One last time and then not again for drama

By R.D. Heldenfels

In a noteworthy understatement, ABC Entertainment President Susan Lyne said that Once and Again has "passionately devoted fans.''

In an example of the realities of TV, she said that while announcing the end of the series. Its finale will air April 15.

This season, about 6.5 million people have been regular watchers of the saga of Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell) and Lily Manning (Sela Ward), divorced parents who fell in love at the beginning of the series in September 1999, then had to figure out how to mesh their complicated lives. Earlier this week, ABC indicated the audience for the series at 10 p.m. Mondays was growing slightly, especially with young adults.

Those viewers, who included a fair number of TV critics, were drawn to the show's large ensemble of characters, its focus on the mundane concerns of modern families, its overall style.

For them, watching Once and Again was indeed a passionate experience, something that often grabbed at their need for some kind of enriching entertainment. When it disappeared, they would call and write me, wanting to know if it would be back. With its renewal a chancy proposition, they mounted campaigns to save the show.

Marshall Herskovitz, who created the series with his thirtysomething partner Ed Zwick, said that "we have always judged our efforts on the basis of the passion with which they are received, not by the size of their ratings.''

But I've been doing this a long time, and I've seen viewers exhibit the same kind of passion for Starman and Walker, Texas Ranger.

And in a world where the top-rated shows draw more than 20 million viewers a week, Once and Again's audience isn't much. Last week it barely cracked the top 70. For the season, it ranks 107th. Besides, as much as I respected the people who made Once and Again, as thoroughly as I admired their attempt to do a serious family drama, I was on the dim side of the passion gap almost every time I watched it. Sometimes it juggled too many characters, so just as one got interesting, you were off following another. It could be too talky. Even some people who watched it every week found it uneven dramatically.

I did like the bookstore. But not enough to watch every episode.

It could reasonably be argued that the series lasted for three seasons because Touchstone Television, a corporate sibling of ABC, owned a piece of the show. Reruns also appeared on Lifetime, another part of the Disney-ABC family.

And ABC is promising some kind of completed tale for the millions of faithful viewers. In a statement, Lyne said they "deserve a fully realized conclusion to Rick and Lily's story. And we owe it to Marshall and Ed -- and the phenomenal cast they assembled -- to give the series a great send-off.''

And Zwick's statement said that "we're grateful that ABC has given us a chance to create a final episode that does justice to those who have been so loyal to the series.''

It may be small comfort to Once and Again's loyalists, but just about every TV season brings at least one good series that is gone in a year or less. (Zwick and Herskovitz's wonderful My So-Called Life is one sadly lost example.) Once and Again lasted much longer. Every TV season, there are shows that disappear without acknowledgment. Once and Again at least gets to say goodbye. __ Akron Beacon Journal (March 30, 2002)

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