JANUARY 2002 ARTICLES
Prime Time for Sela Ward: The Star of Once and Again Has A Lot to Smile About By Michael Sauter
For most actresses, turning 45 in youth-obsessed Tinseltown means you're washed up. But don't let Sela Ward hear you say that. "I've never felt yummier," she recently proclaimed with a Cheshire Cat grin. Fans, critics, and colleagues certainly find her delectable on Once and Again. Last year, Ward won her second Leading Actress Emmy for her portrayal of Lily Manning, a warm, vulnerable, slightly neurotic working mom learning how to live with divorce (and now remarriage).
If you need further proof that she's a hot commodity these days, just catch her cavorting through those catchy Sprint telephone commercials. "I guess, according to Hollywood standards, my career should be over," she says. "But I feel that, in many respects, it's just getting started."
Which is just what Once and Again co-creator Ed Zwick means when he calls his star a "late bloomer" who found the right role at the right time of her life. Ward, he says, is now older and wiser enough to inhabit one of TV's most complex characters and make it her own. "She has so completely taken over the part," says Zwick's partner Marshall Herskovitz, "that it's hard for me to remember a moment when I imagined Lily and it wasn't her."
People who know her well will tell you that Sela Ward's belated success story couldn't have happened to a nicer person. In fact, Herskovitz goes as far as to say that she's "the nicest person I've ever met in this business." And Ward's niceness is genuine, the product of a small-town Southern upbringing that left her with a lasting appreciation for the "generosity of spirit" that surrounded her as a child. It's not just about disarming smiles and gracious manners, though they're a big part of her charm. It's more about her openness, her unpretentiousness, her self-deprecating sense of humor.
"There's just no ego about her," says co-star Billy Campbell. "Sela just comes in and does her work and makes it very easy for everyone to do theirs. She's very loose and very funny, and not full enough of herself to give other people grief."
So how has such a nice Southern gal managed to survive, and, ultimately thrive, in cold, cruel Hollywood? In many ways, it has been a long, strange trip.
Born in Meridian, Mississippi, on July 11, 1956, Sela Ann Ward never harbored any schoolgirl dreams of fame and fortune. Growing up in the country with her three younger siblings, she was content to spend her summer days swimming, fishing, and playing ball. Life only turned less idyllic once she got to junior high school, where her knack for winning scholastic honors and good citizenship awards put off her cliquish classmates.
"There was a lot of jealousy," she remembers now. "For every honor I got, I seemed to lose a friend. After a while I equated an accomplishment with a loss. It was really a fear of success. That was a sort of pattern that continued in my life for a while."
By her college years at the University of Alabama, Ward had figured out how to succeed without being unpopular. She became a Crimson Tide cheerleader, dated a football hero, joined a sorority, and even got elected Homecoming Queen. But Ward wasn't content to be just another Southern belle. Graduating with a B.A. in art and advertising, she headed straight for New York City, where she landed a job storyboarding ads for an audio-visual production house.
"I had such a business brain," she says. "I had all these ideas about starting my own company." Yet ad world friends kept telling her she should model, and eventually, she listened. "It was really out of financial need," she explains. "If I wanted to continue to live in New York, I needed to make more money."
She had barely started appearing in magazine ads when she auditioned for her first TV commercial, and found herself hired as Maybelline's new face. "They sent me to 18 voice lessons to lose my Southern accent," she says. "Then I started studying acting, to help me prepare. It opened up a whole new world for me."
Her dramatic TV debut was a small guest shot on the daytime soap One Life to Live. "I played Nurse Bunny Cahill," she says, somewhat sheepishly. "It was only two days, but I thought, 'Oh my God! If I have to do this all the time, I'll slit my wrists.'" Soon after, she was offered a regular part on a soap, but turned it down. "I decided that if I was going to do this right, I should go to L.A. and really give it a shot."
Only two weeks after she hit town, she landed a small part in Blake Edwards' The Man Who Loved Women (1983), with Burt Reynolds and Kim Basinger. Right after that, she won a regular role on the prime-time military drama Emerald Point N.A.S., where she met and fell for co-star Richard Dean Anderson. The romance lasted three years--but the show lasted only one. "The euphoria wore off quickly," she recalls of her show-biz beginner's luck. "I found out this business was very tough, very fast."
The rest of the '80s were tough indeed. She didn't get another movie until the forgettable comic western Rustler's Rhapsody (1985). Though she landed a plum part opposite Tom Hanks in Nothing in Common (1986), she could only follow with thankless roles in the action flick Steele Justice (1987) and the Shelley Long comedy Hello Again (1987). Over the next four years she worked infrequently, mostly in TV movies. Meanwhile, she found comfort in a new romance with actor Peter Weller (Robocop), to whom she eventually became engaged. Only after she broke off the engagement did she realize that her relationships had been part of what was holding her back.
"I really sabotaged myself for a long time," she reflects. "I would follow whatever boyfriend I was with at the moment and be supportive of his career, while putting mine on the back burner. Finally I woke up one day, and I wasn't in a relationship. It was a moment for me to focus on myself and get serious."
Ward caught a break in 1991, landing a starring role on the long-running series Sisters, a sudsy family drama that allowed her to strut her stuff as the volatile black sheep sibling Teddy. Onscreen, she was paired with George Clooney, and they became one of TV's hottest romantic duos. "I really started blossoming," she remembers of that time, "not only as an actress, but as a person."
It was during this personal growth spurt that she got fixed up on a blind date with her future husband, venture capitalist Howard Sherman. They married in 1992, and slowly but surely, life started falling into place. The next year, Ward got a small but showy role as Harrison Ford's soon-to-be-murdered wife in The Fugitive. In 1994, she gave birth to her son Austin, and also won her first Emmy, for her work on Sisters. Then, in 1995, she starred in the telefilm Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story, which earned her a Cable Ace Award, as well as Emmy and Screen Actor's Guild nominations.
By the time Sisters ended in 1996, Ward was ready for even bigger and better things. She even auditioned to become a sexy Bond girl, for the 007 flick The World is Not Enough (1997). But director Martin Campbell abruptly burst her bubble, dismissing her with the comment, "What we want is the Sela Ward of 10 years ago." At the time, she wasn't even 40.
Undeterred, she accepted what work Hollywood deigned to offer--a small part in the disco era drama 54 (1998), a cameo in the Julia Roberts comedy Runaway Bride (1999). And with all her free time, she produced the television documentary The Changing Face of Beauty, which took a good, long look at pop culture's preoccupation with youth. Then in 1998, she had another baby, daughter Anabella. "So there was a whole year that I was unavailable," she quips. By the time she was ready to go back to work, the producers of Once and Again were calling.
Having created the critically acclaimed thirtysomething and My So-Called Life, Herskovitz and Zwick had an impressive enough track record. Initially, however, it wasn't enough for Ward, who'd spent six years on Sisters, and had no desire to commit to the "grind" of another series. "But my agent kept telling me, 'You've got to read it, just so you'll know what you're passing on.' So I started reading the script and I couldn't put it down. I thought, 'I have to play this character.'"
Even so, she drove a hard bargain before signing. "It had nothing to do with money," reports Zwick. "It had to do with the quality of her life. She needed time for her children, time for her family."
One thing Ward wanted was ample opportunity to flee Hollywood and head home to Meridian, where, a few years ago, she and Sherman bought a 500-acre farm, just a few miles from where she grew up. They've restored two log cabins on the property, and Ward's brother has also built a house there. Ward has taken to calling it the "family compound."
"That was always my fantasy," she says. "I just loved the idea of a place where we could all gather. We're all very close and we like being there together. We have cows and ducks and swans. We do hayrides, roast marshmallows in the fireplace, ride horses, go cane-pole fishing. It's just a little paradise."
