One of TV's best shows ends its unheralded run "Once and Again" engaged in complex emotions. It didn't cater to viewers who wanted to chill out.By Jonathan StormThe curtain comes down on Once and Again tonight at 10 on ABC with, among other things, a wedding. The groom reads a passage about a rose.
"I press my nose to it, draw the sweetness in, scent of promise, of treasure."
For a TV lover, some series start with such scents. But, like the cut flowers of spring, those series often wilt before they're discarded. More frequently, the promising blooms wind up prematurely in the garbage can because not enough people appreciate their beauty.
Once and Again ends an underappreciated three-year run as one of the best series in TV history, in the top 100 or even the top 50. If it were one of the high school students whose lives it so magically portrayed, it could have its pick of colleges.
It gives little away to say there will be a wedding in the finale, which is as stimulating and satisfying as any Once and Again episode, and could wring tears from The Rock, if he'd sit still and watch it. You can be pretty sure the nuptials won't involve the 17-year-old whose crush on her English teacher led to his losing his job, or her younger stepsister and her girlfriend. But one unmarried adult couple on the show already has a baby. Another has been doing a hesitant mating dance for months. The ex-wife of the male lead is on the mend after an auto accident and possibly available.
Sounds like a soap opera. With less elegant writing and acting, it would have been. Once and Again swirled with sophisticated emotions, and asked audience members to engage their most sophisticated emotions in the watching. It never got strong ratings. Most watchers turn to TV to recharge, not to be depleted even further.
"If they don't want to feel too much emotion, I understand that," said Winnie Holtzman, one of the executive producers and writers, and one of the people in Hollywood who best understand and convey the inner workings of women, especially young ones. "I know that a lot of people use television as a way to chill out, and I'm not putting that down, because I've done that too."
Holtzman was the creator and main writer of My So-Called Life, on an even shorter list than Once and Again of history's best TV shows, and an even shorter-lived series. It introduced Claire Danes in 1994 and became a global cult hit, if there can be such a thing, after MTV put it into reruns a couple of years ago. Adoring fans still rattle on in Internet chat groups about each of its 19 episodes, and eagerly await the DVD boxed set.
"I think it's boringly obvious," Holtzman said, "that both shows were challenging . . . and I totally understand why people don't want to go down that road. . . .
"We write what we think we can do a great job writing. You can't really focus on why something isn't a bigger hit, because that's nonproductive. I feel like the world doesn't need another cop show, and everybody has the autopsy thing covered, and there's enough investigation of rape on TV. . . .
"You have to live in the real world, and the people I work with do, and if we're going to bring an alternative, we understand it might be less popular.
"You want to remember that millions of people did watch Once and Again and did really care about it."
Holtzman's on vacation now, but she'll be back.
"I love television. I love writing it. I love watching it and I love working in it.
"I just assume that if I do a good job and write something interesting that's entertaining, that there'll be an audience for it, somewhere, somehow and, hopefully, an executive who can appreciate what I'm doing and put it on the air."
And she has an upbeat attitude about Once and Again that might be useful for the thousands of fans who fought to save it and the millions, including this one, who may want to go into mourning at its passing.
"I'm amazed that it was on for three years," she said. "I'm not amazed that it was canceled."__Philadelphia Inquirer (April 15, 2002)
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