Growing Pains alum Ashley Johnson revealed that she was almost kidnapped as a child while filming the hit '90s sitcom.
Johnson, 42, recalled the shocking incident during the Wednesday, July 8, episode of his “Weird Kids” podcast, explaining that members of the live studio audience would stand next to the actors as they exited their trailers.
“I'm going with my mom and I just remember a guy jumping out of the line and he just grabbed me and started booking it,” said Johnson, who joined the cast at the age of six when she first played Chrissy Seaver, said Johnson, who joined the cast at the age of six. “He ended up obviously, he went to jail. He had a gun.”
The child star, who currently works as a voice actor on television, added that the security set up helped him avoid a very dangerous situation. “All I remember is that there were security guards who came to him after some time. [and] I just remember flying through the air,” he told his podcast partner, Taliesin Jaffe. “I didn't know what was going on but I was very angry and they talked to me about it afterwards.”
Johnson added that he couldn't process the time as a child, recalling his surprised response to visiting team members. “I just said, 'I think I'm going to be in trouble … he took one of my shoes,'” she said. “I had one slipper [and] it wasn't my shoe, it was a wardrobe shoe. They found him… [security] save me.”
The actress also said that before she was almost kidnapped, a fan of Growing Pains he sent a letter that threatened fatal consequences. “[It read] 'I'm coming to set up and I'm going to bring a gun and I'm going to kill some of the actors,'” Johnson recalled.
Johnson joined Growing Painswhich starred in a regular series Kirk Cameronlate Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Jeremy Miller again Tracey Gold and a guest star Leonardo DiCaprio in its final season, in its fourth season.
It ran on ABC from 1985 to 1992 and focused on the Seavers, a family with close ties both on screen and away from the cameras.
Cameron, 55, said in an interview no Today two days after Thicke died following a heart attack at the age of 69, the Seaver family felt like a real family. “We laughed and cried together, shared birthdays, Christmas parties, holidays and worked together as a team to make a special TV show,” he told the outlet at the time. “We weren't just a TV family, but in many ways we were a real family.”
