Today, we look at when (or if) you folks believe that Growing Pains “jumped the shark.”
This is “Just Can’t Jump It,” a feature where we examine shows and whether they “jumped the shark.” Jumped the shark (coined by Jon Hein) means that the show had a specific point in time where, in retrospect, you realize that show was going downhill from there (even if, in some rare occasions, the show later course-corrected). Not every show DOES jump the shark. Some shows just remain good all the way through. And some shows are terrible all the way through. What we’re looking for are moments where a show that you otherwise enjoyed hit a point where it took a noticeable nose dive after that time and if so, what moment was that?
Growing Pains was a long-running sitcom about a family in Long Island where, in a MAJOR TWIST THAT AN ENTIRE SERIES WAS SOMEHOW PREMISED UPON, the psychiatrist father, Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke) moved his practice into a home office so that he could take care of the house while the mother, Maggie Seaver (Joanna Kerns) went back to work as a reporter (she even used her MAIDEN NAME, Maggie Malone, at work!!!). A man…doing the cooking, cleaning and most of the child-rearing while the WOMAN was at work?!?! What the what?!? They had three kids to start, troublemaking Mike (Kirk Cameron), brainy Carol (Tracey Gold) and Ben (Jeremy Miller), who was the third child. In Season 4, Maggie gave birth to a fourth child, Chrissy, who was aged up in Season 6 to be played by Ashley Johnson. In the seventh and final season, Mike becomes a foster parent to Luke Brower (Leonardo DiCaprio, who would later go on to have a moderately successful career as a film actor).
So first…DID IT JUMP THE SHARK? I’d say so, yes.
WHEN DID IT JUMP THE SHARK Kirk Cameron became a Born Again Christian after Season 4. The fourth season ended with Mike getting engaged to Chrissy’s nanny, Julie Costello (Julie McCullough). Now, obviously they weren’t going to get married that young in Season 5, but it’s fair to note that they totally botched the ending of that plot, and Julie was written off the show instead of just not getting married to Mike (how THAT made any sense is beyond me) and from that point onward, Cameron’s religious views essentially de-fanged Mike to the point where he wasn’t the same character anymore. Season 5 wasn’t TERRIBLE, but nor was it particularly good, and it only got worse in Seasons 6 and 7. So I am going with the Season 5 two-part premiere as the shark-jumping moment.
Let me know what you think in the comments or on social media!
Feel free to e-mail me at brian@poprefs.com for suggestions for shows to do in future installments!
I always hated this show and as you allude to, the premise was only noteworthy in 1985 because America was still reacting to the aftermath of the civil rights/woman’s liberation movements of the 60s and 70s amid the Reagan Revolution whose goal was to get America back to where it was before FDR. It falls apart with any scrutiny and I always saw GROWING PAINS as an example of a mediocre 1980s network sitcom which somehow ran 7 seasons out of pure inertia. Only FULL HOUSE is more intolerable (yet somehow enduring).
Plus, it got two TV movies you didn’t mention in 2000 and 2004. That means the Seavers appeared in every decade from 1980-2010. That is insane for a show that I can hardly recall anyone (critics, pundits, actual real live humans in the wild) recalling fondly. The fact that Kirk Cameron became who he has become (i.e. an evangelical anti-LGBTQ+ slime-ball on par with Kenneth Copeland or Peter Popoff) just tarnishes the reputation of the show further. Sure, some sitcoms have propped up loathsome people, but at least some of them were funny.
I did like some of the guest appearances Alan Thicke made on “MARRIED WITH CHILDREN” where he played a sleazy and oversexed local tycoon. It was deliberately against type compared to Jason Seaver.
I enjoyed the show and I don’t think the premise made that much difference: it was still a generic family sitcom at heart. Just funny enough i watched … but for some reason I stopped before the engagement and didn’t miss it. Which doesn’t mean that’s when it jumped the shark — it could be something as simple as another show competing in that time slot.
Even though I liked it, it would have to be a lot better to jump the shark, I think. How’s that for damning with faint praise?