Info:
DVD Release Date: February 7, 2006 (Warner Bros. Home Video)
Color/1985-86
MSRP: $29.98
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 22
Running Time: 527 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: 45 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: Closed-Captioned; English, French, and Spanish
subtitles
Special Features: Original Pilot: Unaired Sscenes;
Seaver Family Reunion: S'mores and More; Gag Reel
Introduction:
Show me that smile again, don't waste another minute
on your cryin', we're nowhere near the end… the best
is ready to begin! Those may just be the lyrics to one
of my favorite family sitcoms of all time (and
hopefully one of your favorites too), but those words
are absolutely true. The best really IS ready to
begin, with The Complete First Season of Growing Pains
on DVD! Warner Bros. Home Video has put together a
four-disc DVD set containing unedited versions of all
22 episodes of the former hit ABC sitcom that
discovers what happens when the typical parental roles
get reversed.
Growing Pains was one of the many sitcoms to run in
the period between 1985 and 1992 (do a little
research, and you'll find that there are several
sitcoms that ran during this exact same time period,
give or take a year or so). The sitcom, somewhat
(though not exactly) like Who's the Boss? which had
premiered a year earlier, focuses on role reversals
and how they affect the family… as an ABC promo in
1985 put it, "dad's the shrink, who minds the
children, mom's out workin' for fulfillment." In other
words, Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke) is a psychiatrist
that decides to move his practice into his home and
become a stay-at-home father while Maggie (Joanna
Kerns) is a former news reporter that has been a
stay-at-home mother for years, and is ready to go back
to work as a news reporter. The show changed quite a
bit in later seasons (such as when Maggie and Jason
went back to the "traditional" mother and father roles
in a later season, which contradicts the whole premise
of the series), but the first season stays true to the
premise of the series.
The biggest challenge in the Seaver family is dealing
with the children, Mike (Kirk Cameron), Carol (Tracey
Gold), and Ben (Jeremy Miller). Mike is the oldest
one, and the most trouble, even being arrested in the
very first episode! Carol is the "geeky" one (who
becomes less geeky by the third season but becomes
even geekier than she was in the earlier by the sixth
season) that, despite what you may think of geeks, can
get into her own trouble. Then there is little Ben,
the young one that causes even more trouble, such as
ripping off the neighbors under the guise of charity!
But, despite all of this, as the ABC promo in 1985
said, "they'll pull together, wait and see."
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
The first season (and the series for that matter)
begins with the "Pilot" episode, which starts off the
series with Mike getting arrested. As an interesting
side note, if you pay attention at the VERY beginning
of this episode, you'll hear Maggie humming a familiar
television tune -- the theme song to Who's the Boss?!
Mike wants tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert, and
the only person he can get a ticket from is a fellow
Bruce Springsteen fan, his own father, in
"Springsteen." Olivia d'Abo makes a guest appearance
in "Superdad!" Other Disc 1 episodes include
"Jealousy" and "Carol's Article."
Disc 2 begins with "Mike's Madonna Story," where Dana
Plato plays a girl named Lisa (who looks like Madonna)
who Maggie fears—and for good reason, because Mike may
just lose his virginity to Lisa! Carol gets a crush
(on one of her own extended family members!) in
"Carol's Crush." Mike promises Maggie and Jason that
he won't ride a dirt bike, but does it anyway and is
forced to hide the fact that he was injured while
riding it in "Dirt Bike." Other Disc 2 episodes
include "Weekend Fantasy," "Slice of Life" and
"Standardized Test."
Disc 3 begins with "A Christmas Story," an episode in
which one of Jason's patients decides to play Santa at
an orphanage, and when he is disliked at the
orphanage, decides he is going to bring Christmas joy
to the Seavers by diving down their chimney head
first. An interesting note about this episode, Ben
gets a dog for Christmas (that he decides to name
Walter), which is never seen ever again in the entire
series. Michael has to decide whether to choose his
family or an intellectual girlfriend in "The Love Song
of M. Aaron Seaver." Dan Lauria plays a youth hockey
coach that Jason gets in a fight with because Jason is
upset about the fact that the coach advocates violence
on the ice in "First Blood." Maggie might just be
pregnant with a fourth Seaver child in "Slice of Life
II." Maggie and Jason are seen as unfit parents and
rejected as dance chaperones by the PTA president
(played by Annette Funicello) in "The Seavers vs. the
Cleavers." Ben finds the perfect (though extremely
unethical) way to make money to buy Jason an expensive
birthday present in "Charity Begins at Home."
Finally, Disc 4 includes some guest stars from WKRP in
Cincinnati—Richard Sanders in "The Anniversary that
Never Was," and Gordon Jump making his first (of
SEVERAL) appearances as Maggie's father in "Be a Man."
And the first season ends with "Extra Lap," in which
Mike "sees" his dead uncle coming in from running in
the kitchen for several days. Other Disc 4 episodes
include "Reputation" and "Career Decision."
Packaging:
The packaging is acceptable, but it could have been a
little better. Basically, the entire color scheme is
green, and the box art contains various individual
snapshots of each of the characters individually
(although Jason and Maggie are in the same pose
together). On the inside is a typical Warner Bros.
three-panel digipak, which is the type of digipak that
I (and many other DVD fans) don't really like—the type
where you have to remove one disc to get to another
disc. In other words, Disc 1 has to be removed to get
Disc 2 out, and Disc 3 has to be removed to get Disc 4
out. The first panel contains episodes listings for
the episodes on Discs 1 and 2, the second panel
contains the actual Discs 1 and 2, and the third panel
contains Disc 3 and 4. To make things more confusing,
episode listings for Discs 3 and 4 are on the back of
the panel used to hold Discs 3 and 4. The rest of the
digipak is filled with various snapshots from first
season episodes.
