Randy Brown Liz Coe Star Frohman Babs Greyhosky Jim Kramer Neil Landau Suzanne Marcus Levine Pamela K. Long Mike Scott Steve Sohmer Marcy Vosburgh Robert Wolterstorff
August 25, 1999 (1999-08-25) – May 30, 2001 (2001-05-30)
Twice in a Lifetime is a Canadian mysterydrama television series that originally aired from 1999 to 2001. Created by Steve Sohmer, the series aired on CTV in Canada and PAX in the United States.
Plot
The series follows an aspiring angel who for some reason, will not enter heaven, but is assigned to guide someone who has died prematurely. The prematurely deceased, played by the episode guest stars, may choose from the afterlife to correct something that went wrong earlier in their life. The key concept to the series was that each episode featured a different guest star in the leading role, while the series regulars played a supporting role.
Episodes are centered on an individual who had reached the end of their life in one timeline, and due to circumstances seen by their advocate and judge, is then given 3 days to travel into their past, and without revealing their true identity, convince their younger self to make a different choice at a pivotal point to effect a different outcome for example, by quitting smoking, or choosing a different job and in changing this learn a key lesson to make them become a better person. This way, the series was an anthology of many different arenas and characters.
Season One featured Gordie Brown as advocate Mr. Jones, and Paul Popowich played the role of advocate Mr. Smith in Season Two. Al Waxman played Judge Othniel in 40 of the 44 episodes. In Season One he appeared as Judge Jephtah in two episodes and Polly Bergen played Judge Deborah in two episodes. Waxman died in heart surgery on January 18, 2001, while the second season was airing.
The scenario of this series always takes place in four stages: the accidental death of a person, their judgment, their second chance in the past and the happy ending.
In the premiere episode of season 2, Mr. Jones is replaced by Mr. Smith, a mystery man with no ID pulled out of a burning church by a firefighter. He dies in the firefighter's arms. His death seems to make him lose his memory. Jones is as much an expert as Smith is a clumsy beginner. Note that in the second season, the passage to the afterlife is different from season 1. Also Mr Smith seems to be trying to remember who he is and complete his job as a guide/defense attorney and helper to the souls he picks up so he can either get his life back or become an angel. It's never made clear and we never find out what his whole story is.
In two episodes of the first season, we see Judge Deborah, played by Polly Bergen, and Prosecutor Jael, played by Diahann Carroll.
Episodes
Season 1: 1999–2000
No. overall
No. in season
Title
Original air date
1
1
"Sixteen Candles"
August 25, 1999 (1999-08-25)
A woman who dies in a fire while drinking is given the chance to prevent her addiction.
When his son vanishes on a camping trip, a cold-hearted IRS agent is killed looking for him. He's given the chance to convince his younger self not to be so harsh with others. But when he returns, he finds his son still goes missing and worries things didn't change for the best.
An ambitious doctor, who actually cut her own husband's medical career short to get ahead, is given a chance to sway her younger self from this selfish path. Her journey is complicated by how her future husband is attracted to her "new" self.
A chain smoker dying of lung cancer is killed in a car accident. She's sent back as a guidance counselor to get her younger self to stop but discovers a shocking family secret that drove her to this path.
A woman who listened to her mother's advice lives a cold and empty life with a cheating husband before dying in a park. She's given the chance to convince her younger self to follow her dreams of being a photographer.
Feeling bitter toward his aged mother for never letting him go to college, a Vietnam veteran is given the chance to convince his younger self to follow his dreams and learns more of his mother's true motives.
A former baseball pitcher is wallowing in guilt over sending his brother to prison when they were teenagers. When the brother gets out, he kills the pitcher, who is given a chance to stop his brother's path to crime... but time is running out before the key event happens.
Guest star: Joe Penny; Polly Bergen filled in for Al Waxman
8
8
"School's Out"
October 27, 1999 (1999-10-27)
A retiring teacher, hated for her cold ways with students, is killed in a robbery. She is sent back to convince her younger self to give a second chance to a promising athlete.
After being killed in a robbery, a woman is ready to be accepted into heaven but instead argues that she be sent back to try and save a former love. But her attempts soon draw her into a conflict between her father and her love's radical group.
Long trapped by a loveless marriage to the woman he got pregnant and raising two spoiled children, an architect is sent back to pose as a priest. Along the way, he discovers a big secret as he tries to hook his younger self up with the love of his life and stop her from being deported.
A bigoted prosecutor dies of a heart attack in a rough neighborhood and is sent back as a cop to try and save her former love from a shooting. She fails but then discovers the man she identified as the killer and was executed for the crime was truly innocent. Now, she must convince her grieving younger self to not make the same mistake.
A washed-up actress dies in a freak accident and Mr. Jones uses one of his three "freebies" to give her a second chance. She attempts to nail the audition she's convinced she was cheated out of only to realize that becoming a star is secondary to how to save her life.
Trapped in a wheelchair by a car accident, a bitter former tennis player is given a chance to return to her past. Becoming her own physical therapist, she tries to get her younger self to overcome her bitterness while helping a young girl also injured by an accident.
Just after deciding to call off her wedding, a bride sees her long-absent father (who she blames for not giving the bone marrow her dying younger sister needed) there and dies falling down the stairs. Sent back as a doctor, she discovers the true reason her father left the family long ago and tries to perhaps save her sister and keep them together.
Dying of a heart attack on the set of a commercial, an arrogant and bigoted director is stunned to discover his former love raised their son he never knew about. He's sent back as a costume designer at the theater group they met at, trying to convince his younger, stage actor, self not to break them up for a job with a company making commercials.