It's also her hometown, and she's been giving something back. She's been actively involved in the restoration of Meridian's 19th-century Grand Opera House, and she's currently on the board of the Hope Village Foundation, raising funds to build a new center for abused children. "It's very grounding for me," she says about being back home. "It's a very nurturing place where I can recharge my engine."
If that's the secret to her boundless energy, then she's not telling. But there's much on her horizon: plenty of projects she hopes to produce and maybe even direct. "I'd love to do some little Southern piece," she says, "maybe a small, independent film, something I could be passionate about."
With Ward, at least one thing's for sure: We ain't seen nothin' yet.__ Biography.com (January 2002)
ABC Gives Another Year to 'Alias,' 'Jim' and 'Kids,' Cuts Back on 'Once & Again' By Brian Ford Sullivan
ABC made its first programming moves of 2002 over the weekend as the troubled network gears up for midseason. The good news is fans of freshman series "Alias" and "According to Jim" were treated to second season orders and the alphabet network also ordered a third season for sophomore comedy "My Wife and Kids." The three series join "The Drew Carey Show," "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and "The Practice" as the only series on ABC's schedule with fall pickups (aside obviously from non-scripted fare like "20/20" and "Monday Night Football"). There is some bad news though. It seems ABC is marching towards axing "Once & Again" as various sources have confirmed to me the series' third season order has been cut from 23 episodes to 17 episodes, always a bad sign.
I guess having four Emmy nominations (including one win for Sela Ward in 2000), five Golden Globe nominations (including one win for Sela Ward in 2001), three Golden Satellite nominations, two People's Choice Award nominations (including one win for Billy Campbell in 2000), four TV Guide Award nominations, three TCA Award nominations, two Viewers for Quality Television nominations (including one win for Sela Ward in 2000), two Young Artist Award nominations (including one win for Best Ensemble in 2001), not to mention nominations and wins from the YoungStar Awards, the Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, the Prism Awards, the Humanitas Prize and a few others that escaped my research isn't enough for ABC.
Aside from "The Pratice" and "N.Y.P.D. Blue" no other series on ABC can match such a diverse and consistent awards resume and "Again" has been on half as long as "The Practice" and a third as long as "N.Y.P.D. Blue" has. So what is ABC's reward for such amazing work - a haphazard move to Friday nights, its fifth time slot move since its premiere (it has since moved a sixth time from 10:00/9:00c to 9:00/8:00c). Maybe I don't have a degree in "TV Network Programming" but I'm willing to wager moving something six times in two and half seasons isn't exactly a recipe for success.
But I guess the thing that really makes this whole situation worse is ABC's decision to air movies on Monday nights now that "Monday Night Football" has ended instead of any scripted programming. Monday nights are open and ABC wants to put "Beverly Hills Cop III" on for the 19th time instead of giving "Once & Again" back to a night where it can actually build an audience? What kind of longevity can ABC expect from this move? I can only imagine how this meeting at ABC went. You have a struggling show on Friday nights that has seen not one, not two but three of its fellow members on the night be axed or put on hiatus ("Thieves," "The Mole" and "America.01") and when the opportunity comes to move it some place on the schedule where no other series currently airs on a night more people watch their decision is to go with movies?
I guess part of me could understand if "The Mole" and "Thieves" had been airing this long and the decision came down to end all three at the same time but ABC made the conscious choice to weed out these other shows weeks before "Again's" episode cutback was ordered. In other words, ABC knows they are having trouble on the night and their solution is to ignore this fact to air "The Rock" for the seventh time on Mondays when on average the movie delived a 7.70 rating on average while "Again" (across two time slots) delivered a 6.32 rating on average. Now I understand that ratings are the end all, be all but it's not like we're talking about "Dharma & Greg" here, we're talking about a movie night that has no chance of building any sort of long term hit for ABC.
A movie night. A movie night when ABC is writhing from its disastrous schedule and desperate hunger for "family programming?" All winter long we've heard about ABC's new commitment to family programming - family this, family that. Maybe I've been on crack for the past 30 months, but if there was ever a show that defined how amazing and wonderful family programming can be "Once & Again" fits the bill. So in essence we can add hipocracy to ABC's stupidity.
But the biggest complaint out of all this (boy do I say that a lot lately don't I?) is that I've spent virtually no part of this column talking about the show itself. We've had to spend hundreds of words describing how obnoxious ABC's programming department is and how they've practically ensured "Once & Again's" failure already with the moves it has done. So for now check out my original review of the series and come back tomorrow for a look at why this show is a beautiful gem as well as some links to resources that can tell you how to save the show __ www.thefutoncritic.com (January 14, 2002)
The Ex Files By Ellen Gray
Remember when divorce was a dirty word on television?
When exes J.R. Ewing and Sue Ellen schemed against each other, and Krystle and Alexis rolled around in the mud?
Sorry, but that's so last century.
With divorce long since having spread from soap operas to mainstream dramas and sitcoms, more's now expected of television's exes than a good left hook. Civility's the order of the day, if not actual sainthood.
A recent episode of ABC's "Once and Again" showed Lily (Sela Ward) helping to deliver her ex-husband's new daughter by another woman.
During a blinding snowstorm. On Christmas Eve.
Earlier in the season, Lily had thrown a baby shower for the hapless Tiffany (Ever Carradine), whom she'd learned some time ago was dating Lily's ex, Jake (Jeffrey Nordling) while he and Lily were still married. And if that's not complicated enough, Jake's since started seeing yet other women.
"I thought that [the childbirth plotline] was ridiculous. So unrealistic," said Dr. Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple who nevertheless believes "Once and Again" takes a generally grounded approach to divorce, remarriage and their effects on children.
Indeed, the show generally paints a less rosy picture of divorce's aftermath, dealing, for instance, with the loneliness of the woman Sela's new husband used to be married to, and with the many adjustments their children have had to make as stepsiblings.
Steinberg, author of "You and Your Adolescent: A Parent's Guide for Ages 10 to 20," writes about issues raised by the show for its ABC Web site (abc.go.com/primetime/onceandagain/andyou.html). Much of his commentary focuses on the show's adolescent characters and how their divorced parents' behaviors affect them, an issue only rarely touched on in shows like "Dallas."
Television in general is making "more of an effort to show that people can get divorced and find healthy ways of handling the situation," Steinberg said.
It used to be, he said, that "there were the happy families that weren't divorced and the sad ones. ..that were." [snip]
"The whole business of co-parenting and blended families, it's not easy," said Dr. Rhoda S. Harvey, director of the University City office of the Penn Council for Relationships.
Harvey, co-leader of a course on co-parenting after divorce - "how to talk to each other without killing each other" - didn't see the "Once and Again" episode where Lily helped deliver her ex's baby, but deemed it "very unusual."
Series that show divorced parents communicating reasonably well present "more of a model" than a mirror of how real-life parents often cope, Harvey said.
"Most people really don't want to do things that are hurtful to a child, but they don't resolve things," she said, the way characters on TV often seem to.
"It is certainly true [that] the notion of the eventually civil divorce is now so ingrained in our culture. . .that it clearly is an aspiration that is mouthed everywhere," said psychologist and author Judith Sills.
But Sills, whose latest book is "Loving Men More, Needing Men Less," is a bit more optimistic about real people's ability to achieve civility with their exes.
"I have seen [instances] where the first wife and the second wife bond, and they typically have to interact over the kids," she said. "I see stepparents in the same room with the parents and the four of them throw their hands up over the teen-ager."
Sills points to NBC's "The West Wing" as an example of a show that deals with divorce in a particularly realistic way, as when Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) has to interact with his former wife, a congresswoman.
"What you see in those relationships, which I also think is definitely mirrored in real life, is a long-standing, ironic familiarity [that] is very genuine," she said.
"I think of this as an instance where television shows us how good it can be, although it naturally simplifies how much you have to go through to make it that good," she said.
