Should ABC have kept JTTOU and cancelled Growing Pains

[TMC]

I think that everybody knows by now, the backstory of why Just the Ten of Us was cancelled in 1990. The show simply put, was a victim of network politics. As such, Miller-Boyett, who at the time had great success at ABC with Perfect Strangers, Full House, and Family Matters wanted the entire Friday night line-up to themselves. Since Miller-Boyett was a huge money maker for ABC at the time, they pretty much had little else of a choice but consider JTTOU the odd show out even though, I believe that it consistently won its timeslot. So come the 1990-91 season, the Miller-Boyett produced Going Places took JTTOU's spot on Friday nights.

I bring up its parent show, Growing Pains because don't you think that by the time the '90s got underway, the show was running on fumes so to speak. I think it was around this time, that Kirk Cameron was becoming increasingly difficult to work with following his religious reawakening. And it wouldn't be too long afterward that the show had to work around Tracey Gold's real life eating disorder.

So you in effect, had an already aging show with a problematic and uncooperative star and another one who was dealing with life and death health issue. So why wasn't Growing Pains more expendable come 1990 than Just the Ten of Us?