# Once and Again
**Once and Again** is an American family drama television series that aired on ABC from September 21, 1999, to April 15, 2002. It follows Lily Manning ([Sela Ward](https://www.edgepedia.org/sela-ward)), a recently separated bookstore co-owner and mother of two, and Rick Sammler ([Billy Campbell](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-campbell)), an architect divorced for three years and father of two, who meet by chance and begin a romance that draws conflicting reactions from their children, ex-spouses, and the people around them.[1](https://d23.com/a-to-z/once-and-again-television/) • [2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/01/24/again-and-again) • [3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/29/abcs-once-and-again-ending-its-3-year-run/48d1ebf7-1f38-4842-9906-2e13b44e2150/) The series was created by Marshall Herskovitz and [Edward Zwick](https://www.edgepedia.org/edward-zwick), the team behind *thirtysomething* (1987–1991) and *My So-Called Life* (1994–1995).[4](https://prospect.org/2001/11/14/life-cliff-notes/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Network and run | ABC, one-hour drama, September 21, 1999 to April 15, 2002; three seasons of 22, 22, and 19 episodes[1](https://d23.com/a-to-z/once-and-again-television/) • [3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/29/abcs-once-and-again-ending-its-3-year-run/48d1ebf7-1f38-4842-9906-2e13b44e2150/) • [5](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/once-and-again) |
| Creators | Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, produced by The Bedford Falls Company in association with Touchstone Television[4](https://prospect.org/2001/11/14/life-cliff-notes/) • [6](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2002/03/breaking-news-archives-194/) |
| Lead cast | Sela Ward as Lily Manning; Billy Campbell as Rick Sammler; Susanna Thompson as Karen Sammler; Jeffrey Nordling as Jake Manning; Shane West as Eli; Julia Whelan as Grace; Evan Rachel Wood as Jessie[1](https://d23.com/a-to-z/once-and-again-television/) • [5](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/once-and-again) |
| Critical reception | Metascore of 92, "Universal Acclaim," with four positive reviews and none mixed or negative[7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/once-and-again/critic-reviews/) |
| Awards | Five Emmy nominations and two wins: Sela Ward won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2000, and Patrick Dempsey won Outstanding Guest Actor in 2001[8](https://www.televisionacademy.com/shows/once-and-again) |
| Ratings problem | Moved to seven different time slots in three seasons; averaged about 6.5 million viewers a week at cancellation, the lowest-rated drama on ABC's schedule[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/29/abcs-once-and-again-ending-its-3-year-run/48d1ebf7-1f38-4842-9906-2e13b44e2150/) |
| Availability | Released on DVD in 2002; as of late 2026 not available on any streaming service in the United States[1](https://d23.com/a-to-z/once-and-again-television/) • [5](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/once-and-again) |
## Premise and characters
The central couple are both navigating life after marriage. Lily has been separated from her husband Jake for eight months after sixteen years of marriage; Rick's marriage ended three years earlier.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/01/24/again-and-again) • [9](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/09/21/many-sappy-returns/a0777c9c-c3ce-40d4-ae82-6f3e349f078d/) They meet at a school soccer match, and the series follows the consequences of their relationship for the whole extended network of two households: Rick's ex-wife Karen ([Susanna Thompson](https://www.edgepedia.org/susanna-thompson)), Lily's ex-husband Jake ([Jeffrey Nordling](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeffrey-nordling)), and their children, including Rick's son Eli ([Shane West](https://www.edgepedia.org/shane-west)) and daughter Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood) and Lily's daughters Grace (Julia Whelan) and Zoe (Meredith Deane).[1](https://d23.com/a-to-z/once-and-again-television/) • [5](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/once-and-again) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/aug/21/tvandradio.columnists)
The show's stated subject is the difficulty of starting a relationship when both partners already have families. The Los Angeles Times described the drama as reveling in the details of family relationships, often through subtleties such as a knowing glance or a sly twist of everyday speech.[11](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-sep-28-ca-50764-story.html) A recurring storyline in the later seasons concerned Jessie's anorexia, which, rather than being resolved in a single episode, was woven through the season.[12](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-may-02-ca-58112-story.html)