SIDEBAR:
[local workshop information snipped]
* ABC's "Once and Again" maintains a Web site, "Once and Again and You," where Temple University psychology professor Laurence Steinberg writes about issues raised in each week's episode. Recent topics have included how adolescents handle finding out that a parent has been unfaithful, behavior problems in young children touched by divorce and adolescent identity crises. Find it at www.abc.go.com/primetime/onceandagain/andyou.html. __ Philadelphia Daily News (January 15, 2002)
Aching ABC By Rob Owen
With its ratings in a free fall following the inevitable collapse of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and no new hits to speak of, ABC is clearly in turmoil.
After signing a new contract with the company last summer, ABC Entertainment Television Group co-chairman Stu Bloomberg got the boot just last week. Several other key executives also departed the company.
Left holding the bag are ABC Entertainment Television Group chairman Lloyd Braun and newly installed Entertainment president Susan Lyne.
Though she's only been on the job four days, Lyne, a former magazine editor, made an excellent first impression, answering questions candidly and with seeming honesty. She even took the blame for not thinking to produce a "Roots" anniversary special in her previous role as executive in charge of ABC's movies and miniseries.
Lyne's poise made Braun's corporate marionette evasiveness look worse than usual, although he was wise enough to own up to ABC's failings.
"Clearly we are in the midst of a very disappointing season," Braun said. "We made mistakes, most notably our failure to develop new hits behind 'Millionaire' when it was blazing hot."
Braun and Lyne said they're determined to get back to ABC's roots as a home for family comedies, such as "My Wife and Kids" and "According to Jim." Braun announced both those shows and the new drama "Alias" have been renewed for next season. Braun also gave a vote of confidence to the improving "Philly."
But there was no such encouragement regarding the future of low-rated "Once and Again."
"I wish it were doing better," Braun said. "It's a wonderful, wonderful show."
Braun wouldn't speculate on its chances of renewal, but he acknowledged only 17 episodes of the Friday night drama will be produced this season instead of the regular 22 episodes. "That's not a sign of anything except, as a network, that's the number of episodes we need."
The network's goal going forward will be to do quality shows that are also commercially viable.
"We really believe we can do both, but it's hard to do programs that are both great and are going to be broad," Braun said. "We are a broadcaster and ultimately [our shows] have to be broad. We really don't want one without the other. We really want to try to do both."
Braun did backpedal on earlier statements about the future of "Millionaire" in which he said he could not guarantee the show a slot on the fall schedule.
"Clearly I miscalculated the effect of those statements," Braun said. "The show has meant an enormous amount to us.... We expect it to have a presence on our network in one form or another for quite a while."
Lyne said the ratings downturn for "Millionaire" may have resulted from too many installments with celebrity contestants that supplanted regular Joes and Janes. __ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (January 15, 2002)
Barring a miracle, it's over for "Once and Again." By Gail Shister
A Nielsen asterisk at 9 p.m. EST Fridays, "Once" is being moved for the sixth time in its three seasons. In addition, ABC has cut back its commitment from 23 to 17 episodes of the painfully poignant family drama that stars Sela Ward and Billy Campbell.
"Once" will relocate to 10 p.m. EST Mondays, ABC announced Tuesday. But that won't happen until March 4, when it comes back from a "seven-week hiatus."
The cherry on the sundae: ABC will bump this week's episode for "The Chair," a cheesy new game show hosted by former tennis hothead John McEnroe.
Twelve episodes of "Once" have aired; episode 14 is shooting this week. The show will stay in production until its return, at which point ABC will decide whether to order the remaining six episodes. (See Chance, Fat.)
Most likely, it won't have to. With original episodes, repeats and preemptions, "Once" could easily stretch until the end of the season in May.
"Fridays have been a horrendous disaster for us," co-executive producer Marshall Herskovitz said at an ABC bash in Pasadena, Calif., Sunday. "When we moved from 10 o'clock to 9, we did worse. Half the people I speak to don't even know we've moved."
"Once" has endured so many moves that even Sela Ward "can't remember what night we're on half the time. It's frustrating. You wonder how far it would go if it had the right time slot."
It debuted in the fall of '99 at 10 p.m. Tuesdays, then moved to 10 Mondays. In fall 2000, it went back to 10 Tuesdays, then moved to 10 Wednesdays. This fall it began at 10 p.m. Fridays, moved to 9 p.m. Fridays, and now to 10 p.m. Mondays. (Am I the only one with vertigo?)
A nationwide letter-writing and e-mail campaign has begun to save the show. Given ABC's plummeting ratings and executive upheaval, odds for a reprieve are slim, at best.
Herskovitz and his creative partner, Ed Zwick, have been on this bubble before. All their series -- "thirtysomething," "My So-Called Life" and "Relativity" -- twisted slowly in the wind before being canceled by ABC.
"We saw this coming for a long time," says Herskovitz. "This is a business, and shows have to perform. If they don't, we know what will happen to them.
"We've learned over the years to be fatalistic. It doesn't affect our passion for the material."
Co-star Susannah Thompson, who plays Campbell's character's ex-wife and mother of their two kids, says the precariousness of "Once's" future "brings out this primitive side of me that wants to stand up and roar and say to ABC, 'Please look at the quality of this show and stop looking at the money.'" (See Chance, No.)
Thompson, whose character is in the midst of an exquisite storyline in which she's battling a deep depression, says joining the show "was sort of divine." The actor originally cast dropped out when she became pregnant.
"This show is where I belong," Thompson says. "It's taken me to new heights and new depths. I go to the edge with them (Herskovitz and Zwick), and they keep telling me to trust, trust, trust, and I'm so willing to jump for them."
For Ward, "I can't live and die by every question mark. If the show is canceled, it would be very bittersweet. It would be nice to have rest, but I would miss it terribly. Lily is my favorite character. She gives me the most range to play. She's funny, neurotic, strong, vulnerable. She doesn't have all the answers."
Neither, it appears, does ABC. __ Knight Ridder Newspapers (January 16, 2002)
A glimmer of hope at ABC : New exec says the right things By John Carman
Pasadena -- ABC brought its classiest act, Barbara Walters, out to the press tour and for a while, the world of the American Broadcasting Co. seemed aright.
For Walters, it is. This week, "20/20" returns to Friday nights, where it belongs, and Walters has a new co-host in John Miller.
But otherwise, ABC is up to its Mickey ears in toil, troubles and terrible embarrassments.
Where to start? The prime-time ratings are circling the drain. The returning comedies got old and feeble. Stu Bloomberg was ousted as co-chairman of the entertainment division.
"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" is badly treated and gone to pot. A new torture-quiz show called "The Chair" is awful. Sally Field's new Supreme Court series, "The Court," isn't even cast yet, except for her, and is supposed to go into production in less than two weeks.
Critics say too many cooks, all the way up to Disney chief Michael Eisner, are fouling the ABC broth.
Oh, and everyone's angry at ABC because it turned down a prime-time 25th anniversary tribute to "Roots."
Then Lloyd Braun, the surviving co-chairman of entertainment, stepped into it this week answering a simple question about "Once and Again."
Yes, he said, ABC has cut back on the order this season and will run only 17 new episodes. The producers, Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, are aware of that, have been planning on it "for weeks now," and "have been invested in that and understand it."
Cut to an ABC party later in the day. I wasn't there, but others who attended said reporters spotted Zwick and Herskovitz there and approached them for responses. They angrily swore they hadn't heard about a cutback until that moment. Each sought out Braun for an explanation.
They huddled. There was talk about a misunderstanding. Thus business gets done in happy Hollywood.
Into this Eden strolls Susan Lyne, 51 -- ex-journalist (New Times, the Village Voice) and Bloomberg's replacement as the creative half of the entertainment team.
She'd been on the job for four days and a handful of hours when she joined Braun to face the press in Pasadena.
