That's what happens when you go from infant to teenager in three seasons...

child stars grow up too fast.....no, really. brian bonsall, who played the lesser-known andrew keaton on “family ties” apparently drank a half pint of jim beam and then drove around the streets of suburban boulder with a friend of his, occasionally stopping so his friend could puke out the window. when asked how much he drank, he told the officer "plenty." creativity on and off the set. beautiful.

i know that child stars can have it tough, and it must be even more painful for child characters that are the physical manifestations of writers running out of things to do with available cast members. he was the write-in kid. the writers milked mama keaton’s pregnancy for all it was worth, then had andrew grow from infant to an articulate button-faced six year old in one season. it must be tough when everyone associates your character with the beginning of the end of an otherwise successful sitcom. other examples: sam mckinney, the redhead freckle-faced whitey on diff’rent strokes, and chrissy seaver on growing pains, the mini pre-benet-ramsey who also had the same growth issues that andrew keaton had.

there are, however some other forms of tv kid syndromes that could be comparable, if not worse than the write-in kid:

….to grow ugly in front of america. that poor ben from growing pains. what an eyesore. he got so ugly and awkward you know the writers had to have talked about killing him off, potentially in a social message episode on heroin, or drunk driving or something. i recall that the cocaine episode left a little to be desired.

….becoming really, really, flaming gay in front of america, like jonathan bower in “who’s the boss?” who was so clearly gay by ten years old that most of america knew before he did. it started with that aquanet cowlick and ended in a lisp so thick that even the best Hollywood speech coach would run the other way. all those years so close to alyssa milano...what a waste.

….diff’rent strokes syndrome. guns, anorexia, heroin, prison, etc. the list goes on. no further explanation needed.

i would like to personally thank each one of them for living such miserable post-tv lives as to squander any jealousy that i may have had of any child star back when i was watching them.

**props to mcgoldrick for his suggested addtions to this article: olivia on the cosby show (when rudi started growing a moustache) and oliver on the brady's. not technically the baby addition, same concept**

Link to story: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=796&e=2&u=/eo/20040603/en_celeb_eo/14235