Sunday, October 4, 2009

Moonlighting (1985-1989)


MOONLIGHTING (1985- 1989) with a total of 67 episodes.
I never missed an episode. I was so disappointed when they canceled the romantic crime drama. The shows storyline begins with glamorous Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) a former model running a bankrupt detective agency. David Addison (Bruce Willis) convinces her to run the agency together as partners instead of shutting it down. Maddie and David couldn't be more different. Maddie is conservative, responsible. David is an spontaneous, free spirit.. I thought they had wonderful chemisty that kept us coming back for more.

The writing is very clever, like the characters they used an equal balance of humor and serious content. There are episodes that have themes - such as a black and white version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

Many episodes included dialogue which made direct references to the scriptwriters, the audience, the network, or the series itself. (For example, when a woman is going to jump into a bathtub with a radio, Addison says, "Are you nuts? The network's will never let you do that, lady!") Variations of this technique had been used in TV programs such as Burns and Allen and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, although Moonlighting was the first scripted television series to use self-referential dialog directly into the shows story.

Another character in the show is Agnes DiPesto, the receptionist that answers every phone call with a different rhyme from Dr. Seuss. They had a wonderful line up of great guest stars, like Orson Welles, Tim Robbins, Dana Delany, Whoopi Goldberg, and many more. Moonlighting also features great music - not just the classic theme song by Al Jarreau. Nearly every episode has great classic tunes by Little Richard, Patsy Cline, Smokey Robinson, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, The Temptations, The Isley Brothers, and Gene Kelly, and many others.

10 comments:

  1. Dawn, my ex wife had a friend who was the costume designer for the "Taming of the Shrew" show. Boy the stories she told. Anyway the theid season opener of Riptide had a classic "send up "of Moonlighting . It was dead on.

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  2. Do you know, Dawn, I never watched Moonlighting. I must have had another show at the same time I followed. Your article makes me wish now I had. I'll have to watch for it on some station that may rerun it.

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  3. I really liked "Moonlighting," too, beginning with its very memorable theme song sung by Al Jarreau but ultimately relying on the repartee of Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd. I thought their chemistry was fabulous! There certainly seemed to be a lot of rumors about their working relationship, however. And I had forgotten about how much fun the quirky Agnes was, too. What a fun blog, Dawn! By the way, I checked out the lyrics and the second verse says, "There is the sun and moon, They sing their own sweet tune, Watch them when DAWN is due, Sharing one space." That made me smile. :)

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  4. Dawn, I thought the first two years were quite good, with snappy dialogue and great on-screen chemistry between the two leads. I thought it faded a little bit after that...perhaps because the stress of the off-screen troubles began to wear on everyone. The guy that created "Moonlighting," Glenn Caron Gordon, also did a 1999 series called "Now and Again." It showed some promise, but got cancelled after a shortened season. Did you happen to see it?

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  5. Rick ,Glenn Caron Gordon also worked on Remington Steele. In fact Pierce shows up on a Moonlighting episode as Steele .

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  6. I'll always remember Bruce Willis starring in this show and then DIE HARD coming out in theatres. Some critics openly belittled him, as if he couldn't be an action star. But he proved them wrong by recreating the "tough guy": no longer a muscle-bound machine like Stallone and Ahnuld, but a vulnerable hero to whom audiences can relate! Sorry to get off topic, but he would have never been cast in DIE HARD were it not for the success of this enjoyable series. Thanks for the blog, Dawn!

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  7. This was my absolute favorite show when I was a teenager. My friends and I would love to recall every minute of the show the day after it aired. I always loved the dialogue. When Cybill first read the script, she called it a very "Hawksian" type dialogue. I actually have the seasons 1-4 on DVD. I can't bring myself to get the last one since it was so bad. Btw, Dawn, I have to just correct you on ooooone little thing. The Shakespeare ep., "Atomic Shakespeare" wasn't in B/W. The ep. "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice was the B/W one.
    NoirDiva

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  8. thank you, Noir Diva...it has been so long since i have seen the show.. my memory must have flipped the two episodes. p.s.good to see you found us here. :-)

    Toto..lol.. the lyrics gave me a chuckle too..

    Rick,i have not seen "Now and Again." i will look for it.

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  9. I just rediscovered 'Moonlighting' this year. Got the season 1 and 2 box set and absolutley love it. My daughter (7) is a fan too. I got her the television soundtrack and 'Return of Bruno' for her birthday, she was delighted. The soundtrack is really good, some great tunes. The show has great dialouge, the Xmas special in season 2 very funny..when they walk off set and the cast and crew are singing the carol. Very strange but excellent television.

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  10. Welcome, to the classic film and TV cafe. Iam looking to add the box set to my collection too. it really was one of my favorite TV shows of the 80s.

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