FEBRUARY 2002 ARTICLES 'Once and Again' in peril once again By Ellen Gray
THOUGH the show itself is on hiatus for a few more weeks, the e-mail campaign to save ABC's "Once and Again" continues.
"Maybe you could just write a weekly reminder to your readers about 'O&A's' return on Monday, March 4, or even a Top 10 list, which counts down to the show's return," suggests one correspondent, who may be overestimating the level of my commitment, not to mention my influence.
The sad truth is that the Marshall Herskovitz-Ed Zwick blended-family drama, now in its third season, has been given much more of a chance than some of the pair's earlier work - yes, I'm still moaning about "My So-Called Life" - and it's apparently failed to move beyond the too small, but fiercely loyal, audience that seems to embrace all their shows.
Do I like "Once and Again"? Yes, most of the time. I watch it when I can find it - fans have a point when they complain the show's been moved far too many times - and I think most of the characters, particularly the show's adolescents, are wonderful. The storylines, though, too often cross the line into melodrama and the central relationship between Lily (Sela Ward) and Rick (Billy Campbell) continues to be the show's least interesting dynamic.
I also think ABC's recent suggestion that it might cut the show's episode order to 17 from 22 does a disservice both to viewers and the show's creators, who might have used the extra time to come up with a season finale that could serve as a reasonable stopping point.
My advice to Zwick and Herskovitz? Take your next project to HBO, where they understand small, fiercely loyal audiences and have figured out a way to make lots of money from them. __ Philadelphia Daily News (February 11, 2002)
Taking the 'again' out of 'Once and Again' By Dusty Saunders
Once and Again, ABC's thoughtful adult drama, is a sinking television series, and a barrage of SOS messages are surfacing around the country.
While an official announcement hasn't been made, word is that this well-written, believable (by TV standards) series will be canceled in the spring. Thus, a Save Our Show campaign is gaining momentum.
Bounced around the schedule like a lottery ping-pong ball, Once and Again has been in four time periods since premiering in the fall of 1999. Curently on hiatus, it will return in a 9 p.m. Monday slot March 4, fulfilling its 19-show season, down from the original seasonal order of 22.
Although SOS campaigns seldom work, Once and Again fans are clinging to the hope that a recent change in network program management will be beneficial to their cause. The new boss of ABC Entertainment, is a woman, Susan Lyne, and Once and Again is definitely a woman's series.
Created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, who also brought thirtysomething to the home screen, Once and Again began with a provocative yet tasteful storyline about a romance between attractive divorcees, played by Emmy-winning Sela Ward and Billy Campbell.
Most of the first two seasons were spent detailing their romantic lives while also tackling the complicated family problems revolving around their relationship. The relationship between Lily Manning and Rick Sammier, a pair of fortysomething lovebirds, mirrored the lives of many viewers.
This won dedicated fans who felt as if the situations closely followed their own often-complicated, somewhat messy lives. The scripts offered touches of reality without sinking into the predictable morass of daytime soap opera, and the acting, particularly by Ward, was terrific.
Since Lily and Rick are now a couple, Once and Again has moved on to numerous other storylines dealing with problems of friends and family members.
Frankly, I don't watch as much as I did during the first season, partly because a critic hasn't the time to tune in to network programming like a normal viewer. But if I had the time, I doubt Once and Again would be on my "A" list, mainly because most of the romantic intrigue is gone.
From a pragmatic network perspective, Once and Again has problems not directly connected to the writing, production and acting. It is, in essence, a serialized drama, unlike cop and lawyer series, which are relatively self-contained on a weekly basis.
If you haven't been watching from the outset, Once and Again can be difficult to follow. Thus, from ABC's view, there's little chance for audience growth.
Still I understand fans' devotion to the series. The characters remain real, and the scripts have retained a human element that's become the trademark of Herskovitz and Zwick productions.
I'm happy to support any SOS movement for Once and Again, mainly because it's one of the last bastions of adult drama -- in the literal sense of the term -- in a network environment catering to pseudo-reality and young-adult shows with cardboard characters.
