Once Again, the Case for ABC's 'Once & Again'

By Brian Ford Sullivan

I'm not usually one to come out and say one show absolutely is better than another show. Obviously I have my opinions but at the end of the day I subscribe to the idea that while I have my way of thinking, the public as a whole is going to inevitably march in directions different from mine. So when it comes to which shows survive and which shows are canceled more often than not, I realize that inevitably series I can't stand will spend years on a network's schedule while others will disappear into the sunset. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not one of those critics who thumbs his nose at highly rated shows while holding an endless grudge over the lowly rated ones that get canceled. After all I'm just a guy like you with no more weight in his opinions than anybody else.

One of my favorite quotes from Dennis Miller is from one of his rants about critics - "We don't need help! You like the Red Skelton painting? Buy the Red Skelton painting. You like 'Home Improvement'? Tape it and go over it like the Zapruder film. It's your living room, it's your life, go nuts! Enjoy the world on your terms. Follow your own heart and take what critics say with a fifty-pound bag of salt because at best a critic is just another human being like yourself, fumbling around in the dark, trying to separate the artistic wheat from the Wonder Bread." I believe that 100%. This site isn't about making you feel bad you like one show over another, it's about telling you what's going on with your favorite shows and giving you the ammunition (ratings information and so on) to tell the networks whether they've been wrong or right (and a little sarcasm never hurt anybody did it?).

But sometimes, just sometimes there's that one show that absolutely deserves a seat at the network table for reasons so overwhelming that it's amazing there's any question about it. In the past five years I've spent more than a few column inches in the defense of certain series that due to ratings evidence and/or critical recognition deserves to get a legitimate chance at success. "Once & Again" is one of those series. I'm not going to spending today's column recounting yesterday's look at the myriad of ways ABC has run the show into the ground but rather reasons why this show is something truly quite amazing and should be cherished instead of tossed in the corner like ABC has.

I don't know about you but my family isn't perfect. And that's the first thing that strikes me about "Once & Again" (and every other Herskovitz/Zwick production) is that the families and the characters that represent those families aren't perfect - they are flawed human beings just like every other Joe on the planet. They make mistakes and bad choices just as often as they make the right decisions. This isn't "The Brady Bunch" where the parent gives the "lesson" each week at the end of the show first with a scolding finger and then with a warm pat on the back. "Once & Again" doesn't offer you that safe worldview. In the world of Lily Manning (Sela Ward) and Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell), life just sort of trudges along with happiness and sadness getting equal time under their roof with no other explanation other than that's just how life is. People are moody, arrogant, jaded, insightful, thoughtless, gentle, depressed, hopeful, generous, vain and forty other different things like they are in real life.

Rick Sammler and Lily Manning meet under the worst of circumstances - Rick is divorced, Lily is separated and both have two children of similar ages that have only socialized from a distance. Two and a half seasons later we've lived through the growing pains of the Sammlers and Mannings thrust together simply because Rick and Lily fell in love and at the close of last season, chose to marry. We've seen Rick go from a successful, emotionally isolated man to a professionally broken, but warmer person. We've seen Lily go from a sheltered housewife to a self-sufficient woman that finds her own way. And trust me their paths were not easy, even in terms of their own relationship. "Once & Again" is one of the few series to ever really address the idea that the choices we make have often devastating effects on our entire family, not just ourselves or our children.

The show extends well beyond the constraints of Rick and Lily to their exes, brothers, sisters, friends and co-workers. The series has so large a cast that more often than not we don't see each character each week. There's Lily's sister Judy (Marin Hinkle) who like all little sisters both loves and is frustrated by their elder sibling. There's Karen (Susanna Thompson), Rick's ex-wife and more importantly my favorite character - a woman who finds herself left alone due to Rick and Lily's marriage. And there's Jake (Jeffrey Nordling), Lily's ex-husband and frequent source of heartache and headache.

But the most intriguing group out of everyone in the cast is the children - without a doubt one of the finest young casts working in the entertainment industry today. These aren't some eye-rolling moppets that belong in a Pepsi commercial, these are some truly talented actors and actresses that inhabit the difficult roles of being children of not only divorce but also of remarriage. I don't know about you but I wish I had Eli (Shane West), Grace (Julia Whelen), Jesse (Evan Rachel Wood) and Zoe (Meredith Deane) broadcast into my living room as a teenager even if I too, wasn't a child of divorce. There's just something about the way they are written, directed and presented that makes them seem almost too real. They ask questions kids of divorce ask just as much as they ask questions regular teenagers ask. It's a real compliment to the audience when even the youngest characters are susceptible to having flaws just as much as the adult characters.

Lastly, "Once & Again" offers like every show nowadays - a "gimmick" - this being the characters' innermost thoughts turned into black and white testimonials where they talk to the audience. While many critics originally attacked the often overused technique (at the time the show debuted this technique was all the rage) I find myself mesmerized by it at times. The testimonials aren't simply them saying things like "I love this person" it is used as more of a secondary compliment to the actors' performances. When Rick and Lily first have sex the scene often cut to their silent testimonials as we could see in their eyes the reactions they were hiding from the other person. I think it made the scene step up to a whole other level that really showed the beauty of what was happening by also showing their fears and doubts at the same time.

If there's one word I could use to describe the show I think it would be "beautiful." The series shows us that that schmaltzy, James Horner scored world that movies and television often provide us does indeed exist, it's just it's hidden deeply among the difficulties of everyday life. "Once & Again" celebrates human nature and our ties to our family - no matter how ugly and frustrating those things can be.

Anyway to finish things up, if what I said here in any way strikes a chord with you I guarantee that show will do that to you fifty-fold. While ABC is only offering a handful more chances to see the series I highly encourage you to find the show (if you already haven't - it's on Fridays at 9:00/8:00c) and if the inspiration strikes you, put into words how the show makes you feel and send it to ABC. I know the "save our show" rage is to send some sort of token that represents the show and I can't think of anything better than a heartfelt letter (I can't bring myself to cutely say "testimonial" here) from a viewer.

Many people (including our long time site friend Lynda Shulman) have been kind enough to provide us with links to where you can find more about efforts to save "Once & Again" including addresses and so forth to send your letters and thoughts:

The Angelfire Campaign
The Geocities Campaign
The Petitiononline Campaign

If you have any other links or information please feel free to contact us. Oh, and I would be remissed if I didn't mention that Friday's episode of "Once & Again" did better in the overnight ratings than ABC's theatrical repeat of "Forces of Nature" last night.__thefutoncritic.com (January 15, 2002)

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