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Moonlighting (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Moonlighting is an American television series that aired on ABC
from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes (67 in syndication as the pilot is split into two episodes). Starring Bruce Willis
and Cybill Shepherd
as private detectives, the show was a mixture of drama, comedy and romance, and was considered to be one of the first successful and influential examples of comedy-drama
, or "dramedy", emerging as a distinct television genre.
The show's theme song was performed by jazz singer Al Jarreau
and became a hit. The show is also credited with making Willis a star while providing Shepherd with a critical success after a string of lackluster projects. In 1997, "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" was ranked #34 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. In 2007, it was listed as one of Time
magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."
The show's storyline begins with the reversal of fortune of Maddie Hayes, a former model 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 the City of Angels Detective Agency, helmed by the carefree David Addison. Between the pilot and the first one-hour episode, David persuades Maddie to keep the business and run it as a partnership. The agency is renamed Blue Moon Investigations because Maddie was most famous for being the spokesmodel for the (fictitious) Blue Moon shampoo company. In many episodes she was recognized as "the Blue Moon shampoo girl," if not by name.
In his audio commentary for the season-three DVD, creator Glenn Gordon Caron
says that the inspiration for the series was a production of The Taming of the Shrew
he saw in Central Park
starring Meryl Streep
and Raúl Juliá
. The show would parody this Shakespeare play in the season-three episode Atomic Shakespeare.
Recurring roles:
One-time Roles:
, one of the producers of the similar Remington Steele
, when he was approached by ABC executive Lewis H. Erlicht. Erlicht liked the work Caron had done on Taxi
and Remington Steele
and wanted a detective show featuring a major star in a leading role that would appeal to an upscale audience. Caron wanted to do a romance, to which Erlicht replied “I don’t care what it is as long as it’s a detective show.”
The tone of the series was left up to the production staff, resulting in Moonlighting becoming one of the first successful TV "dramedies"— dramatic-comedy, a style of television and movies in which there is an equal or nearly equal balance of humor and serious content. The show made use of fast-paced, overlapping dialogue between the two leads, harkening back to classic screwball comedy
films such as those of director Howard Hawks
. These innovative qualities resulted in its being nominated, for the first time in the 50-year history of the Directors Guild of America, for both Best Drama and Best Comedy in the same year (both in 1985 and 1986).
, with many episodes including dialogue which made direct references to the scriptwriters, the audience, the network, or the series itself. (For example, when a woman is trying to commit suicide by jumping into a bathtub with a television playing The Three Stooges, Addison says, "The Stooges? Are you nuts? The network'll never let you do that, lady!"). Variations of this technique had been used previously in television programs such as Burns and Allen
(a sketch comedy series) and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
(a sitcom which sometimes opened with the main character addressing an interior monologue
to the audience), although Moonlighting was the first scripted television series to weave self-referential dialogue directly into the show's regular plot.
Unlike these earlier shows, Moonlighting sometimes broke the fourth wall in much more involved and complex ways. Cold open
s sometimes featured Shepherd and Willis (in character as Maddie Hayes and David Addison), other actors, viewers or TV critics directly addressing the audience about the show's production itself. These cold opens were originally born out of desperation as a way to fill air time since the dialogue on the show was spoken so quickly and the producers needed something to fill the entire hour. In some other episodes, the plot suddenly transitioned into extended sequences which involved crew dismantling or changing the sets, characters wandering off the set into other parts of the studio, production crew stepping into the scene as a deus ex machina
(e.g. a propmaster suddenly walking into the scene and taking the villain's gun away), or guest actors dropping character and referring to each other by their real names. However, other than in stand-alone openings, the main actors never stepped out of character during the episodes.
ABC was still displeased with the episode, however, and fearing fan reaction to a popular show being shown in black and white, demanded a disclaimer be made at the beginning of the episode to inform viewers of the "black-and-white" gimmick for the episode. The show's producers hired Orson Welles
to deliver the introduction, which aired a few days after the actor's death.
Another famous fantasy episode was "Atomic Shakespeare," which featured the cast performing a variation of The Taming of the Shrew
, with David in the role of Petruchio, Maddie as Katharina, Agnes as Bianca and Herbert as Lucentio. The episode featured Shakespearean costumes and mixed the Shakespearean plot with humorous anachronisms and variations on Moonlightings own running gags—including David riding in as Petruchio on a horse with BMW
logos embroidered on its saddle blanket and repeatedly launching into the wrong Shakespearean soliloquy until the rest of the cast corrects him on which play he's in, and the Blue Moon office itself serving as Petruchio and Katharina's estate. The characters perform the Shakespearean dialogue in iambic pentameter
and the episode was wrapped
by segments featuring a boy imagining the episode's proceedings because his mother forced him to do his Shakespeare homework instead of watching Moonlighting, which the mother described as "That show about two detectives? A man and a woman? And they argue all the time and all they really want to do is sleep together? Sounds like trash to me!"
series by having Pierce Brosnan
hop networks and make a cameo appearance as Steele in one episode. The show also acknowledged Hart to Hart
as an influence: in the episode "It's a Wonderful Job," based on the film It's a Wonderful Life
, Maddie's guardian angel showed her an alternate reality in which Jonathan and Jennifer Hart from the earlier series had taken over Blue Moon's lease. Although Robert Wagner
and Stefanie Powers
did not appear in the episode, Lionel Stander
reprised his role as the Harts' assistant Max.
Both Shepherd and Willis sang musical numbers over the course of the show. In "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice," Shepherd performed both "Blue Moon
" in Maddie's dream sequence and The Soft Winds' "I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out!" in David's, while in "Atomic Shakespeare," Willis sings The Young Rascals' "Good Lovin'". Willis also frequently broke into shorter snippets of Motown songs. "Good Lovin'," "Blue Moon" and "I Told Ya I Love Ya..." appeared on the Moonlighting Soundtrack
.
The episode "Big Man on Mulberry Street
" centers around a big production dance number set to the Billy Joel
song of the same name which was in turn inspired by the show itself. The sequence was directed by veteran musical director Stanley Donen
.
’s Punky Brewster
and CBS
’s Twilight Zone
being the others). This allowed the network greater flexibility in budgeting the show since the “back-end potential” for profits was so much greater with not having to pay a licensing fee to the film studio or independent production company. As a result, ABC gave Caron a lot of control over production. Caron, however, was a perfectionist and viewed Moonlighting as the filming of a one hour movie every week, using techniques usually reserved for big budget films. To capture the cinematic feel of the films of the 1940s, for example, he would prohibit the use of a zoom lens, opting instead to use more time-consuming moving master cameras that move back and forth on a track and require constant resetting of the lights. Diffusion disks
were used to soften Cybill Shepherd’s features, and a special lens needed to be employed so that in a two shot
, Maddie would be diffused and David would not.
Much of the credit for this look and feel can be attributed to the hiring of Gerald Finnerman as the director of photography. Finnerman, a second generation cinematographer
, was brought up in the old school of cinematography by working with his father, Perry Finnerman, and later as a camera operator for Harry Stradling
on such films as My Fair Lady
and The Picture of Dorian Gray
. Finnerman would then go on to be the director of photography for the TV series Star Trek
and was responsible for creating much of the mood in that show by employing black-and-white lighting techniques for color film. This background meshed perfectly with what Caron was trying to portray in the series and earned him an Emmy nomination for the black-and-white episode “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice”. Hired for the show after the pilot was shot, Finnerman would become involved in virtually every aspect of the show including the scripts, lighting, set design, and even directing some of the later episodes.
Typical scripts for an average one hour television show run 60 pages, but those for Moonlighting were nearly twice as long due to the fast talking overlapping dialogue of the main characters. While the average television show would take seven days to shoot, Moonlighting would take from 12–14 days to complete with episodes and dialogue frequently being written by Caron the same day they were shot. This attention to detail contributed to Moonlighting as being one of the most expensive television shows being produced at the time. Where most episodes would cost around $900,000 to produce, Moonlighting was running nearly double that. The season 2 episode "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" could have been filmed much more cheaply by being shot in color and then decolorized, but Caron insisted on the authentic look of black-and-white film which took 16 days to shoot bringing the cost of the episode to then unheard of sum of two million dollars. Caron often defended his filming practices in the name of giving the audience what they wanted and producing a quality product. He used the following analogy to illustrate the point, "The thinking in television which makes no damn sense to me, is that a half hour of television costs X, and an hour of television costs Y, no matter what that television is, it strikes me as an insane hypothesis. The parallel is, you're hungry, whether you go to McDonald's or whether you go to '21,' it should cost the same; they both fill your stomach. It's nonsense."
