Yahoo Lifestyle Tracey Gold Says She Was 'Basically Starving' to Avoid Fat Jokes on 'Growing Pains'
Tracey Gold is getting candid about the body image struggles she experienced on the set of Growing Pains.
Gold, who was a teenager when she was cast as Carol Seaver on the ABC sitcom in 1985, opened up in a new episode of Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty about her time on Growing Pains and the anorexia battle she was fighting behind the scenes.
Though she described the "first few years" of working on the show as a "great, fun experience," eventually, Gold said the writing became "edgier," and "unfortunately, I think in that time, it became at my expense."
Gold, now 55, said the writers "started to have Mike Seaver make fat jokes about Carol Seaver."
Mike Seaver, played by Kirk Cameron, was the older brother to Carol's character. Their parents, Dr. Jason Seaver and Maggie Seaver were played by Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns, respectively.
“One thing you have to know about being a child actor ... you have to be the best person on that set," Gold explained. "You, as a child actor, you need to get there. You need to know your lines. You shut your mouth, and you do your job."
So when her character became the punchline of the fat jokes, Gold said she had "no voice," even though she could “brush it off.” However, after gaining weight over a break, Gold said, "the jokes accelerated when I came back, and became meaner."
"You're not talking just about Carol anymore. You're talking about me, Tracey Gold," the actress lamented. "And now I have to be in front of an audience that's laughing at me and my body and my weight, and it became tough."
The show later told Gold's dad, also her agent, that they wanted her to lose weight, so a doctor put her on an extreme diet that only allowed her 500 calories a day.
"And all of a sudden, everybody's coming up to me on the set, going, ‘Oh my God, you look so good, you look so beautiful, you look so amazing,’" she recalled. “I think everyone meant well, but in my view of it I was like, ‘Was I that embarrassing before? Was I absolutely kidding myself that I could go on national TV, be Carol Seaver, and I really was that person they were saying those jokes about?’"
Gold then promised herself, "I will not be the butt of anybody's joke again," so she stayed on the diet and was "basically starving" all the time.
Growing Pains was later canceled in 1992 while Gold was in "the depth" of her anorexia battle, which eventually landed her in inpatient treatment.
Even though she called the show a "boys' club," Gold insisted that she does not blame the writers for her eating disorder.
"I was the one that was very susceptible to it,” she admitted. “I think if I had been on the cheerleading team and a cheerleading coach had said the same thing to me, I think that would have happened to me. I would've gone down a road of restriction. Was it magnified because I was on TV? Possibly. I'll never know."
If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, help is available. Contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.
Next: Disordered Eating Comes In Many Forms—Here Are the Different Types, and the Signs to Look Out For