A woman, whose son finds a briefcase of drug money in the park years before, uses it to become a successful TV chef but also leads to her son becoming a criminal. Dying in a spa accident, she discovers an innocent cop was blamed for stealing that money and is given the chance to stop her younger self from that mistake.
Mr. Jones is stunned when Judge Othniel gives a woman the chance to go back and convince her younger self to have an affair with a friend. But there's a method to the Judge's madness and an important lesson for both the woman and Jones.
After dying in a freak accident, a bitter publisher is sent back at first to convince his young wife to become a stay-at-home mom so their daughter won't turn out to be a mess. But when he sees how much his wife loves her job, he begins to rethink his plan.
After losing custody of her daughter due to her drinking, a woman dies in a bar and is given a chance to stop her younger self from this path. But a tragic turn ensures her life will never be the same no matter what.
Dying when his apartment fills with gas, a song writer is sent back to convince his younger self to be more accepting of his neighbors. But he makes the mistake of telling his younger self point blank who he is which earns him a trip to the psych ward and he must find a way to get out before his time is up.
After seeing his photo on a milk carton, a teenager is told by his father that he took him and his sister to protect them from their drug-addicted mother. Killed in an accidental shooting, the teen is sent back to get his younger self to discover the truth of what really happened.
After being accidentally shot by his own son, a firefighter is sent back as a psychiatrist to get his son to open up and to try to stop his son from beating a younger boy. With him is Mr. Smith, who died in a fire despite the same firefighter's attempts (his last pre-death rescue) to save Smith, who is getting used to this new job.
A woman who lived alone with just cats dies and is sent back to the orphanage where she grew up, determined to get her younger self adopted by the perfect family. But along the way, she realizes that the orphanage owner she long hated was under a lot of pressure and that the "perfect" family may not be what she thinks.
Dying from a fall at a construction pit, a divorcee learns that her warnings about men will lead to her daughter becoming a bitter and lonely woman. She's given the chance to sway her daughter to love but must contend with her own hard self.
Mr. Smith is upset when instead of an older abusive father, it's the man's teenage son who dies in a baseball accident. In a twist the boy is sent back to when his father was his age to discover the source of his anger, the truth of his dad's "fame" as a baseball player and to help his father with his own demanding, rough father.
Killed by a man he once framed, a corrupt cop is given the chance to stop his younger self from going down that path. However, posing as an Internal Affairs officer doesn't help or the discovery of his own father's corrupt ways. Meanwhile, Mr. Smith is sent with him as a priest with a bad record to learn his own lesson.
Killed on a car ride together, a long-fighting couple are sent back as the owners of the hotel their younger selves honeymooned at. Along the way, each discovers why the other has held such long grudges and try to get their selves back on track.
Executed for the murder of his sister, a stage magician is sent back to discover the identity of the real killer... but must face the fact it's someone he thought he trusted.
After wasting her talent, a tabloid reporter is sent back to prevent her younger self from ruining the life of an actress. She finds it hard to sway her ambitious self until she decides to reveal their deepest secret.
After Mr. Smith agrees with the viewpoint of a womanizing dentist at only judging women by their appearances, Judge Othniel decides to teach them both a lesson by sending them to sway the dentist's younger self... only both men will be seen by everyone else as women.
A man who blames the toxic waste his company dumped for his son having Down's Syndrome is sent back and intends to ensure his son isn't born to "spare" him from that life. But as he sees his younger self and his wife, he realizes how important his son truly is.
A used car saleswoman is granted the chance to stop her younger self from selling a defective car that killed a teenager. But she finds it hard due to her feelings for the girl's brother and her own secret guilt.
A woman whose brother died of a snakebite because she convinced him to bury their late grandmother's shoes, dies after a return to their run-down farm. The woman intends to get her brother to leave with her and travel the world as she did when she was a teenager.
A woman who has hated Christmas ever since her twin sister walked out on her Christmas eve and died in a motorcycle accident is given the chance to heal the rift they had over a boy in their band.
Dying after an argument with his brother, a bar owner is sent back to oversee the hazing her put on his brother at a fraternity and convince his younger self to cut the boy a break.
Having long blamed a high school bully for ruining his life and costing him his dream girl, a doctor is sent back, at first to get back at this bully but soon discovers all is not what he believed it to be.
A former gangster in the 1930s, having long lectured at schools about a life of crime, is granted the chance to save his former love but faces opposition from her FBI agent father.
Dying of a heart attack on the poker table after cheating at the poker game, a lifelong gambler learns that the woman he walked out on a decade before died and their daughter was raised in a cold environment. Posing as a family services agent, he tries to get his younger self to finally accept the responsibilities of fatherhood.
A former boxing champ, who gave up on it all after killing his brother in a rigged fight, is given the chance to stop the death... but still determined to win the fight.
A rich man is sent back as a hospital administrator who must decide whom to give a kidney to. He falls in love with a woman who has adopted her orphaned nephew but is also dying from the same kidney disease that killed her sister. When his own younger self gets hit by a car, he must decide whether to save himself or the woman he loves. Leaving the boy without a mother for the 2nd time and with no one else.
Having long put her own dreams aside to take care of her daughter and then granddaughter, a woman must convince her younger self to teach her grown daughter to take more motherly responsibility while she follows her own dreams she put aside for her husband and daughter.
Dying during a flight to see his first wife, a pilot is sent back as a flight attendant to convince his arrogant younger self to correct the mistake that led to a dog's death on board. Meanwhile, Mr. Smith helps a cancer-stricken woman deal with her last days.
Having long blamed himself for convincing his father to have a heart operation that left him brain damaged, a man is granted the chance to prevent it but must deal with how else to save his father's life.
