Moonlighting (TV series)
| Moonlighting | |
|---|---|
| File:Moonlighting-cast.jpg | |
| Created by | Glenn Gordon Caron |
| Starring | Bruce Willis, Cybill Shepherd, Allyce Beasley |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 67 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 42-44 minutes per episode |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | 3 March, 1985 – 14 May, 1989 |
Moonlighting is a television series that first aired on ABC in the United States from 1985 to 1989 with a total of 67 episodes. The show stars Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd as private detectives and is a mixture of drama, comedy and romance. The show's theme song is performed by popular jazz singer Al Jarreau and became a minor hit.
The first two seasons were released on Region 1 DVD in June 2005.
Introduction
The series revolved around cases investigated by Blue Moon Investigations and its two partners, Madeline 'Maddie' Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) and David Addison (Bruce Willis). The show, with a mix of mystery, sharp dialogue and sexual tension between its two leads, introduced Bruce Willis to the world and brought Cybill Shepherd back into the spotlight after nearly a decade-long absence.
The show's storyline begins with the reversal of fortune of a former model, Hayes, who finds herself bankrupt after her accountant embezzles all of her liquid assets. She is left saddled with several failing businesses formerly maintained as tax write offs, one of which is a detective agency helmed by the devil-may-care Addison. In the pilot episode, he convinces Hayes to keep the business and run it in partnership with him.
The show also starred Allyce Beasley as Agnes DiPesto, the firm's quirky receptionist who regularly answered the phone in rhyming couplets. In later seasons, Curtis Armstrong joined the cast as Herbert Viola, an investigator and a love interest for Agnes.
Format innovations
Moonlighting was one of the first successful examples of "dramedy". The show made use of fast-paced, overlapping dialogue between the two leads hearkening back to classic screwball comedy films, such as those of director Howard Hawks, but which also led to chronic delays in writing production during the series' five-year, off and on run.
One of the innovations Moonlighting brought to television was a technique called breaking the fourth wall. Fourth wall refers to the conventions separating the contrivances of a television program and its real audience, usually meaning that, at least within the confines of the show, the events and characters being presented are "real." Moonlighting broke with this convention, with many episodes including dialogue which made direct references to the scriptwriters, the audience, the network, or the series itself.
Although a few TV series had broken the "fourth wall" before, usually by airing a short segment at the beginning or the end of an episode so the stars could wish the audience a Merry Christmas or announce a milestone episode, Moonlighting was the first television series to weave self-referential dialogue directly into the show itself.
The series also embraced fantasy; the episode "Atomic Shakespeare" featured the cast performing a variation of Taming of the Shrew, complete with Shakespearean costumes. The episode was wrapped by segments featuring a teenager imagining the episode's proceedings because his mother forced him to do his homework instead of watching Moonlighting.
Production problems
The series was plagued by production problems throughout its run, and became notorious for airing reruns when new episodes had not been completed in time for broadcast. This was caused by a variety of factors, including writing delays, Shepherd's real-life pregnancy and a skiing accident in which Willis broke his collarbone.
Moonlighting, in fact, never succeeded in producing a full 22-episode season.
Ratings
Although Moonlighting was a hit in the Nielsen ratings in its early seasons, the show's ratings began to decline after the 1987 episode in which Maddie and David consummated their romantic tension. Moonlighting is popularly cited as an example of a television show jumping the shark.
The show was also widely criticized for the following season's storyline, in which Maddie spent much of the season at her parents' home in Chicago (due, in fact, to Shepherd's pregnancy), robbing the show of its creative spark since Maddie and David rarely interacted. When Maddie returned to Los Angeles near the end of the season, the writers tried to create a new point of tension between the two by having Maddie spontaneously marry Walter Bishop (Dennis Dugan), whom she met on the train back to LA. This was also widely criticized as a cynical and poorly executed plot development, and led to an even further ratings decline.
Cancellation
In the 1988-1989 TV season, the show's ratings declined precipitously. The series went on hiatus during the February sweeps, and returned on Sunday evenings in the spring of 1989. Six more episodes aired before the series was cancelled in May of that year.
In keeping with the show's tradition of "breaking the fourth wall", the final scenes of the last episode featured Maddie and David returning from an investigation to find a network executive waiting for them, who informed them that they had been cancelled and lectured them on having lost their television audience, as studio employees began to dismantle the office sets.
