# "It's twins...and they're the same sex!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523 "2014-12-06T20:03:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/21 "2014-12-07T23:58:13Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I suspect that this would be incredibly difficult to do an accurate count on, but I think that the number of twins on American television shows as a proportion of all characters is significantly greater than in real life. That’s also true for young widows, and definitely young widowers too. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/22 "2014-12-08T12:52:38Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Also, the creepy twins on Seventh Heaven. They were supposed to be creepy, right? Like, that was intentional? Because if that was not planned, someone done screwed up bad. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/23 "2014-12-08T14:59:00Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Does no one except me remember a '60s TV Western called _ **The Monroes** _? That was, I’m pretty sure, the first series to show real twins playing twins. > > [The Monroes (1966 TV series) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monroes_(1966_TV_series)) No. **Please Don’t Eat the Daisies** came out a year before. There may have been something even earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/24 "2014-12-08T15:20:35Z")
While soaps often have identical twins played by one person, Days of Our Lives had Marlene and Samantha Evans, played by actor Deidra Hall and her real life, identical twin Andrea Hall (who is a speech pathologist). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/25 "2014-12-08T18:10:05Z")
How about identical grandfather/grandson? Monte Markham played duel roles as a son and his identical looking grandfather in the 60s TV series [The Second Hundred Years](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061293/). Grandpa has been frozen in Alaska during the gold rush and revived somehow. The great Arthur O’Connell played the son/father inbetween them. Monte, BTW, is still alive and acting. He has a small cameo in the newly released _Life Partners_. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/26 "2014-12-08T18:23:09Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > How about identical grandfather/grandson? > > Monte Markham played duel roles as a son and his identical looking grandfather in the 60s TV series [The Second Hundred Years](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061293/). Grandpa has been frozen in Alaska during the gold rush and revived somehow. > > The great Arthur O’Connell played the son/father inbetween them. > > Monte, BTW, is still alive and acting. He has a small cameo in the newly released _Life Partners_. I remember that show. “By golly, there’s a midget in that box!” - Blasts hole in TV with shotgun. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/27 "2014-12-09T00:25:16Z")
> [@GoodOmens](#): > > They were supposed to be creepy, right? Like, that was intentional? Because if that was not planned, someone done screwed up bad. Of course it was intentional. Twins are creepy, so they wrote them creepy. If anything the issue should be with shows featuring non-creepy twins. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/28 "2014-12-09T00:59:48Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Probably because if you show identical twins, you’d almost need identical quads to play them. Most little kids on TV are played by twins, right? They want to reduce the working time for the kids, so they split the role. Identical quads are very, very rare. So it’s just easier to go with a set of twins that can’t be identical - boy/girl twins. > > StG Not to mention that even when the actors get older you’re stuck trying to find a set of identical twins every time you want to swamp them out for another performer. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/29 "2014-12-09T05:10:00Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Probably because if you show identical twins, you’d almost need identical quads to play them. Most little kids on TV are played by twins, right? They want to reduce the working time for the kids, so they split the role. Identical quads are very, very rare. So it’s just easier to go with a set of twins that can’t be identical - boy/girl twins. > > StG Er…or you could have the boy/boy or girl/girl twins be **fraternal** instead of identical, and therefore use two sets of unrelated twins rather than identical quadruplets. Or cast children over the age of 5 as the twins and avoid the need to cast real twins for each fictional twin because kids 6 and older can legally work more hours. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523/30 "2014-12-09T11:29:22Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Or cast children over the age of 5 as the twins and avoid the need to cast real twins for each fictional twin because kids 6 and older can legally work more hours. But the OP did ask for examples of people having twins, so they’d pretty much have to be babies. (Unless they do that thing where they age the kid up after a season, inexplicably.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-twins-and-theyre-the-same-sex/706523.md?page=1)