Short Article Clippings

USA Weekend, 8/3/97

Q. I've heard that those cute twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen- who started their career at age 1, playing Michelle on the long-running ABC sitcom Full House-are coming back to TV. When?

-Erin Hoff, Chicago

A. No time soon. A television show of their own is always an option for the girls, whose adorability factor is off the charts, but there are no specific plans. Rather, their career strategy has been to focus on their adventure video series, very hot among the school-aged girl set, and feature films like last year's Parent Trap clone, It Takes Two. Despite their great physical similarity, Mary-Kate and Ashley are fraternal, not identical twins.

Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/7/97

Q: As I understand it, the Olsen twins will soon be starring in a new TV series called "Double Trouble." What will it be about and when will it air?

A: The proposed series starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen is still in the development stage. Few details have been finalized and none have been officially released. The show most likely will surface later this year or spring '98. Meanwhile the former Full House twins, now eleven years old, are working on a new video adventure scheduled for release around Christmas and a movie due out next year.

Thanks to Kim Schreiber for this article!

Online Chat

Question for Jane Sibbett (Clarice Kensington from IT TAKES TWO): Were the twins shy when the first worked with you on the set of "It takes Two"?

Answer: Shy? yeah, actually they were. They were sweet sweet sweet young ladies who are just normal 9 year old kids (at the time). We just totally hit it off. We shot in Toronto--and they came to my house in Toronto and they came to play with my little girl and boy and niece who is the same age.

Thanks to Brandon for this!

Interview

[Picture] These fraternal twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, may look a lot alike but have their differences.

Ashley: Well, I don't go into her room and she doesn't come into mine, unless we knock, and that is how it is.

Mary-Kate: We sometimes will go in Ashley's room and do homework.

Ashley: Her room is too messy!

They have shared many things in their life, including the role of Michelle Tanner, in the family sitcom Full House. But they do have somethings that are theirs.

Ashley: What's mine is mine and what's hers is hers. We don't have to share our things. We have our own bikes, toys, cloths, and games. I like it better like that.

Mary-Kate: But we do share sometimes.

Thanks to AshFull8@aol.com for this!

Entertainment Wire, 3/15/98

One of Sail With the Stars' most popular events was caught up in a recent controversy when the new Disney cruise ship, the Disney Magic, cancelled its first 40 sailings because the ship wasn't completed. The fully-booked "Olsen Twins Celebrity Kids Cruise" was one of those cancelled.

Not wanting to disappoint the fans and Sail With The Stars' loyal clients, Stars waged an urgent battle with Disney executives and won, rescheduling the "Celebrity Kids Cruise" for the Magic's new debut of Aug. 3, 1998.

Thanks for Christine for this article!

ET Online

Question for Bob Saget (Danny Tanner from Full House): Bob, are your kids in show business? Do you think it is a negative thing to let kids do shows early on? What are the Olsen twins like? Are they affected?

Answer: Obviously, everyone is affected by what they do in their lives. The Olsen twins are really sweet girls and they have loving parents, so I would think they're going to be fine given their upbringing...

Nice: At 12, wholesome Olsen twins return to TV

The first time America laid eyes on the Olsen twins, they were 9 months old and stealing scenes in the shared role of baby Michelle on "Full House." Now Mary-Kate and Ashley are 12 and wear platform sandals, a hint of makeup and stylish Courteney Cox hairdos. Come September, the Olsens will enter seventh grade and emerge from a three-year sitcom hiatus to star in ABC's "Two of a Kind." This time they'll play twins who are opposites -- much like they are in real life.

TV Guide, 10/31 - 11/6/98
Top 10 New Kids' Show

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's new ABC comedy (Fridays, 8 pm/ET) is built around a familiar situation: widower dad raising motherless kids. But that's where the similarity to the Olsen twins' other long-running TGIF sitcom ends. Those endearing moppets of Full House are now full-fledged preteens (and thus no longer have to share the same role, as they did playing the Tanner family's Michelle). Here, Ashley is the boy-crazy clotheshorse and also, refreshingly, the math whiz. Mary-Kate is the denim-decked gamine whose grades are lukewarm but whose levelheadedness helps steady her off-flighty sis. Their dad (played by the likeable Christopher Sieber) is a Chicago university professor. His student Carrie (the disarmingly genuine Sally Wheeler), a free-spirited 26-year-old attempting to obtain a college degree, is the twins' playful babysitter. The writing is a tier or two above most TV kiddie comedies, with scripts that treat preadolescent concerns like popularity, peer pressure and the opposite sex with intelligence and humor. And the Olsens, tube troupers both, handle their new roles with confident ease.
- Moira McCormick

Dispatch TV-Radio Critic, 10/21/98
Wranglers Keep Littlest Actors Cooing For Cameras
By Tim Feran

Her (Adria Later) most satisfying job involved the sitcom Full House. It started small, with one of the actors carrying a baby - who wasn't supposed to be a featured character - across a room.

"The creator of the series said, 'Do you think you can make the baby crawl across the floor?' " she said. "I started playing a very hands-on role with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

"The job evolved and became a very heavy responsibility over eight years. America watched that baby grow up. I still do talk to Mary-Kate and Ashley. I love them like my own daughters. They're very sweet."

The Olsen twins exemplify what Later sees as the enriching environment of a studio.

*Adria Later was Mary-Kate & Ashley's acting coach when they were on Full House.

March 17, 1999
By Cynthia Littleton

Disney’s DIC Entertainment has inked a deal with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s Dualstar Entertainment to produce an animated series based on the "Trenchcoat Twins" detective characters from the Olsens’ homevid series.

There’s no word on a distributor yet for the cartoon skein, but ABC’s Saturday morning slate would seem a likely candidate, given the potential for a cross-promotional tie-in with the Olsen’s ABC primetime sitcom "Two of a Kind".

The 12-year-old twins will provide the voices for the pint-size gumshoes and serve as executive producers of the series. Deal was unveiled Tuesday by DIC prexy Andy Heyward.

In other kidvid development news,...

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the 12-year-old stars of ABC's "Two of a Kind," will executive produce "The Trenchcoat Twins" with DIC president and CEO Andy Heyward, Robbie London and Mike Maliani

November 13, 1995
Steve Guttenberg with the Olsen twins in new romantic comedy How were those little Olsen twins on the set?

"Really professional and courteous, easy to work with. Much easier than many adults I've worked with."

When our turn came to speak with Mary-Kate and Ashley, we found them really professional and courteous, and much easier to interview than many adults with whom we've spoken. That's because they don't say anything artificial or pat. They don't say anything much at all, really. The Olsens are typical nine-year-old girls. They seem surprisingly unaffected by all the hoopla around them. Ashley explains that they wear uniforms to school. She wants to continue acting, even as an adult; so does Mary-Kate, but she'd also like to work with whales, expressing a particular interest in Belugas and Killers.