## Style
**Narrative devices.** The series is lavish with fantasy sequences and documentary pastiche. Between scenes, the central couple footnote their emotions in grainily shot black-and-white conversations with an unseen interviewer, a device some critics found self-conscious; the *New Yorker* compared the viewer's position in these segments to that of a shrink, and *People* noted that the show can be self-conscious in its sensitivity when characters confide their innermost thoughts to the audience.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/aug/21/tvandradio.columnists) • [2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/01/24/again-and-again) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/once-and-again/critic-reviews/)
[Mark Lawson](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-lawson), the *Guardian* columnist and broadcaster, placed the show in the Zwick and Herskovitz tradition of what he called demographic television or mirror fiction: dramas featuring glossy representatives of the professional middle-aged middle classes, made aspirational rather than admonitory in the American mode.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/aug/21/tvandradio.columnists)
## Critical reception
The series premiered to strong reviews. Its first episode finished ninth in that week's Nielsen ratings and drew high praise from critics.[4](https://prospect.org/2001/11/14/life-cliff-notes/) On Metacritic it holds a metascore of 92, labeled Universal Acclaim, from four reviews, all positive.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/once-and-again/critic-reviews/) Ken Tucker of *Entertainment Weekly* gave it a score of 100, writing that Herskovitz and Zwick had produced a brave, bracing show unafraid to make white, middle-class, suburban people look like the infuriating, interesting wrecks they so often can be.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/once-and-again/critic-reviews/) Terry Kelleher of *People* scored it 83 and praised the drama's respect for the complexity of life.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/once-and-again/critic-reviews/)
Not all critics were favorable. Tom Shales of *The Washington Post*, reviewing the premiere, called the characters pretty, idealized, and unreal and objected to the coy black-and-white inserts with their banal soliloquies.[9](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/09/21/many-sappy-returns/a0777c9c-c3ce-40d4-ae82-6f3e349f078d/) A 2001 *Salon* review criticized the show's portentous, slow dialogue and its hostage-crisis episode as a Very Special Episode gambit.[13](https://www.salon.com/2001/03/22/once_again/) The *New Yorker* television critic Nancy Franklin acknowledged the show's acute powers of observation and unerring sense of family psychodynamics while finding the constant telephone scenes and confessional close-ups trying; she singled out Julia Whelan's performance as the fourteen-year-old Grace as a reason to watch, and also praised [Evan Rachel Wood](https://www.edgepedia.org/evan-rachel-wood) as the twelve-year-old Jessie.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/01/24/again-and-again)
## Ratings and cancellation
The show never found a stable home on ABC's schedule. It premiered in September 1999 at 10 p.m. Tuesdays, averaging a 5.5/15 rating in adults 18 to 49 and ranking first in its time slot against CBS's *Judging Amy* and NBC's *Dateline*, but it was moved to seven different time slots over three seasons, and Herskovitz said each move cost the show a couple hundred thousand viewers.[14](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2004/04/still-life-with-slim-chance/) • [3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/29/abcs-once-and-again-ending-its-3-year-run/48d1ebf7-1f38-4842-9906-2e13b44e2150/) It maintained a loyal following but had not cracked the top 20 since its first episode.[4](https://prospect.org/2001/11/14/life-cliff-notes/)
By its final season the series averaged about 6.5 million viewers a week, down 24 percent from an 8.9 million average the previous season, and ranked 107th overall; it was the lowest-rated drama on ABC's schedule.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/29/abcs-once-and-again-ending-its-3-year-run/48d1ebf7-1f38-4842-9906-2e13b44e2150/) • [6](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2002/03/breaking-news-archives-194/) On March 28, 2002, ABC announced the cancellation, setting the series finale for Monday, April 15, 2002, at 10 p.m.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/29/abcs-once-and-again-ending-its-3-year-run/48d1ebf7-1f38-4842-9906-2e13b44e2150/) • [6](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2002/03/breaking-news-archives-194/) The announcement came amid a viewer and activist write-in campaign to keep the show in production, and there had been talk of moving first-run episodes exclusively to Lifetime, which had carried repurposed episodes in a secondary window during all three broadcast seasons.[6](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2002/03/breaking-news-archives-194/) ABC Entertainment President Susan Lyne, who had championed the show, said its passionately devoted fans deserved a fully realized conclusion to Rick and Lily's story.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/29/abcs-once-and-again-ending-its-3-year-run/48d1ebf7-1f38-4842-9906-2e13b44e2150/) The finale, "Chance of a Lifetime," scored a 3.6/10 in adults 18 to 49 and 8.7 million total viewers, finishing last in its hour.[15](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2002/04/breaking-news-archives-202/) • [16](https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item?item=T%3A71396&p=62&q=meet)
