Child actors move past cuteness, show depth

By Allan Johnson --
Child characters on TV have undergone a transformation. Some have shed their cute, mini-adult, comic-relief image in favor of more meaningful portrayals.

(snip "Malcom" parts)

Maybe some of the best acting by youths can be found on ABC's "Once and Again" by the kids who play the son and daughters of Rick Sammler and Lily Manning (Billy Campbell, Sela Ward).

In Shane West and Evan Rachel Wood, who play the struggling Eli and the maturing Jessie Sammler; in Julia Whelan as the forever conflicted Grace Manning, and especially Meredith Deane as the blissfully unaware Zoe, we see young people who are constantly rocked by the changes within their "perfect" families, the invasion of "outsiders," and how they deal with those changes in different and interesting ways.

(rest of article "snipped")__Chicago Tribune (November 12, 2000)