TodayTots share spotlight on NBC's 'Ed'
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Article RatingThey may not become the next Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, but a Carlisle couple's young granddaughters already are getting some time in the national spotlight.
Gerald and Martha Eby can sometimes catch identical twins, Morgan and Lauren Thomas, on "Ed," a one-hour romantic comedy now in its third season on NBC.
The twins, who live in the Philadelphia suburb of Doylestown with their father, Andrew, and mother, Heather (Eby) Thomas, take turns playing the role of Sarah, the young daughter of Ed's best friend, Dr. Michael Burton.
Heather Thomas, a 1987 graduate of Carlisle High School, says her daughters just "fell into" the role when they were 6 months old. She took them to get their portraits taken and the photographer gave the family's name to a talent service. The agency subsequently contacted the family.
"I guess they're always looking for identical twins," Thomas says. She took the girls to Philadelphia to meet with company representatives in December 2000 and ended up talking with a New York City agent responsible the casting for "Ed."
"It was really easy," Thomas says. The agent invited her to attend a filming of the show in March of last year in New Jersey and her girls began playing the part of "Sarah" when the sitcom kicked off its second season that August.
Thomas takes the twins to New Jersey "a couple of days a month" to film episodes. "They really have a good time. They're just kind of growing with the show," she says. "Everybody dotes on them and they get a lot of attention."
The twins, who are now 2 1/2, also have appeared on the HBO series, "OZ," sharing the role of Jewel, Schillinger's granddaughter.
Last June, they were shot in a scene for NBC's "Law & Order Criminal Intent."
The grandparents cannot get NBC where they live, so a friend tapes the show for them.
Grandma Eby says she is embarrassed to admit she sometimes has difficulty telling which of her granddaughters is on "Ed" if their mother doesn't clue her in ahead of time.
"I'm not always confident because they are really, really identical," she says. "It depends on how they are presented on the show."
But, she admits, Grandpa Gerald Eby "doesn't seem to have any problem telling them apart."
Although several of Eby's friends have been watching "Ed" since it began to air, they didn't realize Sarah Burton were her granddaughters.
Now, "they enjoy seeing the girls and think it's neat," she says.
Eby expects her granddaughters' next appearance on the show will be on an episode in early December.
