I saw a clip of Once & Again on YT and it caught my attention - so I got out the old DVDs and I'm re-watching it

This was an absolutely wonderful show; I'd love to rewatch all of it. I especially liked Sela Ward's daughter, Grace, who had a terrific storyline in the final season.

Shane was cute.

also, Susanna Thompson deserves a big shout out.

Never seen her in anything before or since, have you?

She was Billy Campbell's first wife?

The actress who played Lily's sister does a fair amount of New York stage work. Marin Hinkle.

Sela Ward for the win. Now and always.

[quote]She was Billy Campbell's first wife?

Yes, exactly

[quote]he actress who played Lily's sister does a fair amount of New York stage work. Marin Hinkle.

Yes, I saw she's in that Netflix series that people are talking about a lot on here...set in the 50s.

[quote]Sela Ward for the win. Now and always.

She says this is her favorite thing she'd ever done.

She totally owned it.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Sela (deservedly) won an Emmy for her work on Once & Again.

Interesting note: Julia Whelan, who played Grace, narrated the audiobook for Gone Girl.

Love Sela Ward, going all the way back to "Sisters." Class act.

Sela has been fantastic in anything I've ever seen her in. She had noticeable small parts in both Gone Girl and Westworld. Still so beautiful and such a great speaking voice.

Sela's a deplorable.

I deplore Sela.

I liked both thirtysomething and My So Called Life more. This was my least favorite Zwick-Herskowitz show. I don't think I watched the last season of it.

[quote]This was an absolutely wonderful show; I'd love to rewatch all of it. I especially liked Sela Ward's daughter, Grace, who had a terrific storyline in the final season.

R1, I think it's no longer in print and that they never even put out the third series on DVD. I had to get a bootleg copy.

I'm wrong. It is still in print and you can get a cheap copy of series one for $16. Well worth it.

It's a shame the third season was never issued on DVD. The entire series is terrific and never dipped in quality. The series finale was respectful of its audience, its cast and was bittersweet. You could see the actors were devastated to be losing the show but they were going out on a high note.

And agree with r3 that Susanna Thompson was fantastic on this show. She deserved an Emmy just as much as Sela.

It drove me insane that they didn’t just complete the series and release season 3. The storyline with Susanna Thompson that season was incredible. Fuckers.

I have no idea what Sela's politics are and do not care. I just appreciate her for what I see of her on screen. People get way too wrapped up in entertainers' lives outside of the talent they offer.

Sela's husband ran for a seat in the Senate as a Democrat.

I assume she votes Democrat, too.

Loveliest gal from Alabama since Kate Jackson.

I enjoyed that show too, OP.

[quote] You could see the actors were devastated to be losing the show but they were going out on a high note.

you can see what you're saying validated here >

[quote]And agree with [R3] that Susanna Thompson was fantastic on this show. She deserved an Emmy just as much as Sela.

I liked her storyline with the young boyfriend, Leo...who I think is a well known actor in his own right now.

Sela is much more beautiful than Kate Jackson. Not that there is anything wrong with how Kate Jackson looked in the day.

Wasn't Sela just a model who moved onto acting?

[quote] All you tend to do is go on and on about the lesbian relationship.

Who are you calling 'you', you daft fraupotamus?

JUST a model, R25?

YOU! R26

I loved Susanna Thompson on ARROW.

I loved how this show objectified DILF Billy Campbell

[quote]Yes, I saw she's in that Netflix series that people are talking about a lot on here...set in the 50s.

The Emmy- and Golden Globe winning "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and it's on Amazon Prime, not Netflix.

Marin was also a semi-regular on "Two and a Half Men," as Alan's ex-wife. She's also a semi-regular on "Speechless" as the school principal.

I watched it when it was on. My sister was obsessed with it.

OP, if I remember correctly, Once and Again suffered having its time slot moved around a lot. It would get a midseason hiatus and come back in a different time slot, and then start the next season in yet another time slot, etc.

r13 It can't be the worst Zwick-Herskovitz show, though, because there was Relativity.

I loved this show too.I wonder if Grace ended up sleeping with the hot ginger teacher.

[quote] The entire series is terrific and never dipped in quality.

