I know what the internet really needs is another blog that’s dedicated to rehashing sitcoms that are better left in the past. I can feel it in my heart. The world wants to know even more about 80s sitcom classics that are arguably better left in the past.

But why Growing Pains?

I spent my childhood watching Growing Pains, and then spent an embarrassing amount of my early adulthood re-watching the whole damn series (more than once). So that you may fully understand my undying love for this show, you should also know that during grad school, when I was living in a different country, I actually had a friend mail (!) me VHS tapes (!!!) of Growing Pains episodes he’d recorded off a channel I didn’t get where I was living. For like a year. Our system was like an old school version of the original Netflix (does anyone remember when they used to mail you DVDs?!?!?!—update: okay so apparently Netflix still mails DVDs to this day and makes a ton of money doing it!).

Really, all I’ve accomplished to this point is dating myself, and painting the picture of myself as a nostalgia hound or perhaps even a Kirk Cameron fanatic. I am none of these things. My fellow children of the 80s will understand me because we children of the 80s stick together.

The point I’ve been trying to get to here is that it’s been a long time since I’ve watched an episode, and I’m intensely curious as to whether the show will hold up through the eyes of an older and (questionably) wiser me. There is clearly only one way to find out: I need to watch every episode all over again, this time sharing the iconic wonder that is Growing Pains with the entire internet. Join me as I post daily (well, 5 days per week at least) episode recaps and throw in a few of my own thoughts for good measure.

Oh yes, it’s happening.