Lights, Camera, Angst In a visit to the Once and Again' studios, our reporter finds another family, one very unlike Rick and Lily's tension-filled, transitional one

By MIKI TURNER
STAR-TELEGRAM POP CULTURE CRITIC

CULVER CITY, Calif. -- On the set of Once and Again, it's not all drama all the time.

Created by Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, who have made a career out of exposing the raw nerve of mainstream anxieties (thirtysomething, My So-Called Life), Once and Again can be emotionally draining. The critically acclaimed ABC show, starring Sela Ward and Billy Campbell, routinely deals with weighty issues such as divorce, infidelity, jealous ex-spouses, teen angst, eating disorders and learning disabilities. All that plays out against the tense backdrop of extended-family dynamics that surround the union of the two fortysomething divorcees.

But behind the scenes, things are very ... well, very Un-Once and Again. Un-Hollywood, even.

The set of a prime-time network TV show can be a frigid environment literally and figuratively. The air is cold and the people are sometimes equally chilly.

But it was instant warmth on the overcast day I arrived at the converted warehouse where Once and Again is filmed. Everyone involved in the show, from the hunky grips and best boys to the catering crew to the casually dressed top executives, was friendly and relaxed. Even the studio temperature was balmy.

And the cast was practically giddy. The previous day was Meredith Deane's 11th birthday (she plays Zoe, Lily's youngest daughter). In between takes she'd run to Ward, who treated her to a big hug and a spirited rendition of "Happy Birthday." Shane West, who plays Eli, Zoe's new stepbrother, then scooped Deane up from behind and give her a piggyback ride off the set.

You'd never guess they were on the fifth day of filming an episode titled "The Awful Truth.''

Scene 29 will last only two minutes on screen, but it will take nearly two hours to get it on film. Before it is finished, Ward will yell "Anybody home?'' about 15 times before entering the set's kitchen. And West will fix himself a plate of pasta and meatballs so many times he could give Chef Boyardee a run for his money.

So much for the glamour of big-time TV.

A one-hour episode (which is really about 40 minutes plus commercials) takes eight days filled with technical and sometimes tedious details to complete. (A typical network series schedule includes 22 episodes a year shot between August and early spring.)

Actors put in 14-hour days with only a 30-minute lunch break, but about a third of their time is spent running lines, reporting to wardrobe or taking power snoozes in their trailers. The day usually begins around 6 a.m. with hair, makeup and blocking (camera and light positioning). By the time the cameras start to roll, much of the work is already done. About 50 to 75 crew members always seem to be scurrying around, but once the director yells "action,'' the commotion halts -- no one moves.

Even with all the preparation, a scene rarely plays out seamlessly. Director Michael Engler yells "cut'' when he notices a cabinet door left open from the previous take. (The assistant directors rush around to fix the problem.) Shortly afterward, a crashing noise off the set interrupts filming. And then there are the inevitable flubbed lines, which, to the actors' credit, don't occur often.

Every break in the action brings a flurry of makeup, hair and wardrobe people. One minute, Marin Hinkle, who plays Lily's sister, Judy, is totally immersed in a scene, near tears. The next, she is laughing and joking with the hairdresser. It is surreal.

During my visit, Once and Again is shooting the second episode of the upcoming season . This Friday, however, is an atypical day for the leads. Ward and Campbell each arrive around 6:30 a.m., but he is done by 9:30 a.m. and she will be taking off in her spiffy ragtop Jaguar for a short weekend holiday with her husband and two kids by 1 p.m.

"I'm having a great day!'' a beaming Ward said as she slipped into her trailer, the biggest one on the lot. With the exception of Campbell's, the other trailers are about half the size of Ward's. And they are kind of barren. Hinkle has a couch, kitchenette, some personal toiletries and not much else in hers. Evan Rachel Wood, who plays troubled teen Jessie, also goes with the less-is-more decor, but she does have clothes strewn about, making the trailer look like a typical teen's room.

The call sheet gives the cast and crew a rundown of the day's scenes: Ward is scheduled to shoot a scene with Campbell in Lily and Rick's bathroom at 7 a.m. At 8 a.m., she has the exchange with West in the kitchen. That's followed by two other kitchen scenes -- both shot out of sequence -- with the four kids, and then one in the living room with Hinkle and the kids.

Only co-stars Hinkle, Wood, West, Deane and Julia Whelan, who plays Grace, have to work past lunch. Whelan, 15, Wood, 13, and Deane, 11, are allowed to work only seven hours a day, in accordance with Screen Actors Guild rules. Minors also must attend three hours of school while working. On the day of my visit, a set tutor is teaching Spanish and science.

