The Bob Newhart Show - Bob Hartley/Bob Newhart
Seinfeld - Jerry Seinfeld/Jerry Seinfeld
Mary Tyler Moore Show - Mary Richards/Mary Tyler Moore
I Love Lucy - Lucy Ricardo/Lucille Ball
The Joey Bishop Show - Joey Barnes/Joey Bishop
Cheers - Woody Boyd/Woody Harrelson

The Andy Griffith Show - Andy Griffith/Andy Taylor
Happy Days - Marion Ross/Marion Cunningham
Happy Days - Al Molinaro/Al Delvecchio
The Donna Reed Show - Donna Reed/Donna Stone
Barney Miller - Ron Glass/Ron Harris

The Girl With Something Extra: Sally/Sally Fields, John/John Davidson

Tony Danza's character on all his shows were called Tony.

Taxi - Tony Banta
Who's The Boss? - Tony Micelli
Hudson Street - Tony Canetti
The Tony Danza Show - Tony DiMeo

NewsRadio - Dave Nelson / Dave Foley
NewsRadio - Joe Garrelli / Joe Rogan
The Office - Angela Martin / Angela Kinsey
The Office - Oscar Martinez / Oscar Nunez
The Office - Phyllis Lapin-Vance / Phyllis Smith
The Office - Clark Green / Clark Duke
Ellen - Ellen Morgan / Ellen DeGeneres
Night Court - Harry Stone / Harry Anderson

If we also counting first AND last names...
Creed Bratton - The Office
Andy Richter - Andy Richter Controls the Universe
Will Smith - The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Kate Mulgrew: Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager (will this one count?)

THE NEW DICK VAN DYKE SHOW Dick van Dyke/Dick Preston
BOB Bob Newhart/Bon something (I forget)


would Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen count?

Vivian Vance was Vivian Bagley in The Lucy Show

Shirley Jones/ Shirley Partridge - Partridge Family
Patty Duke/ Patty Lane -Patty Duke show

A note about Cheers. I've heard the producers of the show have said that when Woody Harrelson auditioned for the role of Woody Boyd, the character had already been created and named and it was completely coincidental that they picked Harrelson to play him and that he and the character had the same first name, it wasn't intentional. But I'm not sure if that's true or not.

Home Improvement-Tim Allen played Tim Taylor.
Magnum P.I.-Tom Selleck played Thomas Magum, Thomas is usually shortened to Tom. But if I remember, on the show if anybody called Magnum by his first name it was always Thomas, I don't remember anybody ever shortening it to Tom, he was always called Magnum or Thomas.

Ed.

BOB Bob Newhart/Bon something (I forget)


I believe the character was Bob McKay on that one.

Kevin Can Wait-Kevin James plays Kevin Gable.
Welcome Back Kotter-Gabe Kaplan played Gabe Kotter.

Ed.

On Curb Your Enthusiasm, Cheryl Hines was Cheryl David, Jeff Garlin played Jeffe Greene and Susie Essman was Susie Greene.

The Mothers in Law was one of the best examples where Eve Arden and Herbert Rudley played Eve and Herb Hubbard and Kaye Ballard and Roger C. Carmel were Kate and Roger Buell. In the second season, Richard Deacon replaced Carmel.

Roseanne- Roseanne Barr/ Roseanne Connor

The Dick Van Dyke Show - Jerry Helper/Jerry Paris

The Drew Carey Show: Drew Carey/Drew Carey

Shirley Hemphill/ Shirley Wilson - What's Happening

Susan Richardson played Susan Bradford on Eight is Enough.

The Rockford Files: James Garner as Jim Rockford

One weird one: on "Dobie Gillis", Jean Byron played Imogene Burkhart. That was Byron's birth name!

Delta- starring Delta Burke as Delta Bishop

Hope & Faith- starring Faith Ford as Faith Shanosky

Mary Tyler Moore Show- starring Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards

Valerie's Family (aka The Hogan Family)--- starring Valerie Harper as Valerie Hogan

Martin---starring Martin Lawrence as Martin Payne

Ellen--- starring Ellen DeGeneres as Ellen Morgan

on "SANFORD & SON" Redd Foxx played Fred Sanford. Redd Foxxes real name was John Elroy Sanford.

Flipper: The Dolphin was named Flipper in the show and the various dolphins who portrayed Flipper on the show were also named Flipper

Reba-Reba McEntire played Reba Hart

Night Court-Selma Diamond played Selma Hacker
Night Court-Florence Halop played Florence Kleiner

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air-DJ Jazzy Jeff AKA Jeffrey Townes, played Jazz

Flipper: The Dolphin was named Flipper in the show and the various dolphins who portrayed Flipper on the show were also named Flipper
I always thought that the dolphins name was real name was Suzie.

I just thought of a couple more.

Mary Tyler Moore-Ted Knight played Ted Baxter

Hooperman-John Ritter played John Hooperman and Hearts Afire he played John Hartman.

I'm sure this counts so I'm going to add it. Katey Sagal played Cate Hennessey on 8 Simple Rules. I know her name is Katey but a lot of women by that name go by Kate, so I'm including it.

"8 Simple Rules": James Garner/Jim Egan
"Victorious": Victoria Justice/Tori Vega

Yes I've heard that too Coffeecup. The dolphin that played Flipper wasn't a male but a female and her actual name was Suzy.

Ed.

I was going to mention Ted Knight playing Ted Baxter andress_jade, because I realized I hadn't seen it mentioned but now I see you've beat me to it. Actually, Ted Knight's real name was Tladwurz Konopka. I'm not making that up LOL! :D I think it's Polish, but I'm not sure how you pronounce the first name.

Ed.