From 1998 to last week, Lyne was ABC's executive vice president for movies and miniseries. That's what gives her a cushion of good will as she begins the heavy rooting and weeding. Under Lyne, ABC's movies and minis have been the best on network TV, leading the pack in smarts and taste.
In about her third breath of the news conference, she said, "I think most of you know that I like to win, but I also believe in trying to raise the bar, at least some of the time. There are very few things that motivate a staff of people more than being really, really proud of something the network has done. So that's going to be a priority for us."
Others have said the same thing as they entered the cauldron, but some followed through. Lord knows, there are bars to be raised at ABC.
When Braun and Lyne were asked if "Millionaire" will be fixed -- heavy reliance on celebrity contestants is one complaint -- Braun started on an executive ramble and Lyne cut in with an emphatic answer: "Yes."
Lyne finessed the too-many-cooks question -- one of her Disney overlords, Disney President and Chief Operating Officer Robert Iger, was standing in the back of the room -- and then scored points on the "Roots" flap.
Braun had been argumentative about it, saying the special was rejected because it was subpar and that a "Good Morning America" tribute to the historic miniseries would suffice. Then Lyne cut in.
"I think one of the problems, particularly when you are at a network that is fighting, (is) that you sometimes don't have the luxury to sit back and say,
'My God, the anniversary of "Roots" is coming up; we should really be devoting programming time to celebrating this,' " she said.
"We should. There is no question about it. If anybody would have suggested that to the network, and fought for it, it's probably me, and I didn't think to do it."
Afterward, all agreed that she'd fallen on the sword with consummate grace. Nines and 10s from the judges. Maybe she'll work out. __ San Francisco Chronicle (January 17, 2002)
All TV: Bumped 'Again' by Alan Sepinwall
"ONCE AND AGAIN" is moving. Again. And maybe for the last time.
Tomorrow's episode will be pre-empted for ABC's new game show "The Chair," and the critically acclaimed family drama will go on the shelf for the next seven weeks before returning on Monday, March 4, at 10 p.m.
This will be the sixth time "Once" has been moved. It debuted two seasons ago on Tuesdays at 10, then moved later that year to Mondays at 10. The following fall it went back to Tuesdays, then shifted mid-year to Wednesdays at 10. This season, it began Fridays at 10, and a few weeks ago was pushed to an hour earlier.
The only consistent thing about these timeslots is how poorly "Once and Again" has performed in most of them. It has struggled against "Judging Amy" (twice), "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Dateline NBC." And with each move, it has done progressively worse in the ratings.
"We can't seem to win with this show," ABC entertainment chairman Lloyd Braun recently told reporters. "If we stick with it, people accuse us of protecting a show that doesn't do well, and if we cancel it, we get accused of not protecting it."
Braun, who to be fair has kept the show on for almost three seasons, was asked what he would say to fans who are worried it won't return next season. He simply said, "Tell them, 'I understand.'"
There was certainly a big misunderstanding between Braun and the show's producers, Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, over how many episodes would be made this year.
During an ABC press conference, Braun said the network wanted only 17 episodes instead of the traditional 22.
"That's the number we're planning to do," Braun said, "that's the number (Herskovitz and Zwick) have been planning to do for weeks now, and that's not really a sign of anything other than the fact that that's the number of episodes as a network that we need. And Marshall and Ed have been invested in that and understand that."
This was all news to Marshall and Ed on the night of ABC's meet-and-greet press party.
When I asked Herskovitz about the reduced episode order, he said, "That's not true." Herskovitz told Zwick, who was equally surprised -- and upset -- and who said he needed to hear it from Braun directly before commenting.
The producers huddled with Braun briefly, and all emerged smiling and offering a slightly different story than the one Braun had told that morning.
"Lloyd said we would do at least 17," said Zwick.
"I never said that (I was cutting the episode order)," said Braun. "We still haven't decided how many episodes we need. But we will be doing at least 17."
Zwick admitted that he and his partner had been plotting the season under the assumption they would do 22 episodes, and that he didn't think they would be able to wrap up all their storylines by the 17th.
"We are well aware of that problem," said Braun. "We're going to take a good look at it, because we want to be very careful not to leave that audience hanging."
The move back to Monday, where the show performed respectably two years ago opposite CBS' "Family Law," could be the last chance to save a series whose rabid fans have been deluging critics with e-mails for the last week. __ New Jersey Star-Ledger (January 17, 2002)
'Once and Again' gets a timeout from ABC By Mike Duffy
It's as easy as ABC.
The troubled Alphabet Network, staggering through a dismal 2001-2002 season of steep ratings decline, made one of its biggest scheduling mistakes last fall by exiling the exceptional family drama "Once and Again" to Friday nights.
That's a death slot for a remarkably wise, intelligent and emotionally subtle series about family relationships.
This season, pummeled in the ratings by NBC's grim, sensation-laden crime drama "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and the bottom-feeding newsmagazine "NBC Dateline," the stories of Rick and Lily Sammler (Billy Campbell, Sela Ward) and their blended family have fallen all the way to No. 96 in the Nielsen ratings and drawn a tepid 6.3 million viewers each week.
Those are cancellation numbers. And now ABC has abruptly shipped "Once and Again" to Hiatusville for seven weeks starting tonight. A repeat episode of the lame new game show "The Chair" airs in its place at 9 tonight on ABC.
"The show simply hasn't worked on Fridays, so we're returning it to the night where it had its greatest success," new ABC Entertainment boss Susan Lyne said this week, announcing that "Once and Again" will resurface at 10 p.m. Mondays beginning March 4.
When it aired in that Monday night spot during the 1999-2000 season, "Once and Again" attracted a strong audience of women and young adults and topped both CBS's "Family Law" and NBC's "Third Watch" in those key audience demographics.
While banishing the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning series to the bench, ABC also chopped the number of episodes ordered from 23 to 17. That's another indication of the network's lack of faith in the series.
All of this has longtime "Once and Again" fans in an uproar. They've banded together to try and save the show from cancellation.
One of the prime online spots for "O&A" updates and information is www.angelfire.com/tv/onceagain/. Also, fans can tell ABC what they think by writing Susan Lyne, President, ABC Entertainment, 500 S. Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91521. Or visit the "Once and Again" message board at www.abc.com and commence venting. Again and again. __ Detroit Free Press (January 18, 2002)
They shoot good shows, don't they? By Sonia Mansfield
It must be incredibly frustrating to work in television.
I can't imagine the resentment and disappointment that must build up when you create a wonderful and original TV show that gets low ratings and the boot by the network, while stale and ordinary shows like "According to Jim" get picked up for the rest of the season. And the season after that, too.
I suspect it feels similar to when a guy gives me the ol' heave-ho and then hooks up with some dimwit. Ummm ... of course, I'm only guessing how that feels.
What brought all this on, you ask? Well, the cancellation of "The Tick," for starters. And now, the futures of "Undeclared" and "Once and Again" are up in the air. Or maybe I'm still bent out of shape over the cancellation of "Action" or "My So-Called Life" or "Sports Night" or, hell, maybe even "Police Squad" back in the '80s.
It annoys the hell out of me because people are always complaining that there's nothing good on, but most of the time when the networks do put something good on, people don't watch it.
Don't believe me? Yeah, well, tell it to Judd Apatow. He has created two of the most critically acclaimed shows in recent years, "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared." Two funny and original shows that the general public took a pass on.
"Well, why should I watch something good like 'Undeclared' when I could just watch 'JAG'?"
Grrrr.
"I was going to watch 'Freaks and Geeks,' but I decided to watch a show about the world's best commercials."
Argh.
The odds favor hooey
I don't want to be all "what's wrong with you people?" but ... what's wrong with you people?! I know not every show appeals to every person, but I don't want to hear complaints that there's nothing good on when great shows are getting canceled because of low ratings.
