Moonlighting: The 80's Television Series

ABC Networks aired this screw-ball dramedy from 1985-1989. Intended as a comeback vehicle for Cybil Shepard, it rocketed co-star Bruce Willis to fame and fortune as a leading man in the Die Hard movies. The title song was the last major appearance on the charts by Al Jarreau.

The show simultaneously followed and spoofed a popular formula first made famous by shows like Hart to Hart and Remington Steele.

Episodes rarely focused on the cases the Blue Moon Detective Agency was hired to solve. The real draw for the show was the chemistry between David Addison (Willis) and Maddie Hayes (Shepard). The dialogue was witty, sharp and delivered in a fast and confrontational style. The scripts for each episode were twice as thick as other hour long shows at the time, due to the frequent arguments and exciting scenes where the characters often talked over each other. Think of the hysterical arguments scenes of Karen and Rosario in the more recent series, Will and Grace. They got that rapid fire style straight from the mouths of David and Maddie.

Moonlighting was innovative in that characters would occasionally break the “fourth wall” and talk directly to the audience or refer to the “set” of the show. One episode in particular, “Camille,” had the actors actually leave the set of the show and run through the studio lot and talk to network executives about the series. The show also employed the use of fantasy scenes popular in half-hour sitcoms, where the characters are transported into dream sequences.

There were musical numbers, Shakespearean sets and costumes, and cameos by other network stars.

While the on-screen chemistry between the stars was full of sexual tension, excitement, and laughs, the off-screen drama was the stuff of legend. Cybil and Bruce were far from friends. Cybil was a notorious diva who wanted the show to revolve around her, after all it was supposed to be her comeback. Bruce was rapidly becoming a star and with the call of the big screen beckoning him, being tied down to a weekly series was cramping his style. Eventually, the stars were rarely filmed in scenes together.

The show “jumped the shark” when the leads finally consummated their relationship and the sexual tension between the two evaporated. Writers had to scramble to refocus the show on the secondary characters, Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley) and Herbert Viola (Curtis Armstrong – Booger from the Revenge of the Nerds films) and their budding romance.

Ratings quickly fell and the show was cancelled in May, 1989.