Growing Pains: Season 06 (1990)

Season six of Growing Pains begins with 21-year-old Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) moving to New York to pursue an acting career, an action staunchly opposed by his parents, psychiatrist Jason (Alan Thicke) and TV journalist Maggie (Joanna Kerns). More family fireworks ensue when Mike's sister Carol (Tracey Gold), upset that her parents' problems with her brother have caused them to neglect her needs, defiantly moves out of the house as well -- only to briefly end up sharing an apartment with Mike! In a later three-part episode, Mike takes a temp job at a travel agency, where he arranges for his parents to vacation in Paris, where Maggie comes down with appendicitis. Meanwhile, youngest Seaver son Ben (Jeremy Miller) shows every sign of emulating his older brother Mike in his pursuit of pretty girls. Ben will ultimately be center of attention in a fantasy episode in which he imagines that his family is starring in a "typical" sitcom, Meet the Seavers. And in a less lighthearted development, Maggie's father Ed (Gordon Jump) passes away. Through that peculiar brand of chronological magic that occurs only in TV sitcoms, the Seavers' baby daughter, Chrissy, born a scant two seasons earlier, is now six years old, with Ashley Johnson taking over the role from twin infants (Kirsten and Kelsey Dohring). The "new" Chrissy makes her mark in the episode wherein she creates an imaginary friend who most decidedly does not meet with her mom's approval. Guest stars appearing this season include Jamie Luner as a horror-story heroine in the episode "Happy Halloween," Heather Langenkamp as Mike's vacation sweetheart in "Let's Go Europe," and singer Jerry Vale as himself in "Divorce Story." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi