Two of a Kind (American TV series)

Kevin Burke (Christopher Sieber) is a college professor and widower father living in Chicago, Illinois, who believes there is a scientific explanation for everything except how to control his scheming 11, then 12-year-old daughters. Mary-Kate and Ashley Burke (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) are twin sisters, who are complete opposites; Mary-Kate is a tomboy whose biggest interest is perfecting her jumpshot and curveball and whose worst subject in school is math. Ashley is a girly girl who makes straight As and dreams of a modeling career and dancing. Kevin's wife died prior to the series.

The other main character is Carrie (Sally Wheeler), a 26-year-old woman in Kevin's class, who has come late to college after exploring the world. Carrie is quirky, difficult, beautiful, and quick to speak her mind, so when she answers Kevin's ad for a part-time baby sitter for the girls, he is convinced she's nothing but trouble and is in favor of their next door neighbor Mrs. Baker baby sitting Mary-Kate and Ashley. The girls think she is a dream-sitter come true, and agree to put their differences aside to join forces to make a little chemistry between their by-the-book father and the beautiful woman who seems to drive him crazy in all the right ways.

The theme music which accompanied the opening title sequence was composed by Jesse Frederick and Bennett Salvay, and was the second theme composed by Frederick and Salvay that does not include lyrics, coming after The Family Man, which was also produced by Miller-Boyett.

The opening sequence varied slightly from week to week, featured clips of Kevin, Carrie and the girls playing in the park. The scenes, which always slightly vary, include the girls rollerblading, the girls on the swing with Carrie, the girls playing frisbee with Kevin, Carrie and Kevin playing basketball, Carrie, Kevin and the girls playing a very large beach ball, the girls doing cartwheels and jumping around barefoot. The opening sequence only includes the show title and the executive producers' names, unlike previous Miller-Boyett series, whose opening sequences featured the cast and producers names in the sequence. The names of the show's cast members were instead shown in the opening teaser, prior to the opening credits.

After its cancellation, the show gained more of an audience when reruns began airing on ABC Family in the United States. It ran on the network starting in 1999 (a few months after its cancellation), when the network was Fox Family, and continued after the channel's purchase by The Walt Disney Company until 2004. ABC Family separated the closing credits and the tag scene, in the manner that they originally aired on ABC.

In Italy, it aired on Disney Channel under the name Due gemelle e una tata (Two Twins and a Nanny) from January until February 2004.

In the United Kingdom, reruns of the series also aired on Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Pop Girl. The international networks ran the closing credits over the tag scene.

Some episodes were written and released as books. Some other Two of a Kind novels were just made up by the authors. As of December 16, 2006, 40 books have been released.[3] Some of the books are in the "Two of a Kind Diaries" subseries, where they are written in the girls' perspectives, as if they are writing in a diary. The first book is "It's a Twin Thing". Initially, the books are actually simplified versions of the episode scripts, while currently, they just feature its main characters.

Despite the lack of success for the television series, the books are more successful towards children and pre-teens.

• Two of a Kind at IMDb

• Lucas, Michael (15 February 1999). "'Two of a Kind's' Couple of First-Rate Second Bananas". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 July 2018.