This "joke" (https://twitter.com/i/status/1446471854395363386) definitely looks like a "Funny Aneurysm Moment" (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HarsherInHindsight?from=Main.FunnyAneurysmMoment) knowing (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/GrowingPains) that Tracey Gold would eventually develop anorexia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2SlD29DJ1w) while on Growing Pains.

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The episode in question, in case you're wondering, is "Weekend at Mike's" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0593353/).

When I re-watched the series for the first time in ages, this scene actually shocked me to the point I paused and sent the clip to my friends. I remember this episode when it originally aired and this was HILARIOUS to me. As an adult, I felt so bad for Tracey, even if she hadn't developed a life threatening eating disorder. The embarrassment must've been horrible for her. I get that's part of the gig, all of the characters are embarrassed at some point, but there's a huge difference between Jason screwing up a recipe and a teen girl who BREAKS THROUGH THE CEILING because she's sooooo fat. It was such a weird experience because I remember laughing really hard at this, especially since physical gags like that were rare for sitcoms as they are expensive.

In retrospect, the years of fat jokes feel very mean-spirited.

In retrospect, the years of fat jokes feel very mean-spirited.

Maybe I'm missing something, but in what lifetime was Tracey Gold (https://www.throwbacks.com/content/images/2018/03/Mike-Ben-and-Carol-growing-pains-20576912-395-500.jpg) seriously considered "fat"? I mean, it wasn't like she was morbidly obese like say someone like Nell Carter or Mabel King. But because Tracey had something of a baby face and wasn't the tall, lanky type like Karlie Kloss, that must make her "fat"? This must've been around the same time that the actresses on The Facts of Life were catching a lot of heat for their weight after Joan Rivers and the like made their "Fats of Life" (https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/facts-of-life-star-lisa-whelchel-said-the-issue-of-weight-was-an-everyday-battle-with-producers.html/) jokes.

In retrospect, the years of fat jokes feel very mean-spirited.

A lot of these jokes took place after the 1988 hiatus in which Tracey evidently put some weight on and the writers started adding fat jokes in at her expense.

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Fat jokes really aren’t funny… and neither are food phobias. (https://theovereducatedhousewife.home.blog/2021/02/22/fat-jokes-really-arent-funny-and-neither-are-food-phobias/)

Lately I’ve been passing the time watching old episodes of the 80s era family friendly comedy, Growing Pains, and I’ve finally reached the fourth season. Season four is when Tracey Gold, who played middle child, perfect Carol Seaver, started to become noticeably thinner. We didn’t know, at the time, that she was developing anorexia nervosa and would eventually drop her weight from 133 pounds to about 80 pounds.

Yesterday, I happened to see the episode (https://people.com/tracey-gold-growing-pains-fat-jokes-anorexia-8780944) “Homecoming Queen” (https://growing-pains.fandom.com/wiki/Homecoming_Queen), which originally aired on November 23, 1988 (http://www.tvtango.com/listings/1988/11/23). I was sixteen years old then, and pretty obsessed with dieting myself. I’m not sure I was still a Growing Pains fan at that point, though. The show had kind of jumped the shark by then, and I had a lot of other things going on at the time. It’s interesting to watch it now. I’m finding that it was a pretty decently written show, even in season four, which was the season in which the Seavers had their change of life baby, Chrissy. Anyone who grew up in the era of sitcoms knows that new babies or adopted kids always end up on the show as the original kids get too old.

The plot for “Homecoming Queen” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0593270/) is centered around Carol, who is nominated by her peers to be in the Homecoming Court. Carol is shocked that they would think she’s pretty and popular enough to be queen. She sees herself as fat and ugly, and unworthy to be Homecoming Queen. She even considers refusing the honor, but ends up running when her competition erroneously assume she’s trying to sway people by being falsely humble.

About ten minutes into the episode, we see Carol having a terrible nightmare (https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowingPainsTV/comments/1nbae5b/on_my_rewatch_ive_reached_season_4_the_cringe/). Surrounded by her beautiful competition for Homecoming Queen, Carol is dressed in unflattering overalls that make her look huge. She’s wearing glasses and her hair is short and frumpy. As the principal and her peers laugh at her, Carol falls through the stage because she’s so fat. Then, her brother Mike, who constantly rides her about her weight, comes out and humiliates her, saying she’s “merely going through a stage…” as everyone laughs at her literally “going through a stage” because she’s so fat.

Tracey Gold has said that the fat jokes on Growing Pains were one reason why she became so preoccupied with her weight. As I watch that show now, I can see how the fat jokes really ramped up a lot in seasons 3 and 4, which was ironically when Tracey Gold was getting noticeably thinner. I don’t notice them as much in the earlier seasons, when she was legitimately heavier and her character was presented as nerdier and plainer. She gained some weight in 1988, but then lost about twenty five pounds with the help of a doctor, who put her on a 500 calorie a day diet.

Tracey Gold has also said that she had been diagnosed with the early symptoms of anorexia nervosa when she was eleven years old. I remember reading about that when I was in the eighth grade, years before she truly got sick with an eating disorder, around 1990 or so.

It seems especially tone deaf and wrong that the writers on Growing Pains saddled the Carol Seaver character with so many jokes about her weight, especially since she clearly wasn’t overweight at all. They also included “ugly” jokes, but I don’t notice as many of those as “fat” jokes. In fact, on the “Homecoming Queen” episode, Alan Thicke, who plays psychiatrist dad Jason Seaver, is shown offering Carol a piece of cake. When she says something along the lines of, “Oh, I’m not fat enough for you?” Jason starts to say, “Sure you are…” but then stops himself.

By 1991, the producers of Growing Pains, who had originally urged Gold to lose weight, suspended her from the show because she had become so skeletal. They required her to get treatment for her eating disorder before they would allow her back on the show. She did appear for the series finale in 1992, but she hadn’t recovered by then. She says that in one of the last scenes, the family is shown eating pizza and it’s very obvious that she was faking it. She says she’d forgotten how to hold a piece of pizza. I’m sure it was very traumatizing for her. Kind of like a phobia.