Luz de luna

Moonlighting was one of those amazing shows that spawned a plethora of clones, many of which didn't make it. Though it came after Remington Steele, which I believe was the far more excellent show consistently, Moonlighting got all the buzz and the excitement. Most of this was due to the breakout performance of Bruce Willis, who, of course, became a megastar thanks to Moonlighting. I can still see him facing a criminal while singing "My Girl" and then indicating with his hands when the goon should come in with the high part. It was touches like this that made Moonlighting special.

Willis and co-star Cybill Shepherd were fabulous and had excellent chemistry. They were ably supported by Allyce Beasley, Curtis Armstrong, Charles Rocket (a brilliant choice for David's brother, who appeared in some episodes), and for several episodes, Eva Marie Saint and the late Robert Webber as Maddie's parents.

The series boasts some phenomenal episodes but when it fell, it fell hard. Ego problems, budget problems, and story direction problems began to weigh it down, and it finally crawled to an end after tons of reruns being shown in prime time when scripts were unable to be delivered. However, the heights hit in the first two seasons or so are unmatched probably by any other series for their creativity and brilliance. Moonlighting remains a wonderful and joyous part of TV history.

In the finest tradition of Gable&Lombard and Tracey&Hepburn, Cybil Sheppard and Bruce Willis bring drama, comedy, and wit to TV together with a sexual tension that underscores their partnership in the Blue Moon Detective Agency.

Shepard, who plays Maddie Hayes, wakes up one morning to find out her accountant has absconded with the fortune she made as a high fashion model. Obviously it was not a stretch for Cybil to adapt to this role! In the course of finding out that she needs to sell everything, she happens in on this little detective agency(Blue Moon), she owns only because it was a great tax writeoff. The staff is morabund, and the head sleuth is a wise cracking obnoxious male chauvenist named David Addison, played by an unknown(at the time) Bruce Willis. The immediate rapport between the two brought viewers back for more. The endless stream of double entendre's, malaprops, and overall office antics made the show lovable and audiences craved for more.

Glenn Gordon Caron's writing and vision had the writers, actors, and directors take license with certain rules in primetime that were never questioned. E.G. In one particular episode Maddie asks David to get more explicit with an explanation and David responds by telling her if they get any more explicit they'll have to move the show to cable. It is precisely these departures from the norm, along with the genius idea to have the two main characters talk to each other AT THE SAME TIME, that made critics and fans follow their every move.

It's probably best to say that this show's run was cut short due to the emergence of Willis as a bonafide star. Once he made his mark on the big screen, in Die Hard, Bruce was looking for ways to exit TV. In interviews he talked of the brutal schedules for TV primetime and the difficulty in exploring the boundaries of his talents and appetite for acting. As the show fragmented the practice of in season repeat episodes was probably accepted more , if not born out of necessity. Expanded roles were given in onscreen time and plots to Allyce Beasley(who played a great Agnes DiPesto) and her Blue Moon boyfriend Herbert Viola, played by Curtis Armstrong. These shows were often almost difficult to watch, through no fault of Beasley and Armstrong, but rather the desire to see Maddie and David cavort as usual.

Reruns have been syndicated and you can find them sometimes, most recently on cable channel BRAVO. If you do see the shows, and they are regularly scheduled, it would be well worth it to look for four of my favorites...the first episode of Moonlighting's second season entitled "Brother Can You Spare A Blond", a later episode when Maddie and David have had one of their innumerable fights and they are both interviewed by Rona Barrett in an attempt to reconcile their differences, the episode that co-stars Dana Delaney as the ex-fiance that jilted David, and a classic show guest hosted by Orson Welles shot just before Welles' death. The show signifies the great love/hate relationship between the two main characters and is brilliantly shot in both color and black and white. I think you'll get the spirit and essence of this show if you see any of these.

Moonlighting went on the air in January of 1985 as a mid season replacement, beginning with a two hour TV movie pilot episode. The reviews were mixed - and so was the pilot. Was this a detective drama? A romantic comedy? It appeared it was trying to be both. Within a couple of episodes it became clear that creator Glen Gordon Caron was planting the show firmly in the field of romantic comedy - a good choice because it was in these moments that the series would really shine.

By the third episode it was clear they were on to something original, or if not completely original, at least written and executed better than anything else on TV at the time. The Tracy-Hepburn like sparring between Shepherd and unknown actor Bruce Willis, and the sophisticated writing by Caron and the other writers just got better and better as they finished their first half season of ten episodes.

The highlight of that first batch was the celebrated "black and white" episode, "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice." In it Maddie and David interview a client who owns a once famous LA nightclub (like the Coconut Grove), which is about to be torn down. There they learn of a mysterious murder that occurred there in the 40's, still unsolved, that revolved around a trumpet player having an affair with the band's married girl singer. The singer's husband was killed and both the trumpet player and the songstress claim the other did the deed. Of course David assumes the woman framed the musician. Maddie feels it was much more likely the sleazy guy did it. Each of them daydream their version of events in 1940's black and white, with Bruce playing the trumpeter and Cybill the singer. Each of their mini-stories works as film noir homage, and the pairing of the two versions come off even stronger. In addition it allowed us to see David and Maddie in a romantic setting without having to put the characters directly into that kind of plot killing situation. The episode won Emmy nominations for everyone involved, including Cybill and Bruce. Bruce won.