If this SOS campaign interests you, write Susan Lyne, ABC Television, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA. 91521. For more information, go to www.petitiononline.com/OandA. __ Rocky Mountain News (February 12, 2002)
'The Job,' 'According to Jim' Join List of Troubled Series on Hiatus By Brian Ford Sullivan
ABC announced yesterday that both "According to Jim" and "The Job" will migrate to hiatus-ville come March 20 as their time slots will be used to launch the midseason comedies "The George Lopez Show" and "The Web" respectively. The news comes shortly after ABC's release of a new Monday schedule which will also go into effect in March. As a whole this is a trying time for ABC as the network is desperately searching for new hits as old ones ("Millionaire," "Dharma & Greg," "Spin City," "Drew Carey") have fallen from grace tremendously. "The Job" and "According to Jim" join 14 others series that are also battling their hiatus status to get a shot at returning next season. It's certainly an uphill battle as not even half of them have return dates set making renewal all that much more difficult. So for those interested here's a run down of the shows on hiatus and a look at their chances of surviving: [snipped to O&A mention]
"once & again" (abc)
when did it go on hiatus: january 11
what is it being replaced by: various abc programming
when does it come back: march 4
the good news: let's face it - this is not only great television but it has the awards resume to prove it; abc's movie night on mondays so far this season has been a disaster
the bad news: seven time slots in three years may have destroyed the show beyond repair
the ugly truth: again let's face it - these seven remaining episodes are the last chance to build an audience __ thefutoncritic.com (February 13, 2002)
On the Air: Alphabet Soup By Lynette Rice
First, the bad news: ABC picked up According to Jim for next season. Now the really bad news: The far more worthy "O&A" may not be so lucky. ABC will relaunch the Sela Ward drama on March 4 in its old 10 pm monday time slot- its 5th since debuting in 1999-but creator Marshall Herskovitz is not feeling hopeful about a season 4 with the Manning-Sammler clan. " I don't think the show is necessarily on its last legs, but the reality (is), the show has lost its audience considerably by being on Friday nights. It would take some kind of remarkable turn of events for people to find us on Mondays" At least he's not alone in his suffering. Other critical faves, like ABC's The Job and Fox's 24 and Undeclared, remain in limbo (of the four 24 attracts the most viewers 8.7 million). As for the status of O&A--which averages only 6.3 million--Herskovitz is trying to be the bigger man by not blamming ABC. "It's not that the networks executives don't care about quality," he reasons, "they just understand that quality is not a guarantor of ratings." __ Entertainment Weekly (Special Oscar edition, posted February 14, 2002)
Love is on the air: It's easy to fall for TV with shows like 'Sex and the City' and 'Once and Again' by Monica Collins
Love is our greatest challenge and deepest reward. Love is the end of the rainbow, the port in the storm and any place we find it on the heart's road map. Love is all the other words that tumble between ''Here's lookin' at you, kid'' and ''Never having to say you're sorry.'' Love is bewitching, bothering and bewildering. Love is Shakespeare's muse and Sinatra's songbird. Love is hell. Love is heaven.
Love, the most complex force we can hope to feel in a lifetime, is reduced to the lowest common denominator on TV. Through the small screen, amor comes packaged in canned laughter and sound bites. A commercial is the coitus interruptus.
In many TV dramas, the romance is as meaningful as last week's guest star. CBS' ''Judging Amy'' churns through the love interests for both Amy (Amy Brenneman) and her mother (Tyne Daly). Theirs is a woman's world through which men pass as props.
On TV comedies, the best couples are defined by their snappish one-liners.
CBS' ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' pivots on wife Debra (Patricia Heaton), who relentlessly sasses husband Ray (Ray Romano). This duo does their dance of intimacy around Ray's reluctance to take out the garbage and be Romeo-attentive. Debra always gets the last laugh before snuggling with Ray as the credits roll. Very funny - on the surface.
Doug Heffernan (Kevin James) ''gets'' more on CBS' ''King of Queens.'' But sexy wife Carrie (Leah Rimini) exacts her pound of flesh by constantly ribbing and reminding him that he's a boy in love with his Doritos.
On NBC's ''Will & Grace,'' Will (Eric McCormack) is gay and Grace (Debra Messing) is straight. They don't need sex to keep their best friendship alive. But they sure need sex jokes to keep the sitcom's ratings high.
