# Age differences on TV. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 10, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342 "2003-11-10T04:06:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/41 "2003-11-15T00:09:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > \*\*Last post, I promise: > > In A VERY BRADY CHRISTMAS (1988) Cindy Brady is still a college freshman in her late 20s, just as she was when last seen in THE BRADY BRIDES got married 8 years before, making this one of the first shows to deal with learning disabilities. > > \*\* I always wondered about this! Although I didn’t care enough to research it. I remember watching A VERY BRADY CHRISTMAS and thinking “The hell? Cindy’s STILL in college?” > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Justin\_Baily_\*\* > Nicholas Brendon was older (26) than every Buffy cast member but Anthony Stewart Head when he played high schooler Xander Harris. James Marsters (Spike) is currently 41.\*\* Well, considering Spikes supposed to be what, in his hundreds?, I don’t think we can get on him too much for his age… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![hermann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b487fb/32.png) [@hermann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hermann)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/42 "2003-11-15T01:38:53Z")
Fonzie was way too old to be a hood. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/43 "2003-11-15T03:38:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by okielady \* > \*\*I’ve heard that the girl who plays the younger sister in “8 Simple Rules” is actually older than the girl who plays the older sister. I don’t know their official ages though, so I’m not sure how much older. \*\* [Kaley Cuoco](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0192505/) plays Bridget, the older of the two sisters. She’s 18. [sub]That’s a bad picture of her.[/sub] [Amy Davidson](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0203221/) plays Kerry, the younger sister. She’s 24. A similar bit of casting takes place over on _Malcolm in the Middle_. [Frankie Muñiz](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0005260/) plays the middle brother (of the three boys who still live at home). His birthday is 12/2/85. [Justin Berfield](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0073678/) plays Malcolm’s older brother Reese. Justin’s birthday is 2/25/86, making him about four months younger than Frankie. And then there’s the Harry Potter kids. Though they’re all the same age in the books, the actor who plays Ron (Rupert Grint) is the oldest (turned 15 this summer); then Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), who turned 14 this summer; then Hermione (Emma Watson), who turned 13 this April. Meaning that Ron is two years older than Hermione, who’s supposed to be the same age as him. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/44 "2003-11-15T19:56:33Z")
To be fair, a one or two year difference isn’t that big of a deal, and in many cases, hardly worth mentioning. Especially when you’re talking about teenage actors, who tend to look a bit younger or older than they actually are. Although the 6 year difference between the “older” and “younger” sister on _8 rules_ is rather amusing. Now age differences that could be considered insulting to the viewers’ intelligence (such as Andrea on _Beverly Hills 90210_, who was in her thirties while playing a high school student, and could have had a much easier time passing as a teacher or actors who are younger than their “children” on certain shows and in movies) are worth noting. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/45 "2003-11-15T23:54:21Z")
> [@](#): > > According to the 24 Declassified Season 1 Book, Kim Bauer is supposed to be 14 years old > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evil Death \* > **Then said book is unadulterated shite.** Take it up with the producers. > [@](#): > > Nicholas Brendon was older (26) than every Buffy cast member but Anthony Stewart Head when he played high schooler Xander Harris. James Marsters (Spike) is currently 41. > [@](#): > > \*\*Then surely NB was older than every Buffy cast member other than Tony Head and James Marsters for the last two years? Or are you one of those lame-ass Tara 'shippers who refuses to acknowledge S6 and S7? \*\* What the hell are you babbling about? I said Nicholas Brendon was older than all of the other cast members when he was in high school. I didn’t mean everything that’s ever uttered two sylables in the Buffyverse, I meant among the regulars who started the show. I failed to realize that Cordelia was a regular in the first season, so I was off sort of. What this has to do with season 6 and 7 I’ll never know. Which incidentally were utter shite and subpar respectively. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/46 "2003-11-16T00:51:59Z")
When Greer Garson made the movie _Mrs. Miniver_ during World War II, she was eleven years older than Richard Ney, who played her older son Vin Miniver. After filming, they married. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/47 "2003-12-07T16:53:50Z")
In the movie “Grumpier Old Men,” \*Ann Guilbert is only six years older than Sophia Loren, who plays her daughter. \*Best known to one generation of people as Grandma Yetta on “The Nanny” and another generation of people as Millie Helper on “The Dick van Dyke” show. (Helper? Does anyone know anyone with a last name of “Helper?”) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/48 "2003-12-07T19:32:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Earl Snake-Hips Tucker \* > \*\*(Helper? Does anyone know anyone with a last name of “Helper?”) \*\* There are 25 telephone listings for the surname “Helper” in the state of New York. The 1930 U.S. census has 284 persons named Helper. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/49 "2004-01-27T00:54:51Z")
In the 1957 movie “Man of a Thousand Faces,” 58-year-old James Cagney (who played Lon Chaney from the ages of about 25 to his death at 47) was two years younger than the Celia Lovsky, who played Chaney’s mom. In a side note, it’s kinda strange how bad they had Chaney’s bride freaking out so bad when she discovered the horrible secret that Chaney hid: His parents were DEAF! OMG! Whether that happened IRL, or was just a plot device, it seemed a little much. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/50 "2004-01-27T03:57:09Z")
> [@](#): > > The Waltons Chronology became hopelessly screwed up in the Reunion movies. In a Thanksgiving movie set during the JFK assassination 1963, a baby who was born before Pearl Harbor (1941) was an adolescent while kids born in the 1940s were still elementary age. By the time of the last one (1997), set in the early 1970s, mother Olivia has just become a teacher (even though her character would have to be well over 70 since the series started in the early 1930s and she already had teenaged children) and the Baldwin sisters, who were septugenarians in the 1930s, are still making whiskey even though they’re 115. And Michael Learned, who played Olivia Walton, was only twelve years older than Richard Thomas, who played her son John-Boy. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/51 "2004-01-27T04:36:01Z")
Mary Pickford was 32 when she played the 12 year old _Little Annie Rooney_. It wouldn’t be that bad if that were all, but with the other child characters being played by actual children, this thirty year old woman running around the screen with them is unnerving to say the least. I love Pickford, but this movie is just bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342/52 "2004-01-27T05:11:04Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > How about Crispin Glover playing Lea Thompson’s father in Back to the Future? > > Glover was born in 1964, Thompson in 1961. > > . > . > . > Dammit - I got that one goofed up! > > Glover and Thompson played the parents of Michael J, Fox, who was also born in 1961. Sure, but in a movie dealing with time travel and the necessity of Fox’s Marty character meeting his teenage parents-to-be before he was born, perhaps we can fogive this casting choice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/age-differences-on-tv/212342.md?page=2)