The disc art on the set is adequately done, with a
picture of Mike on Disc 1, Jason and Maggie on Disc 2,
Carol on Disc 3, and Ben on Disc 4 (same pictures that
are on the cover). Unlike some other companies who
shall remain nameless, the episodes are spread evenly
throughout the set, with episodes 1-5 on Disc 1,
episodes 6-11 on Disc 2, episodes 12-17 on Disc 3, and
episodes 19-22 on Disc 4. Additionally, Discs 1 and 4
contain some special features.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menus are very basic, but also very nice at the
same time. The main menu on each disc contains options
for Play (equivalent to Play All), Episodes, Features
(on Discs 1 and 4 only), and Languages. The opening
theme music (the longer version, not the truncated
version) plays in the background on the main menu, and
there is a shot of the family on the top of the
screen. The submenus are all very basic, and do
exactly what their names suggest. It should be noted
that there is no scene selection for the episodes, but
chapters are placed appropriately in each episode.
Video and Audio Quality:
The video quality on the set looks fine, about what
one would expect for a show that is 20 years old. The
audio quality, on the other hand, is not so great
(though not bad either). The audio is somewhat low and
there is some background noise on some of the
episodes. With the show being as old as it is, the
audio is presented in mono. For the hearing-impaired,
closed-captioning and English subtitles are available,
and additionally, for those that just love Spanish and
French, subtitles for those languages are available.
Although there are not problems throughout the set,
there is a problem with one episode that is worth
bringing up. The episode "A Christmas Story" on Disc 3
has some SERIOUS compression problems, a problem that
is severe enough that it really does become an issue.
None of the other episodes seem to have this kind of
problem, fortunately.
The episodes themselves all seem to be unedited,
running at the expected 24 minutes per episodes.
Special Features:
The special features aren't plentiful, but the special
features that are there are pretty good. They include
"Original Pilot: Unaired Scenes," "Seaver Family
Reunion: S'mores and More," and "Gag Reel." The first
one is on Disc 1, and the other two are on Disc 4.
The "Original Pilot: Unaired Scenes" (11:06) special
feature is, as its name implies, unaired scenes from
the first episode. So why is it so long, you may
wonder? Was there REALLY that much edited out from the
first episode? Not at all—all of these deleted scenes
were deleted because they had to be reshot.
Originally, Elizabeth Ward (NOT Tracey Gold) was
supposed to play the role of Carol, and when Tracey
Gold ended up getting the role instead at the last
minute, JUST the scenes that involved Carol were
reshot. In this special feature, those scenes with
Elizabeth Ward are shown. After watching those scenes,
I can honestly say that they made the right choice by
replacing Elizabeth Ward with Tracey Gold! The
geekiness of Carol that is portrayed by Elizabeth Ward
seems over the top, and besides that, she just seems
COMPLETELY out of place with the rest of the cast.
They even have on these unaired scenes an original (or
original looking) version of the opening credits, with
Elizabeth Ward's name credited and Elizabeth Ward
appearing in the cast photo at the end of the opening
credits. They even have original (or original looking)
closing credits for the episode to, with Elizabeth
Ward appearing in those! The reason I keep saying
"original looking," though, is because I kind of
believe these could have been made just for the DVD
set, because the font looks slightly different and
more modern—but in any case, it is a nice touch. I
just wish they would have put the entire pilot
together as it had originally aired.
The next special feature, "Seaver Family Reunion:
S'mores and More" (29:02) is a VERY interesting
special feature. Basically, this is an interviews
special feature. HOWEVER, it is not your typical "lets
find one cast member and ask them questions in a
studio that has white walls and a plant" interview…
instead, it is an interview with ALL of the cast
members—Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron,
Tracey Gold, and Jeremy Miller—getting together around
a campfire to discuss the first season of the show and
how the show began! Writer Tim O'Donnell also joins
them in this campfire session. Basically, rather than
the cast members just giving trivial answers to
trivial questions, they all sit around the campfire
(making S'mores, of course!) and discuss how the show
began and how they go their respective roles. This is
very nicely produced, with very nice camera angles and
is even presented in widescreen—it almost looks like a
feature film! They are very candid in the interviews,
and converse very well with each other, and end by
singing a campfire song—the theme song to the show!
Finally, there is a "Gag Reel" (5:25)… which includes
many bloopers from the first season. These are very
interesting to watch, and the audio and video quality
on these bloopers is great, not the typical poor
quality bloopers that you'd expect from a lot of other
shows.
I think that they did a good job with special features
on this set, and hopefully future seasons will be
about the same—but I want commentaries next time!
Final Comments:
Hopefully, the best IS ready to begin, and more
seasons of Growing Pains are on the way! In general, I
think this set was very nicely done, though I think
cast commentaries would have been nice touch (since
the entire cast managed to get together for the
special features anyway!). Some may be quick to
dismiss Growing Pains as "just another lame 80s family
sitcom" or another remark that I've heard often is
that it is a "Family Ties rip-off," although the show
doesn't remind me of Family Ties at all, but this show
is a great show and for the price, is well-worth
having in any DVD collection. So share the laughter
and love with your family, and purchase this DVD set!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 4/5
Audio Quality: 4.5/5
Special Features: 3/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 01/30/06
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