All TV, however, is not love-lite. Once in a blue moonglow, the medium turns on its love light and viewers get deep glimpses of what could be.
On ABC's ''Once And Again,'' a drama which has been buffeted around the schedule but returns March 4, the lead characters of Lily and Rick (Sela Ward and Billy Campbell) are optimists who believe love is lovelier the second time around.
Each divorced, with children, they took the plunge again despite owning enough baggage to fill a 747. But they want their love to work and they try and, yes, it's exhausting. ''Once and Again,'' finely written and beautifully acted, has struggled to find an audience.
For viewers, the growing pains of Lily and Rick's marital commitment may be too much to follow, however poignant and heartfelt.
Far more escapist is the Carrie/Big story line on HBO's ''Sex And the City.'' That long-running romance reached its denouement Sunday in a climactic episode that contained one of the sweetest love scenes ever shown on TV.
Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Big (Chris Noth) - lovers who, through the twists of fate and time, have become great friends - are saying goodbye to each other. He's moving to California. They sit in his apartment, which is emptied of all furniture except a record player.
He puts on a vinyl record and the voice of Andy Williams fills the space. Williams sings ''Moon River,'' the Henry Mancini classic. At first, hip Carrie thinks Big is getting old-fogey corny on her.
He tells her how the song was his parents' favorite, how they would dance to it before heading off for a big night on the town, how when he was a boy he thought the phrase ''two drifters off to see the world'' was ''two twisters off to see the world.'' Big guides Carrie into a gentle twist.
In that moment, Big reveals a memory, a gentle piece of his guarded soul. It seems to be as generous as love gets.
Can such kind and complex moments happen anywhere else but commercial-free HBO?
HBO's "Six Feet Under'' depicts a complicated, challenging romance between Nate and Brenda (Peter Krause and Rachel Griffiths). They had sex at first sight on an airplane. Now they fill in all the blanks down on earth.
''Six Feet'' is one of the few instances where deep TV love takes its time.
Usually, romance flies out of the box fast and loose on winged Cupids only to crash and burn at the first commercial. On TV, love is rarely patient. __ Boston Herald (February 14, 2002)
Again with feeling Susanna Thompson, who creates a complex portrait of a shattered ex on Once and Again, gets another chance to shine opposite Kevin Costner in the new film "Dragonfly".
When she auditioned for the part of Karen Sammler on Once and Again, Susanna Thompson was warned that she wouldn't look nice or play nice. The actress responded, "I have no problem getting down and dirty. But you have to give this character a light at the end of the tunnel."
Two and a half seasons later, Karen is still pretty much in the dark on the ABC drama that focuses - often - painfully on the everyday lives of a divorced man and woman (Billy Campbell and Sela Ward), their new marriage and their not-so-well-blended family. Thompson plays the outsider, Rick Sammler's (Campbell) emotionally scarred, controlling ex-wife.
"When I came into the part, Thompson says, "I felt like I was playing somebody's image of the ex-wife. [Directors] are still constantly asking me to be more bitter and I am constantly [trying to portray Karen] with more compassion. Most divorced women I've heard from appreciate that I'm not playing a stereotype."
But she is playing character in deep trouble. To date, Karen has suffered a major depression, is estranged from her 18-year old son, Eli (Shane West), and worries about her 15-year-old daughter Jessie's (Evan Rachel Wood) eating disorder. And just when it looks like she was finally getting of the mat, she was literally flatten in a horrendous car accident that left her with a litany of broken bones.
"We really wanted to shatter her," says executive producer Edward Zwick. "I know that sounds rude, but it is often after calamities like this that extraordinary things happen." And he's not just talking about Karen. With the show's future in doubt ABC has cut the number of episodes ordered from 22 to 19 - Once and Again needs a ratings boost to survive. The January episode involving Karen's accident turned out to be the last before the show was pulled from its Friday-night slot, where its audience had dwindled to 6.3 million viewers from a high of 10.9 million in its first season. Having bounced around the schedule five times already, it moves to Mondays (10 P.M./ET) on March 4.
