27 Years Ago, This Sci-Fi Spy Series Delivered a Near-Perfect Single Season

Now and Again premiered 27 years ago, blending elements of Frankenstein, The Six Million Dollar Man and Captain America into a sci-fi comedy-drama procedural with an overarching conspiracy. The series mixed action, humor and serialized mystery, yet it was cancelled far too soon.

The story opens on Michael Wiseman (John Goodman), an insurance executive who is knocked onto subway tracks and presumed dead. Dr. Theodore Morris (Dennis Haysbert) later reveals that billions of dollars were spent to build a synthetic body and that Michael's rescued brain has been placed inside it.

The new Michael, physically portrayed by Eric Close, is given a second life on the condition he remain dead to the world—any contact with his former family risks his life and theirs. Tension comes from Michael's yearning for his wife Lisa (Margaret Colin), daughter Heather (Heather Matarazzo) and friend Roger (Gerrit Graham), even as a secret government branch assigns him clandestine missions.

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