Joanna Kerns discusses her life as a director and memories of Growing Pains

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The actress/director reflects on what it was really like working with Gene Kelly, Alan Thicke and Kirk Cameron

By Ed Gross February 16, 2024



Being on a hit television series doesn’t necessarily ensure career longevity or that the audience is going to embrace you outside the confines of that particular show. It’s a potential fate that actor Joanna Kerns was certainly aware of.

She starred on the 1985 to 1992 sitcom Growing Pains, and despite its success she had a plan (though whether or not she needed one is up to debate when you consider she starred in 25 TV movies throughout the 1980s and 1990s): shifting from acting to calling the shots as director.

Now you can look at pretty much every hit show and there will undoubtedly be at least one cast member who has had the itch to get behind the camera, but seldom do they continue to do so beyond their own show. That was not a statistic that Joanna Kerns was willing to become, as she discusses below.

She was born Joanna Crussie DeVarona on February 12, 1953 in San Francisco, younger sister to Olympic swimmer Donna de Varona. Her start came as a dancer rather than an actress, majoring in dance at UCLA (she discusses her career path in the interview below) and found early success in television as a guest star in shows like Starsky & Hutch, Charlie’s Angels, Quincy, M.E. and Three’s Company. She would co-star with Alan Thicke, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold and Jeremy Miller on Growing Pains beginning in 1985.

Joanna Kerns made her directorial debut on Growing Pains in 1988 and hasn’t looked back, most recently directing episodes of A Million Little Things and NBC’s reboot of Night Court, proving her ability to move back and forth between comedies and dramas.

In the conversation that follows, Joanna Kerns reflects on her remarkable journey, the challenges she faced early on trying to become a director in what was perceived to be a “man’s world,” and, of course, memories of Growing Pains.