'Once and Again': Exploring Family Drama

BYLINE: Donna Petrozzello --
Tuning in to the second season of ABC's relationship drama "Once and Again" is a little like digging into a novel that reveals something all too familiar about ourselves.

When we last saw Lily Manning (Sela Ward) and Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell), their lives were rooted in the not-so-easy task of dating as two recent divorcees with kids. Their respective broods were sizing each other up wondering if they had become friends or foes and their co-workers were eavesdropping on their conversations.

There weren't any reeling car chases in last season's finale. No terrorist bombings or multiple murders. Not even a bad-hair-day crisis to lure viewers back to the season debut, which is Tuesday at 10 p.m. on Ch. 7.

Instead of relying on dramatic cliffhangers to ensure that viewers who left in May will be back in October, "Once and Again" co-creators and co-executive producers Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz are betting on the characters' emotional highs and lows to pull viewers back in.

"We're definitely coming out of a dramatic context," says Herskovitz. "It's just not a context that people are terribly familiar with on TV. All we can do is hope that people have become attached to the show and feel passionately about the fates of its various characters."

Moving into the second season, Ward, who collected the Best Actress Emmy this year for her work in "Once and Again," says viewers will start to see the not-so-pretty side of Lily and Rick.

"The honeymoon phase is over," she says. "We'll really start to see the underbelly of these characters."

Campbell says he's looking forward to acting out Rick's "more snarly side."

The actor, who starred as Luke Fuller in the vintage prime-time soap "Dynasty," says he grew tired of hearing from " Once and Again" watchers that his single-dad character "needed to grow a spine."

"To a certain degree, I think that's true," Campbell says. "I told Ed and Marshall that I think Rick is a little too wishy-washy. There's times that I want to slap him."

So this season, Zwick and Herskovitz will bring Rick's character more to the forefront of the show's action, both to give him more strength on screen and to give co-star Ward a little more downtime.

"I think the last half of last season, Lily really had to grow up in terms of her divorce, dealing with the death of her father and the problems she was having with Rick," says Herskovitz. "This season, we'll have similar challenges for Rick in terms of facing some real conflicts he'll have."

One of those conflicts will result from Rick's relationship with testy client Miles Dentrell (David Clennon), an import from Zwick and Herskovitz' emotionally wrenching, 1980s-era drama "thirtysomething." Clennon joined the cast in midseason last year to play, once again, a demented and demanding boss.

Herskovitz said he and Zwick stumbled onto the idea of resurrecting Dentrell for "Once and Again" while they were brainstorming about creating a character that could shake up Rick's work life.

When someone pointed out that the character they were suggesting was just like Dentrell, "Ed and I looked at each other and said, 'What if we just brought back Dentrell?'" Herskovitz said. "Then, for an odd moment, we wondered if there were any rules against that."

Campbell says he's looking forward to owning more lines in the series.

"Last season, Rick was a major part of the story, but he was peripheral to Lily's character because the writers really had to expose what was going on in Lily's life," says Campbell. "I'm a bit happier this season because they're giving me more to do."

The series' teen cast will also step up to more camera time this season. Expect to see more of actors Julia Whelan and Meredith Deane, who co-star as Lily's daughters Grace and Zoe, as well as actors Shane West and Evan Rachel Wood as Rick's kids, Eli and Jessie.

"The producers have said they have every intention of developing the other characters as fully as they can," says Ward. "I think it helps the longevity of the show. They also promised to give me a little break."

One of the show's continuing plot lines has Lily and the teenage Grace at loggerheads over nearly everything from Lily's relationship with Rick to the rules of Monopoly.

In the season opener, Rick spends the night at Lily's, an event that brings its own set of complications, while Grace challenges her mom's lack of discretion.

Ward, who has a 6-year-old son, Austin, and a 2-year-old daughter, Anabella, says she can't help thinking that "someday, I'm going to have to deal with these same issues."

"But I think that's what a lot of viewers see in this show," says Ward. "That their experiences and lives aren't particular just to them, that others go through it, too. And I think people take a lot of comfort in that."__The New York Daily News (October 22, 2000)