As the show had not produced enough episodes to gain a syndication contract, following its original run it was not widely seen until its DVD release, although it occasionally appeared on cable channels (including W in Canada) in the late 1990s.
One Moonlighting fan website has compiled several additional "seasons" of fanfic.
Episodes
Season 1
| Episode | First airdate | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot (parts 1 and 2) | 3 March, 1985 | After being left broke by her embezzling accountant, Maddie decides to sell off her few remaining businesses kept open as tax write-offs -- including Blue Moon Investigations. |
| "Gunfight at the So-So Corral" | 5 March, 1985 | Maddie arrives for her first day of work to find there are no cases on the books, so David poaches one from a rival agency. Unfortunately, the case puts them in the middle of two rival underworld hitmen. |
| "Read the Mind — See the Movie" | 12 March, 1985 | An old-friend of Maddie hires Blue Moon to provide security for SRT industries, and investigate a case of industrial espionage. |
| "The Next Murder You Hear" | 19 March, 1985 | Maddie and David investigate the on-air shooting of a romantic talk-show host. |
| "Next Stop Murder" | 26 March, 1985 | Agnes DiPesto, Maddie and David are trapped on a "murder mystery train," hosted by a famous mystery author. Unfortunately, a real murder occurs and the trio must solve the case. |
| "The Murder's in the Mail" | 2 April, 1985 |
Season 2
| Episode | First airdate | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| "Brother, Can You Spare a Blonde?" | 24 September, 1985 | |
| "The Lady in the Iron Mask" | 1 October, 1985 | David and Maddie are hired to track down an ex-boyfriend. Unfortunately 24 hours after they find him, he is murdered and shown to be a released convicted rapist. |
| "Money Talks -- Maddie Walks" | 8 October, 1985 | Maddie learns where her ex-accountant has bought a new life with her stolen money. She confronts him and demands her money back. David follows to prevent Maddie from embarrassing herself. The big confrontation involves a high stakes poker game. |
| "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" | 15 October, 1985 | Orson Welles introduces this tribute to 1940's film noir. Maddie and David learn of a murder committed at a plosh 1940's Big Band night club. Each dreams the role of the convicted murder and the circumstances leading to the crime. Unfortunately each projects their own bias into their dream sequence. |
| "My Fair David" | 29 October, 1985 | |
| "Knowing Her" | 12 November, 1985 | Maddie takes a wealthy female client who is being harassed by her rich husband. David used to date her, wants to help her, but becomes caught in the middle when the husband is murdered. |
| "Somewhere Under the Rainbow" | 19 November, 1985 | |
| "Portrait of Maddie" | 26 November, 1985 | |
| "Atlas Belched" | 10 December, 1985 | |
| "Twas the Episode Before Christmas" | 17 December, 1985 | |
| "The Bride of Tupperman" | 14 January, 1986 | |
| "North by North Dipesto" | 21 January, 1986 | |
| "In God We Strongly Suspect" | 11 February, 1986 | |
| "Every Daughter's Father Is a Virgin" | 18 February, 1986 | |
| "Witness for the Execution" | 11 March, 1986 | |
| "Sleep Talkin' Guy" | 1 April, 1986 | |
| "Funeral for a Door Nail" | 29 April, 1986 | |
| "Camille" | 13 May, 1986 |
Season 3
| Episode | First airdate | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| "The Son Also Rises" | 23 September, 1986 | |
| "The Man Who Cried Wife" | 30 September, 1986 | |
| "Symphony in Knocked Flat" | 14 October, 1986 | |
| "Yours, Very Deadly" | 28 October, 1986 | |
| "All Creatures Great and... Not So Great" | 11 November, 1986 | |
| "Big Man on Mulberry Street" | 18 November, 1986 | |
| "Atomic Shakespeare" | 25 November, 1986 | William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew seen through the eyes of a teenage Moonlighting fan. |
| "It's a Wonderful Job" | 16 December, 1986 | Maddie wishes she'd never kept open Blue Moon Investigations. Her guardian angel obliges, and shows her how it could have been. See It's a Wonderful Life. |