And, hey, while I'm pointing fingers, what's wrong with you network execs?
With so many options out there in TV land vying for people's attention you'd think that the networks would want to offer something original and, well, good, but instead they offer up the same crap season after season (with a few exceptions), and then wonder why they are losing viewers to cable, DVDs, the Internet and, damn, even books.
For every terrific show that's actually a hit like "Malcolm in the Middle" or "Bernie Mac" there are five bland shows like "Three Sisters" hogging up valuable space on the networks' schedule. "Providence," "The District," "My Wife and Kids," "UC: Undercover," "Dharma & Greg," "Yes, Dear," "Just Shoot Me," "Becker" -- the list goes on and on and I haven't even gotten into all the tiresome stuff on the WB and UPN.
Yeah, so, those shows are just boring and unoriginal, but what about those shows that are way past their prime? "The X-Files" finally figured out what viewers had known for years and called it quits. But "Ally McBeal" is still hanging around. So is David E. Kelley's other courtroom show "The Practice." Don't even get me started on "ER." These shows are so past their prime you can hear the dialogue crack and creak when it's spoken.
The NMS pledge
I think it's time that both networks and viewers get with the program.
Networks are so concerned with creating a TV show that'll be an instant smash and will appeal to the largest demographic possible that by the time a show actually makes it on the air all the spice has been removed.
And the viewers will take whatever the networks give them. Why do you think NBC keeps putting crappy shows on after "Friends"? Because they know you won't change the channel. Be a rebel, dammit. Change the channel when a crappy show comes on. Don't watch some godawful show just because it happens to be on after "Everybody Loves Raymond."
You know what? Maybe I should start my own network. I'll take "Freaks and Geeks," "Action," "Undeclared," "The Tick," "Once and Again," "Sports Night," "My So-Called Life," "Police Squad," and add "Get a Life," "Twin Peaks," "Sledge Hammer!" and oh, I could just go on and on. There are so many good shows out there that never get a chance.
I could give all these good but misunderstood shows a second chance on my network -- The Network for Misfit Shows.__ San Francisco Examiner (January 22, 2002)
Presents tensed
The legendary freebies are way down and anxiety is way up at press tour of a troubled industryBy Steve Johnson
The Television Critics Association press tour is the kind of event that can move seamlessly from Monica Lewinsky to Rudolph Giuliani.
The appearances by the moll and the mayor, each promoting upcoming HBO documentaries treating their particular claims to fame, happened within hours of each other during the cable channel's presentation last week at the Pasadena, Calif., gathering. Their relatively easy coexistence there may be all you need to know about the press tour.
That, and the proof it offers that it is entirely possible to spend nine January days in Southern California without getting a lick of sun -- and to spend $3,000 in company money while staying at a Ritz-Carlton only to become increasingly cranky rather than relaxed.
"TCA," in the critic and network shorthand for the twice-annual informational meeting, is the most TV-centric event on the planet, which means it is every bit as expansive, enlightening and upsetting as the little box that defines it.
It can accommodate the salacious (Monica) and the sublime (Rudy). It can accommodate the husband-and-wife team of Julia Louis-Dreyfus (star) and Brad Hall (producer) pushing their new NBC sitcom and producer Peter Tolan ("The Job") trashing it, sight unseen, to riotous laughter from the assembled critics who had, in fact, seen this latest post-"Seinfeld" comedy and were mostly unimpressed.
TCA has room for newswoman Paula Zahn to criticize the instantly infamous "just a little bit sexy" CNN promo for her, while wearing come-hither pumps that suggested her self-image might indeed include such a phrase. It also has room for Fox News firestarter Bill O'Reilly (whose footwear choice, I confess, did not make my notebook) to say,"If Paula Zahn doesn't think she's there partially because she's a good-looking babe, then she's in Never-Never Land."
It has plenty of room for juicy rumors and nasty innuendo to spread like, well, gossip among network publicists and the assembled TV critics, who then, of course, return home to pass it on at dinner parties rather than to their readers. Cursed libel laws! In its best moments, TCA has that summer-camp-for-adults feel to it, a way to rechargethe batteries, despite the drain of events stretching from 9 a.m. to almost midnight daily, and to remind yourself that it is OK to have a brain and be unnaturally interested in the boob tube. [snip to Once and Again mention]
More compelling to the critics is the chance to get a real feel for the upcoming shows, from the tawdry, desultory cast-and-producers session for WB's ostensible comedy "The Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star" to the uproarious one for Fox's shimmering "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" (coming in March). Good panel does not always equal good show, but it often does, and certainly seeing the people behind a program offers invaluable information.
An even more useful part of the conference is the chance to hear from and question top executives as they deliver what amount to state-of-their-network addresses, so that you can, for instance, put NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa's feet to the fire for proclaiming a few sessions back that he wanted more family shows and this time that NBC was sticking with its trademark urban yuppie fare.
For all its insular, even claustrophobic feel, press tour is valuable to viewers, I think, on a subconscious level because it keeps the networks in close touch with newspapers' de facto viewer representatives.
But its most overt effect is that it is hazardous to top programmers' vocational health. So that they wouldn't have to go before critics this time and answer questions about the guillotine blades poised over their , for instance, ABC's Stu Bloomberg and UPN's Dean Valentine were fired before and during TCA.
Bloomberg's ABC replacement, former network movie and specials programmer Susan Lyne, impressed the group at her first appearance, less than five days on the job, by actually standing up and taking the blame for a blunder, ABC's failure to develop a 25th anniversary special commemorating its airing of "Roots," a matter of some embarrassment to the network because NBC was showing one.
But then Lyne, in the anteroom outside the Ritz ballroom where most events take place, made the kind of faux pas that, in such close confines, quickly makes the rounds and can permanently damage reputations.
Approaching a chatting group of critics from large- to midsize papers, Lyne immediately pulled aside the one with the most national reach, USA Today's Robert Bianco, and turned her back on the rest.
Other notable faux pas and oddities: The Ritz temporarily gave the car rented by influential Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes to someone who was not Lisa de Moraes. Retiring San Francisco critic John Carman was greeted with silence when he waved his notebook in a roomful of WB stars and asked if anybody wanted to talk to a reporter or, indeed, reads a newspaper at all.
And at ABC's edition of press tour's nightly stars-and-critics parties, "Once and Again" executive producer Edward Zwick learned from critics that ABC had said that day it was cutting back the number of show episodes it would make this year, an ominous sign that sent the "Once and Again" brain trust running over to the ABC brain trust. In damage-control mode all night, the network worked hard to put out the story that it was all just a misunderstanding. [rest snipped] __Chicago Tribune (January 23, 2002)
Acclaimed ABC drama 'Once and Again' soon may be 'never again' By Joanne Ostrow
Seen "Once and Again" lately? That's the problem.
Sela Ward says her friends don't know where to find the acclaimed drama. A gaggle of TV critics required 15 minutes and lots of head scratching and finger counting to figure out how many times it's been bumped around the schedule. ABC pre-empted the last week's episode for an idiotic reality show.
It won't be back until Monday, March 4 at 9 p.m. [note: 10 p.m. ET] on Channel 7.
"Once and Again" deserves better.
The smart family drama will sit out the critical February sweeps period before returning in a new slot. This marks the sixth move for "Once and Again" since it began two seasons ago. The fact that it's sidelined during sweeps is the latest sign that the network has lost faith in its ability to draw an audience.
Despite great reviews, ratings always have been a problem. The series has performed poorly opposite the more pedestrian "Judging Amy" (twice), opposite the more formulaic "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and the more salacious "Dateline NBC." No matter where they put it, the ratings trend for "Once and Again," unfortunately, has been downward.
"We can't seem to win with this show," ABC entertainment chairman Lloyd Braun told reporters. "We have given it lots of chances in lots of timeslots."
