The kid was a cute enough baby but once they aged her she became, arguably, the most annoying child character ever on TV. I wanted to wring her neck every time that I saw her on screen. Her aging accelerated the decline of this series.
shareThis show was nothing but a clone of Family Ties, so once Andy was aged up to engage in witty repartee with Michael J. Fox and Tina Yothers, who on earth was surprised when Growing Pains did the same thing with their kid?
shareI liked Chrissy.
shareAgreed that the acceleration of the character probably accelerated the show's cancellation, but saying she should have been aborted? C'mon! That's a bit harsh.
This was a typical move made on alot of long running family shows.
Once the children start to get older, they can't do the cute "little kid" stuff anymore. So what do they do? The add a cute little kid to the cast.
Along with this show, it was done on Family Ties, as mentioned in this thread. The twins on Seventh Heaven, Raven Simone on Cosby, and even Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch all come to mind as well.
There are probably at least a dozen other examples that I can't remember right now.
The Spear of Light...mine again!!! And I...I am Cuchulainn once more!!!
Ashley Johnson, who played 6 year old Chrissy, was an adorable kid, but I think so adorable that she gave everyone and anyone a toothache. The writers perhaps in hindsight, should have never aged her after she was born. But I suppose the popularity of the show was waning and they went to the old go-to of bringing on a sickeningly saccharine sweet kid (in sort of an Olsen Twins on Full House cutesy-poo/smart aleck thing) to salvage the ratings.