Fact: Kirk Cameron on The Growing Pains show was so intent on keeping the show devoid of adult themes he called ABC President.
Kirk Cameron The Growing Pains show phoned the President of ABC and accused producers Dan Guntzelman, Steve Marshall and Michael Sullivan of being “pornographers”.
The Growing Pains TV series was a late 80s sitcom show that aired on ABC for seven years and 166 episodes. It followed the child of Mike Seaver (played by Kirk Cameron) who resided off Robin Hood Lane in Huntington, Long Island, New York. The show harbored many actors including Alan Thicke, Leonardo DiCaprio, Julie McCullough, and Matthew Perry just to name a few.
During the years that the show ran, Kirk Cameron claimed that he was an atheist. After returning from a retreat, he had converted into a born-again Christian. Everything that even remotely smelled santanistic became the primary target of Cameron. After a few years into the show, he actually phoned the ABC President with a complaint that stated Dan Guntzelman, Steve Marshall and Michael Sullivan were pornographers. As a result, the three of them resigned because they couldn’t put up with Cameron’s shenanigans any longer. Additionally, he had Julie McCullough’s character written out of the show because she had a real-life Playboy Magazine past. She wasn’t too thrilled to have to come back a year later.
As the show hit the early 90s, Leonardo DiCaprio was brought in to salvage a dying Growing Pains but wasn’t able to change the ratings. DiCaprio’s character was dropped, left behind Kirk Cameron, and the show was canceled.
