Okay I don't understand this... how come it took twins to play Michelle who was only one character, but when Nikki and Alex came along they were only played by one person a piece.

Michelle was such a complex character, I'm surprised they didn't use triplets.

Actually, it was probably because Nicky and Alex weren't on the show as much as Michelle.

I saw two Michelle's in the final episode called "Michelle Rides Again". I've seen this episode many times.

The Olsens started when they were 9 months old. At that age you can only have a person in front of the camera for 20 minutes at a time. Therefore, with twins you get an additional 20 minutes to work on a scene. Having twins was probably a huge benifit in the beginning since Michelle was one of the major characters.

Here is the picture from the final episode. See what they tell them apart.

http://www.olsen-twins.z3.com/later260.jpg

That picture is so easy. Ashley is on the left, and Marykate is to the left on her hands.

Originally posted by IAlsoLoveRaymond
The Olsens started when they were 9 months old. At that age you can only have a person in front of the camera for 20 minutes at a time. Therefore, with twins you get an additional 20 minutes to work on a scene. Having twins was probably a huge benifit in the beginning since Michelle was one of the major characters. Yeah, but that wasn't what I meant. I wanted to know why Nicky and Alex weren't played by triplets or quadruplets.

That's funny...since someone pointed out (no pun intended!) that Ashley has pointy ears, that's how I could tell it was Ashley on the left. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known.