Release Date: April 26, 2011
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 523 minutes (22 episodes)
Congratulations…you’re fired. Mike (Kirk Cameron) receives a car from his pleased parents after he’s named Employee of the Month. (So how’s he going to tell them he’s been canned?) Mike’s not the only one with secrets. Brainy Carol (Tracey Gold) wants everyone to think she has a romantic extracurricular life with a hunky football hero. And what’s up with 10-year-old Ben (Jeremy Miller) and those 67 calls to a sex line? (No, it’s not what you might think.) These events don’t all happen at the same time, but they do all happen at the same place: the Season 2 home-sweet-ho-ho-home of the Seavers – dad Jason (Alan Thicke), mom Maggie (Joanna Kerns), three on-the-grow kids. Jason works as a psychiatrist. You think maybe it’s time to add some family appointments to his calendar?
While I’ve seen re-runs of Growing Pains here and there growing up, I never did make it a weekly routine to watch this series. So I jumped at the opportunity to own a piece of the series in Growing Pains The Complete Second Season. Season Two is not shy about showcasing Alan Thicke’s singing ability in first episode…but that’s not why I was itching to tune in. Being a fan of Kirk Cameron also wasn’t a main factor. I wanted to see a good quality family sitcom.
Watching Maggie and Jason Seaver raise three kids in Long Island, NY gave me the heartwarming entertainment that we all long to see more of on television today. The parents are very frank and open and have respectable standards and the children are very grounded without any cliches of the sort. Significant and relatable issues are touched upon on this show, from making new friends as the school year begins and puberty to paying the bills to being fired from a job while covering for a co-worker and bringing a homeless person home in an effort to do the right thing.
Truth and “doing the right thing” are major themes this season and crafted in such a thought provoking way while keeping the element of comedy just as strong. For instance, sometimes the children come upon situations where they do the right thing but for the wrong reasons and watching the parents steer them in the right direction is just what parents today need to see, especially young parents. They could learn a thing or two from the Seavers while enjoying a handful American pop culture references from the 80s, getting a very useful card trick from Mike, and more. The pillow Mike threw at Carol after the fight for the telephone also brought a great amount of laugh out loud comedy. Also worth mentioning, Mike sure knows how to work both parents. Kirk Cameron definitely brings for the greatest comedic talent of the children.
The dynamic between the parents as well as the parents and the children is wonderful. There’s laughter, tears, tension…Growing Pains has got it all, making the title of the show incredibly fitting. There’s so much to learn in life and it was showcased wonderfully this season. This show didn’t seem to be in a sophomore slump as far as I can tell. Now while I don’t think that Tracey Gold had the best acting, it’s clear that she grew as an actor from the first episode of the season to the last.
So there were growing pains in the Seaver family and even on set…and in the end, everyone matured and succeeded in making a very entertaining season two. With entertainment comes great lessons on this show, one of which seemed to be very important to Kirk Cameron in his informal PSA after the episode, “Thank God It’s Friday.” Growing Pains fans should head out right away and pick up two copies of the second season, one for themselves and one to share with a new family.
There are no bonus features on the DVD.
Own Growing Pains The Complete Second Season on DVD today.