Herskovitz later noted the irony that the show's final numbers, a 3.3/9 in adults 18 to 49 and 7.4 million viewers in its last time slot, were close to ABC's network-wide season average a few years later, and said that if *Once and Again* returned to the air it might have been a successful show for ABC.[14](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2004/04/still-life-with-slim-chance/)
## Awards
The series received five Emmy nominations and two wins. Sela Ward won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2000 for playing Lily Manning and was nominated again in 2001; [Patrick Dempsey](https://www.edgepedia.org/patrick-dempsey) won Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2001 for his role as Aaron Brooks; and the show was nominated for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series in both 2001 and 2002.[8](https://www.televisionacademy.com/shows/once-and-again) Ward also earned a Golden Globe nomination during the run.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/29/abcs-once-and-again-ending-its-3-year-run/48d1ebf7-1f38-4842-9906-2e13b44e2150/)
## Legacy
The series is remembered as a notable example of the softer family drama genre that dominated a stretch of prime-time television in the 1990s alongside *My So-Called Life*, *Party of Five*, and *[Sisters](https://www.edgepedia.org/sisters-american-tv-series)*. In a 2004 TVWeek interview, Herskovitz placed *Once and Again* in that tradition and described a television moment squeezed between the rise of reality shows and police procedurals, in which the concept of a family drama was, in his words, just not what the public seemed to want to watch.[14](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2004/04/still-life-with-slim-chance/) A scholar of television families listed *Once and Again* among the shows of its era exploring blended, single-parent, and other nontraditional family arrangements.[17](https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-assets/3232_book_item_3232.pdf) The complete series was released on DVD in 2002, and it has not been available on streaming services in the United States as of late 2026.[1](https://d23.com/a-to-z/once-and-again-television/) • [5](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/once-and-again)
## References
1. [Once and Again (television), D23](https://d23.com/a-to-z/once-and-again-television/)
2. [Again and Again, by Nancy Franklin, The New Yorker, January 24, 2000](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/01/24/again-and-again)
3. [ABC's 'Once and Again' Ending Its 3-Year Run, by Rick Porter, The Washington Post, March 28, 2002](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/29/abcs-once-and-again-ending-its-3-year-run/48d1ebf7-1f38-4842-9906-2e13b44e2150/)
4. [Life: The Cliff Notes, The American Prospect, November 14, 2001](https://prospect.org/2001/11/14/life-cliff-notes/)
5. [Once and Again (1999), JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/once-and-again)
6. [ABC cancels 'Once and Again', TVWeek Breaking News, March 28, 2002](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2002/03/breaking-news-archives-194/)
7. [Once and Again Critic Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/once-and-again/critic-reviews/)
8. [Once And Again, Emmy Awards and Nominations, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/shows/once-and-again)
9. [Many Sappy Returns, by Tom Shales, The Washington Post, September 21, 1999](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1999/09/21/many-sappy-returns/a0777c9c-c3ce-40d4-ae82-6f3e349f078d/)
10. [The next generation, by Mark Lawson, The Guardian, August 21, 2000](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/aug/21/tvandradio.columnists)
11. [Trying to Settle Into Remarried Life, Los Angeles Times, September 28, 2001](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-sep-28-ca-50764-story.html)
12. [A Show That Evades Easy Resolutions, Los Angeles Times, May 2, 2001](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-may-02-ca-58112-story.html)
13. ["Once and Again" is once too often, Salon, March 22, 2001](https://www.salon.com/2001/03/22/once_again/)
14. ['Still Life' With Slim Chance, TVWeek, April 19, 2004](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2004/04/still-life-with-slim-chance/)
15. [Breaking News Archives, TVWeek, April 2002](https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/2002/04/breaking-news-archives-202/)
16. [ONCE AND AGAIN: CHANCE OF A LIFETIME {SERIES FINALE} (TV), The Paley Center for Media](https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item?item=T%3A71396&p=62&q=meet)
17. [Television families chapter, SAGE Publications](https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-assets/3232_book_item_3232.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Family and relationship drama › Family and domestic drama › Family sagas and household dramas*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license