Twins
Showcase Inventory
Created by David Kohan, Max Mutchnick
Produced by KoMut Entertainment, Warner Bros Entertainment
Aired on The WB for 1 season (18 episodes) from September 16, 2005 – March 3, 2006
Cast
Sara Gilbert as Mitchee Arnold
Molly Stanton as Farrah Arnold
Melanie Griffith as Lee Arnold
Mark Linn-Baker as Alan Arnold
Show Premise
Highly successful lingerie company owners and married couple Alan and Lee Arnold decide to retire from their CEO position and name their non identical twin daughters as their successors. The two sisters, Mitchee and Farrah, couldn’t be more different from one another if they tried. Oddly, the two take after their parents almost exactly, with Mitchee taking after her father, who is brainy, uptight, and reserved, while Farrah takes after Lee, an alluring, uninhibited, and seemingly vapid blonde. It would seem that for the parents, the notion of “opposite attracts” is what brought them together, but for the two sisters, it’s these differences that put them at odds with one another.
Now the two sisters must learn how to run a company together without letting their different approaches get in their way. Each week the two will deal with a business related crisis that will teach them both how to value each other’s differences, bringing them closer together as they overcome the stereotypes that come with being perceived as an air-headed beauty or a rigid non-charismatic nerd.
One of television sitcoms’ longest running tropes is that of taking two extremely different personality types and pairing them together to mine comedy from their conflicts. From the original The Odd Couple to this year’s Grace & Frankie, there has been no shortage of shows able to find unique ways to build off the dynamic of two distinctly different personality types. Back in the early 2000s, the creators of Will & Grace, David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, had been riding high on their success and had a few shows in development at different networks, one of which was the situational comedy Twins. The idea came from the two having a meeting with the WB network executives asking who they had on contract. The names of Sara Gilbert and an undisclosed “blonde bombshell” came up, and the two simply conceived that they ought to pair those actresses together as non identical twin sisters and that could be the premise. Unable to attain the “blonde bombshell” for their show, the team decided to move forward with just Gilbert in tow to start.
At this time, Gilbert had had a bit of a hiatus from television, having only appeared in minor roles since her days on Roseanne as wisecracking daughter Darlene, and luckily for the show, she was looking to return to television in a regular role capacity. To take the place of the “blonde bombshell” twin, the show cast Molly Stanton, who had appeared on daytime soap Passions. Stanton’s particular ditsy blonde look appeared to take some traits from the celebrity blondes of the time, such as Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, but bore the most similarities to Jessica Simpson, who could’ve possibly actually been the undisclosed inspiration for the role. The show then went on to cast the parents, finding veteran television actor Mark Linn-Baker, best known for his role in Perfect Strangers, and pairing him with notable movie star, yet new to television, Melanie Griffith, who had just come off a lengthy run performing on stage in the hit musical Chicago.
The show premiered to fair ratings for the network, but not well enough to save The WB from its continuing downhill spiral of season after season of failed programming. The final straw had broken by 2006, when the network decided to cut its losses and signed a merger deal with fellow troubled network UPN, combining their resources into one unified network, The CW. The merger did not bode well for the newly introduced series of that season, as the new status meant only the strongest rated shows would make the crossover to the new network schedule. Ultimately Twins did not make the final cut and was cancelled, not even concluding a full season of episodes, which marked three series ending that year for show creators Kohan and Mutchnick; Twins, Four Kings, and Will & Grace, the latter having ended with its eighth and final season.
Although there was only one season for the show, the premise was without a doubt strong enough to endure for many more seasons, had it been given the opportunity. Like many sitcoms of this type, there are going to be growing pains where actors are still discovering their roles and writers are still figuring out how to write towards their performers. The pilot episode is a fine example of this, as many of the performers seem to be feeling each other out to find a rhythm, and they don’t quite mesh just yet. For Sara Gilbert’s character Mitchee, she is clearly sketched in a way to play into Gilbert’s sarcastic deadpan delivery, and she does it well, but it feels like more finesse is needed in the writing in order to make the humor more effective. Molly Stanton as Farah is a very fun lighthearted character who is childlike and innocently naïve at times. It’s very curious to find that Stanton had not done too much after this show, because she is actually quite good in the role, and is a great foil for Gilbert. The chemistry between Gilbert and Stanton is very strong and assured even in the pilot, as their differing comedic sensibilities play well off each other. Stanton often gives a great physical performance, putting on a childlike attitude against Gilbert’s mature and serious demeanor. The main through-line of the series is that a family needs to appreciate one another for their differences, rather than seeing them as faults and reasons for not getting along. One of the early conflicts the two sisters have is whether or not to name a new lingerie product “The Butt Pucker.” Mitchee thinks it’s a ridiculous name, while Farrah thinks it’s memorable. The resolution of the conflict teaches them both lessons about how to value each other.
