Was Mike Seaver the star of this show

[Neutronman67]

Do you think the show revolved around mike seaver instead of the other cast members ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxVfiYYo0Nw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KflQ5--uSY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGJRkTIZAmQ

[Marvo301]

Not originally. But Kirk Cameron quickly became a break-out star and a teen idol and then the show was written more around his character.

[Vahan]

Then Kirk, sadly, let his Christian beliefs get the best him, getting everyone on the cast and crew mad at him.

[Neutronman67]

They got mad at the kid for having his own personal Christian beliefs were the actors he worked with satanists hahahaha lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KflQ5--uSY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGJRkTIZAmQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cVcLoAjqHw

[Vahan]

Originally Posted by Neutronman67

They got mad at the kid for having his own personal Christian beliefs were the actors he worked with satanists hahahaha lol

I can only hope you are joking about the other cast members being satanists.

[MacLeaper]

It's kinda sad to me that whenever people think of Growing Pains now, they seem to only think about Kirk Cameron and his Christianity with distaste. Growing Pains is a fun 1980s sitcom and I enjoy watching it. I don't know if I agree on everything with Kirk Cameron as far as his methods and such go, but theologically I do agree with him and as a fellow Christian, I am glad to see his bold stand for The Lord Jesus.
If I recall correctly from reading through his autobiography ("Still Growing"), Kirk became a follower of Christ around 1987. And he fell into a mistake that a lot of young believers in Christ fall into- he became overzealous and self-righteous (though with good intentions) and wound up alienating some of his castmates and crew, particularly with his accusations against some of the producers. There was also an issue with an actress who had posed for Playboy at one time and the story goes that he campaigned to get her off the show.
I really don't know for sure on the details of these things, so I don't want to go into them.
But I will say briefly here that many Christians do fall into this trap and it's something we need to remember to be wary of- judge not, lest ye be judged. In the same manner and measure you use for others, it will be measured to you. Take the plank out of your own eye before you try to get the speck out of your brother's eye. - Jesus commanded us about all these things in Matthew 7 and He also had some very stern words for the Pharisees in Matthew 23 regarding some of the same issues. I fully acknowledge that I and many other Christians have failed many times on this but we have to trust Christ to forgive us and keep refining us so that we learn to be more gracious and loving, particularly in our approach to rescue the perishing, as Jude commands.
But Kirk has matured in his faith in Christ since then and he has apologized to his Growing Pains friends and they have forgiven him. (Just watch their interview on "Larry King Live".) (Plus, I don't know if they would have done two reunion TV-movies if they hadn't.)
I seriously doubt anyone involved with Growing Pains were satanists (though I suppose it's possible)- but rather, I suspect some are probably not Christians and just didn't agree with all of Kirk's beliefs. (Again, I don't know the spiritual lives of all the people involved with the show so I can't say for sure. Only they and God know.)
But anyway- my main point was that Kirk Cameron and the rest of the cast- Joanna Kerns, Alan Thicke, Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller and Ashley Johnson and Leonardo DiCaprio have all moved on from this.
So I just say to enjoy "Growing Pains" for what it is- and I do hope the rest of the seasons will get released to DVD because I do enjoy it a lot.
And to answer the original question, the show was never about Mike Seaver solely. It was about a mom going back to work and a father working at home and thus becoming the stay-at-home parent- so it was a bit of a role reversal, possibly inspired by the 1983 comedy movie "Mr. Mom"- though to be fair, Dr. Jason Seaver had a job as well- he just did his practice from home in order to allow Maggie to be able to work at the newspaper.
And the show was also of course about Jason and Maggie raising their children- trouble-making and scheming slacker Mike, brainy and seeking to please Carol, and young, scheming slacker Ben (though he was a bit different from Mike in this regard). And later on- Chrissy. And then even later on, the family took in Luke for a while and helped raise him.
Kirk Cameron became a teen star and quickly became more of the focus of the show, but the show was never intended to be solely about him. Mike Seaver became a breakout star of the show in a similar way to how Fonzie became a breakout star of "Happy Days" and Steve Urkel became a breakout star of "Family Matters". Neither of these were ever intended to be what the show was about either- but as their popularity grew, it only stands to reason that they would get more storylines dedicated to them, in order to help the overall popularity of the show. We have a similar case with "Growing Pains"- but even so, there were still plenty of storylines for the rest of the cast as well.
In any case, I don't care- I love the show and enjoy watching it all the way through.

[Vahan]

MacLeaper, just to clarify:

The thing is, people think I hate Kirk Cameron just because of his right-wing politics. But that's not true. I hate him, because of the fact that he had Julie Mccullough fired just for posing in Playboy. According to him, Playboy is a product of the Devil, and also according to him, she should be burning in hell for this. They have never resolved the feud with each other at all. He cannot expect EVERYONE to be a born-again-Christian. Nobody should. If someone is an atheist, they should be okay with that, instead of being outraged over it. There are conservative atheists, too.

And that's all I will ever say on this subject.

[MacLeaper]

Thanks for sharing your clarification, Vahan.

Like I said, I don't know what all went down with Kirk Cameron and Julie McCullough, so I don't want to venture to say one way or the other. But I have heard such things and I don't know if things were ever fully resolved between them. I would hope he's made efforts to that extent, but I just don't know.
I would also hope that he would make sure to point out that it's not any one particular sin that sends anyone to Hell- it's our default destination because of our sin nature and rebellion against God. The whole point of Christ coming was so that people would not have to go to Hell- because God doesn't want anyone to go there- but rather for people to come to salvation through putting faith in Christ's death and Resurrection. Jesus Himself said He didn't come into the world to condemn it but to save it. (John 3:16-17)
While I do agree that Playboy is an immoral magazine that pushes men to lust and is not appropriate for Christians to view (and of course, I don't think anyone should view it as I'm not in favor of anything that leads people to sin)- obviously, as you said, not everyone is a Christian and thus, I can't expect everyone to act like a Christian.
This is a place where, as I was speaking about before, Kirk could have (and I would think should have) shown more grace and love to Julie. I think he was very focused on making sure they didn't have any connection to pornography- but just because they cast someone who had posed in Playboy at some point doesn't mean the show is necessarily approving of that or encouraging that. But I do understand the need to be careful of perception.
(1 Thessalonians 5:21-22)
It is a shame for what happened, but here is a place where I as a Christian am also called to extend love and grace both to Julie and Kirk as well. Christ says that anyone who claims to love God but hates his brother is a liar. He clearly commands to love one another and I must do that in order to follow Christ- whether I like or approve of everything people do or not.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your feelings on this matter. It is a troubling matter, but I would encourage you to try to forgive Kirk and move on. If you can't or are not willing to at this time, I can understand that too. You are of course entitled to your own views and beliefs and I want to always be mindful of other people's beliefs and be respectful of that too.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Vahan

Then Kirk, sadly, let his Christian beliefs get the best him, getting everyone on the cast and crew mad at him.

The way I understand it is that Kirk had much to do with the hiring of the new producers that replaced them and the general direction of the show in the final season. This likely why it was arguably so bad that it led to its cancellation.