Just a reminder that "Once & Again"'s final episode on ABC will be on tonight!

I really doubt it'll be picked up by another network (major, or cable).

Every time I see an ad for this on ABC, I scream. It's f***ing absurd that a show this good is leaving before its time. A big F U to Americans everywhere who complain about the level of quality television yet refuse to watch the shows that validate the medium. A big F U to ABC as well. My heart aches in anticipation of this final episode.

das

I still see it as a huge slap in the face to all tv viewers.

ABC states that they are for quality, family programming.
But they can a show like O & A, and keep putting on these horrid reality tv shows that aren't family oriented.

Like any children will want to watch sluts trying to get a loser of a guy to marry them on The Bachelor.

I hope that Lifetime(who has been playing the current weeks episode on fridays) picks up the show, or another network.

Its a shame that one of my favorite shows is being canned because the damn network has done nothing to help it and couldn't give it a stable timeslot to grow in and gain a viewer base.

A big to ABC.

You would think a network like the WB or UPN would pick this up. After all, they'd probably love to get the ratings this show got for ABC. Especially since UPN & the WB seem to want to stretch out from their core audiences. They could put this show on at 9pm on a night when they hae nil viewers and easily get a 4 or 5 rating.

But I haven't heard of the producers talking about moving the show, is that possible?

The thing that makes me so mad is that ABC, out all the major networks, is in dire need of programming right now. When other networks were developing new dramas, they were airing Millionaire 5 times a week. They have a great drama on their network, and instead of developing the audience they just let it die.

Thanks for the reminder. I always forget about the show on Monday night's, and I forgot about it Friday night as well.

Here's a nice article on tonight and the show in general from Roush over at TV Guide. (possible spoilers)
**please post others from publications across the country. Today would be the day they'd have them.
I expect to see Lifetime pick up the episodes for syndication.

Once and Again
(10 pm/ET, ABC)

ONCE OVER

If ever a show deserved a happy ending, even if it's coming much too soon, ABC's Once and Again qualifies more than most. When Rick (Billy Campbell) and wife Lily (Sela Ward) toast "to too much good news" in tonight's series finale, it's a startling change of pace.

It's also a crying shame.

Literally. And also a waste of some of the best writing, producing, directing and acting talent that network TV has been fortunate enough to ever have at its disposal. Unfortunately, disposal is exactly what happened to this luminous but perpetually underappreciated family drama throughout its three-season run.

A delicate and often dangerously dark-hued (some would call it depressive) adult saga of second-chance romance and its rippling repercussions through a large and fascinating family, Once and Again was bounced between time periods from the very start, never able to claim a night as its own. This fall, the show's fate was sealed when ABC moved it to Fridays, saddled with terrible lead-ins and negative publicity after news superstar Barbara Walters griped about 20/20 being temporarily displaced.

Ratings plummeted, and the show was yanked into hiatus oblivion just as the season's most shattering storyline reached its apex, with Rick's ex-wife Karen (the brilliant Susanna Thompson) severely injured when hit by a car just as she was emerging from a debilitating depression. Her recovery, both physical and mental, has provided the show some of its most transcendent moments.

But then, there have been so many, often involving the younger members of this blended family: angelic Jessie (the prodigiously gifted Evan Rachel Wood), struggling with anorexia and homosexuality; intense Grace (Julia Whelan), so creative yet so insecure; and aimless Eli (Shane West), taking baby steps toward adult responsibility through a haze of pot smoke.

As Jessie tells her mother in one of tonight's quieter but more affecting moments, "Sometimes things happen between people that you don't really expect. And sometimes the things that are important are the ones that seem the weirdest or the most wrong, and those are the ones that change your life."

Change for the better is the primary agenda of this premature finale. Rick gets a fantastic career opportunity that would relocate the family to Australia, while Lily — whose burgeoning career as a talk-radio advice personality has felt phonily contrived all season — is being wooed for national syndication. Meanwhile, Lily's ex-husband Jake (Jeffrey Nordling) finally proposes to a stunned Tiffany (Ever Carradine), the mother of his new baby. And even Karen, who has suffered mightily this year, is given another chance at happiness.

