NIGHTMARE ON CARRIE'S STREET

Two of a Kind

Season 1 (1998)

I should hate Two of a Kind.  Despite my hankering for campy sitcoms I am somehow not a fan of Full House and the wealth and success of the Olsen twins is baffling and angry-making.  They were cloying as children and now design ridiculously expensive handbags, essentially still famous just for being twins, which is the worst kind of famous.  And yet I really like Two of a Kind, a short-lived late 90s TGIF sitcom starring the Olsen twins.

What’s the appeal?  The premise of Two of a Kind is essentially an updated The Nanny and the Professor.  Or more accurately, exactly the same premise.  The two Olsens (their main personality traits being that they are twins, as in every Olsen twins project ever) have a widowed professor dad who hires a spunky nanny and sparks fly between the two (the professor and the nanny, not the twins).  Not much really ever happened save two terrific holiday episodes.  I think the appeal lies in the two likable adult leads.  Christopher Sieber, the actor who plays the dad, is out and proud in real life which proposes an interesting theory as to why the Professor never hooks up with nanny Carrie.

 

I can't think of a witty caption but hey, check out that Mickey Mouse Jack o'Lantern logo in the corner!

The first of the two aforementioned terrific holiday episodes is this Halloween outing.  The girls want to go to Carrie’s Halloween bash but their dad forbids them from attending a college party.  While out trick-or-treating the girls swap costumes with two boys and sneak off to the party, which is AWESOME.  Their dad discovers the deception and pretends to be arrested in order to traumatize them.  Then they have to pick up garbage.  Fin.

The awesomeness of the episode is in Carrie’s party, one of those super-elaborate affairs that a poor college student would never manage to pull together in real life.  Unless you’re Kate Gosselin getting a free pass at Party City, the amount of rubber severed heads and life-size monster statues seen here would cost a pretty penny.  There is also some definite gayness going on.  The faux cop who handles the fake arrest is drawn back to the party to perform the YMCA along with an Indian chief and construction worker.  And Carrie’s Cleopatra costume keeps getting confused for Cher.  Subtly queer stuff for TGIF!

Bonus: the episode ends with some cute outtakes of the actors scaring each other on set.

Recurring Themes: The two boys dress in the girls’ costumes, leading to some Gender Confusion.  Carrie wears the ever-popular Cleopatra Costume.  Plus we get a Head-On-A-Plate (not technically on a plate but it’s the same concept).

Halloween Quotient: 5

See It, Skip It, Own It?

Worth owning, if only it was available on DVD!  So you’ll have to settle for watching a low-quality version on YouTube, but you’ll be so filled with Halloween spirit you won’t mind.