Editing Growing Pains (section)

== Cast issues ==

=== Cameron's religion ===
Kirk Cameron, who was an [[atheist]] in his early teens,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/july-august-2019/kirk-cameron-candace-cameron-bure-hollywood-siblings-leverage-stardom-audience-of-one/ |title=Kirk Cameron and Candace Cameron Bure—Hollywood Siblings Leverage Stardom for Audience of One |magazine=Decision |publisher=[[Billy Graham Evangelistic Association]] |date=July 1, 2019 |first=Lee |last=Weeks |access-date=September 21, 2019}}</ref> became a [[born again]] [[Protestantism|Protestant Christian]] when he was 17, during the height of his career on the show.<ref name=":0" /> 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 [[cold open|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 a scene for a stage play; Cameron, however, did the scene as written).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2022-05-01 |title=Did Kirk Cameron Really Get His TV Wedding Canceled Over a Playboy Appearance? |url=https://www.cbr.com/kirk-cameron-growing-pains-tv-wedding-canceled-playboy-appearance/ |access-date=2022-05-06 |website=[[CBR.com]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite news |date=2020-12-13 |title=The Cast of 'Growing Pains:' Where Are They Now? |work=[[MSN]] |publisher= |url=https://www.wonderwall.com/entertainment/where-are-they-now/growing-pains-cast-where-are-they-now-383217.gallery |access-date=May 6, 2022}}</ref> [[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 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 the producers (and, allegedly, in a phone call with then-ABC Entertainment President [[Bob Iger]]) they were promoting pornography by hiring McCullough.<ref name=":1" /> Cameron reportedly did not reconcile with McCullough, who claims that Cameron refused to speak to her during a later encounter.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}} She remains critical of him, stating that the public criticism she endured during the controversy damaged her career.{{NoteTag|McCullough would reprise her role in Season 5's "Mike, Kate and Julie" to provide closure for Mike and Julie, whose relationship ended earlier that season via a [[Dear John letter]] written by the latter in "Mike and Julie's Wedding".}}

Cameron's conversion (specifically his subsequent behavior after becoming 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 (director)|David Kendall]] and director [[John Tracy (director)|John Tracy]]) to quit the series following the sixth season. ([[Dan Wilcox]] replaced Marshall, Sullivan and Guntzelman for what would be the show’s final season.)<ref name="LATimes">{{cite news |last=Keck |first=William |date=November 3, 2000 |title=TV Family's Cast Gets Over Its Own 'Growing Pains' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-03-ca-46147-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222100558/https://articles.latimes.com/2000/nov/03/entertainment/ca-46147 |archive-date=2014-02-22 |access-date=December 8, 2008 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref> Cameron did not maintain contact with his former co-stars and did not speak to Gold for eight years after the series ended.<ref name="LATimes" /> 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 a new life away from the entertainment industry.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-12-25 |title='Growing Pains' stars call out Kirk Cameron for maskless caroling |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/growing-pains-stars-tracey-gold-jeremy-miller-call-out-kirk-t204678 |access-date=2022-05-06 |website=[[TODAY.com]] |language=en}}</ref> In 2000, Cameron revealed he apologized to his television 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."<ref name="LATimes" />

=== Gold's health issues ===
In 1988 at age 19, Gold gained some weight over the production hiatus between 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&nbsp;lbs. (dropping from a weight of 133&nbsp;lbs to about 110&nbsp;lbs) after going on a medically supervised {{convert|500|Cal|kJ|adj=mid|-a-day}} 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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Gold |first1=Tracey |title=Room to Grow: an Appetite for Life |last2=McCarron |first2=Julie |publisher=New Millennium Press |year=2003 |author-link=Tracey Gold}}</ref>

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 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.<ref name=":2" /> Gold—who was estimated to have been near 80&nbsp;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.{{NoteTag|"Honest Abe" and "Vicious Cycle"—which preceded "Menage a Luke" in broadcast order—were both taped after Gold went into treatment.}} 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.{{NoteTag|The "We miss you" message to Carol seen during Ben's finished video at the end of the episode later swaps the character’s name with Gold's.}} Photos of Gold's emaciated body were plastered all over tabloid magazines, and she 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 the title character.<ref name=":2" />

=== Stalking ===
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.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/20/show-me-that-smile-again/ |title=Show Me That Smile Again |publisher=TMZ.com |date=2009-02-20 |access-date=2015-11-22}}</ref> 

=== Finale ===
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 (TV series)|Perfect Strangers]]'', all of which became the centerpieces of the short-lived ''[[TGIF (TV programming block)|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 ratings|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.{{sfn|Wight|2012|pp=331, 275}} The hour-long series finale ("The Last Picture Show", which incorporated [[clip show|clips]] from 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 (1985 TV series)|MacGyver]]'' end their runs.