YMMV / Growing Pains

• Alternate Character Interpretation: While the boss in "Fortunate Son" is clearly a racist, ironically Mike's final "proof" that he is is substantially more ambiguous than much of his earlier behavior. Mike spills soda on the floor, and the boss threatens to dock the pay of one of Mike's non-white co-workers. When Mike admits it was him, the boss tells him to simply be more careful. Unlike much of his earlier behavior, this could be seen as the boss not wanting to punish Mike for being honest.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Coach Lubbock, who got a spin-off after just seven appearances.
  • Monica Shackleford, the leading lady of the School Play in season 3, only makes two appearances but delights a lot of fans for being one of Mike's sweeter love interests and doing such a good job playing the role of Emily in Our Town.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Any instance of Carol being teased about her weight. Hollywood Pudgy actress Tracey Gold, who played her, would go on to have a well-known (and near-fatal) battle with anorexia.
  • A few early-season plots with Mike (him and Ben illegally betting on racehorses, throwing unsupervised parties) don't at all jibe with the adult, born-again Christian Kirk Cameron—or the Mike of the final season that was influenced by Cameron's newfound faith.
  • Any scene with Mike being a fun, normal member of the family when in fact Kirk Cameron's new found fundamentalist tendencies made him the kind of guy who'd do things like demanding that the actress playing his character's girlfriend be fired because she was once in Playboy, or denouncing the producers as "pornographers" for having pretty much your standard family sitcom level of occasional suggestive humor. Far from sharing the laughter and love with anyone by this point, he pretty much singlehandedly turned it into a Troubled Production, and it is certainly *not* a coincidence that the show was not around for very long after. Cameron's scenes take on a very different tone upon rewatch because of this.
  • Matthew Perry's character Sandy driving drunk, getting hurt in an accident and eventually dying from his injuries, given that Perry himself would later struggle for years with alcohol and drug addiction, a problem he likely already had at the time this episode was filmed, as he revealed in his memoir that he began drinking at only 14. ^note  Interestingly, he never mentions outright being a Drunk Driver. It then gets more poignant with Matthew Perry's 2023 death.^note Determined to be an accidental death resulting from the "acute effects" of Ketamine (which he reportedly used to treat depression and anxiety), as well as the contributing factors of drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine (a medication used to treat opioid use disorder).
• Heartwarming Moments: In "How the West Was One, Part 1" Mike starting a protest to save his teacher's job.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: It's apparently impossible to talk about the show nowadays without mentioning Kirk Cameron's efforts to keep the show as clean as possible, leading to it becoming a Troubled Production.
  • As if that didn't taint the show enough, in 2024, a 5-episode Identity Discovery documentary called Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kid's TV, was released. In episode 4, it was revealed that the parents on the show, Alan Thicke & Joanna Kearns, were among the people who wrote letters in support of convicted child molester Brian Peck.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Matthew Perry, years before Friends, played Carol's doomed boyfriend, Sandy. Also, as mentioned above, Leonardo DiCaprio as temporary family member Luke. Brad Pitt, Jennie Garth and Hilary Swank also had small one-off roles.
  • Robin Thicke appeared in three episodes.
  • Judith Barsi played the four-year old Carol (she was actually nine at the time, but had a growth deformity). Barsi is well-known for her roles in two Don Bluth films: The Land Before Time and All Dogs Go to Heaven.
  • In addition to his work on Growing Pains, creator and executive producer Neal Marlens is also best known as co-creator and co-executive producer of The Wonder Years and Ellen.
  • David Kendall wrote or co-wrote 32 episodes and served as producer and co-executive producer. He would go on to create and executive produce Melissa & Joey.
  • Dan Guntzelman wrote or co-wrote 15 episodes, directed an episode, and served as executive producer. He would later co-create the Spin-Off Just the Ten of Us.
  • Steve Marshall wrote or co-wrote ten episodes and served as executive producer before, along with Dan Guntzelman, co-creating and co-executive producing Just the Ten of Us.
  • Kate Boutilier, who co-developed All Grown Up!, wrote seven episodes.
  • Carol Black wrote or co-wrote four episodes and served as story editor and co-executive producer. She went on to both co-create and co-executive produce The Wonder Years and Ellen with Neal Marlens.
  • Rob Bragin wrote three episodes before creating Proof.
  • Kevin Abbott, who executive produced Reba and developed Malibu Country, wrote an episode.
  • Kerry Ehrin wrote an episode before going on to develop or co-develop such shows as The Morning Show and Bates Motel.
  • Ali Marie Matheson also wrote an episode. Matheson is best known as co-creator and co-executive producer of The Collector.
  • Bob Brush also wrote an episode. Brush is best known as an executive producer of creator Neal Marlens' later series, The Wonder Years, and developer and executive producer of Early Edition.
  • Ashley Johnson, who played Chrissy Seaver, is best known these days as Dr. Patterson in Blindspot in terms of live action roles. She's had an even more fruitful voice acting career that includes Recess, Teen Titans (2003), The Last of Us, and Infinity Train, in addition to her appearances on Critical Role.
  • Mark Fink also wrote an episode before going on to co-create Hang Time.
• Values Dissonance:
  • In "Mike's Madonna Story", Lisa, a teen seductress who broke up with her 27-year-old boyfriend and is intent on seducing Mike, is subjected to Slut-Shaming by both Carol and Maggie. Nowadays, she would be regarded as a victim, with calls for her ex-"boyfriend's" arrest and attempts to improve her self-esteem.
  • In "The Five Fingers of Ben", Ben learns karate to deal with the vicious school bully Razor. While a stock plot throughout The '80s and The '90s, the post-Columbine school environment would likely result in Ben and Razor's confrontation getting them suspended.

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