Why Not Make It a Double? Trivia Quiz

Answer: George Reeves

George Reeves plays Superman on the show, which ran from 1952 to 1958. It probably would have gone on even longer had Reeves not died under mysterious circumstances that have since been deemed a probable suicide. Jack Larson plays Superman's buddy, Jimmy Olsen, on "The Adventures of Superman". Christopher Reeve plays Clark Kent and Superman on the silver screen in the '80s and '90s blockbuster movies. Adam West plays both Batman and Bruce Wayne on TV in the '60s campy series "Batman", another double role for a single actor.

Answer: True

"Bewitched" ran from 1964 to 1972, starting off in black and white before making the transition to color. The beautiful and talented Elizabeth Montgomery is the heart and soul of the show, playing a witch who falls in love with a mortal, and decides to stay in the mortal world and lead a life without her powers as much as possible.

Her husband is Darrin Stevens, first played by Dick York. After York's back pain made it impossible for him to continue in the role, Dick Sargent took over the role. Montgomery gets to play a good witch and a bad witch on the show by appearing every so often as Samantha's cousin Serena, whose dark wig and penchant for mischief make the transformation complete.

Answer: Mad About You

Lisa Kudrow plays twin sisters Phoebe and Ursula Buffay on "Friends", which aired from 1994 to 2004. The sisters never get along, perhaps because of how each has dealt with their mother's suicide. Phoebe is a ditsy and loveable musician and massage therapist who is one of the core friends on the show. Her twin Ursula is an embarrassment to Phoebe, causing confusion and dissention whenever she appears. Interestingly enough, though Ursula's character is a secondary role on "Friends", Ursula was the first Kudrow role created for the sit-com "Mad About You" in 1992, two years before "Friends" began airing.

Kudrow isn't the only actor who plays two characters on "Friends", though she is the only one who does so on an ongoing basis. David Schwimmer plays the paleontologist Ross as his regular role on the show. In a funny episode, he also plays Russ, a strangely similar man dated briefly by the love of Ross' life, Rachel (played by Jennifer Aniston), after she and Ross break up. When the credits roll, the part of "Russ" is credited to an actor referred to only as "Snaro", though it is really played by Schwimmer, who has to wear a prosthetic nose and other make up to change his appearance slightly.

Answer: The Patty Duke Show

Patty Duke was an amazing actress throughout her lifetime. As a young girl from 1959-1961, Duke wowed viewers with her talents as Helen Keller on Broadway, a role she reprised on film in "The Miracle Worker" in 1962, playing opposite Anne Bancroft as teacher Annie Sullivan. Duke's performance helped lead to her being given the responsibility for heading up a weekly TV show from 1963-66, "The Patty Duke Show".

Duke is not the only one to play dual roles on the show. She plays a typical Brooklyn Heights teenager, Patty Lane, and her "identical" paternal cousin, Cathy Lane, a demure and sophisticated "Scottish" girl (where Duke's accent could use some improvement). Patty Lane's father, Martin Lane, is played by character actor William Schallert. Schallert also plays Cathy Lane's father, Kenneth, who is supposed to be Martin's identical twin brother. Kenneth appears far less often on the show than does Martin, though. Duke's two roles are the mainstay and protagonists of every episode of the show. In an exaggeration of the central idea to this show, there is even an episode where Patty and Cathy's third "identical" cousin appears, a Southern belle named Betsy. That role is also played by Duke (using yet another accent). I think this proves that it is possible to get too much of a good thing!

Answer: True

"The Vampire Diaries" ran from 2009 to 2017, and it gave Nina Dobrev the chance to exercise her acting chops in a variety of roles. First and foremost, she is Elena Gilbert, a teenager from the Virginia town of Mystic Falls whose parents die in a car accident. Elena does what any other newly orphaned teen would do, she falls in love with an elderly (though very well-preserved) vampire, Stefan Salvatore (played by Paul Wlesley).

The show's plot follows other similar unbelievable twists for its whole run.

The main additional role played by Dobrev is that of Katherine Pierce (aka Katerina Petrova), an old love of Stefan's and of his older brother Damon's (played by Ian Somerhalder). Dobrev also plays minor characters Amara and Tatia, for a total of five different doppelgangers!

Answer: Hannah Montana

The breakout series "Hannah Montana" (which was known as "Hannah Montana Forever" in its final season) ran on the Disney Channel from 2006 to 2011. The story is about a teenage girl living a double life, hence the two characters of Miley Stewart and Hannah Montana. Miley Cyrus is joined on the show by her real-life father, Billy Ray Cyrus, who also plays her father on the series, Robby Stewart.

Answer: Four

The first version of "Heroes" is a science-fiction drama series running from 2006-2010 in which teenagers and young twenty-somethings discover that they are mutants or have somehow otherwise been given strange and dangerous powers (the latter hypothesis proves to be true because of genetic material injected in these people by a mad scientist). The series uses a visually interesting filming style that looks like a live-action comic book. Many actors get the chance to play interesting roles on the show, including Ali Larter.

Many remember that Ali Larter plays alternate personalities of the same individual, Niki Sanders and her alter-ego Jessica Sanders. Toward the end of the show, an additional alternate personality of the Niki character is revealed, Gina (a free-spirit who doesn't want to be a single mother). In addition to these three psychologically interesting characters, Larter also plays the role of Jessica Strauss, who can embody and change the structure of water. In a bizarre plot twist (in a series known for them), Jessica is eventually revealed to be the identical triplet of Niki Sanders. All three girls were separated at birth from their siblings. The third triplet, Barbara, never appears on the show, though her name is mentioned, and she could have been invented as another possible role for Larter to explore, but that never came about during the 2006-2010 run of the series. The total number of characters actually played by Larter on the show was four.

A newer version of the show was made in 2015-2016 as a thirteen-episode miniseries, with some of the same characters and actors, as well as some different ones.

Answer: Dennis Franz

Realistic police drama "Hill Street Blues" ran from 1981 to 1987. Dennis Franz plays Det. Sal Benedetto on the third season and then comes back in the separate role of Lt. Norman Buntz on the last two seasons of the show. Daniel Travanti is on the show from the first episode, playing police chief Frank Furillo. Ed Marinaro plays Officer Joe Coffey for the full run of the show as well. Though Franz plays two totally different characters, no effort is made to make them look physically different on the show, maybe because their story lines never overlap.

Answer: False

Yael Grobglas plays Petra Solana and her identical twin, Anezka (separated at birth) on the show, "Jane the Virgin", which started in 2014. The two sisters' paths do cross, with Anezka stealing Petra's identity and eventually being murdered by Petra. The show bears a resemblance to typical Latin American soap operas or "telenovelas" in style and the unbelievable arcs of the plot.

Answer: Ewan McGregor

"Fargo" debuted in 2014, and it is inspired by the movie of the same name made in 1996. Each season of the show has a different time-frame and cast and is set in a small town in Minnesota or elsewhere in the northern US. Season one stars Billy Bob Thornton as a mysterious wanderer, Lorne Malvo, passing through the town of Bemidji, Minnesota. Season two stars Kirsten Dunst in Luverne, Minnesota, as a hairdresser trying to cover up a hit-and-run accident.

The third season stars Ewan McGregor in the dual role of brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Rex Harrison died before the show was ever on television, and Colin Firth has not appeared on the show (though season one does feature another actor named Colin, Colin Hanks).