I loved the show from beginning to end, but I do think some of the storylines suffered from the knowledge that they were probably getting canceled - they had longer-game plotting that had to be wrapped up quickly, and some characterization suffered for it. The marriage and happily ever after of Jake and Tiffany was clearly NOT where that storyline had been heading from its inception; in fact, I thought it was brave of the show to depict it the way they had, with Tiffany's own issues causing her to hang on to a man who had only wanted her to be a hot young piece and was certainly not looking to commit, much less have another child. The natural conclusion would have been for Tiffany to wake up and realize she was worth a hell of a lot more than she'd ever get from Jake. Instead, the message ended up being: wait around long enough and tolerate enough shitty treatment, and you too will get that ring!

And then there was Judy, Will Gluck and Sam Blue. Thirtysomething fans will recognize where they were going with Judy and her men, with Will being her Billy Siedel, the guy she rejected, and Sam Blue as her Jeffrey, the married guy who puts her through the wringer and is ultimately shown to be a gold-plated douche, putting her on the path back to Will. Unfortunately Mark Valley who played Will got the lead on another show and was unavailable when they needed him back before they'd planned, so they tried to dress up the fucked-up Sam Blue relationship as 'the one' for Judy in the end, but it rang false.

I think one storyline I'm going to skip is the really bad (as I remember) performance of Lily and Judy's retarded brother...played by a well-known actor whose name I'm sure most of you know.

No offense meant to him. Mental disorders are hard to portray in general. I just remember it being very tiresome

[quote]Sela's husband is not ugly. Here, he was 63 (last year).

r36 I had forgotten how beautiful that actor was until he appeared on Once and Again.

It got cancelled far too soon. I would've loved to see how the teen lesbian storyline played out in season 4. They handled other sensitive storylines fantastically. It was ahead of its time as a show.

r23, Leo was played by Mark Feuerstein.

[quote]also, Susanna Thompson deserves a big shout out.

[quote]Never seen her in anything before or since, have you?

Arrow?

The Borg Queen on Voyager?

[quote]It got cancelled far too soon. I would've loved to see how the teen lesbian storyline played out in season 4. They handled other sensitive storylines fantastically. It was ahead of its time as a show.

yes, that's why it really doesn't seem to be dated.

Everyone's using landline phones but mostly cordless.

and there don't seem to be any references to the internet.

Amazing how little fashion has changed. But these aren't high-fashion people. The women wear a lot of nice colors all the time. As opposed to black and grey. Makes you realize how much nicer women look when they wear nice colors.

Rick's pants are pretty baggy. Sort of big.

[quote] Leo was played by Mark Feuerstein.

that's right, thank you.

the internet says he's had work done, but I cant see any difference apart from the fact he looks better in this before photo.

Well, he [italic]was[/italic] twenty years younger, r43.

Susanna Thompson was Lucy's evil mother in Timeless. Her character in Once & Again also had an affair with her hot black physical therapist.

God, I've forgotten so much of this show, and conflated so much of what I thought I remembered. Odd, for something I loved so much.

The first time I re-watched it after not that many years, I was surprised how little I remembered.

I had no memory at all of the incident at Jake's restaurant, for instance.

Actually, even now I've forgotten what happened. Someone had a gun I think.

I really liked the show, but I couldn't stand the character of Billy Campbell's wife. I thought her every judgment call was wrong, and she was especially hard on their son, who really started to dislike her.

It was interesting that Mark Valley, who's like the handsomest guy alive, was a bit out of shape at the time--very unusual for a romantic lead in American show biz. He never really gymmed up, either, although he's at least more or less fit in Boston Legal.

Everyone loves Sela Ward, and her character was great, too--until she made that VERY BIG MISTAKE that I won't ID in case others here have not seen the whole series.

No one is ever going to see the whole series, r48. The third season does not exist anywhere today.

Spill, please, r48.

Allright, R50. Everyone else: SPOILER!

Sela Ward, in a moment of weakness, had sex with her ex-husband (who by the way is very handsome). They were both...I don't know. It was one of those things.

Now Sela wonders if she should tell Billy that she cheated on him. Because honesty. And everyone in the audience is thinking, DON'T DO IT! You'll be begging him to throw you out of his life!

I think (it's been many years since I saw it) even her sister told her not to. But some people just have to wreck things. And she told Billy what she had done.

I believe it finally ended up okay and he stopped being angry, but for a while it looked as though Billy was finished with her. And I was thinking, Lady, what did you think was going to happen? You have to be honest about everything? No matter whom it hurts, no matter how destructive it might be?

Oh. I sort of maybe remember that. Thanks, r51.

