Lily of the ratings valley By Steve Johnson
"Once and Again" does not mean "Always and Forever."
The latter is a 1970s pop hit (and perpetual prom theme) from Heatwave, the former an uneven but often first-rate TV series about an awkwardly blending North Shore family -- and decidedly not a hit. In what has become a typical scenario for well-crafted, adult-skewing TV dramas that don't feature cops or doctors ("My So-Called Life," "Relativity," "Cupid," etc.), the ABC show has struggled to attract viewers, and news of its impending demise has stirred fans to fight, with a passion that belies their numbers, for its life.
But as admirable as their devotion may be, these people are missing the point, logic and perhaps, some might suspect, a worthwhile hobby.
They might now consider croquet because, with Monday's disappointingly conventional farewell episode (9 p.m., WLS-Ch. 7), the latest offering from "thirtysomething" creators Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick is as dead as Elvis. And -- though it is a kind of apostasy for a fan of the series to say it -- it ought to be.
Yes, ABC jerked "Once and Again" around mightily during it's lifetime, swapping time slots helter-skelter and pulling it altogether during most sweeps periods, but it also never caught on in any of those time slots in even a medium-hot way. In giving this expensive-to-produce series three nearly full seasons despite ratings that kept going down, ABC showed more patience than most of its peers would have.
When not even this season's teenaged lesbian kiss episode (sensitively rendered, of course) could jump-start the ratings, the end was inevitable.
But more important than ratings questions, three years and more than 60 hourlong episodes, most of them at a very high level, is plenty. Far better to go away wanting more, the way a good novel leaves you, than to sour on the show a year or two hence, entering Internet chat rooms to grumble about how it just drags on, how central couple Rick and Lily now seem just like any other preternaturally attractive married couple approaching 50, how we all might as well start watching "Judging Amy," for heaven's sake.
In its life, "Once and Again" served a noble purpose. Following the second-chance romance and its aftermath of once-married fortysomethings Rick (Billy Campbell) and Lily (Sela Ward), it brought to the small screen a realistic modern family, albeit one with enough crises to rival the monumentally star-crossed Salinger clan from "Party of Five."
Over time, this illumination of the thickness -- indeed, murkiness -- of family relationships achieved the scope of a finely wrought novel told in eloquent weekly chapters.
It also quickly became clear that Rick and Lily and their relationship -- daringly geriatric, by TV standards -- would not hold as the series' center. After the first season's rush of passion, dominated by the couple's attempts to find places for assignations, they came to seem a little bit, truth be told, drippy. Zwick and Herskovitz never found a way to give these sad-eyed worrywarts the humor of much of the rest of the show.
It was watching their kids, two from each side, cope with this new arrangement that provided the real attraction. Most contemporary teen stories treat parents as a minor annoyance, at best; this one understood the central and often maddening role their grown-ups still play for good kids navigating between independence, the need for boundaries and the compulsion to please.
Awkward Grace (Julia Whelan) and snooty little sister Zoe (Meredith Deane), from Lily's side, made war and peace with aimless, learning-disabled Eli (Shane West) and anorexic, delicate Jesse (Evan Rachel Wood), from Rick's. Realistic on the inside and out, it's as good a cast of teen actors as has been assembled, "Dude, Where's My Car?" notwithstanding.
All of which makes it too bad that Monday's farewell is such a letdown, despite the presence of a wedding and other cliches signifying closure and despite some fond -- some would even say, "precious" -- reminiscences from cast and creators tacked on at the end.
Architect Rick gets a gig designing a hotel in Australia, but Lily, with an offer to be a syndicated radio advice host, doesn't want to go. They fight, drippily, until--surprise!--they make up.
Meanwhile, their kids get pushed to the side. In its swan song, this series with so keen a comprehension of life seems to be misunderstanding its own essence.__ Chicago Tribune (April 15, 2002)
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