Too good for TV?

With tonight's finale, 'Once and Again' joins pantheon of worthy shows that never caught on

By ED BARK

Together again for the last time, the melded families of ABC's Once and Again say goodbye Monday night.

Divorcees Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell) and Lily Manning (Sela Ward) found happiness the second time around, but the show's Nielsen ratings remained incompatible. Ergo, the acclaimed drama's 63rd and final episode airs on America's deadline for filing federal income tax returns. Misery loves company.

Meanwhile, ABC already has a Web site "casting call" in gear for its sequel to The Bachelor, which leapt into the public consciousness just as Once and Again was getting its eviction notice in late March. The two hours form a genuine Monday night odd couple, even if both ostensibly are "relationship" shows.

The Bachelor is rooted in a weekly "rose ceremony" in which women allow themselves to be treated like blooming idiots by a garden weasel. One of his would-be wives had an anxiety attack last week in what was billed as a "shocking" display of intense human drama. America so far is buying this in numbers large enough to justify a second dollop.

Not so Once and Again, which finally has reached the end of its rope on a network that can't be entirely blamed for its demise. It's tough to keep the faith when a show ranks 108th in the do-or-die Nielsen ratings.

"We're interested in taking a little time off now to ask ourselves whether what we've been doing fits in the marketplace anymore," the show's co-creator, Marshall Herskovitz, says in a telephone interview. "Every series on television today basically is a ratings failure. Even a hit gets only 17 or 18 percent of the viewing public. So it's no longer a discussion of how to get a mass audience to watch your show. It's a discussion of how to get a larger minority. We're never going to have a breakout hit. We recognize that."

Once and Again has been drawing just eight percent of viewers this season, making it ABC's lowest-rated scripted series. Mr. Herskovitz, in partnership with Edward Zwick, also has created and produced thirtysomething, My So-Called Life and Relativity for ABC.

All of their series have stressed the mechanics of human dynamics, but not in the broad, bubbly terms of a Dallas or Dynasty. If anything, they have done too good a job of hitting close to home. Once and Again zeroed in on the twin raw nerves of divorce and kids caught in the middle. Therefore its characters frowned a lot.

Once and Again is built on a foundation of solid scripts and acting. Its characters are fictional but grounded in a reality that the so-called "reality" shows can't seem to summon.

High-schooler Grace Manning (Julia Whelan), Lily's oldest daughter, has had more anxious moments than a high-wire walker working without a net in a windstorm. And as for hangdog Rick Sammler, well, sometimes you'd just like to slap him silly.

Even so, Once and Again's overall redemptive qualities consistently won the day. Every episode wasn't perfect, but most of them provided a nourishing meal. Not chicken soup for the soul, but something with a little more bite to it.

Monday's final episode is perhaps a bit too tidily gift-wrapped but ends with a life-affirming surprise that won't be revealed here.

When cancellation seemed a virtual certainty, "we switched some things around and accelerated some other story developments," Mr. Herskovitz says. "We've lived with uncertainty for the past two years really, so there's nothing shocking about the show ending. But I think we're all still a little bit shaken and sad."

Mr. Herskovitz and Mr. Zwick first brought thirtysomething to ABC 15 years ago. The show lasted four seasons and never made Nielsen's top 30. But it certainly made some lasting impressions, on both its creators and the popular culture.

"It was an incredibly intense experience doing it," Mr. Herskovitz recalls. "As dark as it was light, as filled with conflict as it was with joy. We were young and idealistic, and thought the world began and ended with that show. It completely consumed our lives.

"I think we're older and wiser now. And all and all, because of that, I think Once and Again has been better done. We actually feel blessed and lucky it lasted this long. That's the thing we take away." __ Dallas Morning News (April 15

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