Asked what he would say to fans who fear the series won't be granted another season he said, "Tell them, "I understand.' "
Sounds like condolences - and a preliminary cancellation notice - to me.
The show's producers apparently were the last to know of ABC's early warning signals regarding the future of "Once and Again."
Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick were stunned to learn, at the ABC press party, that Braun had announced the network wanted only 17 episodes, rather than the traditional 22.
Oops, Braun thought Marshall and Ed already were on board with that.
"That's not really a sign of anything other than the fact that that's the number of episodes as a network that we need," Braun said.
Let's take a page from another ABC series, the new comedy "The Web," a satirical look at the inner workings of a TV network. One line from the pilot is apt. The new hire is instructed there is only one thing to remember in dealings with the network brass: "They are all lying."
When ABC ultimately gives up on the series, citing the many chances it had to prove itself, television will lose one of its most intricate, psychologically astute shows with some of the best actors - especially young actors - working today.
We'll think of the "Web" laugh line when we recall Braun's assurance that his earlier comments about "Once and Again" weren't really a sign of anything. __ Denver Post (January 23, 2002)
Midseason circus not the greatest TV show on earth By Ken Parish Perkins
PASADENA, Calif. _ A 15-foot dinosaur was standing at attention inside the Athenaeum on the campus of the California Institute of Technology. It was serving as ABC's rather elaborately expensive attempt to whip up interest in its upcoming $85 million, six-hour miniseries about life with dinosaurs, but the crowd of TV journalists seemed to have other priorities (food, drink, Jennifer Garner of "Alias").
All was well until Sela Ward, who plays Lily on the gloomy family drama "Once and Again," was admiring the creature. The thing's head suddenly moved. Ward jumped and was about to high-tail it out of there until someone alerted her that, first, it wasn't alive, and second, the head was supposed to do that. This was happening just as the producers of "Once and Again" were literally chasing ABC Chairman Lloyd Braun through a throng of fashionably-black-clad, drink- carrying partiers after learning from a reporter that the series' episode order was being cut back to 17.
As Ward regained her composure and Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick lost theirs, there was actually a sense of comfort that, at least temporarily, the so-called press tour, a semiannual examination of television, was in character again.
Up until that point, the often circuslike 12-day gathering had instead resembled "The 10th Kingdom" miniseries: long, boring and without much of a point. [rest snipped] __ Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (January 24, 2002)
Positive spin eludes ailing ABC By Tom Jicha
The understatement of the midseason press tour came from ABC Entertainment Chairman Lloyd Braun. "Clearly we are in the midst of a very disappointing season."
Enron is in the midst of a very disappointing season; ABC's season has been catastrophic, so bad that Braun's former co-chairman, Stu Bloomberg, resigned under fire two weeks ago. How Braun survived is mystifying. The two were considered so interchangeable, it was like getting rid of Mary Kate and keeping Ashley.
The extent of the disarray at ABC was underlined by Braun's contortions in attempting to put a happy face on the situation. Accentuating the positive, Braun copied NBC in announcing three early pickups for next season -- My Wife and Kids, which is in its first full season after debuting last spring, and rookie series Alias and According to Jim. Of the three, only My Wife and Kids is an unqualified hit. Alias is being propped up by its desirable youthful demographics, and According to Jim, a sitcom devoid of artistic merit, feeds off My Wife and Kids' lead-in.
Braun also is trying to wish Philly to success. "We're really pleased about the creative progress Philly has made," he said. Then he offered what might be the overstatement of the press tour. "It's really turned into a terrific television show."
Meanwhile, the future looks bleak for Once and Again, a series that has had some terrific moments. The sensitive drama about blended families has been yanked off the schedule until after the February sweeps, and the customary season order of 22 episodes has been reduced to 17.
Braun got caught stretching the truth in trying to downplay the significance of the reduction, saying that executive producers Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick had been on board with the 17-episode plan "for weeks now."
"That's not really a sign of anything other than the fact that's the number of episodes as a network that we need. Marshall and Ed have been invested in that and understand it."
Herskovitz and Zwick later disputed this, saying the first they heard of the cutback was from TV writers after the Braun press conference. Moreover, the notion that a network with as many black holes in its schedule as ABC needs fewer, not more, hours of a series it values is ludicrous.
Braun's response to a question about the future of Once and Again also sounded an ominous note for the series. "I wish it were doing better. In terms of next year, it's not something we really want to address right now. We've got another three or four months before we have to make those kinds of decisions."
However, the decreased order and its omission from the sweeps suggests the decision has already been made. It doesn't appear there will be any more Agains for a show that Once was considered one of ABC's proudest properties. __ South Florida Sun-Sentinel (January 24, 2002)
"Thirtysomething" creators are battling cancellation "Once and Again" By Gail Pennington
Ed Zwick was at the buffet, staring morosely into a large pan of mashed potatoes. The occasion was an ABC party, but Zwick wasn't in a festive mood. He'd just received bad news about his series, "Once and Again" -- news that shouldn't have surprised him but apparently did.
In its third season, "Once and Again," a meticulously crafted drama about two divorced parents who merge their messy extended families, is beloved by critics and fans, but not by Nielsen.
Never a ratings powerhouse, the series won surprise renewal last spring, but the reprieve came with a price. With too few time slots and too many dramas, ABC would send "Once and Again" into perilous territory: 9 p.m. Fridays.
Barbara Walters was irked that her "20/20" news magazine would be bumped from its familiar time slot. "O&A" fans were upset that their show would now be forced to compete with NBC's hit "Law & Order: Victims Unit," already firmly established in the spot. And no one was thrilled that "O&A" would be forced to lure viewers to yet another new night and time, after already bouncing around from Tuesday to Monday to Wednesday.
Considering the alternative -- cancellation -- Friday still looked pretty good. But viewership dropped lower than ever this season, even after an emergency move to 8 p.m., the fifth time period in three years.
Meanwhile, "O&A" lost its major champion, Stu Bloomberg, who was fired by ABC early this month. His replacement, ABC Entertainment president Susan Lyne, is a clear-eyed pragmatist who said on taking the job that "quality" alone wouldn't suffice.
"I look for programming that I think is great but that will also have mass appeal," she told TV critics two weeks ago in Pasadena, Calif. Charged with lifting ABC out of last place, Lyne seems unlikely to indulge a show that has failed in three seasons to prove its commercial viability.
Lloyd Braun, who is half a rung above Lyne as ABC Entertainment chairman, said at the press conference: "I think it's a wonderful, wonderful television show, and I wish it were doing better."
Then things got interesting.
"We've talked to Marshall and Ed about doing 17 episodes of 'Once and Again' this year," Braun said, referring to Zwick and co-executive producer Marshall Herskovitz. "That's the number we're planning to do, that's the number they've been planning to do for weeks now, and that's not really a sign of anything other than the fact that that's the number of episodes as a network that we need. And Marshall and Ed have been invested in that and understand it."
Seventeen episodes: That's five fewer than a full-season order of 22. But with the season off to a late start and "Once and Again" underperforming, the reduction seemed to make sense.
Cut to that night's ABC party, where Zwick and Herskovitz arrive together. The veterans of "thirtysomething," "My So-Called Life" and "Relativity" are favorites with the critics, and they are greeted with sympathy.
Sympathy for what? Zwick and Herskovitz claim the cutback is news to them. They insist they can't believe it.
Zwick, who has appeared on "Once and Again" as young Jessie's shrink, heads for the buffet line but is apparently too shaken to put food on his plate. Herskovitz holds court for a circle of critics who are trying not to bounce up and down in excitement over the budding brouhaha.
No argument, "Once and Again" is in trouble.
"Fridays have been a disaster for us," Herskovitz admits. With the move to 8 p.m. from 9, "we did even worse. Half the people I talk to don't even know we moved."
