Growing Pains SPIN-OFF in the making

A spin-off of the iconic 1980s sitcom Growing Pains is in the works, with the hit show’s original cast “on board” to reprise their roles, star Jeremy Miller has confirmed.

In an exclusive conversation with DailyMail.com, Miller, 46, who played rambunctious teen Ben Seaver on the show from 1985-1992, said he pitched a reboot to Warner Bros. — who had ignored the idea — but claimed the entertainment studio had its own ideas for a “reimagining” of the series.

Growing Pains – which ran for seven seasons – followed the misadventures of the Seaver family and starred the late Alan Thicke as father and psychiatrist Dr. Jason Roland Seaver alongside Joanna Kerns as wife Margaret Seaver, and Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold and Ashley Johnson as children Mike, Carol and Chrissy.

Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio joined the show’s final season as homeless teen Luke Brower in 1991, while icon Brad Pitt played small parts on the show in 1987 and 1989 – before they rose to global fame. It’s unknown if the pair would make cameos in the spin-off if it came to fruition.

In 2019, DiCaprio and Pitt memorably discussed their time on the show during a chat to promote Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

Pitt said, “But we did start on the same TV show,” to which DiCaprio replied, “I mean, we’re talking decades ago.”

Miller revealed that he had written scripts in honor of Thicke, who passed away in December 2016, and urged Warner Bros.

Miller, who worked with ex-show writers and executives on the comeback, said, “I think a reboot would work. Everyone was on board and excited to maybe do the project

Unfortunately, it appears that Warner Bros. wasn’t interested. They have their own ideas. Maybe they want to take it in a different direction and make a new performance.

“I don’t know if a real reimagining would work… It’s very hard to capture that nostalgia.”

“When fans want to see the characters they knew and loved and you bring something new to the table, it doesn’t evoke the same response. A new generation I think it would be difficult. The chemistry we had as a cast would be hard to recreate.

“It’s really hard to get that magic, that chemistry. We were a family. You can’t just build that and start from scratch. We really were a family. We all knew each other. We knew each other’s children, each other’s brothers and sisters.

‘We were a family of 200 people. And that is very difficult to recreate. “There’s a magic that comes through on the screen.”

Miller has now urged Warner Bros., which owns the rights to the series, to include the original show stars in some capacity if the project is greenlit.

He said, “I honestly think the best option and the best path to success for a reboot or reimagining would be to get the original cast involved.

“Fans want to see that. Fans join in on that. And if you don’t, it’s not that it can’t work, hopefully it does, but you’re starting yourself behind the eight ball to begin with, by not doing this. ‘

Thicke – father of pop star and Masked Singer judge Robin – died of a heart attack in December 2016.

Golden Globe nominee Thicke’s absence from the screen has been factored into Miller’s new proposal.

He said, “The way I kind of put it together was more of a memory thing that talked about him.

“We kind of did flashbacks and things like that where we would see things of him through memory.

“But it was important to me because when I started it, Alan was still there. When I started putting together the reboot, Alan was still with us.

“And after he passed, I really wanted to make sure it honored him and it still kept him at the center of the show.”

He spoke exclusively on the red carpet of the Hollywood cabaret show Drinks With Dee Dee Sorvino.

Growing Pains was nominated for a series of Emmys during its long run on ABC.

In 2000, the cast reunited for The Growing Pains Movie, followed by Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers in 2004.

Growing Pains previously spawned a spin-off series, Just the Ten of Us, in which Coach Graham Lubbock, Mike and Carol’s gym teacher, moved to California with his large family to teach at a Catholic boys’ school after being fired by Thomas Dewey High School.

The show ran for three seasons from 1988-1990.

There have been notable tensions between the Growing Pains cast. In 2012, Kirk Cameron told Piers Morgan on CNN that same-sex marriage was “damaging and ultimately destructive to so many foundations of civilization.”

His views unleashed a firestorm of angry comments on social media that disagreed with the views of the deeply religious former child star.

Tracey, who played his younger sister Carol, was one of them, sparking a feud.

She said in 2016: “All that stuff came out about what he’d said and I was just bombarded on Twitter: What do you think? What do you think? What do you think? What do you think?’

“I felt that my silence at the time was not beneficial.

“I just wanted to make my own peace and say what I felt and what my own beliefs were, which was love and marriage for all.”

They were engulfed in more controversy when the “feud” headlines started appearing, so she reached out to Kirk privately.

“It kind of escalated, and I finally (decided), you know, I’m going to call Kirk and just let him know I was asked, I just voiced my opinion,” Tracey said.

A disagreement, however passionate, does not automatically lead to a break in a relationship, she added.

“It doesn’t mean I hate him or that we have a fight or feud,” she said. “Like family, we just disagree.” The actress added, “He totally got it.”

The cast have since patched up their differences.