Seated behind Engler and script supervisor Adell Aldrich on one of those cool director's chairs in the foyer of the Manning-Sammler home, I watch the action on a monitor and listen to the dialogue through headsets. From what I gather, Lily and Judy are squabbling about who interrupts whom more often, and there is some mention of an uneasy encounter between a towel-draped Ward and her scantily clad new stepson, Eli, en route to the bathroom that morning.

After Scene 29 wraps, I stroll around the set and notice that the photos of Lily and her baby girls are actually photos of Ward and her real-life children, Austin and Annabella. Also, the furniture isn't very comfortable or sturdy, the kitchen appliances are real but nonfunctional, and the stairs in the foyer lead nowhere. I stumble upon the pasta West had been twirling; it doesn't look very appetizing after 15 takes.

The food the show's caterers prepared for lunch, however, is delightful, proving that there are some perks to working on a TV show -- other than the fame and fortune, of course. There is a salad bar, a fajita station and entrees that include steamed Alaskan crab legs, prime rib, steamed artichokes, pasta marinara, baked potatoes and mixed vegetables. And for dessert, you name it: cookies, cobbler and cheesecake.

Most of the actors take their food back to their trailers, which are lined up just outside the studio entrance with the names of their characters on the door. The crew eats in the makeshift cafeteria or at a handful of tables set up outside. But even the crew is afforded a little star treatment. They are treated to massages twice a week on set. There's also yoga, tai chi, a nursery and a fully equipped gym.

My call time was 9:30 a.m. After parking in an official Once and Again cast parking spot (which, I admit, is kind of thrilling), I head upstairs to the production office to meet up with the show's public relations rep and a photographer. At the end of a long hallway is a miniature basketball hoop, a really sleek mountain bike and the office of Herskovitz, the show's co-creator and executive producer. His door reads: "Bailey Bros. Building & Loan Assoc.,'' borrowed from the classic holiday film It's a Wonderful Life. (He wanted to name his production company after the fictional bank, but ran into legal issues.)

Around 9:45 a.m., Jill Southern, the show's key second assistant director, me down to the studio. There are about three "hot'' sets (those in use) this day, and all are about the size of a large bathroom. Generally, they're are no more than three walls and enough space for the actors, the camera and assorted crew members. I know, it looks really big on TV.

Southern has arranged for me to interview Billy Campbell on the dark and dreary set for Phil's Restaurant. On the show, the restaurant is run by Lily's ex-husband, Jake, and was formerly owned by her dad. Phil's is not in use today, so it's filled with boxes of cocktail glasses, jars of olives and other condiments. As we wait, Southern calls someone on her walkie-talkie to come move a sofa about 10 feet. It's not that she couldn't have handled it; union rules prohibit her from doing so.

A smiling Campbell arrives seconds later in a short-sleeved cotton shirt, khakis and Birkenstocks. He is as charming as his on-screen persona, but Billy is quick to point out he's no Rick. The Charlottesville, Va., native is neither soft nor naive. "He's more fun to play now than he was,'' says Campbell of his alter ego. "I think, to me, he was a little weak for a while. And there are still times when I think, `How many times can I just let someone interrupt me and talk over the top of me?' It's great to be a sensitive guy, but sensitive guys can have a sense of their own, you know? So, I had a little bit of issue with that along the way, but that's a small gripe, you know. It's still the best job I've ever had.''

Campbell is clearly enamored of his co-stars. During filming breaks, not only is he prone to random hugs, but he and Ward are always giggling whenever they bump into each other.

"It may sound like I'm candy-coating things, but everybody's terrific,'' said Campbell, who hangs around until after lunch shooting Polaroids of the cast and crew and hanging them on a bulletin board. "The kids genuinely are terrific, and I think a lot of the responsibility for that lies with Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, because everything they do kind of leads to a happy workplace.''

Herskovitz and Zwick have had their share of challenges with Once and Again, the series which was featured on an April TV Guide cover as "The Best Show You're Not Watching.'' This season, it is moving to yet another night. For those who've lost track, Once and Again started on Tuesday nights in 1998, was switched to Mondays in January 1999 when Monday Night Football concluded its season, and was moved to Wednesdays the next fall, where it performed miserably against NBC powerhouse Law & Order. This season, it will air at 9 p.m. Fridays, beginning Sept. 21.

"I'm actually very optimistic about the day change,'' Herskovitz says in his spacious, rustic, antique-filled office adjacent to the set. "It could be displaced optimism. I was optimistic about the day change from Tuesday to Wednesday, and that didn't prove to be very valuable for us. I just have a feeling that the audience for this show is first of all, more likely to stay up on Friday night than Wednesday night.''