Now producers hope Thompson's dramatic story line will bring some of those viewers back. "We always imagined that Karen would be our secret weapon," says Zwick's longtime producing partner, Marshall Herskovitz. "We thought people would be able to identify with someone who's been knocked down but hasn't been beaten." Insiders say that when the show returns, Karen will struggle mightily with physical rehabilitation, working with a therapist named Henry Higgins (no joke).
For today's shoot, Thomspon stands alone on a Culver City, California soundstage, barefoot and shivering in a hospital gown. She asks the episode's director - Eric Stoltz, who also guest stars this season as a high school teacher - for a quiet moment before addressing the camera. Thomason nails the first take. She's a great actress," Stoltz says. "You don't see half of what she can do."
Thompson has another breakout opportunity when she stars opposite Kevin Costner in the film "Dragonfly," opening February 22. The supernatural love story involves a grieving emergency room doctor (Costner) who believes his dead oncologist wife (Thompson) is trying to communicate with him through her young patients' near-death experiences.
Most Hollywood insiders say this kind of career growth is rare for actresses well out of their 20s. (Thompson won't reveal her age.) There were memorable turns as the psycho florist who stalked Jimmy Smits on NYPD Blue and the Borg Queen on Star Trek: Voyager. Her film credits included 1999's "Random Hearts," as Harrison Ford's cheating wife who is killed in a plane crash ("I seem to play a lot of dead wives," she says, laughing).
Such roles provides a stretch for Thompson, the product of a close knit Irish Catholic family. She mainly grew up in San Diego, the third of seven children of Norman, a U.S. Navy chief petty officer, and Nina, a homemaker.
After she graduated from San Diego State University, regional theater led to TV roles in the late '80s. With her career finally in full throttle, she is grateful to more famous actors, such as Ford and Costar, who have made her feel welcome. did anyone make her feel weak in the knees? Thomspon laughs, then blushes. "Jimmy Smits," she says. "He's got this smoldering sensuality. And he's so kind, which is a total turn-on for me."
But Thompson's heart is already taken. She has been living for 21 years with her boyfriend, Martin Katz who teaches theater at San Diego State. Now thanks to her role on Once and Again she's serously considering making the transition from playing a mom to being one. "I've always known I've had good instincts," she says.
Wood, who plays daughter Jessie, agrees: "I think she'd be the kind of mom to do your hair, take you to the mall and give you hugs."__ TV Guide (February 16-22, 2002)
Fans to the Rescue By Gina Piccalo and Louise Roug
The latest installment of the great fan campaign to save endangered TV shows and characters appeared Tuesday in Daily Variety. "'Stargate' without Daniel is like 'Star Trek' without Spock," read a full-page ad. "Find out how to help at www.savedanieljackson.com." For the uninitiated, "Daniel" is Daniel Jackson, the character played by Michael Shanks on 'Stargate,' an MGM-produced show. And while "Stargate" stays, word is out that Daniel must go.So fans have appear to have rallied. They may be heartened by another recent campaign, a plea to save ABC's "Once and Again," which was rumored to be headed for its last episode. Fans began passing the hat and in a week raised about $2,800 for a full-page ad that ran late last month in the Hollywood Reporter, says Lynda Shulman, a VP at a marketing company near Boston, who participated in the campaign.
"I'm not a crazed fan," says Shulman, who connected with fellow "Once and Again" aficionados on the Web, "but I watched it from the beginning." Campaigning on behalf of the show "doesn't take a lot of time," she adds, and the results are worth it. The show, which went on hiatus Jan. 11, returns early next month, and fans are taking out an ad, unpersuaded by network statements that the show's planned hiatus would've ended without their efforts. Fan fervor has prompted a N.Y. company to found savethatshow.com, a site where viewers can vote on their favorite shows. Poll results are sent to the networks, and the company's press kit promises: "No ballot stuffing," with one vote on each show. __ L.A. Times (February 21, 2002)
Susanna Thompson by Kate Perchuk
If you're a fan of the ABC drama Once and Again, you know her as Karen, the beautiful, bright and beleaguered ex-wife of Rick (Billy Campbell). And if you admire Susanna Thompson's exceptional work in the high-quality show (which is popular with critics, but not necessarily viewers), you won't want to miss the daring yet down-to- earth actress starring opposite Kevin Costner in the new mystical thriller Dragonfly.
