Once and Again

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Once and Again is a TV drama that aired on ABC from 1999 to 2002. It was created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the same team that created thirtysomething. WE: Women's Entertainment, home of shows like Dharma & Greg and Felicity, will pick up the series sometime in 2006.

Contents

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Premise

Lily Manning (Sela Ward) was a 40ish suburban soccer mom living in Deerfield, Illinois. Recently separated from her philandering husband Jake (Jeffrey Nordling), Lily was doing the best she could in the raising of her two daughters, insecure, anxiety-ridden 14-year-old Grace (Julia Whelan), and wide-eyed, innocent 9-year-old Zoe (Meredith Deane). Lily was a woman who, in her own words, had "always wanted to be safe." Now, for the first time in her life, she saw no clear direction as the life she had always imagined for herself and her family seemed to be slipping away. Although well supported by her younger sister, Judy (Marin Hinkle), at whose bookstore, called My Sister's Bookstore, she worked, she still felt very anxious about the future. Then, one day, she discovered an unexpected new possibility for herself when she met Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell) in the principal's office at Grace's school, Upton Sinclair High School.

Rick was a single father and co-head of an architectural firm, Sammler/ Cassili Associates, which was located in downtown Chicago. Rick had been divorced from his uptight ex-wife Karen (Susanna Thompson), for three years and had two children, Eli (Shane West), a 16-year-old basketball player at Sinclair High who suffered from a learning disability, and sensitive 12-year-old Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood), who longed for the days before her family's disintegration.

Lily and Rick shared an immediete mutual attraction and began dating. Their budding relationship caused problems in both of their respective families. Jake, who still maintained a close relationship with Lily's parents, Phil and Barbara (Paul Mazursky and Bonnie Bartlett on a recurring basis), was in the midst of remodeling and reopening their restaurant, Phil's, which they had left to him before retiring to Florida. His high level of continued personal involvement with them kept them from accepting Lily's relationship with Rick right away, even as Jake got them all into increasingly worse financial situations in his endeavor to get the restaurant up and running again. Grace strongly objected to Lily and Rick's relationship as she still hoped to see her parents get back together. Judy didn't care much for Rick, but still supported her sister since it seemed like no one else was going to. Karen, a public interest attorney at the downtown law firm of Harris, Riegert, and Sammler, was worried about the toll Rick's new relationship would take on their children, particulary Jessie, who was shy and emotionally fragile. She was also working through her own feelings of jealousy that Rick was moving on to a new relationship.

The stories presented on Once and Again explored the wonder and the difficulty of a second chance at love, as well as the family dynamics of divorce and subsequent remarriage, parent and child relationships, and the search for love, self-discovery, and personal fulfillment.

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DVD releases

After season one was released on November 5, 2002, mere months after the series finale, fans expected more DVD sets to come. However, it took three more years and numerous petition drives for season two to be released, which occurred on August 23, 2005. Season three was initially slated for release in January 2006, but has been delayed for unknown reasons.

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Main characters

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Recurring characters

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Episodes

First Season (1999 & 2000)

  • 1. Pilot (Boy Meets Girl) - September 21, 1999
  • 2. Let's Spend The Night Together - September 28, 1999
  • 3. The Scarlet Letter Jacket - October 5, 1999
  • 4. Liars And Other Strangers - October 12, 1999
  • 5. There Be Dragons - October 19, 1999
  • 6. A Dream Deffered - October 26, 1999
  • 7. The Ex-Files - November 2, 1999
  • 8. The Past Is Prologue -November 9, 1999
  • 9. Outside Hearts - November 16, 1999
  • 10. Thanksgiving - November 23, 1999
  • 11. Where There's Smoke - December 7, 1999
  • 12. The Gingerbread House - December 21, 1999
  • 13. Mediation - January 24, 2000
  • 14. Sneaky Feelings - January 31, 2000
  • 15. The Mystery Dance - February 7, 2000
  • 16. Daddy's Girl - February 14, 2000
  • 17. Unfinished Business - March 6, 2000
  • 18. Strangers And Brothers - March 13, 2000
  • 19. Cat-In-Hat - April 3, 2000
  • 20. My Brilliant Career - April 10, 2000
  • 21. Letting Go - April 17, 2000
  • 22. A Door, About To Open - April 24, 2000