| "The Straight Poop" | 6 January, 1987 | |
| "Poltergeist III -- Dipesto Nothing" | 13 January, 1987 | |
| "Blonde on Blonde" (1) | 3 February, 1987 | Maddie reveals to David that she feels closed-in and needs to do something wild and crazy. David follows her to a club, but mistakenly ends up tailing a different girl. |
| "Sam & Dave" (2) | 10 February, 1987 | |
| "Maddie's Turn to Cry" (3) | 3 March, 1987 | |
| "I Am Curious... Maddie" (4) | 31 March, 1987 | |
| "To Heiress Human" | 5 May, 1987 |
Season 4
| Episode | First airdate | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| "A Trip to the Moon" | 9 September, 1987 | |
| "Come Back Little Shiksa" | 6 October, 1987 | |
| "Take a Left at the Altar" | 13 October, 1987 | |
| "Tale in Two Cities" | 3 November, 1987 | |
| "Cool Hand Dave" (1) | 17 November, 1987 | David finds out that Maddie is pregnant. While at the airport booking a flight to Chicago, David finds himself tricked into swapping places with a convict on his way to prison. |
| "Cool Hand Dave" (2) | 1 December, 1987 | Mistakenly taken to prison under the name Scott Huntley, David must find a way to let Maddie know what has happened. |
| "Father Knows Last" | 15 December, 1987 | David returns to Blue Moon to find the repo men clearing out the furniture, and the staff about to walk out having not been paid. Maddie's father finds out about her pregnancy and goes to see David in Los Angeles. |
| "Los Dos DiPestos" | 5 January, 1988 | Agnes' mother arrives in Los Angeles for a visit, fresh from a holiday in Mexico. Someone is following her and Agnes and Bert must help her find out who and why. |
| "Fetal Attraction" | 19 January, 1988 | David finds a partner to attend Lamaze classes with. Maddie makes preparations to return to Los Angeles. |
| "Tracks of My Tears" | 2 February, 1988 | Maddie travels back to Los Angeles by train and meets Walter Bishop on the way. David and Maddie are finally reunited, but Maddie has some news for him. |
| "Eek! A Spouse!" | 9 February, 1988 | Maddie's sudden marriage to Walter Bishop continues to make life at Blue Moon awkward. Maddie and David are hired by a woman to pay her husband's mistress to leave town. |
| "Maddie Hayes Got Married" | 1 March, 1988 | David arranges a marriage ceremony for Maddie and Walter. |
| "Here's Living With You, Kid" | 15 March, 1988 | Bert asks Agnes to move in with him. |
| "And the Flesh Was Made Word" | 22 March, 1988 | Maddie and Walter have their marriage annulled. Blue Moon is hired by a business man to find the girl that his business partner is infatuated with. |
Season 5
| Episode | First airdate | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| "A Womb With a View" | 6 December, 1988 | Maddie's baby is given the chance to see his future parents from within the womb. Maddie loses the baby. |
| "Between a Yuk and a Hard Place" | 13 December, 1988 | In the wake of her miscarriage, Maddie throws herself into her work and David decides to get away. |
| "The Color of Maddie" | 20 December, 1988 | |
| "Plastic Fantastic Lovers" | 10 January, 1989 | Blue Moon is hired by a victim of botched plastic surgery. |
| "Shirts and Skins" | 17 January, 1989 | The boys and girls of Blue Moon investigate different sides of the same sexual harassment case. |
| "Take My Wife, For Example" | 7 February, 1989 | An infamous divorce lawyer, "The Barracuda", hires Blue Moon to help save a marriage. |
| "I See England, I See France, I See Maddie's Netherworld" | 14 February, 1989 | A client dies in Maddie's office. His friend arrives looking for him and reveals that they have won the lottery... and he has only half the winning ticket. |
| "Those Lips, Those Lies" | 2 April, 1989 | David's brother, Richie, arrives with his new girlfriend and asks a favor from David and Maddie. |
| "Perfetc" | 9 April, 1989 | |
| "When Girls Collide" (1) | 16 April, 1989 | |
| "In 'N Outlaws" | 23 April, 1989 | |
| "Eine Kleine Nacht Murder" (2) | 30 April, 1989 | |
| "Lunar Eclipse" | 14 May, 1989 |
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