All of this attention to detail resulted in production delays and the show became notorious for airing reruns when new episodes had not been completed in time for broadcast. The first two seasons of Moonlighting focused almost entirely on the two main characters, having them appear in almost every scene. According to Cybill Shepherd, "I left home at 5 A.M. each day. Moonlighting scripts were close to a hundred pages, half again as long as the average one-hour television series. Almost from the moment the cameras started rolling we were behind schedule, sometimes completing as few as sixteen episodes per season, and never achieving the standard twenty-two."
Glenn Gordon Caron partly blamed Cybill Shepherd for production problems:
Producer Jay Daniel talked about the difficulties between the costars in the later seasons:
The delays became so great that even ABC mocked the lateness with an ad campaign showing network executives waiting impatiently for the arrival of new episodes at ABC's corporate headquarters. One episode featured television critic Jeff Jarvis
in an introduction, sarcastically reminding viewers what was going on with the show's plot since it had been so long since the last new episode.
The season three clipshow episode "The Straight Poop" also made fun of the episode delays by having Hollywood columnist Rona Barrett
drop by the Blue Moon Detective Agency to figure out why David and Maddie couldn't get along, as the premise to set up the clips from earlier episodes. In the end, Rona convinced them to apologize to one another, and promised the viewers that there would be an all-new episode the following week.
Shepherd's real-life pregnancy
and a skiing
accident in which Willis broke his clavicle
further contributed to production delays. To counter these problems, with the fourth season, the writers began to focus more of the show's attention on supporting cast members Agnes and Herbert, writing several episodes focusing on the two so that the show would be able to have episodes ready for airing.
. In season three the show peaked in 9th place, then dropped off slightly in a tie for 12th in its 4th season.
The show's ratings decline is popularly attributed to Episode #14 of Season 3, "I Am Curious… Maddie", which infamously had Maddie and David consummate their relationship after two and a half years of romantic tension. In commentaries on the third season DVD set, however, Caron stated that he didn't feel the event led to the show's decline, but that a number of other factors led to the series' decline and eventual cancellation.
Much of that was attributed to the fact that in the fourth season Willis and Shepherd had little screen time together. Jay Daniel explained that, "we had to do episodes where there was no Cybill. She was off having twins. Her scenes were shot early, early on and then you had to integrate them with scenes shot weeks later. You were locked into what those scenes were because of what had already been shot with Cybill." Bruce Willis was also making Die Hard
during this period. When that movie became a box office success, a movie career beckoned and his desire to continue in a weekly series waned. In a series that depended on the chemistry between the two main stars, not having them together for the bulk of the fourth season hurt the ratings.
The series lost Glenn Gordon Caron as executive producer and head writer when he left the show over difficulties with the production: "I don't think Cybill understood how hard the workload was going to be. A situation arose with her, and at a certain point it became clear that… umm… suffice it to say I wasn't there for the last year and a half." Shepherd recalled Caron left the show stating that it was either him or her, and he didn't think the network would choose him.
When Maddie returned to Los Angeles near the end of the fourth season, the writers tried to recreate the tension between Maddie and David by having Maddie spontaneously marry a man named Walter Bishop (Dennis Dugan
) within a few hours of meeting him on the train back to LA. When Shepherd read the script she strongly voiced her objection that her character would not do such a thing, but was overruled. The move failed to rekindle the sparks between the main characters or capture the interest of the audience, which led to an even further ratings decline.
success, wanted to make movies. Cybill Shepherd, having just given birth to twins, had grown tired of the long, grueling production days and was ready for the series to end.
In the 1988–89 TV season, the show's ratings declined precipitously. The March to August 1988 Writers Guild of America
strike canceled plans for the 1987–88 Moonlighting season finale to be filmed and aired on TV in 3-D in a deal with Coca-Cola
(though Coca-Cola
did a 3-D TV deal with NBC's broadcast of the halftime show of Super Bowl XXIII
in January 1989 instead) and delayed the broadcast of the first new episode until December 6, 1988. 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 canceled in May of that year.
In keeping with the show's tradition of "breaking the fourth wall", the last episode (fittingly titled "Lunar Eclipse") featured Maddie and David returning from Agnes and Herbert's wedding to find the Blue Moon sets being taken away, and an ABC network executive waiting to tell them that the show had been canceled. The characters then raced through the studio lot in search of a television producer named Cy, as the world of Moonlighting was slowly dismantled.
When they found Cy, he was screening a print of "In 'n Outlaws", the episode of Moonlighting that had aired two weeks earlier. Once informed of the problem, Cy lectured David and Maddie on the perils of losing their audience and the fragility of romance. Cy was played by Dennis Dugan, the same actor who had played Walter Bishop in Maddie's marriage storyline — however, Dugan was also the director of the episode, so his acting credit was listed as "Walter Bishop".
The final scene was a message stating that "Blue Moon Investigations ceased operations on May 14, 1989. The Anselmo Case was never solved… and remains a mystery to this day."
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 Lifetime and Bravo in the US, and W
in Canada) in the 1990s and 2000s. Bravo airings often featured new claymation promos with Maddie and David using original audio clips from the series. The "Atomic Shakespeare" episode aired on Nick at Nite
in 2005 as part of the network's 20th anniversary celebration. The 1985 ABC
Tuesday night line-up was honored with reruns of Who's the Boss?
, Growing Pains
and Moonlighting, although "Atomic Shakespeare" was from the '86-'87 season. BBC initially carried the show in the UK, though it has been shown on CBS Drama
since November 2009. Between 2005 and 2008 the show was frequently shown on the now defunct channel ABC1.
released the original pilot episode on DVD in region 1. Lions Gate Entertainment
later released the entire series of Moonlighting, including the pilot episode, on DVD in Region 1. Each release contains bonus features including commentaries and featurettes.
In Regions 2 & 4, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
has released all 5 seasons on DVD. A complete series box set was also released in Region 2 on September 14, 2009.
, a once-popular detective series whose ratings had declined to the point of cancellation after airing against Moonlighting in the 1985–86 television season, aired an episode (the show's second-last) in 1986, in which that show's detectives acted as mentors to "Rosalind Grant" (Annette McCarthy) and "Cary Russell" (Richard Greene), the bickering stars of a television detective show pilot. Although their names were an allusion to Cary Grant
and Rosalind Russell
, the characters were written as parodies of Shepherd and Willis, even adopting some of their real mannerisms and clothing styles, and their dialogue contained many nods, both obvious and subtle, to Moonlighting' s writing style.
The episode was explicitly promoted by NBC (Riptide' s network) as a Moonlighting parody, and was publicized as such widely enough that Riptide' s producers felt obliged to clarify that they liked Moonlighting and intended the episode as an homage.
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes (67 in syndication as the pilot is split into two episodes). Starring Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
and Cybill Shepherd
Cybill Shepherd
Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L...
as private detectives, the show was a mixture of drama, comedy and romance, and was considered to be one of the first successful and influential examples of comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
, or "dramedy", emerging as a distinct television genre.
The show's theme song was performed by jazz singer Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...
and became a hit. The show is also credited with making Willis a star while providing Shepherd with a critical success after a string of lackluster projects. In 1997, "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" was ranked #34 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. In 2007, it was listed as one of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."
Introduction
The series revolved around cases investigated by the Blue Moon Detective Agency and its two partners, Madeleine "Maddie" Hayes (Shepherd) and David Addison (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 a nearly decade-long absence. The characters were introduced in a two-hour pilot episode that preceded the series proper.The show's storyline begins with the reversal of fortune of Maddie Hayes, a former model 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 the City of Angels Detective Agency, helmed by the carefree David Addison. Between the pilot and the first one-hour episode, David persuades Maddie to keep the business and run it as a partnership. The agency is renamed Blue Moon Investigations because Maddie was most famous for being the spokesmodel for the (fictitious) Blue Moon shampoo company. In many episodes she was recognized as "the Blue Moon shampoo girl," if not by name.