2nd season (2000 & 2001)

  • 23. Wake Up Little Susie - October 24, 2000
  • 24. Booklovers - October 31, 2000
  • 25. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down - November 14, 2000
  • 26. Feast Or Famine - November 21, 2000
  • 27. Ozymandias 2.0 - November 28, 2000
  • 28. Food For Thought - December 5, 2000
  • 29. Learner's Permit - December 19, 2000
  • 30. Life Out Of Balance - January 10, 2001
  • 31. Scribbling Rivalry - January 17, 2001
  • 32. Love's Laborers' Lost - January 24, 2001
  • 33. Thieves Like Us - January 31, 2001
  • 34. Suspicion - February 7, 2001
  • 35. Edifice Wrecked - February 14, 2001
  • 36. The Other End Of The Telescope - March 7, 2001
  • 37. Standing Room Only - March 14, 2001
  • 38. Aaron's Getting Better - March 21, 2001
  • 39. Forgive Us Our Trespasses - March 28, 2001
  • 40. Best Of Enemies - April 4, 2001
  • 41. Armageddon - April 11, 2001
  • 42. Won't Someone Please Help George Bailey Tonight - April 18, 2001
  • 43. Moving On - April 25, 2001
  • 44. The Second Time Around - May 2, 2001

3rd Season (2001 & 2002) (The show's final season.)

  • 45. Busted - September 28, 2001
  • 46. The Awful Truth - October 5, 2001
  • 47. Kind Of Blue - October 12, 2001
  • 48. Acting Out - October 19, 2001
  • 49. Destiny Turns On The Radio - November 2, 2001
  • 50. Jake And The Women - November 9, 2001
  • 51. Chaos Theory - November 23, 2001
  • 52. The Sex Show - November 30, 2001
  • 53. Tough Love - December 7, 2001
  • 54. Pictures - December 14, 2001
  • 55. Taking Sides - January 4, 2002
  • 56. Gardenia - January 11, 2002
  • 57. Falling in Place - March 4, 2002
  • 58. The Gay-Straight Alliance - March 11, 2002
  • 59. One Step (Parent) Backward - March 18, 2002
  • 60. Aaron's List Of Dreams - March 25, 2002
  • 61. Experience Is The Teacher - April 1, 2002
  • 62. Losing You - April 8, 2002
  • 63. Chance of A Lifetime - April 15, 2002 (Series Finale)
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Trivia

  • Todd Field appeared on the show until midway through the second season. It is fair to assume that co-writing and directing the Academy Award-nominated film In the Bedroom played a significant role in his departure from the series. He has also directed episodes of Once and Again and Carnivale.
  • Miles Drentell, the arch client who destroys Rick and David's partnership, nearly had a similar effect on Michael Steadman and Elliot Weston's friendship on thirtysomething.
  • Series creators and executive producers Herskovitz and Zwick also appeared as minor characters on the show. Herskovitz played Dr. Frankl, the physician who reported Phil's death to the Brooks/Manning family. Zwick portrayed Dr. Daniel Rosenfeld, the child psychologist who counseled Jessie while she had an eating disorder, in six episodes.
  • Series producer Winnie Holzman appeared as Aaron's social worker, Shelly, in three episodes.
  • The show received particular media attention and, in the introductory episode, ratings figures, for its depiction of Jessie's budding lesbian relationship with Katie, a previously introduced friend. Besides the expected piqued interest and controversy over an instance of homosexuality (or possibly bisexuality) on TV, in a drama series, the storyline also stood out as one of the few depictions of a lesbian relationship between two teenaged girls in a drama series with recurring manifestations of affection, distancing itself from an often used angle in the media, that of attributing the experience to sexual experimentation.
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External links

fr:Deuxième chance pt:Once and Again

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