Jean and Liz Sagal starred in Double Trouble and those memorable Doublemint adverts before building careers behind the camera
katey Sagal's face will be instantly familiar to fans of Married... with Children and Sons of Anarchy. But take a look through her family album and you might recognise two more television stars.
Her younger sisters, identical twins Jean and Liz Sagal, made their own mark on the 1980s, appearing in Wrigley's Doublemint adverts before landing a sitcom together.
Born on 9 October 1961, the sisters have just turned 65. And while their matching appearances once made them a memorable on-screen duo, their careers eventually took them in different directions, with Jean becoming a director and Liz a writer and producer.
© Getty ImagesJean and Liz Sagal starred in Double Trouble
If the sisters look familiar, you may remember them as Kate and Allison Foster in Double Trouble, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1985.
Jean played Kate, while Liz portrayed Allison, with the real-life twins taking centre stage as teenage sisters navigating life under their widowed father's watchful eye. Donnelly Rhodes played their father, Art, while future Home Improvement star Patricia Richardson also appeared in the series.
The show gave viewers a weekly dose of the sisters' double act, but it wasn't their first appearance together.
© Alamy Stock PhotoThey had already featured in Grease 2, the 1982 musical sequel starring Michelle Pfeiffer, playing twin cheerleaders. Their shared credits also included the Doublemint campaign, which made matching twins central to its advertising.
Their sitcom arrived before Katey's breakthrough as Peggy Bundy in Married... with Children, which began in 1987. Television success, it seems, was becoming something of a family tradition.
© Getty ImagesJean Sagal became a director while Liz turned to writing
Jean continued acting after Double Trouble, with appearances in programmes including Quantum Leap, Knots Landing and 21 Jump Street.
She later moved behind the camera, directing episodes of Two and a Half Men, Just Shoot Me! and So Little Time. Viewers who hadn't seen her on screen for years may well have been watching her work without realising it.
Liz, meanwhile, built a writing career with credits including Mad About You, Monk and Charmed. Her work on Sons of Anarchy brought a particularly close family connection: Katey starred as Gemma Teller Morrow, while Katey's husband, Kurt Sutter, created the drama. Liz contributed as a writer and producer.
© Getty ImagesKatey Sagal and her sisters grew up around show business
The sisters' parents were television director Boris Sagal and writer Sara Zwilling, so film and television were part of their childhood long before they pursued careers themselves.
Speaking on NPR's Fresh Air in 2012, Katey recalled how accompanying her father to work helped her understand his world. Watching a set operate made his job tangible in a way explanations at home could not.
Yet acting wasn't initially her ambition. As she explained: "I really wanted to be a musician; I had no aspiration at that point to be an actor."
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