Still, he'd have appreciated hearing about the show's fate from the network, not secondhand. Soon he breaks free and heads off to the other end of the crowded room to track down Braun and find out what's what.
When Herskovitz returns, he's quoting Braun as citing a misunderstanding. The network will take "a minimum of" 17 episodes, not a finite 17. Braun misspoke, or maybe he was misquoted. A transcript of the press conference, as reproduced above, rules out the latter.
"I can't tell you how many (episodes) we're going to need yet," Braun tells one reporter later, soundly contradicting himself again.
Sadly, although the interchange was a fascinating window into TV land's spin cycle, it can be considered irrelevant as far as "Once and Again" goes. There's no way this wonderful show will return next fall, and Zwick and Herskovitz know it.
By the end of the evening, Zwick was talking about finales. He'd hate to leave fans hanging, and bringing the story to a close in 17 episodes rather than 22 would mean plot changes.
"I'd like it to end gracefully," he said.
Herskovitz, meanwhile, was reflecting on the business of television.
"Shows have to perform," he said with a sigh. "We have experience with shows that don't, and we know what happens."
Two days after the party, ABC announced that "Once and Again" would leave the air for seven weeks, returning March 14 at 9 p.m. Mondays.
"The show simply hasn't worked on Fridays, so we're returning it to the night where it had its greatest success," Lyne said in making the announcement.
The hiatus gives fans a chance to continue a "save our show" campaign.
An "emergency action" bulletin calls for sending paperback books (a reference to a bookstore that is a pivotal setting in the show) to Lyne along with letters telling her "why you love the show."
For those who want to participate by sending a book or just a letter, the address is: Susan Lyne, President, ABC Entertainment, ABC Inc., 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, Calif. 9152.1
E-mails can be sent to ABC via a central address: netaudr@abc.com. But "snail mail" carries much more weight.
Visit the Web site www.angelfire.com/tv/onceagain for more details on the campaign. Or just get ready to say goodbye. __ St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 24, 2002)
News flash from Pasadena: Reality TV is an oxymoron By Rick Kushman
PASADENA -- TV producers, stars and network executives just finished two weeks of meetings, news conferences and mingling with reporters, and as you would expect, that produced a number of versions of reality.
ABC entertainment chairman Lloyd Braun, for instance, told reporters during a news conference last week that "Once and Again," the sometimes stark, always graceful drama in its third season, would not make all 23 episodes that were scheduled for this season.
"We've talked to (producers) Marshall (Herskovitz) and Ed (Zwick) about doing 17 episodes this year," Braun said. "That's the number they've been planning to do for weeks now."
Not exactly, it turns out. At a party that night, the producers said that was the first they'd heard about doing just 17 episodes. Asked if that would hurt their ability to conclude their story arcs, Zwick said, "It sure would."
After a few more minutes talking to reporters, Zwick and Herskovitz went to find Braun. They talked in a corner, then came back with a new, unified story. Nothing had changed, sort of. They will make 17 episodes for sure, and maybe the full 23 if ratings pick up a bit, Zwick said.
Here's the translation in non-Hollywood terms: ABC is disappointed in the ratings, and everyone agrees moving the show to Fridays was a bad idea. So, for a month, "Once and Again" will be off the air, which is not such a bad thing because it won't have to compete against the Olympics on NBC in February.
The series will return March 4 in a new time slot, 10 p.m. Mondays on Channel 10.
The truth is, this is probably the show's last season. The battle the producers are fighting now is to tell their stories over the full 23 episodes.
"If it has to end," Zwick said that evening, "I'd like to do it with dignity."
He also said fan support is helpful, and to that end there is a "Save 'Once and Again' " campaign in the works.
Information is available at www.saveoanda.com. People can write directly to ABC entertainment president Susan Lyne at ABC Inc., 5000 S. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521.__ Sacramento Bee (January 24, 2002)
Shane West: No "Candy" Fan By Angel Cohn
As the lead guitarist and singer for the L.A.-based punk-rock band Average Jo, Once and Again's Shane West wasn't exactly a fan of pop starlet Mandy Moore's music when he took a starring role opposite her in the new romantic drama A Walk to Remember (opening today).
"I knew who she was and I knew what she looked like. I think one of her songs is called "Candy" [but I've] never heard it," he admits to TV Guide Online. "It's not the type of music that I listen to, [so] I'm very unfamiliar with it."
However, West does give credit where credit is due, conceding that his leading lady can sing circles around him. "I'm not particularly fond of my voice," the humble 23-year-old sighs. "I am okay with it, but it's nowhere near Mandy's caliber."
Still, Moore pushed to get one of Average Jo's tunes, "So What Does It All Mean?," on the film's soundtrack. "I wrote the song when I was [on the set] and played it for her," he recalls. "She ended up really liking it, which was really cool."
What's not "really cool" is what happened to West's acclaimed ABC drama this season. After being moved to Friday nights, Once and Again's ratings tanked. Now on hiatus, the series returns to its original Monday 10 pm timeslot in March. "I think it should have stayed on [Mondays] and maybe we wouldn't have had this problem," he grouses. "[ABC] is supposed to do some promotion for it when it comes back in March, [but] we'll see... It's kind of a shocker that it all happened this way." __ TVGuide.com (January 25, 2002)
It's Happening Again: Zwick-Herskoviz Curse's Simmering By Douglas Durden
Whenever I hear that a TV series from Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz is in danger, which is every TV series from Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, a part of me rejoices.
See, I think smugly, it really is too good for television.
Another part of me goes into deep depression.
No more Hope and Michael Steadman of "thirtysomething." Or no more Angela Chase and Brian Krakow of "My So-Called Life."
And now - maybe - no more Lily, Rick, Grace, Eli and Jessie of "Once and Again."
ABC hasn't canceled "Once and Again," which stars Sela Ward and Billy Campbell. At least not yet.
But it was abruptly yanked off the schedule last week - so abruptly that TV grids in this paper and TV Guide couldn't keep up with the change. Adding insult to network incompetence, "The Chair," that dreadful new trivia-torture series with John McEnroe, aired in its place.
Officially, "Once and Again," now in its third season, is on broadcast hiatus. ABC says it will return at 10 p.m. Mondays starting March 4.
But, sensitive as we are to the Zwick-Herskovitz curse, we sense a death knell.
Despite numerous awards and critical acclaim, "Once and Again" has never attracted the number of viewers it deserves.
At the time it was unceremoniously pulled from the schedule, the series ranked 84th for the season out of 128 shows. Probably the only thing that has kept the show alive for 2 1/2 seasons is the fact that it's a Touchstone Television co-production. Touchstone, like the ABC network, is a Disney company.
I can understand why not everyone watches "Once and Again," which follows the ups and downs of several divorced or single women and men plus their children.
Male viewers, in particular, are under the impression that by being pro-female, the hourlong drama is anti-male.
Quite the opposite. "Once and Again," with its equally complicated males, wants to show that men are as vulnerable as women. But male viewers, goes popular thinking, are more interested in TV series that depict their sex as strong and uncomplicated.
I'll accept that. What I don't understand is why more women aren't watching "Once and Again." Or more teen-agers. Or more people who appreciate a realistic family drama that neither preaches nor reaches for melodrama.
Why can "Providence" and "Ed," two other "soft" dramas, endure while a truly superb weekly trip into more authentic emotions flounders? Conversely, who's keeping shows like "Yes, Dear" on the air?
But wait, I've already written this column - almost every time Zwick and Herskovitz have a series on the air.
"Once and Again," like "thirtysomething" and even more like "My So-Called Life," is that rare, perfectly tuned series that can't hold up to the glaring light of commercial TV. And I'm not just talking about leads Ward and Campbell as newlyweds Lily Manning and Rick Sammler.
One of the strengths of "Once and Again" is its ensemble cast.
