Uncanny Family Resemblance

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Family members tend to look like each other. Normally, this follows bloodline - you tend to look a lot more like your parents than you do your second cousin, for example. Generally, only identical twins can pass for each other, and even then developmental influences can make noticeable differences.

Television, on the other hand, is a little loose with the rules. Especially when it gives the chance to put an actor into a totally new role.

While the Identical Grandson can marginally argue that it is not unknown for direct descendants to bear uncanny resemblance to a forebear, the idea gets very shaky for other relations. When a show tries to pass off a male actor in drag as their visiting aunt, or when somehow a character resembles the man who adopted their great-great-grandfather, it gets flat out weird (and hence is usually played up for comedic value).

The trope is pushed further if the actor is put into playing nearly all members of his family, by blood or marriage.

See also: Acting for Two, Inexplicably Identical Individuals. Not to be confused with Strong Family Resemblance, where an animated character looks like one of their parents. Or with You All Look Familiar, which is more of an Enforced trope.