In his audio commentary for the season-three DVD, creator Glenn Gordon Caron
Glenn Gordon Caron
Glenn Gordon Caron is an American television writer, director and producer. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.-Bio:...
says that the inspiration for the series was a production of The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
he saw in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
starring Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
and Raúl Juliá
Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
. The show would parody this Shakespeare play in the season-three episode Atomic Shakespeare.
Cast and characters
- Cybill ShepherdCybill ShepherdCybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L...
as Maddie Hayes: Maddie Hayes is a chic and smart former high-fashion model. Left bankrupt when her accountant embezzles all of her money, she is forced to make a living by running the detective agency she had previously owned as a tax write-off. Using her celebrity as a former model, she brings in clients and tries to bring some order to a business previously run without any discipline. By the time he had written 50 pages for the pilot to the show, Caron says he realized he was writing the part for Cybill Shepherd. After reading the script, she immediately realized this was a part she wanted to do and, during her first meeting with Caron and producer Jay Daniel, remarked that it was reminiscent of a “HawksianHoward HawksHoward Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
” comedy. The two had no idea what she was talking about, so she suggested they screen Twentieth CenturyTwentieth Century (film)Twentieth Century is a 1934 American screwball comedy film. Much of the film is set on the 20th Century Limited train as it travels from Chicago to New York. The film was directed by Howard Hawks, stars John Barrymore and Carole Lombard, and features Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns and Edgar Kennedy...
, Bringing Up BabyBringing up BabyBringing Up Baby is an American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and released by RKO Radio Pictures....
and His Girl FridayHis Girl FridayHis Girl Friday is a 1940 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, an adaptation by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur of the play The Front Page by Hecht and MacArthur...
, three of her favorites, to see how the overlapping dialogue was handled. A week before shooting of the pilot began, Caron, Shepherd, and Willis watched Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday.
- Bruce WillisBruce WillisWalter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
as David Addison: David Addison is a fast-talking, fun-loving detective running the City of Angels Detective Agency. Faced with the prospect of being put out of business he convinces Maddie that they have always lost money because they were supposed to and talks her into rebranding the agency and going into business with him as her partner. Glenn Gordon Caron had to fight with ABC to put Willis in the lead role having already signed Shepherd for both the pilot and series. Caron claims he tested Willis about a third of the way through testing over 2,000 actors, knew "this was the guy" immediately, and had to fight through twice as many more acting tests and readings while arguing with ABC executives before receiving (initial) conditional authorization to cast Willis in the pilot. ABC, according to Caron, did not feel that anyone viewing would think there could possibly be any "believable" sexual tension between Shepherd and Willis.
- Allyce BeasleyAllyce BeasleyAllyce Beasley is an American actress. She is known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series Moonlighting. For several years , she has been the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a morning lineup of programming for toddlers on The Disney Channel...
as Agnes DiPesto: Agnes DiPesto is the extremely loyal and quirky receptionist for the Blue Moon Detective Agency who always answers the phone in rhyme. As problems arose with getting Willis and Shepherd on screen due to personal issues, the writers started to focus on the relationship between Agnes and fellow Blue Moon employee Herbert Viola. In the series finale, Agnes berates Maddie and David for not being able to figure out their nitwit relationship as the entire set is dismantled and states “if there’s a God in heaven he’ll spin Herbert and me off in our own series.”
- Curtis ArmstrongCurtis ArmstrongCurtis Armstrong is an American actor best known for his portrayal as Booger in the Revenge of the Nerds movies, as Herbert Viola on Moonlighting, and as famed record producer Ahmet Ertegün in the film Ray.-Early life:...
as Herbert Viola: Herbert Viola started at Blue Moon as an employee from a temp agency. The producers brought Armstrong in based on his work in Revenge of the NerdsRevenge of the NerdsRevenge of the Nerds is a 1984 comedy film satirizing social life on a college campus. The film stars Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards, with Curtis Armstrong, Ted McGinley, Julia Montgomery, Brian Tochi, Larry B. Scott, John Goodman, and Donald Gibb...
and Better Off Dead, hoping to expand the role of Agnes DiPesto by giving her a love interest, thereby taking some of the filming pressure off of Willis and Shepherd. As Herbert begins to shine in his duties, he gets promoted to working real cases as a junior detective. Debuting in season three, he appeared in 36 of the series' 66 episodes.
- Jack BlessingJack BlessingJack Blessing is an American actor.-Career:Blessing is best known for playing Jack Powers in George Lopez, MacGillicudy in Moonlighting, Mr. Donner in The Naked Truth, and for making various appearances in television and film.-Filmography:...
as MacGillicudy: MacGillicudy is a Blue Moon employee, and became a foil for Herbert Viola and a rival for Agnes’s affections. Debuting in season three, he appeared in 17 of the series’ 66 episodes.
Guest stars
In addition to the primary cast, several notable actors appeared either as guest stars or made cameos on the series.Recurring roles:
- Charles RocketCharles RocketCharles Rocket was an American film and television actor, notable for his tenure as a cast member on Saturday Night Live as well as for his appearances as the villain Nicholas Andre in the film Dumb and Dumber; as Dave Dennison, the father in Disney's Hocus Pocus.-Early life and career:Rocket was...
as Richard Addison, David's brother. - Eva Marie SaintEva Marie SaintEva Marie Saint is an American actress who has starred in films, on Broadway, and on television in a career spanning seven decades. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama film On the Waterfront , and later starred in the thriller film North by...
and Robert WebberRobert WebberRobert L. Webber was an American actor who starred as Juror #12 in the 1957 film 12 Angry Men.Webber was born in Santa Ana, California, the son of Alice and Robert Webber, who was a merchant seaman. He was a U.S. Marine during World War II serving on Guam and Okinawa...
as Virginia and Alexander Hayes, Maddie's parents. - Mark HarmonMark HarmonMark Harmon is an American actor who has been starring in American television programs and films since the mid-1970s, after a career as a collegiate football player with the UCLA Bruins. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the CBS series NCIS.-Early life:Harmon was born Thomas...
appeared near the end of Season 3 as Sam Crawford, Maddie's romantic interest and rival with David. - Brooke Adams appeared in Season 4 as Terri Knowles, a single mother for whom David volunteered as a LamazeLamazeThe Lamaze Technique, often referred to as Lamaze, is a prepared childbirth technique developed in the 1940s by French obstetrician Dr. Fernand Lamaze as an alternative to the use of medical intervention during childbirth...
partner in preparation for the birth of Maddie's child. - Virginia MadsenVirginia MadsenVirginia Madsen is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience...
appeared in Season 5 as Annie Charnock, Maddie's cousin and a short-term romantic interest for David.
One-time Roles:
- Liz SheridanLiz SheridanElizabeth "Liz" Sheridan is an American actress.-Background:Sheridan was born in New York City, the daughter of Elizabeth Poole-Jones, a concert singer, and Frank Sheridan, a classical pianist. Sheridan began her career as a dancer working in New York City in nightclubs and musicals. There, she...
as Selma in the pilot episode. - Mary HartMary HartMary Hart is an American television personality and was the host of the syndicated gossip and entertainment round-up program Entertainment Tonight from 1982 to 2011.-Early life:...
as herself in the pilot episode. - Tim RobbinsTim RobbinsTimothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
as a hitman in the Season 1 episode "Gunfight at the So-So Corral". - Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
as himself delivering the introduction in the Season 2 episode "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice". It would prove to be Welles' last appearance before a camera. - Dana DelanyDana DelanyDana Welles Delany is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, host and health activist.After various roles in the early career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988–1991 as Colleen McMurphy...
as Jillian Armstrong in the Season 2 episode "Knowing Her". - David Patrick KellyDavid Patrick KellyDavid Patrick Kelly is an American actor and musician who has appeared in numerous films, including some major roles.-Career:...
as McBride in the Season 2 episode "Somewhere Under the Rainbow". - Dan LauriaDan LauriaDaniel Joseph "Dan" Lauria is an American television and film actor.-Early life:Lauria, an Italian-American, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Carmela and Joseph J. Lauria. He also lived in Lindenhurst, New York...
