5 Sitcoms on Which the Same Actor Played Multiple Roles
Some sitcom producers play favorites. How else to explain why they would hire the same actor two, three or four times to play multiple parts on their TV comedies? (Last we checked, there are plenty of actors in Hollywood happy to sign up for a sitcom one-shot.)
For reasons the world can’t quite fathom, here are five sitcoms that cast the same actor to play different parts on the same show. AS IF WE WOULDN’T NOTICE.
Two and a Half Men
The hilarious Judy Greer played three different characters on the show: Walden’s ex-wife Bridget; Herb Melnick’s little sister Myra; and Danny, a lesbian who Walden tries to pick up. At least the physical resemblance explains both his attraction and the duplicate roles.
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But Chuck Lorre wasn’t done with his lazy casting. I like Jennifer Taylor as much as the next guy, but Lorre cast her in four different parts —Charlie’s ex-fiancee Chelsea; Suzanne, who flirts with Charlie in a grocery store; Tina, another ex of Charlie’s; and Nina, one of Charlie’s one-night stands.
Apparently, Charlie has a type.
Friends
Friends came to this one in a backwards way. Before the show was on the air, Lisa Kudrow played a ditzy blonde waitress named Ursula who popped up occasionally on Mad About You.
When Friends producers cast Kudrow as ditzy blonde Phoebe, they contacted the creatives on Mad About You and proposed making the characters long-separated twin sisters. Since both shows aired on NBC, everyone was happy to sign off on the corporate synergy and allow Ursula to make multiple guest appearances with Phoebe.
30 Rock
Poor Rachel Dratch. Originally cast as Jenna, star of The Girlie Show, Dratch lost the part when Fey rewrote the character as a diva more suited for the talents of Jane Krakowski. Whether motivated by Dratch’s skill with comic characters or Fey’s guilt, the show pivoted to feature Dratch in several small recurring roles, including a cat wrangler, a Hispanic cleaning lady, a Blue Man and Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor.
Three’s Company
Was Arrested Development’s Jeffrey Tambor paying off a gambling debt? Early in his career, he appeared as three different characters on three different episodes of Three’s Company, including Cindy-obsessed Winston Cromwell III, psychiatrist Dr. Miller and dentist Phil Greene.
Then, because I’m assuming Tambor still owed somebody money, he played snooty neighbor Jeffrey P. Brookes III on The Ropers, the short-lived Three’s Company spin-off.
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is the Master of its Lazy Casting Domain. Actors who played dual roles include:
Christa Miller, who played George’s doodling girlfriend as well as the bra executive who berated George for touching her material;
Carol Liefer, the Seinfeld writer who played both a bank employee and a money-hungry receptionist;
And Suzanne Snyder, who was Eva the neo-Nazi in addition to Audrey, daughter of immigrant restaurateur Poppie and another of Jerry’s one-episode girlfriends.