"I think the film is going to be lovely," says Thompson. "It's different. It's definitely a love story but it's got all these wonderful supernatural and suspense elements attached to it."
Dragonfly tells the story of Dr. Joe Darrow (Costner), a physician struggling to come to terms with his life six months after losing his wife, Emily (Thompson), a volunteer doctor, who was killed in a tragic accident in South America. Overworked and exhausted, Joe begins to have visions, and believes Emily is trying to communicate with him through the near-death experiences of her former patients.
On location in Hawaii, Chicago and Los Angeles, Thompson quickly established a trust with leading man Costner that led to a simmering chemistry between the two in the film. "I loved that Kevin was willing to just jump in with me and help me relax," she says. "He was very willing to live in the space we had to live in even before the cameras started to roll. So as we were waiting for the sunlight to hit a certain angle, then we sort of stayed there and created a history for each other. And that helped by just lying there, feeling the sun, just being with each other, which is exactly what these characters were doing."
"Kevin is a kind person. And that helps with me in particular, when people are kind and are willing to sit together and talk and get to know you a little bit, at least for the work. You don't have to become best friends, you just need to be willing to show up and be there for each other. I think it's going to be some of Kevin's most vulnerable work, too. He's just lovely in it. He deserves that right now."
In a dramatic departure from her straightforward, lawyerly appearance in Once and Again, in Dragonfly the tow-headed Thompson appears with an almost unrecognizable mane of ethereal blond ringlets, a style decision that she insisted on. "I worked with a lovely hairdresser, Beth Miller. I said, 'Listen I want the look to be different than Karen. There's a freeness and a liveness and a looseness about Emily, and I think that should be reflected in the hair,'" explains the actress.
Collaboration is what really gets Thompson going as an actress, and she is a real pro, painstakingly researching her roles and the situations in which writers put her characters. She attributes her approach to her background as a stage actress, having studied acting on a scholarship to San Diego State University and then working in San Diego Community Theater before heading to Hollywood and landing steady gigs in film (When a Man Loves a Woman, Mississippi Burning and Random Hearts, to name a few) and television (her impressive credits include guest appearances and recurring roles on Chicago Hope, NYPD Blue, The X-Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager, in which she played the Borg Queen in a special two- hour episode).
Despite Once and Again's unexpected (and hopefully temporary) hiatus in the midst of a story arc devoted to Karen's emotional travails (the network was banking on higher ratings from The Chair, the John McEnroe-hosted game show), Thompson is extremely grateful for the opportunity to portray the character and to work with the Emmy- winning show's cast and crew.
"[Once and Again] is hugely popular with people who love it, and unfortunately, ABC is not seeing the ratings that they need," says Thompson. "But I think that when it is all said and done and we look back, that it will be something rare."
One reason the show's ratings have suffered could be its moving- target status on the primetime schedule; it has changed time slots six or seven times in the six and half years it's been the air. "I hate to say this, but I feel that the publicity wasn't the greatest, in terms of getting the information out to people," says Thompson.
"I've had these mixed feelings about the show ending," she adds, though ABC has made no announcements about canceling the drama. "So there's a sadness that's been walking around with me. But in and out of that I just keep smiling at the huge gift that they gave me, that we were able to create that."
Thompson does some of her best work in "Gardenia," the pivotal episode in which Karen is struck by a car. "Gardenia" is also noteworthy because of its approach to the show's trademark "interview" scenes -- documentary-style sessions in which the characters reflect on their actions and feelings. In "Gardenia," the interviews feature a completely nude Thompson, lovingly filmed in black and white -- and she looks spectacular.
Though the nudity was not her idea, Thompson was intrigued by the device. "I just stood there and smiled and said, 'Listen, the photographer in me, the audience member in me is thrilled and excited -- it's going to be magnificent. But the actor in me says, 'You better damn well protect me,'" she recalls. "So I said, 'Yeah, I'm going there with you guys. I told you from the beginning that I would get down and dirty and ugly and do all that we needed to do, as long as you give [the character] some hope.'"
