LOS ANGELES (AP) – Alan Thicke’s 1980s TV dad credentials were neatly in order on “Growing Pains.” His Dr. Jason Seaver was an open-hearted parent and an enlightened husband, working from home to help tend the kids while his wife revived her career.
But Thicke’s character anchored a sitcom that was also 1950s-retro, part of television’s renewed embrace of the traditional nuclear family after a string of single-parent shows. “Growing Pains” debuted in 1985, one year after “The Cosby Show” showed the old formula could be made new.
While Bill Cosby’s NBC series touched on social issues, ABC’s “Growing Pains” was pure comfort food about a suburban family with a genial, father-knows-best patriarch, cheerful mom (Joanna Kerns) and a brood that included breakout heartthrob Kirk Cameron as teenager Mike and, in the show’s final 1991-92 season, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Thicke, who died Tuesday at age 69, said a 1985 interview with The Associated Press that he wouldn’t have pitched a show like “Growing Pains” but suggested it fit the times.
“Ronald Reagan is president and there’s no war, maybe that creates an environment for a show like ours,” he said.