The show does not only focus on the Mitchee/Farrah dynamic, but also the differences that inflict the parents. Mark Linn-Baker has perfected his straight man persona so well in his previous major TV role that he only seems to continue it here, only now across a capricious blonde wife character. Baker’s gobsmacked facial expressions in reaction to Griffith’s nonsensical dialogue make for some of the best laughs in this series. In the pilot episode, Griffith seems to be just easing into the role, with slow drawn out whisper-like line deliveries, but as the season continues, she really makes the role her own. When viewers meet these two characters, they appear to be at an impasse, as now that they are retired and spending more time with each other, they are realizing they may not be compatible after all. This message is made clear in the pilot, with Alan asking Mitchee what restaurant Lee and Farrah are going to for lunch, to which Mitchee responds “China Moon East Side Grill”, prompting Alan to announce that they go to “China Sun West Side Grill.” The parents’ conflict turns out to be fickle, and the fear of divorce is dropped soon after the pilot, instead focusing on obstacles that they face together with their maid or renting an adult video. One of the best episodes featuring the parents is “Halloween Boo!”, which has Alan running around dressed like a clown and Lee dressed like Elvira for Halloween.
The show did often built comedic narratives around the dynamic of the two characters’ differences, but also found ways to have the similar personality types play off each other in creative ways as well. In “Treat her like a lady”, Mitchee has a crush on the director of sales associate and finds herself being treated by Alan, her father, like a chum when she is desperately trying to show her crush that she is a desirable woman. The episode, of course, turns this to its comical extreme by having Alan overcompensate, instead treating her like a sex object in front of her crush, fully embarrassing her by making himself appear to be her pimp. Meanwhile, Lee and Farrah spend a day at a spa and have an awkward fight which prompts one of them to storm out, which highlights the duo’s sense for physical comedy, as they both are having manicures and are dressed in towels, which makes the whole storming out thing outstandingly comical.
The series also found a lot of its humor in its workplace, where it would be the setting for board meeting shenanigans and romantic misunderstandings. In the pilot, Mitchee is given a love interest whom she longs for during the first half of the season. Apparently the writers felt that the in office romance wasn’t working as well as they wanted it to, so they had the love interest written out and had Mitchee have more freelance romantic interests.
Many of the standalone stories of the season dealt with the relationship of Mitchee and Farrah and the two learning to value each other, but there were growth and arcs to the characters as well. Farrah had possibly the most interesting arc, being that in the beginning of the series she was a bit of a slacker who saw Paris Hilton as a role model because “she’s like famous for doing absolutely nothing.”By the end of the season, she discovers that not only can she be an equally active co-CEO with Mitchee, but she also realizes that she has great marketing ideas that make her an asset to the company.
Throughout the season, there would also be some fun small role appearances from Mary Gross, Christopher McDonald, a pre-Heroes era Zachary Quinto, and Nick Lachey just before his divorce from Jessica Simpson. There were also plans to feature Melanie Griffith’s husband Antonio Banderas in a future episode had the series continued, but the most that was done there was they had Griffith’s character Lee refer to a standee of Banderas in a video store in one episode.
When the season closed, it unfortunately ended on a cliffhanger that will now never be resolved, leaving audiences who watched it to wonder if Mitchee will marry the commitment-phobe who ran out on her years ago. If the series had continued, the writers may have resolved the story by having them break off the engagement or make the character truly commit to Mitchee. It would certainly have made for an interesting season opener at the very least.
The team of Kohan and Mutchnick is very adept in creating shows with long lasting premises, and Twins is no exemption to that, with the unfortunate circumstance that led to its cancellation not at all due to the show being of poor value. It featured a quality cast and some fair sitcom writing that can hold up with its slap stick and whimsical humor. The props and costuming on the show were often very good, such as a miniature pony or bird feathered vest. The show is most likely not as fondly remembered as Will & Grace, but it’s definitely a show that could appeal to fans of that kind of humor. It’s doubtful that this show will ever find home video distribution, but if it ever does, it’s surely one to check out.
David Kohan and Max Mutchnick would close off their series run on Will & Grace, then develop sitcoms Four Kings, $#*! My dad says!, Partners, and the currently airing TBS series Clipped.
Sara Gilbert would later appear on The Class, ER, The Big Bang Theory, Bad Teacher, and most recently The Comeback.
Molly Stanton became a regular cast member on Do Not Disturb, and appeared on Two and a Half Men, Major Crimes, and Switched at Birth.
Melanie Griffith would make appearances on Viva Laughlin, Nip/Tuck, Raising Hope, and most recently had a cameo on Saturday Night Live.
Mark Linn-Baker would have appearances on Law & Order, Life on Mars (US), and The Good Wife.
Availability
This show is not available on any home video media or streaming sites. There’s a promo commercial on YouTube, but it’s hardly representative of what the show has to offer.