A desire to emerge from Karen's despair is what made the role in Dragonfly so appealing to Thompson. "[The offer] came at a time when I was living in the darkness of Karen, and I wanted a character that was full of life, full of her feminine self, full of why she was here, and living it, cause Karen was not living it," she says.
Thompson, however, lives her life to the fullest, indulging in her passion for travel and the great outdoors. "My honey and I, Martin, went up to Alaska, and it was just fantastic," she says of a recent expedition with her longtime partner; the couple has no children. "We were out kayaking for five days in the gulf of Alaska, with humpback whales surfacing. It's just magnificent, and it truly reminded me of why I felt like getting away."
Asked about her favorite scenes in Dragonfly, the actress responds with the same vivacity that she brings to her characters. "My favorite scene was cut from the movie," she confides, "but it's this beautiful stethoscope scene, where [Joe and Emily] are both lying in bed listening to the baby's heartbeat. It's just beautifully sensual in a beautifully full pregnant state, aesthetically feminine and loving, with two people totally connected. I also loved the scene when he's trying to convince her not to go; it established the fiery part of who she is, so committed to living this life that she's chosen." __ www.women.com (February 22, 2002)
SOS piece from the Fredricksburg (Va.) Free Lance Star By Rob Hedelt
ABC'S QUALITY family drama, "Once and Again," is close to getting the ax. The show that meaningfully follows the life of two 40-something adults struggling with love a second time around needs—and more importantly, deserves—all the help its loyal fans can provide.
It returns to the air March 4 for what, without a concerted fan effort, could be a final string of episodes on Monday nights at 10.
If you're not yet a "Once and Again" fan, don't feel alone. By airing the show in seven different time slots over the past few years, several times yanking it off the air entirely, ABC has made keeping up with the endearing Rick and Lily tougher than losing 20 pounds.
When it first premiered, "Once and Again" was perceived by many as simply a star vehicle for the beautiful and talented TV veteran, Sela Ward, who won an Emmy on the popular drama "Sisters." To be sure, Ward has done a wonderful job of making Lily one of the more memorable female roles on television. Torn by the responsibilities of being a mother and the desire to follow her heart into a new romance, Ward makes the character a study in contrasts and one of the most realistic ever to carve out a piece of primetime. Plus, and this shouldn't be overlooked, she just happens to be one of the most gorgeous women on the planet.
Her other half on she show, Rick (Charlottesville native Billy Campbell) has held his own with the high-powered actress. Though there have been times he made the architect a little too much of a worrywart for my taste, Campbell has made Rick's dual concerns of love and caring for family a solid anchor for the show.
But as the romance blossomed in the show's opening season and we met all the characters, a funny thing happened on what was dubbed a "family drama." It was truly about the whole family, with each of the children drawn as full and compelling characters in their own right, along with Lily's sister and ex-husband and Rich's ex-wife.
Add to this mix actors that from top to bottom have been up to the parts, and to a run of interesting, often intriguing scripts, touching on issues that ranged from a healthy sex life to eating disorders, and you've got a masterful show.
Though the show garnered enough attention to win a renewal its first season, not enough people have been watching through all the time-slot changes to keep it on.
Ratings for the fall season, in a family unfriendly Friday night time-slot, put the series in the bottom half of the Nielsens.
A group of die-hard fans, knowing that help is needed now to save the show, have started several efforts that fans here can easily join in on. Several fans from Spotsylvania and Stafford counties have contacted me to fill me in on the efforts, which include one campaign that's as clever as it is easy.
Taking a chapter from the series, it references the fact that Lily's sister, Judy, runs a bookstore called "Booklovers." To that end, members of the "Save Once and Again" effort are asking all fans to send a paperback copy of their favorite book to the ABC network official, Susan Lyne, who will ultimately decide the show's fate.
They are asking fans to include a note with the book they send in that tells Lyne why they love "Once and Again" and how badly they want the show to be renewed.
That's just one prong of the save the show campaign. Another has led to the purchase of ads in national publications like the trade paper "Variety," with more planned.
Another effort calls for fans to urge their local radio station's deejays to talk up the show's renewal, and still another is in the works to have the whole "Once and Again" cast to to appear on the cast of "The Opray Winfrey Show" to drum up support.
