Michael produces a sloppily written sitcom as a star vehicle for Stephanie.Michael produces a sloppily written sitcom as a star vehicle for Stephanie.Michael produces a sloppily written sitcom as a star vehicle for Stephanie.
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Did you know
- TriviaThis episode is a direct parody of The Patty Duke Show.
- Quotes
Dick Loudon: [as Henry Bumpter] Alright, I'll do it.
[Stephanie as Jody Bumpter enters the room]
Dick Loudon: Tonight I'm going to dye...
[Stephanie as Jody Bumpter gasps in shock and leaves the room]
Dick Loudon: ... my hair
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 42nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1990)
- SoundtracksSeein' Double
by Marc Fitch and Mark Solomon
Featured review
A Tie with the Finale as Best Episode of the Series
This episode is brilliant. It's probably my favorite of the entire Newhart series, and in my opinion one of the best episodes of any sitcom ever.
So the plot is that Michael decides to produce a sitcom pilot. This pilot will be called "Seein' Double". It will star Stephanie in a double acting role, in which she plays twin teen-age girls, much in the manner of the old Patty Duke Show. Dick will play her father. Most of this episode of Newhart is actually a screening of the Seein' Double episode that eventually gets produced. So it's a sitcom within a sitcom.
The Seein' Double show as we view it functions as a parody of sitcoms themselves. Stephanie is playing twin girls, so it contains many obviously cheaply done camera tricks to produce the illusion of there being two identical girls. (Conveniently, one girl always has her back to the camera, etc.) But it's not just making fun of the camera tricks. The show contains every sitcom cliché which would be familiar to any person who has ever watched many older American TV shows. There's stilted dialogue that conveniently explains the set-up of the show. There is the instance of a character conveniently overhearing just the right snippets of another character's words so that they get some wildly wrong idea of what's truly happening.
If that weren't enough, there's yet another level of humor. We the audience know that Dick doesn't want to act in the Seein' Double sitcom, and Dick (the character) is not a trained actor. He's only doing this because he has to. Consequently we the audience laugh at his poorly acted performance as the girls' father.
The only slight negative could be that if you're looking forward to enjoying the troupe of Newhart characters and how they ordinarily interact, you don't get as much of that here. Chester and Jim don't appear. Neither do Larry, Darryl, and Darryl. This episode is a different animal than most.
But you can get those guys in plenty of other episodes. Seein' Double is a brilliant change of pace.
So the plot is that Michael decides to produce a sitcom pilot. This pilot will be called "Seein' Double". It will star Stephanie in a double acting role, in which she plays twin teen-age girls, much in the manner of the old Patty Duke Show. Dick will play her father. Most of this episode of Newhart is actually a screening of the Seein' Double episode that eventually gets produced. So it's a sitcom within a sitcom.
The Seein' Double show as we view it functions as a parody of sitcoms themselves. Stephanie is playing twin girls, so it contains many obviously cheaply done camera tricks to produce the illusion of there being two identical girls. (Conveniently, one girl always has her back to the camera, etc.) But it's not just making fun of the camera tricks. The show contains every sitcom cliché which would be familiar to any person who has ever watched many older American TV shows. There's stilted dialogue that conveniently explains the set-up of the show. There is the instance of a character conveniently overhearing just the right snippets of another character's words so that they get some wildly wrong idea of what's truly happening.
If that weren't enough, there's yet another level of humor. We the audience know that Dick doesn't want to act in the Seein' Double sitcom, and Dick (the character) is not a trained actor. He's only doing this because he has to. Consequently we the audience laugh at his poorly acted performance as the girls' father.
The only slight negative could be that if you're looking forward to enjoying the troupe of Newhart characters and how they ordinarily interact, you don't get as much of that here. Chester and Jim don't appear. Neither do Larry, Darryl, and Darryl. This episode is a different animal than most.
But you can get those guys in plenty of other episodes. Seein' Double is a brilliant change of pace.
helpful•11
- fentress
- Feb 16, 2024
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