The first popular sitcom that Matthew Perry appeared in wasn’t the ’90s hit Friends, but rather the ’80s hit Growing Pains.
The sitcom centered around the Seaver family and starred Kirk Cameron, Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Tracy Gold, Jeremy Miller, and Ashley Johnson, airing on ABC for nearly seven years before being included in the Disney Channel’s weekly lineup. The show frequently featured guest stars who were relative unknowns at the time, from Brad Pitt ⏤ who appeared in two episodes ⏤ to Leonardo DiCaprio, who appeared in the entire final season.
Perry’s character met a tragic end in the episode he appeared in, which today ranks among the most highly regarded in the show’s seven-season run.
Who was Matthew Perry’s character on Growing Pains?
Perry appeared in three episodes of Growing Pains‘ fourth season and played Sandy, a college kid who quickly became Carol’s boyfriend. In the episode titled “Second Chance,” which aired on April 12, 1989, the writers took on the difficult subject of drinking and driving.
The episode actually came about as a part of a project during the 1988-89 television programming season called the Harvard Alcohol Project, which pushed for television shows to have a designated driver message featured in an episode. Overall, 32 different shows took part in the initiative, including other hits like Family Ties and Dallas.
Whereas most shows had a moment or a scene where someone becomes a responsible designated driver, no show took on the subject in more dramatic fashion than Growing Pains.
In the episode, Carol goes out drinking one night with friends, including Sandy, who later ends up in a car accident while driving home and later the hospital. When Carol visits him with her parents, she’s relieved that he seems to be doing well and confesses to her parents that she went out drinking. Her parents ⏤ surprised by her actions — are ultimately comforting and happy that she isn’t hurt, which leads to one of the most memorable scenes in the show’s history.
The Seavers happily return home knowing that Sandy is going to be okay; however, upon their return, Carol’s brother, Mike — played by Kirk Cameron — breaks the horrible news to them that the hospital just called and Sandy has shockingly passed away. Carol is in immediate disbelief, and as Mike then explains, Sandy’s passing was due to internal bleeding as a result of the car accident.
The episode earned widespread recognition in newspapers across the country the following day, including a headline in the L.A. Times that read “Growing Pains takes a surprising turn.” It had the biggest impact of any show that took part in the Harvard Alcohol Project.
Perry would, of course, go on to become a household name five years later when he was cast as Chandler Bing on Friends. Longtime fans received a shock of their own when Perry passed away at the age of 54 on Oct. 28, 2023. As of this writing, his cause of death is still under investigation.