Anyone interested in getting involved in any of these efforts can get more information by going to the effort's web address: www.saveoanda.com. The site includes a collection of links to other spots where fans have been working to save the show, and share their feelings about the series.
The common thread to all of them are an appreciation for what most laud as a down-to-earth show that helps them understand the problem that we all face today.
Critics have singled out some of the nitty-gritty reality as boring, especially the real-life worries that plague the adults after the break-up and blending of two families.
Yes, now and again Rick's whimpering gets to be a bit much. But the other 99 percent of the time, and all of the time when the kids were involved, the worries and struggles had a validating ring of truth to them. That's a commodity that's becoming exceedingly rare on television today.
If you've got a second, grab any old paperback and send it with a note asking to save "Once and Again" to
Susan Lyne
ABC, Inc.
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521.It's the right thing to do. __ Fredricksburg Free Lance Star (February 24, 2002)
'Once and Again' learns about the ABCs of loyalty By JOHN LEVESQUE
Anyone interested in how to murder a TV series should pay attention to ABC's treatment of "Once and Again," a quality drama that will surprise everyone if it lives to see a fourth season next fall.
More real than anything we'll ever see on a "reality" series, "Once and Again" had its 2001-02 season premiere Sept. 28, a Friday -- the show's fourth night of the week in three seasons on (and off) the air. Original episodes appeared for four weeks, then the series was given a week off (to accommodate an awards show). It returned Nov. 2 for two more weeks, was off Nov. 16, returned Nov. 23 for four episodes, was off two weeks, returned Jan. 4 for two more, and hasn't been seen since Jan. 11.
With that kind of schedule, it's no wonder "Once and Again" has trouble finding a large following. It's easier to find a Ben Franklin in my wallet.
"Once and Again," a thoughtful, chatty series about two divorced people falling in love, getting married and blending their families, returns -- again -- next Monday at 10 p.m. (KOMO/4). ABC's promotional spots are telling viewers the "critically acclaimed" series is back with seven -- count 'em -- new episodes. What the spin-doctoring fails to mention is that those seven episodes will bring the full-season complement for "Once and Again" to 19, which is three to five episodes shy of a normal season.
ABC says nothing sinister should be read into this slap in the face, that given all the earlier pre-emptions, this is simply the number of episodes necessary to fill out the season.
You'd have to be three to five clams short of a fisherman's platter to believe such hooey. ABC originally planned to cut the season order to 17 episodes until producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick found out about it and pleaded for more. They got two more, and the sort of lame assurances network executives always give struggling shows they don't plan to renew: "We love the show." "It's one of our favorites." "We hope it can find an audience."
Well, duh!
Put it on the air, keep it in the same time slot, promote it the way you hyped "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" and maybe that audience -- the one packing enough of those bogus Nielsen numbers to warrant survival -- will show up! How hard is that?
Viewers wishing to put a bug in ABC's ear can write to ABC Entertainment President Susan Lyne, 500 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521. Send e-mail to ABC Audience Relations at netaudr@abc.com. To check on the effort to keep "Once and Again" alive, visit www.angelfire.com/tv/onceagain
Herskovitz and Zwick, who also gave us "thirtysomething" in the late '80s and know well the vagaries of network television, have kept their senses of humor about them. In a note to TV critics, they say: "As you possibly may know (although, in this case, why should you be different from the rest of the viewing public?), our show will be moving to Monday nights. ... This is either a last valiant attempt to save us or the network's version of a Valhalla."
Of course, the producers know better. In Norse mythology, Valhalla is the hall where fallen heroes are celebrated, and networks never celebrate their fallen heroes. Shoot, they don't even bother to acknowledge when the heroes have fallen.__ Seattle Post-Intelligencer (February 28, 2002)
One More Chance for 'Once and Again' By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Saddle up the donkey, Sancho, and sharpen the pencils. We're going tilting at TV windmills.
ABC's "Once and Again," one of television's best and most distinctive series, is in mortal danger and we are compelled to try to rescue it.
We've got company in the quest to keep the drama from cancelation but — let's face it — the numbers look bleak: a drop from a first-year average audience of 10.9 million to 6.3 million for this season, its third.
What does that add up to? Faint hope that the delicately etched, achingly intimate drama about families coping with contemporary pressures will survive for a fourth season.
