Hail and farewell to the still-fresh 'Once and Again' By Matthew Gilbert
Close your eyes and imagine the Beatles in 1979 on an American ''Re-Invasion!'' tour with the Rolling Stones, promoting the release of their 25th album, ''Magical History Tour.'' Imagine the graying John Lennon and Paul McCartney harmonizing once again on ''From Me to You.'' Imagine a fog of dry ice from which the boys emerge in starched white suits.
Now open your eyes.
It's not a popular point of view, but sometimes premature endings are a wonderful thing, a gift. Sometimes we're better off longing to hear more Beatles music than watching a great rock band become a corporate-driven parody of itself. Sometimes, in an age when profits drive pop culture far beyond its creative lifespan and when four ''Star Wars'' just isn't enough, less is definitely more.
But this article is about television and ABC's premature cancellation of ''Once and Again,'' which will air its series finale on April 15. Throughout its three-year run, ''Once and Again'' - produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz of ''thirtysomething'' and ''My So-Called Life'' - has been among prime time's finest hours. The writers have elevated the divorce drama into a study of how our emotional lives are intricately interconnected. And the acting ensemble, which has grown to Robert Altman-esque proportions, has been consistently amazing. Expanding outward from Billy Campbell's Rick and Sela Ward's Lily, it has become a community of finely drawn ex-spouses, siblings, stepchildren, bosses, teachers, and lovers.
Now that ABC is forcing us to say farewell, we need to remember that three years of top-notch ''Once and Again'' is nothing to frown about. Think of ''Friends,'' currently in its eighth year and a few seasons past its freshness date. The Thursday-night gang of six, once so kooky and coolly coifed, is looking much too long in the tooth to be so short on brain cells. And the ''Friends'' plot twists - Joey loves Rachel? - practically lie down and beg a big old shark to jump over them.
Too many strong series have similarly stayed too long on the air, from ''Homicide,'' which lost its beautiful ambiguities by its last season, to ''ER,'' which continues to need plot-development surgery. Once a sci-fi adventure with a promising mythology, ''The X-Files'' long ago deteriorated into atmospheric nonsense. And ''Ally McBeal,'' so engaging during its first two seasons, has become tedious and redundant.
The medium of commercial television lends itself far too easily to this kind of creative overextension. As long as a show has enough viewers to attract advertising money, the networks will try to keep it alive regardless of its quality. It was highly unusual when Jerry Seinfeld decided to end ''Seinfeld'' despite its No. 1 rating and NBC's high-priced offers. Wisely, Seinfeld realized that the sitcom's characters and scripts were increasingly formulaic, and that too many mediocre later years could taint the show's afterlife as a classic.
Series such as ''Murphy Brown'' and ''Mad About You'' are good examples of comedies whose reputations still suffer because they went down the tubes while on the tube.
''Once and Again'' fans need to remember that most premises don't have enough depth to inspire writers for more than 100 episodes, or approximately four network years. HBO has the right idea, making 13-episode seasons for its most popular dramas, ''The Sopranos'' and ''Six Feet Under.'' This limited number gives the producers and writers enough time to make each hour meaningful, without having to stretch out or water down the material to fill 22 episodes. It also leaves us wanting more.
Before ''Once and Again,'' the last network series to leave me wanting more was NBC's high-school dramedy ''Freaks and Geeks,'' which survived for only one abbreviated season on NBC. The premature cancellation was a crying shame - and yet that one season was so special, it's hard to imagine a second year ever coming close. Maybe NBC did us a favor by sparing us a sophomore disappointment, and by giving us a cult classic all the more valuable for being rare. Maybe we should think of ''Freaks and Geeks'' and ''Once and Again'' as extended miniseries.
There's no question that ''Once and Again'' is going out on top. The series has aired some of its sharpest episodes this season, particularly those featuring the children. More than ever, the writers have avoided easy answers and allowed their characters an unsual amount of complexity for TV. They have also hit their stride in shaping each episode with a theme, rather than simply unfolding plotlines in the manner of a soap opera.
The acting, too, has flourished. Evan Rachel Wood, as Jessie, has done indelible work as a daughter of divorce whose life feels out of her control. This season, Wood was subtle and sympathetic in a plotline about Jessie's nascent lesbian feelings. Julia Whelan brought out some of Grace's cruel streak this year, as well as her literary bent. As Lily's sister, Judy, Marin Hinkle nicely captured the anxiety of a single person who knows her own romantic pattern but can't escape it. And as Rick's depressed ex, Karen, Susanna Thompson delivered some of the show's rawest moments ever.
Despite the fact that ABC doomed the show by rescheduling it once too often, ''Once and Again'' has gained a fiercely loyal following since its 1999 premiere. Recently, 23,500 fans signed an online petition to save their show. But that gesture, so heartfelt, may be misguided.
There certainly isn't enough good television on the air. But the solution is not to drag out good shows until we can't wait for them to leave. __ Boston Globe (Apil 7, 2002)
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