Sagal Twins
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Jean Sagal and Liz Sagal were born Oct. 9th, 1961 in Los Angeles. Liz is 3 1/2 minutes older than her twin sister, Jean is 1/2 inch taller.
Their mother, Sara Zwilling, was one of the first female producers in Hollywood, and a former beauty queen who died of heart disease when the girls were just 11 years old. (Coincidentally enough, zwilling means "twin" in German.) Their father was director Boris Sagal, best known for directing the award-winning mini-series "Rich Man, Poor Man" and the sci-fi classic "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston. Boris Sagal was tragically killed in 1981 while location scouting on a TV movie he was set to direct titled "World War III." He accidentally walked into the tail rotor of the helicopter he was exiting. The movie was ultimately finished with another director.
The girls older sister, Katey Sagal, is also an actress, best known for playing Peg Bundy on the long-running Fox television series "Married... with Children." Katey was also one of Bette Midler's backup singers "TheHarlettes," in the 1980s and has now released two albums of her own music. The girls also have two older brothers; Joey Sagal, also an actor ("The Hidden," "Return of the Swamp Thing") and David, an attorney currently working for Warner Bros.
Jean attended Pacific Palisades High School while Liz went to High School in Santa Monica. (Their parents felt the girls should have their own identities as much as possible) The girls started dancing professionally at the age of 17. Their first break came in 1982 when they were cast as the bubbly twin cheerleaders in "Grease 2." Coincidentally, the girls were cast separately for the roles -- Liz in L.A., Jean in New York. It wasn't until shooting was set to begin that director Patricia Birch realized she had real-life twins in her cast that the parts were altered.
The Sagal twins are best remembered for their own short-lived TV sitcom "Double Trouble," which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1985. The girls played twin sisters Kate and Allison Foster. With a plot similar to "The Patty Duke Show" of the 1960s the girls were given opposite personalities: Liz played Allison, the studious one, while Jean played Kate, the mischievous one. Their widowed father was played by veteran character actor Donnelly Rhodes ("Soap"). Their father's girlfriend was played by Patricia Richardson ("Home Improvement"). Initially, the girls were cast in the roles that most reflected their real life personalities: Jean as the quieter sister, Liz as the more outspoken one. In another twist, before the series went into production, producer Norman Lear ("All In The Family," "Maude") who was visiting the set, suggested switching their roles, feeling this would lend an edge to the girls' acting. This seemed to work as both girls later admitted in interviews that they deliberately added personality "quirks" from the other sister to their parts, in effect "mocking" their-real life twin.
"Double Trouble" premiered in April 1984 and went on for eight episodes. The series was set in Des Moines,Iowa, and generally revolved around the twins' high school or their father's dance studio (thus giving the girls a chance to show off their real-life dancing skills). The series was not picked up for the '85 fall season but was brought back in December 1985 as a mid-season replacement. When the series returned, the girls had moved to New York to live with their Aunt Margo, an author of children's books, played by Barbara Barrie ("Barney Miller"), along with their aunt's two house guests played by Jonathan Schmock and James Vallely. In real life, these two actors formed a standup comedy duo billed as "The Funny Boys." The plots for the second season of "Double Trouble" mostly centered on the twins' career woes. It was explained that the pair had moved to New York to pursue their lifelong ambitions: Allison as a fashion designer, Kate as an actress. The second season lasted only 15 episodes. After its demise, "Double Trouble" played in syndication on the USA network in the late '80s and early '90s.
After their series was canceled, the girls pursued mostly separate acting careers. Jean guest-starred in such TV series as "Trapper John M.D.," "Simon & Simon," "Highway to Heaven" and "Quantum Leap," while Liz appeared in films such as "Howard the Duck," "Flashdance" (don't blink or you'll miss her), "The Big One" and the straight-to-video movie "Skinheads." Liz could also be seen throughout the late '80s and '90s in several TV commercials promoting such items as life insurance, headache medicine, new cars (oh what a feeling!) and "smart" dishwashers. The twins got together again in 1992 to guest star in the TV series "Picket Fences."
Today the girls have pretty much set aside their acting ambitions and have gone behind the cameras to further their careers. Liz currently works in Hollywood as a writer and script editor. She has written scripts for such popular shows as Mad About You and has worked as a story editor for the ABC sitcom Two Guys and a Girl. and currently works as a script supervisor on the WB series Charmed (2005) Jean, whose real first name is Barbara, has served as technical coordinator on such shows as the short- lived NBC comedy Jenny and the recently canceled NBC sitcom "Just Shoot Me,"on which she has also directed several episodes. Recently, Jean directed the Olsen Twins in their own cable TV series "So Little Time" (2001), directed episodes of "Mad TV" (2002) and served as technical coordinator on the new NBC sitcom "In-Laws" (2002). Jean is currently working as Associate Director/Technical Coordinator on the show "Two and Half Men." In the late 1990s Jean married a man not affiliated with the entertainment industry and later gave birth to a daughter, who the couple named "Rose." Liz, as of this writing, remains single.
