'NYPD BLUE' to Premiere at Last, Bump 2 Dramas to New Days

BYLINE: Tom Walter --
NYPD Blue fans can relax. Its season premiere will be at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 9, on WPTY-TV Channel 24. Its premiere also will involve the shuffling of Once and Again and Gideon's Crossing, two other ABC dramas.

Once and Again is moving to Wednesdays; Gideon's Crossing, to Mondays.

NYPD Blue typically has premiered later than most shows, but last season was the first time it premiered as late as January.

NYPD Blue's producers hollered at the injustice of it all. At the beginning of the fall season, they - and ABC - thought Once & Again would hold the Tuesday time period for six weeks, then disappear for a couple of months until a compatible time period could be found.

But Once & Again became a minor hit, at least among those 18- to 49-year-olds who were attracted to an earnest relationship show about divorcees and their families. So Once & Again hung around until late in the year, then moved to Monday nights once Monday Night Football finished.

And NYPD Blue thrived once it hit the air in January. It featured original episodes all the way through May, and had one of its more successful seasons. Its producers quit hollering.

The show is primed to be as successful this year, even as it undergoes a number of changes. Garcelle Beauvais is joining the cast as a tough assistant district attorney. Detective Jill Kirkendall (Andrea Thompson) is on the lam. Thompson left the show to become a news anchor in Albuquerque.

This season, James McDaniel (who plays Lieutenant Arthur Fancy) is leaving after 13 episodes. McDaniel often has expressed his frustration over the lack of things for his character to do.

And by the end of the season, Kim Delaney (Detective Diane Russell) may be gone, too. She is starring in a pilot about lawyers that Steven Bochco, her current boss, is working on for next season.

Perhaps the biggest change in NYPD Blue comes behind the scenes. The man who ran the show, co-creator David Milch, is leaving too. People familiar with Milch and the show believe he won't be able to walk away from it completely, but the series will miss his vision and day-to-day presence.

ABC originally planned on moving Once and Again to Mondays this season, but instead it is moving to 9 p.m. Wednesdays, beginning Jan. 10. Rookie medical drama Gideon's Crossing takes over at 9 p.m. Mondays instead, beginning Jan. 15.

Once and Again, a "soft" drama in which people talk and talk and talk about their feelings, has a strong core of women in its audience. ABC thinks it better can compete with NBC's Law & Order on Wednesday.

Gideon's Crossing, a moody, introspective drama about a teaching hospital starring the fabulous Andre Braugher, has been struggling on Wednesday nights. Mondays ought to be friendlier territory.

Once and Again has hit its groove this season. It is even better than it was last year, when the major questions (Will they or won't they? Where? When? What will the kids say?) got pretty tiresome after awhile.

This season, the focus remains on Lily Manning (Sela Ward) and Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell) and their relationship as two single parents. But the show is richer. Rick's work life has become more complicated. The kids are featured more prominently. Even the recent episode about Jessie Sammler's (Evan Rachel Wood) anorexia didn't seem forced or message-y. And her sessions with a counselor told us tons about her parents' relationship to each other and to her.

Gideon's Crossing is the show that needs nurturing. Though Braugher is the main man here, the show has eight regulars and a host of recurring characters. It takes time for any show's creators to figure out who and what works and what doesn't. And they have to do it in front of millions of people.

But this is one show that could become a compelling, long-running drama week in and week out. Let's hope the move to Mondays gives it the chance it needs to find its legs.__The Commercial Appeal (December 14, 2000)