Since "thirtysomething" went off the air seven years ago, its creators have been busy. Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, who wrote, produced and sometimes directed that Emmy-winning series, have had no small degree of success in films.
Zwick directed "Legends of the Fall" (a film Herskovitz produced), "Courage Under Fire" and the Oscar-winning "Glory" (a film Herskovitz wrote). Herskovitz directed "Dangerous Beauty" and "Jack the Bear" and produced the Oscar-winning "Shakespeare in Love."Which begs the question of why they would go back to working in TV on their new series "Once and Again" on ABC. As far as they're concerned, it's not a step down.
"We have had an amazing ride in television," Herskovitz said. "We've had unbelievable creative freedom. We've had this experience . . . of having a show on the air every week being seen by millions of people around the country."
Indeed, during its four-year run "thirtysomething" was one of the most talked-about shows on television. Not necessarily one of the most popular but perhaps one of the most influential -- and one that a lot of people still remember long after it went off the air.
And perhaps, "thirtysomething" remains more influential than working on theatrical films. At least that's the way Herskovitz and Zwick, who first met in film school almost three decades ago, look at it.
"Both of us got into filmmaking for some very idealistic reasons, and many of them were illusions, frankly," Herskovitz said. "We had some belief . . . that film could change the world. That film was a higher calling in some way. And it's been, I think, somewhat frustrating over the years seeing what's happened to the film business. . . . That you're spending two years of your time creating two hours of entertainment for people who are going to go home and forget about it.
"There are wonderful films -- memorable films -- but most films are not remembered. You create a television show, and it stays in the culture week after week, year after year, if you're successful. Especially if you're lucky enough to be doing a show that really gives you a pulpit to preach from, to talk about the things you're interested in and the things you want to say to the world. To be able to do that, week after week, is just remarkable."
It's not that they don't try to have the same sort of impact in film that they have in television.
"Even in these larger canvases, if you think of the movies we've done, it's also about the connection between people," Zwick said.
And it's not like he and Herskovitz abandoned TV altogether after "thirtysomething" went off the air. They were executive producers of the critically acclaimed but short-lived dramas "My So-Called Life" and "Relativity." But they weren't been as heavily invested personally in those shows -- either in terms of time or creative input -- as they were in "thirtysomething" and are in "Once and Again."
The two shows are somewhat similar in that there are parallels between their lives and the lives of their characters in both. In "thirtysomething," best friends and partners Michael (Ken Olin) and Elliott (Timothy Busfield) were Zwick and Herskovitz's alter-egos.
And in "Once and Again," the lives of two divorced people -- Rick (Billy Campbell) and Lily (Sela Ward) -- who fall in love and try to build a relationship amidst the chaos caused by their kids and ex-spouses is something the show's creators clearly relate to.
"What we do is definitely personal. It always has been," Herskovitz said. "But personal doesn't necessarily mean autobiographical. There's a very important distinction for us."
He said that he respects the privacy of his ex-wife, children and friends and "wouldn't in any way portray the details of my own life in a way that we recognizable to anyone."
And Zwick's take on a show about divorced people comes from a different angle.
"My own perspective is not having lived divorce," Zwick said. "But I am a child of divorce and that brings a very different parallax view to the experience."
At this point, "Once and Again" looks like a hit in the making -- a show that could be around for years. And, despite the fact that its success leaves less time to work on theatrical films, Herskovitz and Zwick couldn't be more pleased.
"I had imagined myself, at the beginning of my career, working in some repertory company in upstate New York where something would be seen by 1,400 people every week," Herskovitz said. "The notion that it may be 14 million, the notion that I have the creative license to do what I want, uncensored, and to be surrounded by this level of talent, to have an enterprise that's ongoing -- there's nothing like it in my experience.
"And that includes big movies where the focus is so narrow and the desire to be cynical is so great for the sake of a single weekend -- for the sake of huge and marketable demographics. I think that the subject matter that we are allowed and encouraged to explore (in TV) has everything to do with me wanting to be involved with this in the first place."