MovieChat Forums > Growing Pains (1985) Discussion > Carol Eating Pizza

Carol Eating Pizza

posted 10 years ago by Camelot_2000
10 replies | jump to latest

I remember hearing about Tracy Gold's eating disorder and how she lost too much weight due to anorexia. She looked really thin in one episode and I remember the Seavers ordered a pizza which got delivered. I kept my eye on her as they all took a slice and wanted to see if she'd actually eat it or just pretend to. She did start eating it. I think that's probably when she was in the recovering stages of her illness.

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] Anton_Kreitzer 10 years ago

That was in the final episode, I think she pretended to swallow it, if my memory serves me correct.

[–] siobanphotogirl 10 years ago

Tracy Gold later admitted that she was only pretending to chew in that scene. I wonder if any of the crew members noticed. They may have thought she was doing better and didn't keep an eye on whether she took any bites or not.

[–] arorashadow_2003 9 years ago

Actors will do that anyway, pretend to chew food or take a bit and spit it out off camera because of the amount of takes they have to do or the food might be fake.

[–] siobanphotogirl 9 years ago

That's true but the other actors were probably taking real bites at some point in the scene.

[–] cflr 9 years ago

I just saw a clip of Tracey Gold from that final episode and she looked terrible. She looked so much better just a couple of years or so earlier.

[–] cadeduelg 9 years ago

A couple of years earlier when the writers had all of the Carol is fat jokes?

[–] momsabeach 9 years ago

I cannot believe how Carol's character was treated. She was never fat. Too bad Joanne Kearns or some other woman on set did not stand up for her, or even her parents

A daffy woman constantly strives to become a star.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] TMC-4 (19424) 7 months ago

Growing Pains’ Disturbingly Gross Treatment of Tracey Gold’s Weight

https://popculturereferences.com/growing-pains-disturbingly-gross-treatment-of-tracey-golds-weight/

In a feature spotlighting plots that were a mistake, Brian takes a look at how gross Growing Pains treated Tracey Gold with her weight issues.

Today, we look at how gross Growing Pains treated Tracey Gold during Growing Pains.

Things That Turned Out Bad is a feature where I spotlight ideas by writers that probably weren’t a good idea at the time and have only become more problematic in retrospect.

There are plenty of older sitcoms that have jokes that have aged really poorly, but there are few of them that have jokes so messed up that they practically drove one of their stars to an eating disorder that nearly killed her.

Tracey Gold had problems with anorexia nervosa while growing up, but after seeing a therapist, she maintained healthy eating habits as a teenager. That is, until she gained some weight between Seasons 3 and 4 of Growing Pains, where she played the middle child, Carol Seaver.

The absurd thing, of course, is that even with her weight gain, she was nowhere NEAR what anyone would consider overweight! And then here’s the gross thing, the show would CONSTANTLY make weight jokes about her in Season 4, to the point where she lost a considerable amount of weight between Season 4 and 5…and then they KEPT the weight jokes up!

Here’s a hastily edited collection of scenes from two episodes in Season 4 and one in Season 5…
https://youtu.be/dH8giOnBfcI