Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Double Trouble: Liz and Jean Sagal

Double Trouble aired from April 1984 until August 1985 on NBC.

This innocuous sitcom about twin high-schoolers -one zany, the other serious -was reminiscent of The Patty Duke Show some two decades earlier. There were two principal differences , however: in Double Trouble real-life twins played the leading roles ( while Patty Duke had played both roles herself), and The Patty Duke Show lasted three times longer.

When the show premiered in the spring of 1984, it was set in Des Moines, Iowa, with the twins in high school. Kate and Allison ( Jean and Liz Sagal) were 16, identical in appearance , but opposites in personality. Allison was the sober, responsible one, and Kate the spunky troublemaker who often got them both into hot water. Pretending to be Allison was one of Kate's favorite ploys. Art ( Donnelly Rhodes) was their widowed father, who ran a gym and dance studio, Beth ( Patricia Richardson) was one of his adult instructors, and Michael ( Jon Caliri) was Kate's boyfriend.

When Double Trouble returned for a second season, in December 1984, Kate and Allison had moved to New York to pursue seperate careers. Kate wanted to become an actress, while her more practical sister was enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology studying design. They lived in a spacious town house with their kooky Aunt Margot ( Barbara Barrie), a successful writer of children's stories. Also living in the town house were Billy and Charles ( Jonathan Schmock, James Vallely), two aspiring actors and kindred spirits of Kate's. Mr. Arrechia ( Michael D. Roberts) was an obnoxious , overbearing instructor at the Fashion Institute and Aileen ( Anne-Marie Johnson) was Allison's fellow student and best friend.

In real life the Sagal twins were the daughters of the late film director Boris Sagel and the younger sisters of Katey Sagel of Married...With Children.

A Review from The New York Times

'DOUBLE TROUBLE,' NEW NBC TWINS

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: April 4, 1984

TELEVISION'S Year of the Twins keeps proliferating merrily along. Female sets, each featuring one good and one vicious sibling, were featured prominently in the brief series ''Master of the Game'' and the remake of the movie ''Dark Mirror.'' Now, on NBC-TV tonight at 9:30, a situation comedy has decided to get into the identical-but-separate act. The new series is called, with leaden predictability, ''Double Trouble.''

The other productions used a single actress and lots of trick photography to create the illusion of identical sisters, but the 16-year-old twins in ''Double Trouble'' are indeed played by twins. Liz Sagal is Allison, the bookish, organized and responsible one. Jean Sagal depicts Kate, the somewhat dizzy, manipulating and shrewd one. The young women, who are actually in their 20's, are the daughters of the late Boris Sagal, the award-winning television director.

The situation concocted for ''Double Trouble'' takes place in Des Moines, which bears a startling resemblance to just about any other middle-class setting in sitcom land. Allison and Kate, presumably unrelated to ''Allie and Kate'' on CBS-TV, are the daughters of Art Foster (Donnelly Rhodes), a widower who runs a gymnasium-dance studio, which is not connected to the health club in ABC-TV's ''Shaping Up.'' Beth (Patricia Richardson) is on hand as a dance instructor and a family friend, dispensing helpful advice to the girls and hints of romance to their dad.

That much is acceptable enough. In situation comedy, any old situation can be serviceable. It's the comedy that counts, and that's where the premiere of ''Double Trouble'' has problems. While Allison is sitting home on a Saturday doing her homework, Kate is once again failing her driving test because, among other things, she refuses to read her learner's manual. This is supposed to be cute. Mistake No. 1. Then, confronted with the specter of no transportation to get her to a rock concert starring the group Police (''If I miss Sting, my life is over!'' she cries), Kate begins nagging Allison to take her. When that doesn't work, she simply decides to impersonate Allison, taking her driving license, and use their father's car without permission. Evidently, this is also supposed to be cute. Mistake No. 2.

After the commercial break, Kate arrives back home accompanied by a police officer. It seems she has had a minor accident, which is now being recorded against Allison's license. For some unfathomable reason, the audience on the laughtrack finds this funny enough to guffaw and applaud loudly. Kate then sets about trying to convince Allison to cover up her lies so that she will not get in trouble with dad.

''A lie that hurts nobody,'' she pouts, ''is not as bad as the truth that can put me in the slammer.'' Is this an endorsement or a puncturing of contemporary morality? Eventually, a puzzled father stands around muttering, ''There's a story here and I'm missing it.'' Much of the audience, I suspect, will sympathize with him.

According to the press releases, Kate is meant to be ''filled with spunk and challenge - and a daring that often gets both girls into unexpected trouble.'' Unfortunately, oozing selfishness, the character of Kate comes across as a decidedly spoiled brat, more than a little obnoxious. The girls are seen at fadeout snuggling up to each other and happily sharing an Oreo. We are back in the familiar sit- com world of warm but pointless reassurance not a moment too soon.

For a look at NBC's 1984-85 Saturday night woes go to http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/nbcsat84.php