Anybody watched the bits of the pilot on the Season One DVD? It just seemed REALLY weird with the other actress, Elizabeth Ward, playing Carol! It kind of reminded me of the episode where the redheaded Sam kid from "Diff'rent Strokes" played The Other Ben! Just weird! Heheheheh.
"I cry because others are stupid and it makes me sad."
Yeah, I watched it and the original actress fit the part better--she seemed more of a nerd. Definitely geeky and unattractive, whereas Tracey Gold was supposed to play a nerdy character, but she was likable and pretty.
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Elizabeth Ward as Carol Seavershare
Growing Pains
Elizabeth Ward had appeared in a couple of lesser-known ABC Afterschool Specials prior to being cast as Carol Seaver in the original Growing Pains pilot, shot in 1985. She didn’t click with test audiences, and was replaced by Tracey Gold, who hesitated to come back after being rejected once already. She changed her mind and rejoined a series that aired for seven seasons. Elizabeth Ward guest-starred in a Simon & Simon episode the following year, and never got another job. It’s a rough business.
Would it have worked?
I think so. In the original pilot Ward was even more bookish than Gold in the show’s early seasons, but there’s no reason to assume she couldn’t have guided Carol through adolescence much like her replacement.
Oh man, she looks like a nerdy boy in a bad wig. With that actress, Mike's ribbing of Carol would come off as just cruel, not a typical family rivalry goof.
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It makes sense why they dumped Elizabeth Ward in favor of Tracy Gold. Lets be brutally honest, how can somebody as gawky and homely looking as Elizabeth Ward plausibly be the daughter of somebody as beautiful and gorgeous as Joanna Kerns (one of the biggest MILFs in TV history)!?
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