To those curious about this show:

I have no great desire to sit through this series again, but out of curiosity I checked to see if there were boots of season three.

There was one seller on eBay in Canada who offered it, but it's $40.

And on iOffer someone is offering all three seasons for $60.

I got my season 3 from iOffer.

The first seller's was a bummer, what you most dread.

The second seller, it was fine.

Since the bitch cunt producers never released the 3rd season on DVD, I'd be only too happy to oblige and upload them for you somewhere up in the cloud. For free obviously. Just ask and though shalt receive! Obviously the definition kinda sucks (by today's standards).

BTW, I'm French and Once and Again was [italic]the[/italic] TV show that helped me raise my English level above the gutter that is high school English (in France anyway).

^thou

It's not the producers who refused to release the third season on dvd. You can blame that on the dvd distributors, aka Buena Vista Home Entertainment. They said the first two seasons didn't sell well enough.

I'm surprised Hulu hasn't picked it up.

I'm still watching it. Just finished Season One.

I'd forgotten they'd revived the Miles Drentell character from Thirtysomething for this. God knows why. He was always dreadful...and pretty boring.

I really like Leo. I've never seen him in anything else. His chemistry with Rick's first wife is very real...and a fresh break from all the intensity.

I didn't realize the whole thing's available on YT. There goes the rest of the month.....

I thought only bits and pieces were on YT.

The gurl who plays Tiffany is Robert Caradine's daughter. She's good. She's annoying but you warm to her. Just like real life.

Looks like the first two seasons are up.

Yes, r62. That's what everyone's been saying, the first TWO seasons.

The YT shows are very poor quality and the sound seems to be slowed down...and odd episodes are missing.

I'd buy the DVDs if I were you - and you can go round to your grandparents and play it on their DVD player.

A kind DLer offered to put the episodes up on the cloud and no one took him up on the offer

Merci R55, ça serait très gentil(le) de vous. Je ne trouve pas les épisodes sur les sites de téléchargement.

You can upload a whole series onto some cloud? This I gotta see.

Gentil will do just fine R66. I'll try to do that when I'm back from out of town and will post the link here when I'm done.

So I actually uploaded the first episode of the third season on YouTube. I actually created a new YouTube account because the last thing I need is to have my 15 yo original account being terminated because of stupid copyright claims on these episodes.

If YouTube does not take the video within one week, I'll go on and upload the next episodes. If YouTube does strike me on copyright grounds, I'll try uploading this videos as is to the cloud.

So, for those upthread who expressed interest, I've just finished uploading the whole third season of Once and Again on YouTube.

Enjoy!

Thank you! What a great present.

R70 thank you for this! I’m watching the first upload and was happy to see a shirtless Seth Cohen in the first ten minutes! I loved this show back in the day, but I never saw the third season. What a treat.

Sela Ward really deserved her Emmy for this show.

I can't wait to watch this. Hoping for a blizzard on Wednesday.

I remember how controversial it was when Billy showed his bare ass on the show

Thank you, Kyle!!

That was so good of you, Kyle.

I love people who keep their promises.

I wonder how long they waited between seasons. They look so different season to season. Mostly the hair.

[quote]I remember how controversial it was when Billy showed his bare ass on the show

Hawt!

Boy, I started this a month ago, Finally finished watching it. It's dated very well. I'm very sad it's come to an end and highly recommend full review. My only gripe was "Sam" who dated "Judy" - he, the character and the actor just makes my skin crawl, he's so creepy. Just kept dropping him (I was so glad) and then talking him back.

The lesbian storyline was handled very well. They only kiss once for goodness sake!

There have been some calls for a reboot. Wouldn't that be great!? Just don't bring back Sam.

R81 I agree completely about Sam. I hate that Judy ended up with him.

I meant:

Judy kept dropping him (I was so glad) and then taking him back

Glad you agree, R83. He was SO creepy and his disturbed child and viscous ex-wife - such a bad scene. I FFed through most of his scenes.

Maybe if they reboot, they can have her murder him.

I also thought pairing up Rick's ex-wife with her physical therapist was a sort of PC move. There's no way she would have ended up with him.

Re: the fuckedness of Sam and Judy - R35 lays it out. It wasn't their original plan, and it shows.

R84, I think that they just wanted Karen to have the possibility of happiness on the horizon as the show came to a close, and their options were limited.

[quote][R84], I think that they just wanted Karen to have the possibility of happiness on the horizon as the show came to a close, and their options were limited.

