… a bit that they stole from All In The Family. Not actual on-screen characters, but Archie referred to two guys he worked with, Black Leonard and Regular Leonard. (Not sure it was “Leonard” but that’s the gist)
Not a TV series, but the webcomic Multiplex had two characters named Angie. There was a brief discussion among the characters in the strip about what they were going to call the new Angie when she was hired.
I can’t believe I’m the first to mention Lucille and Lucille 2 on Arrested Development.
Also the loose seal.
Good catch. There was also George, Oscar, George Oscar, Michael, Girl Michael, and George Michael.
I’m not sure if they appeared together, but on House, Cuddy’s daughter is named Rachel, which is also the same name as Taub’s wife. I’m sure they’ve been in the same episodes, but not onscreen together.
It was Elmo and Black Elmo on All in the Family.
Rescue Me has Sean and Black Sean. In fact, when the firehouse hired the 2nd (black) Sean, the characters tried to call original (white) Sean by his middle name – Leslie. But that never stuck and it’s back to Sean and Black Sean.
As an aside, I once worked in an office where the manager was Debbie and a temp named Debbie was hired for the summer. I tried to get everyone to call them New Debbie & Old Debbie, but it didn’t stick.
The new receptionist on The Office was named Kelly, but because they already had a Kelly she agreed to go by her middle name, Erin, to avoid confusion. I don’t recall this ever coming up again after her first episode (she’s just plain Erin now) so I think it was simply a gag to emphasize the original Kelly’s childish pettiness.
Not to mention the various Pets Named Eric.
There were also two characters named “Pussy.” And nearly every male character had a son with the same name.
That reminds me of the litany in Goodfellas where all the guys were Peter or Paul and the women Marie.
Wasn’t Uncle Junior calling one of the Pussy names when he shot Tony? Malanga maybe?
Yep, he shouted “Malanga!” right before shooting Tony.
“The New Adventures of Old Christine” is based on the premise that Julie Louis Dreyfus’s ex has a new wife who shares her name.
It was mentioned in passing this season. I remember a little ding of “Oh yeah…Erin is actually another Kelly…I forgot about that”.
I think this is the ultimate example, as the characters with the same name were the two main characters and the show was named after them.
There are two supporting characters on Glee named David, but while they’ve both been in several of the same episodes I’m pretty sure they haven’t had a scene together. One of them is a very minor character, a senior member of the Dalton Academy Warblers. (He’s the black guy on the left at the beginning of this video.) The other is a much more important character, football player and bully David Karofsky. He’s almost always just called “Karofsky”, though.
If we are talking about off screen characters, Colonel Potter and Colonel Blakes wife were named Mildred (Blake’s wife was later named Lorraine). Trapper’s and Frank’s wife were both named Louise.
Technically, on Dallas, Jock, JR, and John Ross Ewing all had the same first name and middle name: John Ross.
In Game of Thrones, Robb(ert) Stark shared a couple of scenes with his namesake, King Robert.
OK, he probably doesn’t qualify as a “character” but how about little Jerry Seinfeld on the cock fighting episode of “Seinfeld”?
There was an episode of Frasier where there was talk of a bird at the local zoo named Frasier Crane. (Did it actually appear onscreen? I don’t recall)
And Juan One was played by Joe Mantegna.
My contribution to the scholarship, as I have already been beaten to both the Big and Little Pussies and the Two Tonys, is to provide the following TV Tropes link:
Warning: TV Tropes link.
Oh yeah, he did. They go to the zoo and Martin accidentally unleashes it.