As long as they got each other! Alan Thicke revealed during the Today show that he and his Growing Pains TV wife, Joanna Kerns, considered dating in real life when they starred together on the beloved ’80s sitcom.
“How close did the two of you come to [getting together]?” Billy Bush asked Thicke, 69, on Monday, September 12.
“She couldn’t keep her hands off of me,” Thicke joked.
“Actually, we were very fond of each other right from the very beginning,” he added. “We worked off-hours on our scenes to establish chemistry. We both took the job very seriously. But then we thought, ‘You know, it’s possible — this is a good show — it could last longer than the relationship.’ Actors historically you get bored, you’re in the trailer. Actors hookup. They make Taylor Swift look like a longterm commitment. … Do you really want to go through all that? No.”
Us Weekly exclusively revealed last week that the pop star and British actor Tom Hiddleston split after three months of dating.
Thicke and Kerns, 63, played Dr. Jason Seaver and Maggie Seaver on the comedy for seven seasons from 1985 to 1992. The TV couple lived in Long Island, New York, and raised their three children: troublemaker Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron), book-smart Carol Seaver (Tracey Gold) and rowdy Ben Seaver (Jeremy Miller).
Leonardo DiCaprio briefly starred on the show, too, when he joined as Luke Brower in 1991. Growing Pains was one of the Oscar winner’s first acting credits.
“Did I know that he would not only be the superstar but the great, great talent he is? Yes. First of all, Leo on the set could imitate anybody. He was so much fun, and he was so loosey,” Kerns told Entertainment Weekly in October 2011. “I never knew a kid that had that wit and that intelligence and that ability to kind of capture a room. He had a lot of talent. I think everyone around him saw it – I know Alan and I certainly saw it.”
Watch Thicke and Kerns in Growing Pains in the video above!