as the Lieutenant in the Season 2 episode "Portrait of Maddie". - Mark Linn-BakerMark Linn-BakerMark Linn-Baker is an American actor and director famous for his role as Larry Appleton on the television sitcom Perfect Strangers.-Early life and career:...
as Phil West in the Season 2 episode "Atlas Belched". - Richard BelzerRichard BelzerRichard Jay Belzer is an American stand-up comedian, author, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as John Munch, which he has portrayed as a regular cast member on the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as in guest...
as Leonard in the Season 2 episode "Twas the Episode Before Christmas". - Whoopi GoldbergWhoopi GoldbergWhoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
as Camille Brand in the Season 2 episode "Camille". - Judd NelsonJudd NelsonJudd Asher Nelson is an American actor. He is best known for being a member of the "Brat Pack" in the mid-1980s; and for his roles as John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Alec Newbary in St...
as a Police Officer in the Season 2 episode "Camille". - Billy BartyBilly BartyBilly Barty was an American film actor.-Biography:Barty, an Italian American, was born William John Bertanzetti in Millsboro, Pennsylvania...
as himself in the Season 2 episode "Camille". - Paul SorvinoPaul SorvinoPaul Anthony Sorvino is an American actor. He often portrays authority figures on both sides of the law, and is possibly best known for his roles as Paulie Cicero, a portrayal of Paul Vario in the film Goodfellas and Sgt. Phil Cerreta on the police procedural and legal drama television series Law...
as David Addison Sr. in the Season 3 episode "The Son Also Rises". - The Temptations as themselves in the Season 3 episode "Symphony in Knocked Flat".
- Don King as himself in the Season 3 episode "Symphony in Knocked Flat".
- Rick DucommunRick DucommunRichard "Rick" Ducommun is a Canadian actor and comedian, often seen in supporting roles on both television and the silver screen.Ducommun was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan...
as one of David's friends in the Season 3 episode "Big Man On Mulberry Street". - Sandahl Bergman appeared in a "dream" dance sequence in the Season 3 episode "Big Man On Mulberry Street".
- Colm MeaneyColm MeaneyColm J. Meaney is an Irish actor widely known for playing Miles O'Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He is second only to Michael Dorn in most appearances in Star Trek episodes. He has guest-starred on many TV shows from Law & Order to The Simpsons...
as one of Katharina's suitors in the Season 3 episode "Atomic Shakespeare". - Sterling HollowaySterling HollowaySterling Price Holloway, Jr. was an American character actor who appeared in 150 films and television programs. He was also a voice actor for The Walt Disney Company...
as the Narrator in the Season 3 episode "Atomic Shakespeare". - Lionel StanderLionel StanderLionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...
as Max in the Season 3 episode "It's a Wonderful Job". - Cheryl TiegsCheryl TiegsCheryl Rae Tiegs is an American model and actress.- Early years :Tiegs was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota but raised in Alhambra, California, and she graduated from Alhambra High School in 1965. She also attended the California State University, Los Angeles and became a little sister to the Sigma...
as herself in the Season 3 episode "It's a Wonderful Job". - Pierce BrosnanPierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
as Remington SteeleRemington SteeleRemington Steele is an American television series, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...
in the Season 3 episode "The Straight Poop". - Peter BogdanovichPeter BogdanovichPeter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
as himself in the Season 3 episode "The Straight Poop". - Rona BarrettRona BarrettRona Barrett is an American gossip columnist and businesswoman. She currently runs the Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ynez, California, dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizens in need.-Career and personal life:As a teenager, Barrett overcame a degenerative...
as herself in the Season 3 episode "The Straight Poop". - Donna DixonDonna DixonDonna Dixon is an American actress.Donna Dixon was born in Alexandria, Virginia; her father, Earl Dixon, owned a club on U.S. 1, called "Hillbilly Heaven." She is a 1975 graduate of Groveton High School and attended The George Washington University...
as Joan Tenowitz in the Season 3 episode "Blonde on Blonde". - Sam McMurraySam McMurraySam McMurray is an American television, film and voice actor.-Early life:McMurray was born in New York City, the son of Jane and Richard McMurray, both actors...
as Moe Hyman in the Season 3 episode "Blonde on Blonde". - Robert WuhlRobert Wuhl-Early life:Wuhl was born in Union, New Jersey to a Jewish family, including a father who worked as a produce distributor. After attending Union High School, Wuhl headed to the University of Houston, where he was active in the drama department and the Epsilon-Omicron Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon...
as the Nut in Holding Cell in the Season 3 episode "Blonde on Blonde". - Jeff JarvisJeff JarvisJeff Jarvis is an American journalist. Previously he was a television critic for TV Guide and People magazine, creator of Entertainment Weekly, Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News, and a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner.-Career:Until recently Jarvis was...
as himself in the Season 3 episode "Sam & Dave". - Randall 'Tex' Cobb as "Big Guy in Gas Station" in the Season 3 episode "Sam & Dave".
- Gary ColeGary ColeGary Michael Cole is an American actor. Cole is known for his supporting roles in numerous film and television productions since the 1990s.-Early life:...
as Alan McClafferty in the Season 3 episode "Maddie's Turn to Cry". - William HickeyWilliam Hickey (actor)William Edward Hickey was an American actor. He was best known for his Oscar-nominated role as Don Corrado Prizzi in the John Huston 1985 film Prizzi's Honor, as well as the voice of Dr...
as Mr. Kendall in the Season 3 episode "To Heiress Human". - Dr. Joyce Brothers as herself in the Season 4 episode "A Trip to the Moon".
- Ray CharlesRay CharlesRay Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
as himself in the Season 4 episode "A Trip to the Moon". - Amanda Plummer as Jacqueline "Jackie" Wilbourne in the Season 4 episode "Take a Left at the Altar".
- Imogene CocaImogene CocaImogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows....
as Clara DiPesto in the Season 4 episode "Los Dos DiPestos". - Michelle JohnsonMichelle Johnson (actress)Michelle Johnson is an American actress, probably best known for her role in Blame It on Rio.-Career:Director Stanley Donen signed her, as a 17-year-old, to appear as Michael Caine's love interest in the romantic comedy film Blame It on Rio...
as Mrs. Hunziger in the Season 5 episode "Plastic Fantastic Lovers". - Jennifer TillyJennifer TillyJennifer Tilly is an American actress and poker player. She is an Academy Award nominee, and a World Series of Poker Ladies' Event bracelet winner. She is the older sister of actress Meg Tilly.-Early life:...
as Nurse Saundra in the Season 5 episode "Plastic Fantastic Lovers". - Colleen DewhurstColleen DewhurstColleen Rose Dewhurst was a Canadian-American actress known for a while as "the Queen of Off-Broadway." In her autobiography, Dewhurst wrote: "I had moved so quickly from one Off-Broadway production to the next that I was known, at one point, as the 'Queen of Off-Broadway'...
as Betty Russell in the Season 5 episode "Take My Wife, For Example". - Rita WilsonRita Wilson-Early life:Wilson was born Margarita Ibrahimoff in Los Angeles, California.Her father, a Bulgarian who worked at a racetrack, was born in Greece. Before immigrating to the US, he had lived in Bulgaria and Turkey....
as Carla in the Season 5 episode "Those Lips, Those Lies". - Demi MooreDemi MooreDemi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
, Bruce Willis's wife at the time, as the woman in the elevator in the Season 5 episode "When Girls Collide". - Timothy LearyTimothy LearyTimothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
as minister Wynn Deaupayne in the Season 5 episode "Lunar Eclipse".
Format innovations
The series was created by Glenn Gordon CaronGlenn Gordon Caron
Glenn Gordon Caron is an American television writer, director and producer. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.-Bio:...
, one of the producers of the similar Remington Steele
Remington Steele
Remington Steele is an American television series, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...
, when he was approached by ABC executive Lewis H. Erlicht. Erlicht liked the work Caron had done on Taxi
Taxi (TV series)
Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher...
and Remington Steele
Remington Steele
Remington Steele is an American television series, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...
and wanted a detective show featuring a major star in a leading role that would appeal to an upscale audience. Caron wanted to do a romance, to which Erlicht replied “I don’t care what it is as long as it’s a detective show.”