Ward, who is sporting a new haircut and appears to be a tad thinner (if that's possible), concurs about the time change. She thinks the show, despite low ratings, fills a void in network television. "There really isn't a family drama quite like it on the air,'' she said during a brief chat in Lily and Rick's living room.

The Mississippi-born Ward is the heart and soul of the Once and Again cast. A former model, she is warm, gracious and, according to West, so stunning he can barely talk to her without "getting tongue-tied.'' Like Campbell, Ward says she's happy to see her character evolving.

"I was thinking about from the pilot to who she is today -- much stronger, much more self-assured, much more independent,'' Ward says.

As for the younger members of the cast, Wood, a Raleigh, N.C., native, says she and her character, Jessie, are both "really fun people."

"During the emotional scenes, it's not necessarily really, really fun with the whole eating-disorder thing and all that. But, like me, she's very loving, loves her family.''

And her big brother. According to Wood, Shane West and his character, Eli, are one and the same. "Shane is really like my big brother on- and off-screen. We're always messing around. We roughhouse a little bit. I go to him for advice. He's really protective, too. I'll talk to him about boys at my school and he'll be like, `no boys.' Everybody on the set is like, `no boys!'"

What's next?

When last we saw Rick and Lily, after two seasons of on-again, off-again romance, they were finally tying the knot in a makeshift ceremony in Lily's back yard.

But don't expect happily ever after. Shane West, for one, knows his character is in for some trouble. "I know that in the first episode I get busted for possession of pot, and, in the second episode, I'm actually caught smoking marijuana,'' says West. "So I think they're actually taking me places. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I don't have a job. I'm sort of this slacker.''

Cagey veteran Herskovitz wouldn't reveal what other crises might emerge, but he indicated there would be shocking changes in store for viewers. All righty. This I do know: Lily gets a job as a radio talk-show therapist; Jake, Lily's ex, and Judy, her sister, will go into business together; Judy's love interest returns in the third episode; and Jessie will continue to struggle with her eating disorder.

And, naturally, a lot of the focus will be on Lily and Rick's evolution as a married couple.

"I'm really looking forward to it,'' says Ward, while removing rollers from her hair in her trailer. "It's going to be a really good season. Everybody's going to go through so many changes, especially now that the families are together. Oh, my gosh, there's going to be so many conflicts!''

On screen, maybe.

SIDEBAR: Once and Again Characters

Lily Manning Sammler, 42 (Sela Ward)
This newlywed mother of Grace and Zoe works for a magazine as the assistant to the editor. Her relationship with her ex-husband, Jake, who cheated on her, is strained, but she manages to get along with him for the sake of the children. Lily is nurturing and can be a little overbearing at times (just ask her sister), but given all she's been through, she's amazingly stable.

Rick Sammler, 41 (Billy Campbell)
He's the handsome, sensitive and sometimes clueless father of two troubled kids, Eli and Jessie. His ex-wife is a lawyer who is still carrying a torch for him. Rick's kindness is often his biggest weakness.

Judy Brooks, 36 (Marin Hinkle)
Lily's lonely baby sister is constantly trying to emerge from her older sibling's shadow. Most times, she tries too hard. For this reason, her relationship with Lily is rather combative.

Eli Sammler, 17 (Shane West)
This wannabe rock star gets an A-plus for his musical talents, but a learning disability and his overall lack of interest makes him less than a stellar student.

Jessie Sammler, 13 (Evan Rachel Wood)
Sweet and waiflike, this daddy's girl seemingly has everything going for her - beauty and brains - but internally she's her mother's daughter. Jessie's inability to cope with her parents' divorce and her dad's new wife has taken a toll; she spent most of last season battling anorexia.

Grace Manning, 15 (Julia Whelan)
Grace is the typical TV angst-ridden teen-ager with above-average intelligence. She's always falling for the wrong guy, never feels like she's really appreciated and often has misplaced loyalties. No good can come of the crush she has on her new stepbrother Eli.

Zoe Manning, 10 (Meredith Deane)
In her own way, Zoe is the glue that keeps everyone together. She's the only character on the show who seemingly loves unconditionally.

Jake Manning, 42 (Jeffrey Nordling)
Lily's ex loves his kids but could best be described as the guy your mother told you to stay away from. Last season, he hooked up with a much younger woman, got her pregnant and is not exactly being supportive.

Karen Sammler, 40 (Susanna Thompson)
Rick's ex has it all together professionally - she's a competent lawyer - but her emotions are all screwed up. She's had some real gems come her way since her marriage failed, but she can't seem to get past Rick. __Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (September 9, 2001)