Moonlighting

When I was 12 this was my favorite show on TV, but I've come to appreciate it more in my old age. Bruce and Cybill are great, but above all, the writing is among the best I've seen in a television series. The nonstop sledge hammer wit for a full hour makes me laugh out loud every episode. The scenes are always brilliantly constructed, the jokes always intelligent. The writers never got all the credit they deserved, I'm sure. No matter how funny one joke is, there is always a come back line. I think you have to get past the early episodes that were a little more serious. I didn't start watching until around the beginning of '86.

So much on TV nowadays is either over-the-top dramatic, or toilet humor. No one knows how to just have fun anymore. Moonlighting never forgot that it was just a television show, and it didn't mind poking fun at itself. Some lines that demonstrated this were, "Two teams [...] with the same story. Either someone's lying or the writers just Xeroxed the other scene", and, "What do we do now?" "Wrap this up in about 12 minutes so another show can come on the air."

After David and Maddie got together, then weren't together, then were, how did it end anyway? The show became a bit of a soap opera. But it was always a treat to watch. Everyone mentions Moonlighting's version of "The Taming of the Shrew." Some of my other favorite episodes are "The Bride of Tupperman", which ends with a hospital scene chase to 'Dem Bones, "Symphony in Knocked Flat" (guest appearance by Don King), "Yours Very Deadly" (Burt Viola's first appearance), and both Christmas episodes. And the show wouldn't be complete without the rhymes of Agnes Dipesto. If you aren't that familiar with the show, don't miss your next opportunity to see Moonlighting!

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.

It is difficult to classify this series in its entirety since the 5 seasons that it lasted were very different from each other. The first season was very short, both Cybill Sheppard and Bruce Willis were trying to find their respective roles and the series was slowly finding its way. By the second season the cast was much more comfortable, each one doing their job to perfection and an amazing chemistry began to be noticed between Bruce and Cybill, the writers were improving with each episode and the stories were intriguing and funny at the same time. Season three was undoubtedly the best, Cybill and Bruce exploded on the screen, their characters had reached perfection, the scripts were intelligent and unpredictable, the dialogues between the protagonists were brilliant and witty, during this season the relationship between the two was intensifying. Crescendo until at the end and after so many twists and turns they consummate their love relationship. In the fourth season the decline of the series begins, Cibyll becomes pregnant and makes sporadic appearances, everything falls on Bruce's men who do everything possible to cope with the series alone but without his counterpart it becomes an impossible task. The scripts also begin to decline, it was the beginning of the end. For the fifth and final season, the problems between the production, the scriptwriters and the actors are transferred to the screen and wear and tear on everyone is noticeable. The production makes one last attempt to resume the course of the first seasons but it's too late, Maddie's character becomes insufferable, David's is absolutely blurred and stops being fun. The series loses spark and to make matters worse its last episode is a real disaster. This is the sad end of one of the most entertaining and intelligent series ever made and which established Cibyll Sheppard as a great actress and catapulted Bruce Willis to fame.

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.

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.