Now and Again is an American science fictioncomedy-drama television series created by Glenn Gordon Caron that aired from September 24, 1999 until May 5, 2000 on CBS. The story revolves around the United States government engineering the perfect human body for use in espionage, but not being able to perfect the brain. In an attempt to get the project up and running, they take the brain of overweight family man Michael Wiseman, who is killed in a train accident. Given a new life, Michael is kept in an apartment where he is trained by government experts, led by Dr. Theodore Morris, in the art of espionage. Despite his new life and new abilities, Michael longs to return to his wife Lisa and daughter Heather, who are themselves discovering that not all is as it seems with Michael's death.
Plot
Michael Wiseman lives in suburban New York with his wife Lisa and daughter Heather and works as an executive at an insurance company. When passed over for a promotion, Michael and his friend and co-worker Roger go out drinking after work. While standing on the subway platform heading home that night, Michael is accidentally knocked off the platform directly into the path of an oncoming train. When he awakes, he sees Dr. Theodore Morris, the head of a top secret government project to artificially engineer the perfect human body. Unable to create a brain from scratch, Dr. Morris has rescued Michael's brain from his dead body and implanted it in the engineered body. The process allows Michael Wiseman to continue to live, but also forces him to work as an experiment for Dr. Morris and occasionally help fight terrorists. Because of the top secret nature of the project, Michael is told he may never have contact again with his wife or daughter, under penalty of his own death and the death of anyone he tells of his existence. Despite the threat, Michael finds ways to contact his family while keeping his true identity a secret. Over the course of the series, Dr. Morris continues to experiment on Michael, testing the limits of his abilities and strength. Michael is occasionally used to complete secret missions or foil criminal activity. Lisa and Heather find themselves running out of money because the insurance company refuses to pay on Michael's policy leading Lisa to become a realtor.
Characters
Main
Michael Wiseman, an insurance executive who was killed in an accident; his brain has been implanted into a genetically-engineered body.
* John Goodman plays Michael in both pilot and flashbacks
Dr. Theodore Morris, the head of the top secret government project to engineer a human being
Lisa Wiseman, Michael's housewife widow who must learn to move on with life after her husband's death
Heather Wiseman, Michael's teenage daughter
Roger Bender, Michael's best friend and fellow executive at the insurance company
Recurring
The Eggman, a terrorist who uses eggs to contain a deadly poisonous gas
Gerald Misenbach, a lawyer who represents Lisa in dealing with Michael's insurance company, and later a potential suitor
Craig Spence, Michael's scheming and corrupt boss at the insurance company who is dead-set against paying on Michael's policy
The show ran for one season. Airing on Friday nights, the show garnered only fair ratings. The reasons cited by CBS for its cancellation included the unjustifiable expense of the program and the low ratings.
Episodes
DVD release
In 2014, CBS DVD released Now and Again: The DVD Edition on region 1 DVD in the US. The 5-disc set features all 22 episodes of the series, two featurettes and a nearly two-hour long retrospective documentary. These include interviews and full participation from almost all of the leading cast and crew, bar John Goodman. According to the packaging the "music has been changed for this home entertainment version." In 2016, an identical set was released on region 4 DVD in Australia by Via Vision Entertainment, though it was slightly retitled Now and Again: The Complete Series.