The tone of the series was left up to the production staff, resulting in Moonlighting becoming one of the first successful TV "dramedies"— dramatic-comedy, a style of television and movies in which there is an equal or nearly equal balance of humor and serious content. The show made use of fast-paced, overlapping dialogue between the two leads, harkening back to classic screwball comedy
Screwball Comedy
Screwball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...
films such as those of director Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
. These innovative qualities resulted in its being nominated, for the first time in the 50-year history of the Directors Guild of America, for both Best Drama and Best Comedy in the same year (both in 1985 and 1986).
Breaking the fourth wall
Moonlighting frequently broke the fourth wallFourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
, with many episodes including dialogue which made direct references to the scriptwriters, the audience, the network, or the series itself. (For example, when a woman is trying to commit suicide by jumping into a bathtub with a television playing The Three Stooges, Addison says, "The Stooges? Are you nuts? The network'll never let you do that, lady!"). Variations of this technique had been used previously in television programs such as Burns and Allen
Burns and Allen
Burns and Allen, an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen, worked together as a comedy team in vaudeville, films, radio and television and achieved great success over four decades.-Vaudeville:...
(a sketch comedy series) and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963. The series and some episode scripts were adapted from a 1951 collection of short stories of the same name, written by Max Shulman, that also inspired the 1953 film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis with Debbie...
(a sitcom which sometimes opened with the main character addressing an interior monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
to the audience), although Moonlighting was the first scripted television series to weave self-referential dialogue directly into the show's regular plot.
Unlike these earlier shows, Moonlighting sometimes broke the fourth wall in much more involved and complex ways. Cold open
Cold open
A cold open in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown...
s sometimes featured Shepherd and Willis (in character as Maddie Hayes and David Addison), other actors, viewers or TV critics directly addressing the audience about the show's production itself. These cold opens were originally born out of desperation as a way to fill air time since the dialogue on the show was spoken so quickly and the producers needed something to fill the entire hour. In some other episodes, the plot suddenly transitioned into extended sequences which involved crew dismantling or changing the sets, characters wandering off the set into other parts of the studio, production crew stepping into the scene as a deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
(e.g. a propmaster suddenly walking into the scene and taking the villain's gun away), or guest actors dropping character and referring to each other by their real names. However, other than in stand-alone openings, the main actors never stepped out of character during the episodes.
Fantasy
The series also embraced fantasy; in season two, the show aired "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice," an episode that featured two lengthy and elaborately produced black-and-white dream sequences. The episode was about a murder that had occurred in the 1940s that David and Maddie are told about by the inheritor of the then-famous nightclub where the murder had taken place. Maddie and David feud over the details of the crime, which involve a man and woman who were executed for the death of the woman's husband, with both claiming the other was the real killer and had implicated the other out of spite. After a fourteen minute set-up sequence, the show switched to two black-and-white dream sequences where the two dreamed their version of how the murder took place. The two sequences were filmed on different black-and-white film stock so that they would look like true period films. (On the commentary on the DVD it is said that they used black-and-white film instead of color so that the network wouldn't later use the color film).ABC was still displeased with the episode, however, and fearing fan reaction to a popular show being shown in black and white, demanded a disclaimer be made at the beginning of the episode to inform viewers of the "black-and-white" gimmick for the episode. The show's producers hired Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
to deliver the introduction, which aired a few days after the actor's death.
Another famous fantasy episode was "Atomic Shakespeare," which featured the cast performing a variation of The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
, with David in the role of Petruchio, Maddie as Katharina, Agnes as Bianca and Herbert as Lucentio. The episode featured Shakespearean costumes and mixed the Shakespearean plot with humorous anachronisms and variations on Moonlightings own running gags—including David riding in as Petruchio on a horse with BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
logos embroidered on its saddle blanket and repeatedly launching into the wrong Shakespearean soliloquy until the rest of the cast corrects him on which play he's in, and the Blue Moon office itself serving as Petruchio and Katharina's estate. The characters perform the Shakespearean dialogue in iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter is a commonly used metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama. The term describes the particular rhythm that the words establish in that line. That rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables; these small groups of syllables are called "feet"...
and the episode was wrapped
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
by segments featuring a boy imagining the episode's proceedings because his mother forced him to do his Shakespeare homework instead of watching Moonlighting, which the mother described as "That show about two detectives? A man and a woman? And they argue all the time and all they really want to do is sleep together? Sounds like trash to me!"
Other
In addition, the show mocked its connection to the popular Remington SteeleRemington Steele
Remington Steele is an American television series, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...
series by having Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
hop networks and make a cameo appearance as Steele in one episode. The show also acknowledged Hart to Hart
Hart to Hart
Hart to Hart is an American television series, starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple who also moonlighted as amateur detectives. The series was created by writer Sidney Sheldon and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg...
as an influence: in the episode "It's a Wonderful Job," based on the film It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
, Maddie's guardian angel showed her an alternate reality in which Jonathan and Jennifer Hart from the earlier series had taken over Blue Moon's lease. Although Robert Wagner
Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...
and Stefanie Powers
Stefanie Powers
Stefanie Powers is an American actress best known for her role as Jennifer Hart in the 1980s television series Hart to Hart.-Early life:...
did not appear in the episode, Lionel Stander
Lionel Stander
Lionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...
reprised his role as the Harts' assistant Max.
Both Shepherd and Willis sang musical numbers over the course of the show. In "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice," Shepherd performed both "Blue Moon
Blue Moon (song)
"Blue Moon"'s first crossover recording to rock and roll came from Elvis Presley in 1956. His cover version of the song was included on his self-titled debut album Elvis Presley....
" in Maddie's dream sequence and The Soft Winds' "I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out!" in David's, while in "Atomic Shakespeare," Willis sings The Young Rascals' "Good Lovin'". Willis also frequently broke into shorter snippets of Motown songs. "Good Lovin'," "Blue Moon" and "I Told Ya I Love Ya..." appeared on the Moonlighting Soundtrack
Moonlighting Soundtrack
The Moonlighting Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the Moonlighting television series and was produced by Phil Ramone and Glenn Gordon Caron. Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis provided a few songs that accompanied Al Jarreau's vocals on the main theme to the series. That single peaked at #1 on the...
.
The episode "Big Man on Mulberry Street
Big Man on Mulberry Street
"Big Man on Mulberry Street" is a jazz influenced song by Billy Joel from the 1986 album The Bridge .An extended version of the song was used on a season three episode of Moonlighting. The episode was titled "Big Man On Mulberry Street". In a dream sequence, Maddie Hayes envisions David Addison...
" centers around a big production dance number set to the Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
song of the same name which was in turn inspired by the show itself. The sequence was directed by veteran musical director Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen
Stanley Donen ; is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are Singin' in the Rain and On the Town, both of which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. His other noteworthy films include Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Indiscreet, Damn...
.
Production
Moonlighting was unique at the time for being one of only three shows, due to FCC regulations, to be owned and produced in-house by a broadcast network (NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
’s Punky Brewster
Punky Brewster
Punky Brewster was an American sitcom about a girl named Punky Brewster being raised by her foster parent...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
’s Twilight Zone
Twilight zone
-Television series and spinoffs:*The Twilight Zone, the anthology television series and its franchise:**The Twilight Zone , the 1959–1964 original television series***Twilight Zone: The Movie, a 1983 film based on the original series...
being the others). This allowed the network greater flexibility in budgeting the show since the “back-end potential” for profits was so much greater with not having to pay a licensing fee to the film studio or independent production company. As a result, ABC gave Caron a lot of control over production. Caron, however, was a perfectionist and viewed Moonlighting as the filming of a one hour movie every week, using techniques usually reserved for big budget films. To capture the cinematic feel of the films of the 1940s, for example, he would prohibit the use of a zoom lens, opting instead to use more time-consuming moving master cameras that move back and forth on a track and require constant resetting of the lights. Diffusion disks
Diffusion filter
A diffusion filter is a translucent photographic filter used for a special effect. When used in front of the camera lens, a diffusion filter softens subjects and generates a dreamy haze. This can also be improvised by smearing petroleum jelly on a UV filter or shooting through a nylon stocking...
were used to soften Cybill Shepherd’s features, and a special lens needed to be employed so that in a two shot
Two shot
A Two shot is a type of shot employed in the film industry in which the frame encompasses a view of two people . The subjects do not have to be next to each other, and there are many common two-shots which have one subject in the foreground and the other subject in the background.The shots are also...
