Oh, jeez… this comes out next week.

It doesn’t end, does it.

I was a big fan of “Growing Pains” when I was younger. The end of the final episode actually made me cry.

I especially liked the show’s theme song. But what I loved was the little-remembered a cappella version of the theme, which was used only toward the end of the series. Well-sung a cappella music has such nice and tight harmonies.

I’ve never been able to find any clips of the a cappella theme online. The show even runs on TV in syndication, but whenever I caught an episode, it had the regular opening. I began to wonder if they’d dumped the a cappella opening in syndication.

That made me sad.

Lo and behold, the other night our TiVo recorded a late episode of “Growing Pains” as a suggestion, and the episode used the a cappella opening! I was so excited that I transferred the episode to my computer and made a clip of the theme. Here it is.

Pure happiness.

For some reason I found myself looking up information about “You Can’t Do That on Television,” which ran on Nickelodeon in the 80s. I used to love that show when I was a kid. And I used to have a big crush on Alasdair.

Here’s what he looks like today, or at least five years ago. Not too bad. Not too bad at all.