As Lily tries to figure out her own future, she comforts nervous bride Tiffany with this description of marriage (and distillation of the entire series): "No map, no directions. Just two people trying to do the best they can."

Stay tuned beyond the final romantic fadeout to see the actors — and executive producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick — finding a new use for the show's trademark device of black-and-white internal monologues spoken into the camera. Everyone involved seems reluctant to say goodbye, to each other and to us.

Anyone who's ever watched and cared about these characters will return the sentiment. This is one of those times when the cold reality of the business of network TV can really break your heart. — Matt Roush

Always take anything you read at Drudge with a grain of salt, but he has posted some info that the O&A sets haven't been taken down and the actors haven't been released to look for other work just yet, possibly because ABC's fall pilots have been pretty weak so far.

http://www.drudgereport.com/mattoa.htm

I'll be looking forward to, and watching, tonight's episode with anticipation and sadness.

It's a shame that a quality TV show coudn't find a permanent home.

Fingers crossed that O & A get's picked up elsewhere but not holding my breath.

Not sure how accurate it is,

But from the Save Once & Again site, they have a link to a Pittsburgh paper running a poll of shows on all networks to either keep or cancel.

Friends, of course is #1. And nice to see, O & A is #2.

Poll Summary

That's very interesting news, I am surprised none of the Save Once & Again sites have picked up on it yet.

Apparently there is a protest rally scheduled outside ABC today in Burbank.

http://www.reality-online.com/oaprotest.html

Just reading the Matt Roush article brings tears to my eyes.

The few times I watched this show it almost naseated me; Sela Ward was irritating as hell, among other things. But I'm with you guys over the hypocrisy of the situation, utter bunk.

It's pretty obvious that

hi, my name is kevin and i am officially a dumba$$. i watched the very first episode of this show and thought it was pretty good but for some reason, i never continued to keep up. well i tuned into tonight's episode and have come to the previously mentioned conclusion. this is an absolutely fantastic show, from the acting to the writing to the music by snuffy. i am sad to see it go.

Spoilers below:

Pretty interesting send-off of a fabulous show:

Karen decides to finally let Henry into her heart (her kids definitely prodded her along the way).

Sam and Rick get the offer of a lifetime: to design hotels for Colins in Australia. The snag is that Lily is getting test syndicated in the top 10 radio markets for her show. This causes plenty of friction between Lily and Rick

Jake proposes to Tiffany, and after much cajoling, she accepts, but doesn't quite trust him still. Tiffany sees Jake fooling around innocently at the Book Lovers restaurant, and wants to call off the wedding. Jake tells her that the lady was dropping off the engagement ring. This placates Tiffany. Their wedding is planned rather quickly. Tiffany still has second doubts, find Lily in a bout of nausea in a back room of the restaurant where the wedding take place, and Lily comes through with a nice bit of advice: When you get married you throw away the road map and you just do the best you can together.

The wedding goes off without a hitch, and it's interspliced with Karen seeking out Henry who's at the baseball field doing some game prep for the field. They lock eyes, and finally share a tender kiss. The wedding ceremony brings Sam and Judy closer, as well as Jessie and her girlfriend. Rick is an utter mess after the wedding. Lily finds him, and he takes her into a back storage room and tells Lily what an idiot he has been, how the wedding solidify that he can't live without being with Lily, and Lily is willing to give up the radio gig for Rick, and Rick is willing to give up the design job for her. Then Lily drops the bomb on Rick: She's pregnant.

So, we, the audience is left with no real indication of what the Samlers will be doing, except that a new Samler will be coming down the pike in nearly 9 months time.

Fade to the wrap-up and it was quite fun to see how the actors thought of the show, and the relationships they created from being on the show, and the teasing between them was nice to see.

Pretty interesting that last season ended with a wedding, and so did this season.

All in all, a good farewell episode, and there's still that glimmer of hope that it could springboard into a few more seasons if some network is smart enough to pick it up for a 4th season.

Once and Again used to be on after Sports Night on Tuesday's. Thats the reason I started watching, I was just to lazy to change the channel or find something else to watch. The black and white inserts always got my attention.

Ultimately I started paying attention and fell in love with the show.

