Domestic drama's dream team is back

By Robert Bianco --
LOS ANGELES — Life seems to be running more smoothly for Ed and Marshall than for Lily and Rick — and that's good news for fans of Once and Again.

Not that it's easy running this ABC domestic drama, which returns for its second season tonight at 10 ET/PT. But longtime producing partners Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, the creators of thirtysomething and My So-Called Life, say they're happy to be back on television — and dedicated to maintaining the quality of their latest venture.

Sitting in their office, trading jokes and finishing each other's sentences, they certainly seem energized. Having launched the show last year, they're now busily plotting a season that will dig deeper into the romance between Lily Manning and Rick Sammler, the couple played by Sela Ward and Billy Campbell.

When last we saw Lily and Rick, Zwick says, they were still in love's fog — that place where you present yourself as you want to be seen and see the other person as you choose to see him or her. Now, however, it's time for the fog to burn away.

As it lifts, we'll learn more about Rick, who revealed less of himself last year than Lily did. We'll also see more of his nemesis, Miles Drentell (a thirtysomething carryover played by David Clennon).

At least, that's what the producers think we'll see. But they had a map for last season, as well, and the show ended up moving in directions they didn't predict.

"I think the show, as with everything we do, has just taken on a life of its own," Herskovitz says, "and whatever artistic plans we had in the beginning have been subsumed into the fabric of the show itself. We have so many characters and so many stories and so many things to say, we constantly feel like we're just trying to stay ahead of the wave."

Last year, riding the wave took them deeper into Lily's family life than they expected. At the beginning of the year, they didn't plan for her father to die -- and when he did, they didn't realize how many episodes would be affected . But once they saw where the story was leading them, they had to follow every byway.

"When you pull apart a fabric, it becomes more, rather than less, interesting," Zwick says. "You look at something closely, and then you want to look at it even more closely. Worlds are revealed that were unseen, rather than a mystery solved."

That intense inspection of seemingly small events is the key to their work and to their shows' appeal. It also drives some viewers crazy — a fact, Herskovitz says, that came as a rude awakening during thirtysomething.

How do they adjust to the polar reaction they seem to provoke? Well, Zwick says, they don't.

"We couldn't do what we do and keep one eye cocked to try to appease people who don't particularly think the examined life is worth describing. . .

As long as the response you get is passionate, you're doing something right."

In a sense, they have to be content with a passionate response. While they have had success on television, they have never had a breakout hit, in part because many viewers find their work unexciting, no matter how hard they work to engage them. ("I wish we could do some Oval Office scenes," Herskovitz jokes.) But they're interested in a realistic exploration of the problems facing families — and that kind of drama, Zwick says, has built-in restraints.

"We refuse to become a melodrama, however much we partake of melodramatic aspects, and we refuse to become a soap opera, in which something of gravity has to happen every five minutes. I just can't do that," Zwick says.

If Once had a failing last season, he says, it was a failure to describe some of the joys of life, as well as the pain. Still, he thinks they did a better job on Once than they did on the gloomier thirtysomething.

Through joy and pain, what the producers seek to do is explore characters in full, in all their frailty, flaws and contradictions. To do so requires actors who are able to convey an emotional inner life — actors such as their Emmy winner, Ward.

"What a remarkable human being she is," Herskovitz says. "What a generous and conscious human being she is. . . . She's so straightforward and giving. She's just a great, grown-up person, as is Billy."

For her part, Ward says she sometimes has to remind herself that it's all right to play a character who isn't always polite and incredibly winning — that revealing a dark side can make for a more interesting character. But does she ever worry that the character's flaws may be taken too far?

"Maybe if I were in the hands of less gifted, less talented writers. In this case, I have 100% confidence in their ability to craft a character in a way that works for the show and the longevity of the show. . . . They're brilliant. I just go along for the ride."

With any luck, the ride will continue for years.

"I care about what we do, and I'm proud of what we do," Zwick says. "I just want to continue to have the opportunity to do it. It is a privilege and a pleasure, and, yes, it's hard work. But it's actually sort of a scary thing to want what you have."__USA TODAY (October 24, 2000)