"Once and Again"

BYLINE: Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV Editor --
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When "Once and Again" began last season, I quickly tired of its horny divorced couple leads. In early episodes, the series was far too focused on divorced dad Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell) getting it on with separated mom Lily Manning (Emmy winner Sela Ward). Other viewers also expressed disappointment that the show became too much about copulation, not enough about coping.

After ignoring "Once and Again" most of last fall, I began to tune in again in the spring and was pleased to discover "Once and Again" taking the spotlight off Rick and Lily and shining it on the show's other characters: Rick's ex-wife, Karen (Susanna Thompson); Lily's sister, Judy (Marin Hinkle), and, most interestingly, Rick and Lily's children.

Credit producer Winnie Holzman, show runner of "My So-Called Life," for exploring the teen-age characters, particularly Lily's daughter, Grace (Julia Whelan); and Rick's daughter, Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood).

Jessie has a prominent role in tonight's "Once and Again" season premiere as she begins high school, longing for the simplest acknowledgment from Grace, who was in the same lonely spot a year ago. Now that she's a sophomore, Grace is reluctant to welcome Jessie, even though she surely recalls her own feelings of insecurity as a freshman.

The scenes tonight with the teen actors characterize "Once and Again" at its sensitive, revealing best. But the show stumbles back to where it began with Rick and Lily, who once again act irresponsibly and are forced to scramble to avoid being caught sleeping together by Lily's kids.

Luckily the adults of " Once and Again" get a better showcase next week as Lily's sister changes the name of her bookstore and begins a singles night, which brings up all sorts of issues: Lily's competitiveness and Judy's own unrealistic demands on potential suitors.

"There's all this love that no one ever receives," Judy says, "like letters without stamps or all the food that goes to waste that we just throw away. There are people going to bed hungry and lonely."

Reading that dialogue, it probably sounds gaggy, but in the context of "Once and Again," it represents the show at its emotionally honest best.__Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (October 24, 2000)