, Maddie would be diffused and David would not.
Much of the credit for this look and feel can be attributed to the hiring of Gerald Finnerman as the director of photography. Finnerman, a second generation cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
, was brought up in the old school of cinematography by working with his father, Perry Finnerman, and later as a camera operator for Harry Stradling
Harry Stradling
Harry Stradling Sr., A.S.C. was an American cinematographer with over 130 films to his credit.His uncle Walter Stradling and son Harry Stradling Jr. were also cinematographers.-Early career:...
on such films as My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady (film)
My Fair Lady is a 1964 musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, of the same name, based on the 1938 film adaptation of the original stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The ballroom scene and the ending were taken from the previous film adaptation , rather than from...
and The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945 film)
The Picture of Dorian Gray is an American horror-drama film based on Oscar Wilde's 1891 novel of the same name. Released in March 1945 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film is directed by Albert Lewin and stars George Sanders as Lord Henry Wotton and Hurd Hatfield as Dorian Gray...
. Finnerman would then go on to be the director of photography for the TV series Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
and was responsible for creating much of the mood in that show by employing black-and-white lighting techniques for color film. This background meshed perfectly with what Caron was trying to portray in the series and earned him an Emmy nomination for the black-and-white episode “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice”. Hired for the show after the pilot was shot, Finnerman would become involved in virtually every aspect of the show including the scripts, lighting, set design, and even directing some of the later episodes.
Typical scripts for an average one hour television show run 60 pages, but those for Moonlighting were nearly twice as long due to the fast talking overlapping dialogue of the main characters. While the average television show would take seven days to shoot, Moonlighting would take from 12–14 days to complete with episodes and dialogue frequently being written by Caron the same day they were shot. This attention to detail contributed to Moonlighting as being one of the most expensive television shows being produced at the time. Where most episodes would cost around $900,000 to produce, Moonlighting was running nearly double that. The season 2 episode "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" could have been filmed much more cheaply by being shot in color and then decolorized, but Caron insisted on the authentic look of black-and-white film which took 16 days to shoot bringing the cost of the episode to then unheard of sum of two million dollars. Caron often defended his filming practices in the name of giving the audience what they wanted and producing a quality product. He used the following analogy to illustrate the point, "The thinking in television which makes no damn sense to me, is that a half hour of television costs X, and an hour of television costs Y, no matter what that television is, it strikes me as an insane hypothesis. The parallel is, you're hungry, whether you go to McDonald's or whether you go to '21,' it should cost the same; they both fill your stomach. It's nonsense."
All of this attention to detail resulted in production delays and the show became notorious for airing reruns when new episodes had not been completed in time for broadcast. The first two seasons of Moonlighting focused almost entirely on the two main characters, having them appear in almost every scene. According to Cybill Shepherd, "I left home at 5 A.M. each day. Moonlighting scripts were close to a hundred pages, half again as long as the average one-hour television series. Almost from the moment the cameras started rolling we were behind schedule, sometimes completing as few as sixteen episodes per season, and never achieving the standard twenty-two."
Glenn Gordon Caron partly blamed Cybill Shepherd for production problems:
"I don't mean to paint her as the sole bearer of responsibility for the discord. But if I said to you, 'You're going to have a great new job – it's a life-defining job – but you're going to work 14–15 hours a day, and by the way, you'll never know what hours those are – sometimes you'll start at noon and work until 3 a.m., other times you won't know when or where it will be [until the last minute].' It can be very difficult, it requires an amazing amount of stamina. It's easier to do if you're still reaching for the stars, it's a lot tougher if you're already a star, if you've already reached the top of the mountain."
Producer Jay Daniel talked about the difficulties between the costars in the later seasons:
"Well, I was the guy that more often than not would be the one that would go into the lions den when they were having disagreements. I'd sort of be the referee, try to resolve it so that we could get back to work. So there was that side of it. Everybody knows there was friction between the two of them on the stage. In the beginning, Bruce was just a guy’s guy. Let's just say he evolved. Over the years, he went from being the crew's best friend and just being grateful for the work and all of that to realizing that he was going to be a movie star and wanting to move on. Part of that was because of his strained relationship with Cybill. That sometimes made the set a very unpleasant place to be. Cybill – I got along with her very well at times, other times I’d have to be the one who said you have to come out of the trailer and go to work. In fairness to her, she was in the makeup chair at six thirty in the morning with pages of dialogue she hadn’t seen before, she'd work very long hours, and then be back in the makeup chair at six thirty the next morning."
The delays became so great that even ABC mocked the lateness with an ad campaign showing network executives waiting impatiently for the arrival of new episodes at ABC's corporate headquarters. One episode featured television critic Jeff Jarvis
Jeff Jarvis
Jeff Jarvis is an American journalist. Previously he was a television critic for TV Guide and People magazine, creator of Entertainment Weekly, Sunday editor and associate publisher of the New York Daily News, and a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner.-Career:Until recently Jarvis was...
in an introduction, sarcastically reminding viewers what was going on with the show's plot since it had been so long since the last new episode.
The season three clipshow episode "The Straight Poop" also made fun of the episode delays by having Hollywood columnist Rona Barrett
Rona Barrett
Rona Barrett is an American gossip columnist and businesswoman. She currently runs the Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ynez, California, dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizens in need.-Career and personal life:As a teenager, Barrett overcame a degenerative...
drop by the Blue Moon Detective Agency to figure out why David and Maddie couldn't get along, as the premise to set up the clips from earlier episodes. In the end, Rona convinced them to apologize to one another, and promised the viewers that there would be an all-new episode the following week.
Shepherd's real-life pregnancy
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
and a skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
accident in which Willis broke his clavicle
Clavicle
In human anatomy, the clavicle or collar bone is a long bone of short length that serves as a strut between the scapula and the sternum. It is the only long bone in body that lies horizontally...
further contributed to production delays. To counter these problems, with the fourth season, the writers began to focus more of the show's attention on supporting cast members Agnes and Herbert, writing several episodes focusing on the two so that the show would be able to have episodes ready for airing.
Ratings and decline
Moonlighting was a hit with TV audiences as well as with critics and industry insiders garnering 16 Emmy nominations in just its second season. That season saw Moonlighting tie for 20th place in the Nielsen ratingsNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. In season three the show peaked in 9th place, then dropped off slightly in a tie for 12th in its 4th season.
The show's ratings decline is popularly attributed to Episode #14 of Season 3, "I Am Curious… Maddie", which infamously had Maddie and David consummate their relationship after two and a half years of romantic tension. In commentaries on the third season DVD set, however, Caron stated that he didn't feel the event led to the show's decline, but that a number of other factors led to the series' decline and eventual cancellation.
Much of that was attributed to the fact that in the fourth season Willis and Shepherd had little screen time together. Jay Daniel explained that, "we had to do episodes where there was no Cybill. She was off having twins. Her scenes were shot early, early on and then you had to integrate them with scenes shot weeks later. You were locked into what those scenes were because of what had already been shot with Cybill." Bruce Willis was also making Die Hard
Die Hard
Die Hard is a 1988 American action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which...
during this period. When that movie became a box office success, a movie career beckoned and his desire to continue in a weekly series waned. In a series that depended on the chemistry between the two main stars, not having them together for the bulk of the fourth season hurt the ratings.
The series lost Glenn Gordon Caron as executive producer and head writer when he left the show over difficulties with the production: "I don't think Cybill understood how hard the workload was going to be. A situation arose with her, and at a certain point it became clear that… umm… suffice it to say I wasn't there for the last year and a half." Shepherd recalled Caron left the show stating that it was either him or her, and he didn't think the network would choose him.
When Maddie returned to Los Angeles near the end of the fourth season, the writers tried to recreate the tension between Maddie and David by having Maddie spontaneously marry a man named Walter Bishop (Dennis Dugan
Dennis Dugan
Dennis Dugan is an American director, comedian, and actor. He is most famous for his partnership with comedic actor Adam Sandler, with whom he directed the films Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Grown Ups, Just Go With It, and Jack and...
