast, although the characters were essentially the same, except for the absence of Mel Cooley. In the pilot, Carl Reiner , who created
3304-415: Was nominated for 25 Primetime Emmy Awards and won 15. Image Entertainment has released all five seasons of The Dick Van Dyke Show on DVD in Region 1. Season sets were released between October 2003 – June 2004. Also, on May 24, 2005, Image Entertainment repackaged the discs from the individual season sets into a complete series box set. On Blu-ray , the complete series, remastered in high definition,
3363-457: Was one of the first celebrities ever to be formally outed for anorexia. She returned for the show’s final episodes (“The Wrath of Con-Ed”, and the two-part finale “The Last Picture Show”) in the late spring of 1992. Gold eventually recovered from her years-long struggle and starred in the 1994 made-for-TV movie For the Love of Nancy , drawing on her own experiences with anorexia nervosa to portray
3422-706: Was raised in the Audubon Woods section of West Hills, New York , and graduated from Stimson Junior High and Walt Whitman High School , both in nearby Huntington Station, New York . Neal attended Swarthmore College in the late 1970s, where he competed successfully on the men's tennis team. He added good humor and a friendly personality to a campus that sometimes lacked both. Marlens won a 1988 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series for The Wonder Years , as well as an additional nomination in that category for 1989, and for comedy-series writing in 1988. The Dick Van Dyke Show The Dick Van Dyke Show
3481-791: Was released on November 13, 2012. In Region 2, Revelation Films has released the first two seasons on DVD in the UK. In Region 4, Umbrella Entertainment has released the first three seasons on DVD in Australia. Following the well-received colorizations of I Love Lucy in the US, two episodes, "That’s My Boy" and "Coast to Coast Big Mouth", were computer colorized by West Wing Studios in 2016 and broadcast by CBS . They were later released on DVD and Blu-ray by CBS Home Entertainment as The Dick Van Dyke Show: Now in Living Color! Six episodes of
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