The show's future, according to the producers and ABC, rests on more viewers tuning in when the show returns from a nearly two-month absence to a new night. Beginning Monday (March 4), the season's final seven episodes will air at 10 p.m. EST.
Fans have worked hard to drum up support, running costly ads in Hollywood trade papers, sending flowers to ABC executives and keeping Web sites humming with thousands of messages of support.
"I totally fell in love with it" from the start, said Marc Levenson, a Fort Worth, Texas, business owner who orchestrated the fans' ad campaign. "We want viewers, as many as possible, to hear about the show."
What would a newcomer find in "Once and Again?" Not a lawyer show. Not a doctor show. Not an action-filled cop show. No formula at all, in fact, unless you count superb writing and consistently adroit acting.
Guiding the series are Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, class acts both in TV and film. They created the series "thirtysomething" and have produced Oscar-winning movies including "Traffic."
All of this talent is in service of a simple proposition: that the troubles and triumphs of daily life can make for great drama. How's that for classic?
The series revolves around Lily Manning (Sela Ward) and Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell), divorced parents who met, fell in love and married in the course of the series. Their relationship and its effect on their children, ex-spouses and others is the core of the story.
The angst of divorce is seen through the eyes of both adults and children with raw candor. In the first season, Rick tells how ending his first marriage felt as if he were taking a baseball bat to his children.
One viewer, a divorced dad, commented that he found the scene almost unbearably painful. With "Once and Again," there are no immunity challenges for either characters or the audience.
"In this show, we didn't set out to be groundbreaking so much as we set out to be truth-tellers," said Herskovitz, comparing "Once and Again" to his 1987-91 yuppie family drama "thirtysomething."
"There is a way in which, on television, just telling the truth tends to be startling," he said. "Our willingness to have these flawed characters and explore their lives so minutely, without car chases, is still the exception on television."
Campbell compares "Once and Again" to "a series of short stories. Short stories are about small things, about quiet moments ... It's not a big, catchy, flashy show. We're just the tiny little moments that make up family life. It's kind of a developed taste, I guess."
Is it possible viewers in divorce-riddled America avoid the show because it represents too direct a hit on their lives and emotions? Its intensely loyal fans don't think so.
"I've been divorced twice and the idea of finding someone out there can give a person hope," said Levenson.
"My parents divorced when I was 9," said Canadian viewer Christi Nolan, 21, of Hamilton, Ontario. For Nolan, the series is "so realistic ... it pulls you in. It's like real life to me."
The fault, "Once and Again" boosters insist, lies not in the series but in its network. They claim that ABC undermined the drama by moving it repeatedly and by shorting it on promotion.
"Once and Again" has been bumped six times to five different time slots, with Friday the last outpost. With its return Monday, it will be back to the night on which it earned its highest ratings.
The network claims the moves were an effort to boost viewership for a show that never earned high ratings after its first-season debut. That episode drew nearly 17 million viewers; by comparison, top-rated "Friends" on NBC is drawing an average 24.5 million viewers this season.
"We've stood behind 'Once and Again' for three years," said ABC spokesman Kevin Brockman.
The series suffered from bad timing, coinciding with ABC's infatuation with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (news - web sites)," which was given choice time slots that might have helped the drama.
Timing again may be against it. A steep ratings dive by ABC means there are fewer viewers overall watching the network, making on-air promotional efforts less effective.
A weak network also is less able or inclined to stand by a worthy but low-rated show.
Zwick and Herskovitz admit they were unhappy over how often "Once and Again" had to pack its bags, but they laud ABC for allowing them creative freedom. They're philosophical about the show's future.
"Three years. If that's what we get, that's what we get," said Zwick. "I believe that. Look, (it was) 65 episodes, 65 hours of doing exactly what you want exactly the way you want to do it. ... I do think things have their own life."
Campbell said it would be sad to see "Once and Again" end prematurely. All he and others connected with the show do now, the actor said, is "just wait and see."
We won't be waiting. We'll be watching. Will you?
On the Net:
http://www.saveoanda.com
http://abc.abcnews.go.com/primetime/onceandagain __ Associated Press (February 28, 2002)
