DOUBLE TROUBLE was yet another series that I watched religiously, remember well, yet only later did I realize that it really didn’t last that long.
It starred twins Jean and Liz Sagal (who I have previously profiled in a What Ever Happened To story). Then best known as the Doublemint Twins and the cheerleaders in GREASE 2, this would be their biggest role.
The DOUBLE TROUBLE theme song was one of my favorites of the decade.
They played twins, living with their single father in Des Moines. The father ran a gym / dance studio where they would hang out. The father (Donnelly Rhodes of Forgotten TV series DANGER BAY) dated Patricia Richardson, who would go on to star in HOME IMPROVEMENT.
Dancing played a big part of the show.
Like this gratuitous dance sequence. Watching it again, I STILL remember the final choreography, and how the episode was about how one sister broke her foot and couldn’t compete.
One scene in the show always bothered me. Since there is a clip of that scene in the opening credits, I have to mention it (it is at the 53 second mark of the clip of the theme).
The girls are identical twins. In one scene, they are talking to their grandmother on the phone. As they are talking, they keep switching the phone back and forth, and the grandmother doesn’t notice.
Huh? They are twins in looks, not voice. How did the grandmother not notice that? And who came up with that joke? It doesn’t work.
Still, I loved the show and never missed an episode.
The show began in April of 1984. This first incarnation only aired 8 episodes. NBC then took it off the air.
It came back in December of that year, only in a different format that, quite honestly, I didn’t like.
Instead of a family comedy, the girls were sent to New York city to live with an aunt (Barbara Barrie). There were two wacky friends added to the cast. This season ran longer, for 15 episodes. It was then taken off the air for good.
While it was good to see the show back, I missed the old format, and wasn’t that disappointed to see it go. I figured the Sagal’s would be back in some other vehicle. They weren’t.
Reruns aired on the USA cable channel years later. I haven’t seen it air since the early 90s however.
This is another title that is owned by Sony that I would love to see on DVD. Sony has such a great catalogue of titles, yet I don’t even think they realize it. They were very good about syndicating TV shows throughout the 80’s, but today, when there is money to be made my reissuing shows on DVD, they are keeping them on the shelf.
NOTE: This post contains YouTube clips. If reading from an outside site, click through to view.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
FORGOTTEN TV: DOUBLE TROUBLE (1984-1985)
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5 comments:
I always watched that show, too, MZ-actually I'm surprsied how many people like & remember that show. I also remember liking the cute guys that dated the Sagals in some of the episodes (of course I was probably unaware at that point! LOL!). But, yeah, I have alot of fond memories of that show...
I watched this show too, and I remember me and most of my friends having crushes on the girls. IIRC the two girls went to different high schools, which gave lots of excuses for their standard plot of one pretending to be the other, but one was a responsible brain and the other was more wild (although still relatively tame compared to real kids).
And every episode did seem to have some kind of dance sequence...
I loved watching this show...and talk about it all the time with my daughter's...I would love for it to be sold on DVD so I could share it with them...who could get it started in production....
I LOVED this show!! Was it really only a year!! Me and my brother used to always watch it, the girls were so beautiful even I couldn't turn away (early lesbianism maybe?). I think I was 10-11 at the time, yep. Great blog post!!
I must have watched every show that came around back then because I remember seeing this in 84-85.
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