) within a few hours of meeting him on the train back to LA. When Shepherd read the script she strongly voiced her objection that her character would not do such a thing, but was overruled. The move failed to rekindle the sparks between the main characters or capture the interest of the audience, which led to an even further ratings decline.
Cancellation
Neither of the principal stars was vested in the last season of the show. Bruce Willis, fresh from his Die HardDie Hard
Die Hard is a 1988 American action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which...
success, wanted to make movies. Cybill Shepherd, having just given birth to twins, had grown tired of the long, grueling production days and was ready for the series to end.
In the 1988–89 TV season, the show's ratings declined precipitously. The March to August 1988 Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
strike canceled plans for the 1987–88 Moonlighting season finale to be filmed and aired on TV in 3-D in a deal with Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
(though Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
did a 3-D TV deal with NBC's broadcast of the halftime show of Super Bowl XXIII
Super Bowl XXIII
Super Bowl XXIII was an American football game played on January 22, 1989 at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida to decide the National Football League champion following the 1988 regular season. This was the first Super Bowl hosted in the Miami area in 10 years, and the first in Miami not held...
in January 1989 instead) and delayed the broadcast of the first new episode until December 6, 1988. 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 canceled in May of that year.
In keeping with the show's tradition of "breaking the fourth wall", the last episode (fittingly titled "Lunar Eclipse") featured Maddie and David returning from Agnes and Herbert's wedding to find the Blue Moon sets being taken away, and an ABC network executive waiting to tell them that the show had been canceled. The characters then raced through the studio lot in search of a television producer named Cy, as the world of Moonlighting was slowly dismantled.
When they found Cy, he was screening a print of "In 'n Outlaws", the episode of Moonlighting that had aired two weeks earlier. Once informed of the problem, Cy lectured David and Maddie on the perils of losing their audience and the fragility of romance. Cy was played by Dennis Dugan, the same actor who had played Walter Bishop in Maddie's marriage storyline — however, Dugan was also the director of the episode, so his acting credit was listed as "Walter Bishop".
The final scene was a message stating that "Blue Moon Investigations ceased operations on May 14, 1989. The Anselmo Case was never solved… and remains a mystery to this day."
As the show had not produced enough episodes to gain a syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
contract, following its original run it was not widely seen until its DVD release, although it occasionally appeared on cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
channels (including Lifetime and Bravo in the US, and W
W Network
W Network is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. W Network broadcasts lifestyle and entertainment programming aimed at women....
in Canada) in the 1990s and 2000s. Bravo airings often featured new claymation promos with Maddie and David using original audio clips from the series. The "Atomic Shakespeare" episode aired on Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite
Nick at Nite is the nighttime Cable network that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon on Sundays from 8.p.m.-7.am., Monday through Fridays from 9 p.m.-7 a.m. and Saturdays from 10 p.m.-6 a.m. . Though it shares channel space with Nickelodeon, A.C. Nielsen Co...
in 2005 as part of the network's 20th anniversary celebration. The 1985 ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
Tuesday night line-up was honored with reruns of Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss?
Who's the Boss? is an American sitcom created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, which aired on ABC from September 20, 1984 to April 25, 1992...
, Growing Pains
Growing Pains
Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, New York, with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992.-Synopsis:The show's premise is based...
and Moonlighting, although "Atomic Shakespeare" was from the '86-'87 season. BBC initially carried the show in the UK, though it has been shown on CBS Drama
CBS Drama
CBS Drama is a television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland - home of 'modern US TV classics'.On 14 September 2009, it was revealed that the international arm of CBS, CBS Studios International, struck a joint venture deal with Chellomedia to launch six CBS-branded channels in the UK during...
since November 2009. Between 2005 and 2008 the show was frequently shown on the now defunct channel ABC1.
Awards and nominations
| Year | Result | Award | Category | Recipient(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Nominated | Emmy Awards | Directing for a Comedy Series | Robert Butler Robert Butler (director) Robert Butler is an American film director. He helped launch actor Kurt Russell's career through four Walt Disney movies , but his strongest and most fondly remembered contributions have been to the small screen.-Biography:Butler began his career as a stage manager and an assistant,... |
| Nominated | Outstanding Achievement in Music And Lyrics | Lee Holdridge Lee Holdridge Lee Holdridge is a Haitian-born American television composer and orchestrator.-Biography:He was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, of a Puerto-Rican mother and an American father, the botanist an climatologist Leslie Holdridge... , Composer, Al Jarreau Al Jarreau Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and... , Lyricist |
||
| Nominated | Directors Guild of America Awards Directors Guild of America Awards The Directors Guild of America Awards are issued annually by the Directors Guild of America. The first DGA Award was an "Honorary Life Member" award issued in 1938 to D.W. Griffith.... |
Comedy Series Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing - Comedy Series The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series is one of the annual awards given by the Directors Guild of America.-1970s:*1971: John Rich - All in the Family... |
Peter Werner, Director for the episode The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice | |
| Winner | Drama Series Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing - Drama Series The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series - Night is one of the annual awards given by the Directors Guild of America.-1970s:*1971: Daniel Petrie - The Man and the City for "Hands of Love"... |
Will Mackenzie Will MacKenzie William Ruggles MacKenzie is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour.MacKenzie was born and raised in Greenville, North Carolina. He was a golfing prodigy growing up but burned out on golf at age 14 and completely quit the game after high school... , Director, F.A. Miller, Unit Production Manager, Skip Beaudine, First Assistant Director, Leigh Webb, Second Assistant Director for the episode My Fair David |
||
| 1986 | Nominated | Emmy Awards | Outstanding Achievement In Hairstyling For A Series | Judy Crown, Hairstylist, Josee Normand, Hairstylist |
| Nominated | Music Composition for a Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-Total Awards:* CBS - 10* ABC - 7* NBC - 6* FOX - 3* Syndicated - 3* Discovery Channel - 2... |
Alf Clausen Alf Clausen Alf Clausen is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of The Simpsons, of which he has been the sole composer since 1990... , Composer |
||
| Nominated | Outstanding Art Direction For A Series | James J. Agazzi, Production Designer, Bill Harp, Set Decorator | ||
| Nominated | Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series. It was created in 2000 alongside the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series. They replaced the Outstanding Cinematography for a Series... |
Gerald Perry Finnerman | ||
| Nominated | Outstanding Costumes for a Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:- External links :*, Information Please Database, Pearson PLC... |
Robert Turturice | ||
| Nominated | Directing for a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is an Emmy presented to the best directing of a television drama series.-Best Direction of a Single Program of a Drama Series:*1959: Jack Smight – Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre ... |
Peter Werner for the episode The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice | ||
| Nominated | Will Mackenzie Will MacKenzie William Ruggles MacKenzie is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour.MacKenzie was born and raised in Greenville, North Carolina. He was a golfing prodigy growing up but burned out on golf at age 14 and completely quit the game after high school... for the episode My Fair David |
|||
| Nominated | Outstanding Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series This page lists the winners and nominees for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, since its institution in 1951. The award is often cited as one of the "main awards" at the Emmys ceremonies, and has changed names many times in its history. It was first called Best Dramatic Show... |
Moonlighting | ||
| Winner | Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture-Editing for a Comedy Series. It was created in 2003 alongside Outstanding Picture-Editing for a Drama Series... |
Neil Mandelberg | ||
| Nominated | Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series. This award and Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series replaced Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Series in 2002.-2000s:-2010s:-... |
Roger Bondelli | ||
| Nominated | Guest Actress in a Drama Series | Whoopi Goldberg Whoopi Goldberg Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won... |
||
| Nominated | Lead Actor in a Drama Series | Bruce Willis Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles... |
||
| Nominated | Lead Actress in a Drama Series | Cybill Shepherd Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L... |
||
| Nominated | Supporting Actress in a Drama Series | Allyce Beasley Allyce Beasley Allyce Beasley is an American actress. She is known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series Moonlighting. For several years , she has been the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a morning lineup of programming for toddlers on The Disney Channel... |
||
