Growing Pains: The Seavers vs. the Cleavers

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Growing Pains: The Seavers vs. the Cleavers
ABC
January 28, 1986
Sitcom
Download
B-

This is another '80s series I watched in its early seasons but mostly gave up on sometime when Bush, Sr. was President, in this case because both Kirk Cameron and his character Mike became increasingly obnoxious.  Here in the sixteenth episode of the first season, they're not too bad, Cameron not yet having become born again in an aggressive, judgmental way, and Mike not yet having been Flanderized from mischievous underachiever to asshole.  (That Tracey Gold became anorexic in part because of Mike's lines about Carol's nonexistent obesity is another of the shames of the later seasons.)  Furthermore, this is a textbook example of a show that is inferior to its spin-off, in this case Just the Ten of Us, which we will be looking at later in the '80s.

I got this episode off Amazon because I was curious about how the Annette Funicello cameo as a, well, aggressively judgmental mom came across thirty or so years later.  It plays off of her wholesome image, although Annette on and off screen was always "nice."  Of the regular cast, Kerns is of course the best performer, although I have to say that she's not as well served by the mid '80s fashions and hairstyles as she was by those of a few years earlier on Three's Company.

William or Bill Cort also had a couple roles on Three's Company and here plays Annette's husband.  Fifteen- or sixteen-year-old Keith Coogan, who plays Carol's potential boyfriend Scottie, oddly enough was Scotti (that spelling) on Mork & Mindy about four years earlier.  His most notable role though I think is as the slacker brother Kenny in the 1991 movie Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead.  Director John Tracy worked on a couple Bosom Buddies episodes as well as one for Who's the Boss? the previous season.

And speaking of WtB, this series aired on Tuesdays after that other East-Coast-set sitcom, placing #18 for the season on Boss's then #10 coat-tails, admirable for a new series.  And the once mighty A-Team was now at #30.

This is both the 1700th show I've reviewed and the 700th to receive a B-.