They could gave brought back the lawyer guy who she almost had an affair with (best option) or even brought back Leo. Having her mooning around over her physical therapist was ridiculous and not her at all.

Actually, when something's very good like this, it's interesting examining the flaws.

Paul Mazursky as Lilly's father - he was always a very bad actor and this was no exception. He needed someone to tell him to tone it right down. The woman who played her mother wasn't very good either. The famous actress who played Rick's mother on the other hand was excellent.

Jake wore Mom jeans and had slightly crossed eyes - but by and large and in spite of this, carried it off.

And the retarded brother was very heavy going. I can't stand actors playing mental cases period, so maybe I'm not the one to judge.

Another character who bored the pants off me was Miles thingy who was a character revived from thirtysomething. He never cut it for me in either show, but especially this. He was too much of a caricature.

If they were to revive it they'd have to really juice it up for today's audience. It's too subtle and gentle to grab a big audience today.

R86 even though I love both Ally Sheedy and Patrick Dempsey I had to skip most of that episode. It made me uncomfortable and not in a good, introspective way. And I was frustrated they wasted so much time on it so close to the end of the show’s run.

It’s so hard to imagine a show like this getting rebooted today. I guess This is Us is a similar family drama but the kind of quiet slow moving introspection of O&A just doesn’t seem to fit in today’s tv world. But I loved all the shows by this duo, even the short lived show with Brian Krakow - I forget the name.

[quote]It’s so hard to imagine a show like this getting rebooted today. I guess This is Us is a similar family drama

I think it should get a sort of Big Little Lies (which is probably its modern equivalent) type treatment to get the viewers today.

[quote]But I loved all the shows by this duo, even the short lived show with Brian Krakow - I forget the name.

My So Called Life.

It was too teenage for me. I was already a grown-up when it came out.

R89 I meant the one that came out after My So Called Life (which I loved but watching it now as an adult it doesn’t hold up that well).

I just googled it and it was called Relativity. I think I was the only person who watched that show, which is why it got canned so quickly. But Adam Goldberg was in it and I had a crush on him at the time

Funny - people are talking about Mask on another thread.

I hadn't made the connection with Mr. Dimitri.

[quote]But Adam Goldberg was in it and I had a crush on him at the time

That was probably enough to carry you through. I gave up on it.

R91 I liked the approach the show took to that crush - he was clearly interested but also understood it was wrong. Even rewatching it as an adult I kind of wanted them to go there

R79, about as long as any other show back then: a few months. This whole "we'll air another season when we feel like it" thing is only a few years old in the US.

I only saw a few episodes, but I remember in gorgeous one where Sela was in a coma. Her internal monologue was of her naked, laying in a table (in shadows, of course) debating her reasons for living. Magical TV.

[quote]I only saw a few episodes, but I remember in gorgeous one where Sela was in a coma. Her internal monologue was of her naked, laying in a table (in shadows, of course) debating her reasons for living. Magical TV.

That wasn't Sela. That was Susanna.

I got R94 post out of its context and it still made sense: Sela Ward was fucked while in a coma by Ryan Philippe's character in Studio 54. And she was as gorgeous as she ever while being fucked unconscious.

I remember the Fraus being very upset about the relationship going on between Sam and Judy over at Television Without Pity. They were are like "abort! abort! abort! We're not interested in that story arc! Can Sam please just die in a grease fire or something?" They didn't like the character and especially didn't like the actor, Steven Weber. And I get that. I find him somehow repulsive.

That's funny - I would have thought the fraus would have loved the character Sam and the actor.

I used to follow him on twitter or one of those things around the time I watched the show and he was decidedly peculiar.

He's one of those people who tweets all day every day.

It just occurred to me that Lily's mother is Barbara Thorndyke. I heard the voice and it clicked: I know *that* voice.

A little Sunday's schadenfreude can do no wrong: realizing after all those years that writer and intellectual powerhouse Barbara Thorndyke ended up in the throes of dementia...

Fraus didn't like Sam because he cheated on his wife.

They didn't like Sam because he was a creep.

[quote]He's one of those people who tweets all day every day.

Looks like he's stopped R98. Maybe he got into trouble. His tweets were so odd.

Looks like the very kind DLer who posted series 3 on YT got thousands of views.

Sela played Jessica Savitch in a TV movie. I was just at the site of Jessica's death (by drowning). Eerie.