Over its two-and-half seasons, the series has juggled stories about Lily's sister Judy (Marin Hinkle), Lily's oldest daughter Grace (Julia Whelan), stepson Eli (Shane West) and ex-husband Jake (Jeffrey Nordling).
Most recently, the focus has been on Susanna Thompson as Rick's ex- wife, who's battling chronic depression; and Evan Rachel Wood as his teen-age daughter Jessie, who would trade her delicate beauty and talents for acceptance and peace.
It's all here: teen-age angst, thirtysomething dating, new careers, bad bosses, loss of parent, failed relationships and new beginnings.
But you can stop me now. I never seem to get anywhere with these rants anyway. __ Richmond Times-Dispatch (January 25, 2002)
Forging a model for profitablity By MICHAEL FREEMAN
How ironic: With production costs still escalating for prime-time series on the major broadcast outlets, it may be their arch-enemy, cable networks, that save the economics of producing TV series.
Increasingly, the vertically integrated studio conglomerates with large cable network portfolios and cornerstone broadcast network properties -- such as Disney/ABC, News Corp./Fox, Viacom/CBS/UPN and AOL Time Warner/The WB -- have insisted that repurposing, or multiple-window airings of prime-time series for secondary telecasts on cable, is the real win-win solution for both TV producers and the networks.
Repurposing, they say, is the best way to offset increasing production costs and deficits. Disney, Fox and AOL Time Warner have been particularly aggressive in shaping this new economic model -- on such shows as "Once and Again," "The Court," "24" and "Charmed" -- that is intended to "aggregate" ratings from secondary cable telecasts. [snipped to O&A mention]
The lessons learned from Studios USA's precedent-setting multiplexing of the Dick Wolf-created "Law & Order" spinoffs served as apparent inspiration for ABC's Touchstone Television unit to later sell a dual-play window on "Once and Again" to the Lifetime cable network. In addition to ABC paying a healthy $1.6 million-per-episode license fee to Touchstone, the studio is estimated to be earning another $250,000 per episode in license fees from Lifetime.
By garnering up to $1.9 million in front-end license fees domestically, "Once and Again" is also estimated to earn more than $500,000 per episode in international broadcast sales -- meaning the show could still be netting a profit of more than $1 million per episode -- after deducting its production costs and profit participations for talent and executive producers Marshall Hershkovitz and Ed Zwick.
Third-season blues
Still, ABC is currently weighing the potential cancellation of highly touted but ratings-challenged drama "Once and Again," which is currently in its third season. If ABC should decide to balk on renewing the show for next season, it could impede or significantly devalue "Once and Again's" chance at a rich back-end sale."You can bet ABC and Touchstone are carefully weighing their options, because it could spell profit or loss on whether the show can achieve a back-end run," said a competing studio executive, who requested anonymity. "Maybe they're close to black ink with the shared window [on Lifetime], or maybe they'll find a way to sell Lifetime on continuing the original run for only that network next season. It's not like they are boxed into a corner on that one."
The advantage ABC has in considering options with "Once and Again" stems from the fact that all the players involved in the show -- Touchstone Television, ABC and Lifetime -- are units of parent Walt Disney Co.
So one of the biggest lingering questions is whether multiple revenue streams will outpace multiple-platform overhead. Is repurposing the answer, with some sort of protection for the back end?
Many hope it is.
Bottom line, "If we don't change the economic models of all these things [broadcast and cable licensing], we are going to collapse under the weight of [the overhead]," said NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker. "Obviously, the economic models are going to have to keep on evolving and changing, but what ABC did with 'The Court' is something for all of us to look into."__ Electronic Media (January 28, 2002)
Save Our Show -- Hollywood Reporter Ad Campaign mentions: From John Levesque, Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Things aren't looking good for the ABC series, "Once and Again." Susan Lyne, the network's new programming chief, has placed the Friday night drama on the shelf, at least until March, when it likely will reappear on ABC's Monday schedule. One thing the third-year show has going for it is a corps of loyal fans who ponied up enough money to place an ad in today's Hollywood Reporter imploring ABC to keep the series on the air. To join the fight, visit this Web site: www.angelfire.com/tv/onceagain __ Seattle Post-Intelligencer (January 29, 2002)From Sonia Mansfield, San Francisco Chronicle:
Speaking of shows that face the chopping block, fans of ABC's "Once and Again" are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore. Ummm, well, I guess they'll keep taking it, but they really are mad as hell.They are rallying around their show, running a full-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter begging ABC to spare their favorite program. The group -- Save Once and Again -- also has an online petition at www.petitiononline.com/OandA/petition.html that you can sign to show your support.
You go, "Once and Again" fans.
Click.
"Once and Again" and "Roswell" fans are fighting the powers that be, and they should. The Nielsen ratings system that the networks use to decide which shows go and which ones stay are a damn joke and obviously not representative of what people are truly watching.
Don't believe me? Check out the Web site www.savethatshow.com. It's devoted to people trying to save their favorite shows.
I've gotten a lot of e-mails from people asking how the ratings system works, so let me break it down for you: Nielsen Media Research places a device called a Nielsen People Meter in 5,000 homes (called Nielsen families), which they claim is a random sample of the television viewers in the United States (yeah, right). The device measures which programs are being watched and by how many people in the household.
Well, who thinks that 5,000 households are truly representative of the 99 million households in the United States with televisions? Go on. Raise your hands. Ah-hah! Just as I suspected: Nobody but Nielsen Media Research flunkies would think that.
On its Web site at www.nielsenmedia.com, Nielsen Media Research claims that 5,000 is an adequate number and uses a vegetable soup metaphor to explain why. It had something to do with the number of carrots in a spoonful.
I'm not joking, and I'm not going to get into the specifics of it. Let me just say that it's very lame and it really doesn't convince me that 5,000 households is a large enough sample. In fact, all the metaphor did was make me hungry for vegetable soup.
You know, I used to think the Nielsen families were imaginary. They were like Santa Claus, the boogeyman or a good Chuck Norris movie. They didn't exist. In fact, I wrote an entire column about it last year, but shortly after the column ran a friend of mine was tapped to be a Nielsen family.
Yes, Virginia, there are Nielsen families.
So, what can you do about this unjust situation? Well, not much. The only thing you can do is, when your favorite show is being threatened with cancellation, let the networks know that you are watching. Drop them an e-mail. Make a call. Send a strip-o-gram. Whatever. Just let them know you're watching. __ San Francisco Examiner (January 29, 2002)
From Vanessa Sibbald, Zap2it.com:
'Once and Again' Fans Rally to Support ShowLOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Placing a full-page ad in Tuesday's The Hollywood Reporter, fans of "Once and Again" told ABC that they are watching the show -- despite its many moves on the schedule.
"One love story, two broken marriages, 4 children of divorce, 22 nominations, 8 awards for excellence, vast critical acclaim, 2 years -- 7 time slot changes," the ad read.
The show of support also included testimonial from fans on why they enjoy the show and a link to a website containing a petition for ABC to bring the drama back on the schedule. So far 4,762 fans have signed the petition.
Meanwhile, "Once and Again's" prospects for being renewed for a fourth season don't look very good. ABC has scaled back its order of the drama, ordering only 17 episodes instead of the normal 22. That combined with it pulling it off the air during February sweeps, could mean an end for the show that's always had a rough time in the ratings.
Airing Friday nights, one of the tougher nights of the week, "Once and Again" ranked as the 75th the last time it aired, on Jan. 11. Season-to-date, the show is ranked 91st, pulling an average 4.5 rating/8 share in households and 6.3 million total viewers per week -- that's about the same performance as the now-cancelled CBS drama "Wolf Lake."
When the show returns on March 4, ABC plans to move it once again, from Fridays at 9 p.m. to Mondays at 10 p.m. __ Zap2it.com (January 29, 2002)
