MESSAGE IN UPCOMING EPISODE : ‘GROWING PAINS’ STAR ASSAILS COCAINE USE

Kirk Cameron, a TV star who has been branded in magazines as the most popular teen-ager in America, delivers a strong message about cocaine in an upcoming episode of ABC’s “Growing Pains.”

The episode, airing Tuesday (8:30-9 p.m.), centers around Cameron’s character, Mike, winding up at a party featuring cocaine.

It was a hip college dude who invited Mike and two friends to the bash, with the promise of women, wine, hot tub and song. The parents are away.

When they get there, they find as much cocaine as sand in the Sahara, as well as intense peer pressure to sample the goods.

Everyone assumes Mike and his friends are “cool”--meaning they have sampled narcotic substances in the past and are not “narcs”--until Cameron sets them straight.

Still, the lure is strong. The three teens are tempted by beautiful women promising a splash in the hot tub, dangling cocaine vials from their painted fingertips. Cameron resists, and finally blurts it out. He’s never done cocaine and he’s not about to try it. He leaves the party. His friends, however, remain.

Back at home, late for his curfew, Mike is met by his sitcom father, Jason, played by Alan Thicke. What’s the excuse for being late this time, Dad wants to know.

Mike tells his father about the cocaine and pizza party, and Dad is surely shocked. Not my son. Not so soon, he seems to be thinking. Mike tells Dad that despite intense pressure from his friends, he did not try the cocaine. Dad is relieved, but his world has changed forever. Dad locks the front door before going to bed.

At the end of the program, Cameron appears out of character, faces the camera, and delivers some strong words about drugs.

“A lot of people tell you drugs are cool. . . . Well, they’re wrong. Everybody is not doing drugs. And you don’t have to try them to be cool.

“Look, I’m not trying to tell you how to live your lives, but I am telling you you don’t have to do something you don’t want to do just to keep your friends happy. If that’s the way you feel, maybe they’re not your friends and maybe they’re not as cool as you thought they were.

“And one last thing. I’m not being paid to say this. This is how I feel. If you think that makes me uncool,” he says, pausing . . . “you’re wrong.”

Cameron’s message is direct, forceful, eloquent and proper. Considering “Growing Pains” is one of the top 10 shows on television, and Cameron is the most popular teen (according to Us and People magazines), the strong words at the end of the show are most appropriate and welcome.

His speech should help some kids resist the strong lure of drugs, and many teens watch “Growing Pains,” evidenced by the fact that Cameron gets up to 2,000 fan letters a day.

But there is just one problem. “Growing Pains” is a situation comedy, and therefore lives off laughter. Between the serious message about saying no to drugs, the writers must eek out plenty of laughs. And the heavy message does not mesh well with sitcom wisecracking and laugh tracks. It always seems forced when sitcoms deal with social causes and the cocaine episode is no exception.

Even though well done, the message seems out of place mixed with the laugh track.

The writers should be more subtle. Instead of making cocaine the “heavy” topic of the night, it should have been just another one of the story lines that ran through the 22-minute episode.

Otherwise, it comes off as being heavy-handed and unreal. Instead of getting the message from the story line, those kids who watch the “Growing Pains” episode may see it as just another lecture from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.