Which brings up "the troubles." How many giant egos can one series sustain? Tension began to mount between Shepherd, Willis, and Caron. Cybill was the "star" - but she was essentially playing straight man to Willis. His manic character and split second timing were the force driving the chemistry forward. By the time they were filming the first full season - he was as recognizable as she was. And after years of struggling and starving in New York - he was enjoying every minute of his new found fame.

And then there was Glen Gordon Caron. He was very much a "hands on" producer and had very definite ideas about where he wanted to take the series. His perfectionism frustrated his cast and writers. Several times the crew would begin filming an episode while the writers were still writing. Caron had a commitment to the network for 22 episodes per season. He never delivered more than 20. His shooting regularly went off schedule and over budget. The quality was there on the screen ("Atomic Shakespeare" - a riff on the Taming of the Shrew was practically a movie in and of itself), but the show began to tick off viewers who complained about all the reruns while they waited for a new episode.

As the series moved into its second full season it hit a creative peak:

· The aforementioned Taming of the Shrew

· Big Man on Mulberry Street - with a musical sequence by "Singing in the Rain" director Stanley Donen

· The four Sam and David and Maddie episodes with Mark Harmon as the straight up astronaut whose proposal forces Maddie and David to confront their feelings.

Then it happened. A confluence of events that seemed to drain the show of all its life:

· Maddie and David "did it" - killing off the eternal suspense.

· The writers, tired of all Caron's tirades and very much in demand with all their Moonlighting awards, left the series. Caron had to bring in a fresh crop.

· Cybill Shepherd became pregnant with twins. The timing of the pregnancy would prevent her from filming between September and at least December - a prime production period.

· Glen wrote the pregnancy into the show - and had Maddie flee LA for home - for months. This allowed him to film Shepherd's scenes alone during the summer. Of course with 3000 miles between Maddie and David it's hard to get much zippy chemistry going.

Coming from the creative high of the second season, the letdown in the third year was all the more apparent. By the time they dumped the baby (a miscarriage) at the beginning of the fourth season - the magic was clearly gone. Shepherd and Willis were anxious to move on to more lucrative film projects, and the final season was only a slight improvement over the disappointing previous year.

But, as the nursery rhyme goes - when it was good, it was very very good. In addition to the episodes mentioned above, try to catch some of these on cable:

· "My Fair David" - Maddie bets David can't go through a week without breaking out into some Motown ditty, or making crass sexist comments.

· "Devil in the Blue Dress" with Judd Nelson and Whoopie Goldberg

"Moonlighting" had the same basic template as "Remington Steele" (which "Moonlighting" creator Glenn Gordon Caron also wrote for), but the two shows were ultimately so different that it never really felt like a ripoff. (In any case, "Remington Steele" itself felt a bit like "Hart To Hart," about which the less said the better.)

The show's troubled backstage production is the stuff of legend (if Sky 1 viewers think the arrival of new episodes of "The Simpsons" is an event, they don't remember this show's travails - a new episode on ABC was practically a headline story); so self-reverential was "Moonlighting" that the episode "The Straight Poop" was actually about the show's backstage drama, with Rona Barrett (real-life gossip maven) hosting and interviews with Cybill Shepherd's ex Peter Bogdanovich and, amusingly, Pierce "Steele" Brosnan. But though the problems really affected the show to the extent that some episodes had to focus on David and Maddie's secretary Agnes and the agency's new recruit Herbert, it never really became unwatchable.

And at its best, "Moonlighting" was a gem; with dazzling wordplay, real sparks between Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd (although Shepherd never getting recognised by the Emmys was justified), and some occasionally good mysteries to boot. Listing all the highlights the show produced would take too long, but the show deserves its place in history for, among others:

1. "It's A Wonderful Maddie": Maddie finding that in an alternate timeline the Blue Moon Detective Agency has been taken over by Jonathan and Jennifer Hart (Maddie and Max together: "Don't I know you from somewhere?") and that David has wound up marrying Cheryl Tiegs - a much better choice than Cybill Shepherd methinks.

2. "The Murder's In The Mail": For the "man with a mole on his nose" scene with the doorman.

3. What the narrator at the start of one of the episodes called "those silly chases they like to do on 'Moonlighting'."

4. "Atomic Shakespeare": In which a boy who has to miss "Moonlighting" to study "The Taming of the Shrew" leads us into a very amusing reshaping of the yarn ("10 Things I Hate About You" was good, but can that give you a medieval wedding ceremony with "Good Loving"?).

5. The movie-length pilot, complete with the full version of the wonderful Lee Holdridge-Al Jarreau theme song over the credits.

6. "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice." Orson Welles and Bruce Willis. A match made in heaven.

7. "Camille": Especially the climax.

Bruce Willis can look back on this with pride; Cybill Shepherd had nowhere to go but down. And the show's writers (Caron, Jeff Reno and Ron Osborn, Roger Director, Chris Ruppenthal, Debra Frank and Carl Sautter...), I salute you. A true classic.

Too bad the Anselmo case was never solved, though.

Moonlighting was one of those shows that I didn't watch at first but once I caught an episode I was hooked. The constant sparring of Maddie and David was excellent with a lot of acknowledgement to the camera. I even enjoyed the episodes where Agnes Dipesto and Herbert Viola were given more screen-time.

My favourite episodes include the feature length first episode, "The Lady in the Iron Mask", "Atomic Shakespeare", "The Straight Poop", "It's a Wonderful Job" and "Poltergeist III Dipesto Nothing".

It's currently airing on a cable channel in the U.K. and although not all episodes were good the majority were very well written with many memorable scenes.