This episode was quite sad because it was the last one, but also a celebration of everything this show was about. As much as I loved the kids storylines, I was happy that they chose in their final episode to focus on the adult relationships which were the building blocks of the show.

I really hope someone picks up the re-runs to the entire run of the show, those early episodes when Rick and Lily were doing the dating thing were really great TV.

It was great to see the actors as themselves at the end.
Another great show....another premature canceling, such is the life of people who love good TV.

das, I couldn't have said it any better. Don't let me hear another media group say that networks don't have quality programming, because the people don't support it.

I agree with your comment to ABC too. As a matter of fact, those are the exact words I said to my TV (well, my wife was there to hear it too) as the show faded to black. There's now not one show that I watch on that network.

It was in this morning's paper that the current low (by network standards) ratings for O&A are higher than any HBO first run series, but that just isn't good enough for the networks. A really sad state of affairs.

I've become real cynical about Quality TV and how it doesnt last very long.
What wins in the ratings, mindless comedies and reality shows.
I didn't watch the show regularly because ABC kept moving the thing around.
If the network doesnt stand by the show, why should anyone else.

This joins other shows that left before they should have:
China Beach
I'll Fly Away
St. Elsewhere
even, Thirtysomething.

I really hate to start watching a show that looks good because I am affraid I will get hooked and then it will be cancelled. Thats where my cynicism lies.

Really not much to add.
I loved the episode in total color, until the end in B&W.

If the series is brought back in some way.
I hope its not a empty shell of what it once was.

Again maybe not the highest rated series,
but it went out way on top in my book.

I am so angry I can barely speak ...

All in all, a good sendoff. It wasn't the greatest episode of the season, but it's really hard to end a show like this before its time. I absolutely loved the B&W moments at the end. You could see that their hearts ached as much as ours to see the show end. I will miss this show dearly and cannot understand what the problem is with people in this country who drool over the most average and ignore the truly great.

Thank you, cast and crew, for enriching some of our lives. It's a pity so many people turn away from such quality, but rest assured that those of us who watched are better for it.

das

This was a great show. My wife tunes in first and then got me into it. (We would call it "Once With A Friend" in joking reference to all the sex these people were having.). We loved that show. How can ABC complain about low ratings when they kept moving it around? First they take it off for half a year in the half-assed scheme to show Once & Again the first half of the year and NYPD Blue the second half. I knew when they moved it to Fridays some time ago that it was only a matter of time before they canned it. When it was moved to Mondays, I hoped against hope that it would gain a more solid audience.

I guess they needed to make room for "Who Wants to Marry A Millionaire Contestant" or something similar.

I loved this show, never missed an episode. I will miss it, and I echo most of your sentiments.

I finally got to see this episode (taped it last night--too tired to watch live.)

I was crying at the end. Literally. The tears were streaming down my face.

Damn ABC.

Sometimes things just aren't fair.

"We" didn't watch enough.

They were losing money.

The only thing that really bugs is how it and Judging Amy came in together on the same night and same year.


Judging Amy is still a Top 20 hit every week.

I like Judging Amy (mainly because I like Amy Brenneman) but if you put the two shows side by side .........there's just no comparision.

Amy is a simple, good show. Once and Again is a complex, great show.

Let's remember people (in general) like shows where everything is wrapped up in an hour. The bad guys are caught, the problem is resolved etc.

At least we got three seasons. (almost)

Plus, Billy Campbell has the chance now to work with more talented actresses...like Jennifer Lopez.....in the upcoming thriller......."Enough".

Where's your winky eye dude. Almost made me think you were serious.

I really hope most if not all of these actors find regular work quickly, they were all phenomanally talented and made the show a pleasure to watch, even when the on-screen stories were tough to watch, they were still great to watch.

Some have said that they hope the show would come back, and granted, I'd like that too, but after Monday's episode, I think the show has ended. That's how the show should have ended, I dare say it was an almost perfect ending. The Sammlers and their friends and families, although fictional characters, will continue to live once the show is over. How many shows can say they have characters that the audience feels will continue to live once the show is over.

At least they some of there happily ever after that had eluded them for three seasons.