MovieChat Forums > Growing Pains (1985) Discussion > The hatred of Ben Seaver

The hatred of Ben Seaver


The producers and writers really hated Jeremy Miller aka Ben. When Ben got older and stopped being cute they replaced him with Ashley Johnson aka Chrissy. When Jeremy didn't become a heartthrob like Kirk Cameron they brought in Leonardo DiCaprio. Then in the reunion movie they made Ben a loser who cleaned swimming pools.

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Yeah, it's too bad. He added a lot to the first couple of seasons. It must be hard to grow up awkwardly in front of the cameras, but at least he got a paycheck out of it.

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And, in the early episodes he was always being threatened with being "whipped" by his parents.

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I don't think the worst thing about Jeremy Miller was him being a dork with glasses, he was a decent looking kid. The part that screwed him the most was the simple fact that he could not have a three word sentence without having that cheesy grin and smile on his face no matter how serious the plot seem to be! He might be the single worst television actor of all time! I don't think that he was any better of an actor than anybody that was on Saved by the Bell. It just pained me to watch how bad this kid was and how they just left it in with him smirking and smiling constantly. Who knows maybe they shot the scene 30x and these were his best takes but I simply can't believe that I know this was a low-rent sitcom not high brow by anyone specifications but I simply can't believe instead of changing the Chrissy character they should have changed the Jeremy Miller actor with Leonardo DiCaprio. That right there might have changed the show and made it last a couple more seasons.

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I used to think that about him a long time ago, but now watching the show, Ben isn't as bad as I thought he was. He's quite funny and kinda spunky.

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yea i dont know why they didn't do much more then they could have with the ben character in the last season they gave him the glasses plus he had that hair too i always liked him better with short hair

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From the few episodes I can remember from the show, I can agree about Jeremy. But I do remember that they featured Ben in some great episodes where he really shined.
Like the episode where he's 'replaced'
The episode where the rockstar is rude to him.
The episode where he hangs out with Mike and Boner and goes on an adventure.
That weird episode where he dreams that his life is a tv show and his name is Jeremy Miller(which in fact it was).

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I really think the episodes where they feature Ben were the best ones. The one where Maggie gets the family to volunteer at Ben's school carnival is my favorite episode.

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Wrong. The producers loved Jeremy who was a total pro and the nicest kid you would ever want to know?

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