'Once and Again': Mourning the end of ABC's high-caliber family drama By Charlie McCollum
I come to you today to mourn the passing of a very good piece of television.
With the episode airing tonight (10 p.m., Ch. 7), ``Once and Again'' will end its three-year reign as TV's best family drama. Since making its debut in the fall of 1999, the series has suffered through repeated time-slot changes, low ratings, network neglect and the agony of almost being canceled every spring. Never once did the show -- created by Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz -- ever waver in its integrity and class; never once did it give in to what may have been the great temptation, to turn drama into melodrama in hopes of a larger viewership.
"Once and Again'' began as a romantic drama about the growing relationship between the divorced Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell) and the newly separated, soon-to-be-divorced Lily Manning (Sela Ward, who won an Emmy for the role in 2000.) It was a subtle look at the reality of modern American family life, a very messy place these days with ex'es and stepchildren and extended families.
But over the course of time, the series became much more than the Rick-Lily show. In fact, this season, Ward and Campbell -- the nominal stars of "Once and Again'' -- have almost been on the periphery, sometimes showing up only for a few minutes in an episode. The regular cast was expanded to include not only their four kids but also their former spouses, Lily's sister and retarded brother, Lily's sister's lover, even Lily's ex-husband's pregnant girlfriend.
In the sheer complexities of the relationships, there has never been a truer drama on television nor one that showed more respect for its characters.
Susanna Thompson -- who plays Rick's ex, Karen, and should have won an Emmy by now -- said earlier this year that she originally took the part with some trepidation because "I never wanted to play someone's image of a bitter ex-wife.''
The miracle of "Once and Again'' is that she never, ever did. Karen Sammler could be lonely, angry, depressed and confrontational, but she was never a cliche. In fact, she ended up as one of the most fascinating characters on the show week after week as she struggled to find a life after the divorce.
Then there were the kids. It's hard to think of another recent series (well, maybe "Gilmore Girls'' in its Capra-esque way) with such a clear-eyed, realistic view of growing up in this day and age. The plot lines involving the children dealt with sexual pressures, the agonies of divorce, coming to terms with stepsiblings and just trying to deal with daily life.
Eli (Shane West) and Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood) Sammler and Grace (Julia Whelan) and Zoe (Meredith Deane) Manning never became cliches, because they were never put in cliched situations by the writers. It gave these young actors (all of whom were cast age-correct except West, who is slightly older than his character) the opportunity to flesh out young people with emotional depth.
That was particularly true of Wood, who magically emerged before viewers' eyes as a stunning actress. Over three seasons, Wood created, with an uncommon insight, a character who tackled eating disorders, the pressures of being a new kid in high school and the heartbreak of watching her parents separate. As an actress, she can do more with a glance and a look in her eye than many can do with pages of dialogue.
Not every episode of "Once and Again'' was perfect. It could be relentlessly grim at times; a touch too melodramatic at others. But since 1999, there has been a string of near-classics.
The finale of the second season, which dealt with Lily and Rick's marriage, ought to be frozen in a time capsule. It was almost impossible to watch Wood singing "Red, Red Robin'' at the end and not mist up. The holiday episode that followed a lonely Karen Sammler trying to come to grips with her kids not being at home was almost as good.
It is a measure of the high quality of "Once and Again'' that the series is going out with a bang. Two of its finest episodes have come within the past month: the one in which Jessie finally accepted her sexual identity, and another in which the relationship between Grace and her English teacher came to its sad conclusion.
The creators of the show are painfully aware of how quality does not translate into television success. Zwick and Herskovitz also created "thirtysomething,'' a relationship series that always seemed on the verge of cancellation even though it lasted four years. And they were the minds behind the very good "Relativity,'' which lasted just one season in 1996-97, and the wonderful if angst-ridden "My So-Called Life,'' which stayed around for just 19 episodes in 1994.
Back in January, when it was becoming clear that "Once and Again'' was on its last legs, Herskovitz said with a sigh: "Shows have to perform. We have experience with shows that don't, and we know what happens.''
And what happens, of course, is that -- no matter how good -- series that don't attract an audience get canceled. Toward the end, only 6.5 million people were watching "Once and Again'' -- a pathetically low number.
Fans of the show can blame ABC all they want: for not promoting the series, for moving its time slot seven times in three seasons. But ultimately, people weren't watching, largely -- I suspect -- because "Once and Again'' was too real and not the kind of escapist fare many Americans prefer to watch when they come home from work.
We may want high-quality television, but we don't always watch it. And that's what happened with "Once and Again.'' **** (four stars) __ San Jose Mercury News (April 15, 2002)
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