| Nominated | Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series The Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series is awarded to one television episode each year at the Primetime Emmy Awards. Often regarded as the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an individual episode of television, the nominees and winners often reflect outstanding achievement in... |
Debra Frank, Writer, Carl Sautter Carl Sautter Carl Sautter was an Emmy nominated writer born in the United Kingdom. Sautter wrote for highly rated television series including Trapper John, M.D. on CBS, Moonlighting on ABC and Beverly Hills, 90210 on FOX... , Writer for the episode The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice |
||
| Nominated | Glenn Gordon Caron Glenn Gordon Caron Glenn Gordon Caron is an American television writer, director and producer. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.-Bio:... , Writer for the episode Twas the Episode Before Christmas |
|||
| Nominated | Directors Guild of America Awards Directors Guild of America Awards The Directors Guild of America Awards are issued annually by the Directors Guild of America. The first DGA Award was an "Honorary Life Member" award issued in 1938 to D.W. Griffith.... |
Comedy Series Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing - Comedy Series The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series is one of the annual awards given by the Directors Guild of America.-1970s:*1971: John Rich - All in the Family... |
Paul Lynch, Director for the episode Symphony in Knocked Flat | |
| Winner | Drama Series Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing - Drama Series The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series - Night is one of the annual awards given by the Directors Guild of America.-1970s:*1971: Daniel Petrie - The Man and the City for "Hands of Love"... |
Will Mackenzie Will MacKenzie William Ruggles MacKenzie is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour.MacKenzie was born and raised in Greenville, North Carolina. He was a golfing prodigy growing up but burned out on golf at age 14 and completely quit the game after high school... , Director, Richard Learman, Unit Production Manager, Skip Beaudine, First Assistant Director, Leigh A. Webb, Second Assistant Director for the episode Atomic Shakespeare |
||
| Nominated | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series | Bruce Willis Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles... |
|
| Winner | Best Actress in a Television Comedy Series | Cybill Shepherd Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L... |
||
| Nominated | Best Comedy Series | Moonlighting | ||
| Winner | Favorite Female Performer In A New TV Program | Cybill Shepherd Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L... |
||
| Winner | Favorite Male Performer In A New TV Program | Bruce Willis Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles... |
||
| 1987 | Nominated | Emmy Awards | Outstanding Choreography Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography.-Award winners:1950s* 1955 June Taylor – The Jackie Gleason Show* 1956 Tony Charmoli – Your Hit Parade* 1959 Hermes Pan – An Evening with Fred Astaire1970s... |
Bill Landrum, Choreographer, Jacqui Landrum, Choreographer |
| Winner | Outstanding Achievement In Hairstyling For A Series | Kathryn Blondell, Ms. Shepherd’s Hairstylist, Josee Normand, Hairstylist | ||
| Nominated | Music Composition for a Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-Total Awards:* CBS - 10* ABC - 7* NBC - 6* FOX - 3* Syndicated - 3* Discovery Channel - 2... |
Alf Clausen Alf Clausen Alf Clausen is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of The Simpsons, of which he has been the sole composer since 1990... , Composer |
||
| Nominated | Outstanding Art Direction For A Series | James J. Agazzi, Production Designer, Bill Harp, Set Decorator | ||
| Winner | Outstanding Costumes for a Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:- External links :*, Information Please Database, Pearson PLC... |
Robert Turturice | ||
| Nominated | Directing for a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is an Emmy presented to the best directing of a television drama series.-Best Direction of a Single Program of a Drama Series:*1959: Jack Smight – Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre ... |
Alan Arkush for the episode I Am Curious...Maddie | ||
| Nominated | Will Mackenzie Will MacKenzie William Ruggles MacKenzie is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour.MacKenzie was born and raised in Greenville, North Carolina. He was a golfing prodigy growing up but burned out on golf at age 14 and completely quit the game after high school... for the episode Atomic Shakespeare |
|||
| Nominated | Outstanding Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series This page lists the winners and nominees for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, since its institution in 1951. The award is often cited as one of the "main awards" at the Emmys ceremonies, and has changed names many times in its history. It was first called Best Dramatic Show... |
Moonlighting | ||
| Winner | Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series. This award and Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series replaced Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Series in 2002.-2000s:-2010s:-... |
Roger Bondelli, Editor, Neil Mandelberg, Editor | ||
| Winner | Lead Actor in a Drama Series | Bruce Willis Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles... |
||
| Nominated | Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Drama Series | Martin Raymond Bolger, Sound Mixer, Dave Hudson, Sound Mixer, Mel Metcalf, Sound Mixer, Terry Porter, Sound Mixer | ||
| Nominated | Supporting Actress in a Drama Series | Allyce Beasley Allyce Beasley Allyce Beasley is an American actress. She is known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series Moonlighting. For several years , she has been the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a morning lineup of programming for toddlers on The Disney Channel... |
||
| Nominated | Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series The Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series is awarded to one television episode each year at the Primetime Emmy Awards. Often regarded as the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an individual episode of television, the nominees and winners often reflect outstanding achievement in... |
Ron Osborn, Writer, Jeff Reno, Writer for the episode Atomic Shakespeare | ||
| Nominated | Glenn Gordon Caron Glenn Gordon Caron Glenn Gordon Caron is an American television writer, director and producer. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.-Bio:... , Teleplay, Roger Director, Story, Charles H. Eglee, Story, Karen Hall, Story, Ron Osborn, Story, Jeff Reno, Teleplay for the episode I Am Curious...Maddie |
|||
| Winner | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series | Bruce Willis Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles... |
|
| Winner | Best Actress in a Television Comedy Series | Cybill Shepherd Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L... |
||
| Nominated | Best Comedy Series | Moonlighting | ||
| Winner | Favorite Female TV Performer | Cybill Shepherd Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L... |
||
| Winner | Favorite All-Around Female Entertainer | Cybill Shepherd Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L... |
||
| 1988 | Nominated | Emmy Awards | Music Composition for a Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-Total Awards:* CBS - 10* ABC - 7* NBC - 6* FOX - 3* Syndicated - 3* Discovery Channel - 2... |
Alf Clausen Alf Clausen Alf Clausen is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of The Simpsons, of which he has been the sole composer since 1990... , Composer |
| Nominated | Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction | Alf Clausen Alf Clausen Alf Clausen is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of The Simpsons, of which he has been the sole composer since 1990... , Music Director, Alf Clausen, Principal Arranger, Brad Dechter, Principal Arranger, George Gaffney, Principal Arranger, Hummie Mann, Principal Arranger, Don Nemitz, Principal Arranger |
||
| Nominated | Outstanding Art Direction For A Series | James J. Agazzi, Production Designer, Bill Harp, Set Decorator | ||
| Nominated | Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series. It was created in 2000 alongside the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series. They replaced the Outstanding Cinematography for a Series... |
Gerald Perry Finnerman | ||
| Winner | Outstanding Costumes for a Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:- External links :*, Information Please Database, Pearson PLC... |
Robert Turturice | ||
| Nominated | Guest Actress in a Drama Series | Imogene Coca Imogene Coca Imogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows.... |
||
| Nominated | Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television | Allyce Beasley Allyce Beasley Allyce Beasley is an American actress. She is known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series Moonlighting. For several years , she has been the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a morning lineup of programming for toddlers on The Disney Channel... |
|
| Nominated | Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series | Bruce Willis Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles... |
||
| Nominated | Best Actress in a Television Comedy Series | Cybill Shepherd Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L... |
||
| Nominated | Best Comedy Series | Moonlighting | ||
| Winner | Favorite Female TV Performer | Cybill Shepherd Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L... |
||
| 1989 | Nominated | Emmy Awards | Music Composition for a Series Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-Total Awards:* CBS - 10* ABC - 7* NBC - 6* FOX - 3* Syndicated - 3* Discovery Channel - 2... |
Alf Clausen Alf Clausen Alf Clausen is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of The Simpsons, of which he has been the sole composer since 1990... , Composer |
| Nominated | Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction | Alf Clausen Alf Clausen Alf Clausen is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of The Simpsons, of which he has been the sole composer since 1990... , Music Director, Alf Clausen, Principal Arranger, Brad Dechter, Principal Arranger, George Gaffney, Principal Arranger, Hummie Mann, Principal Arranger, D’Vaughn Pershing, Principal Arranger |
||
| Winner | Outstanding Art Direction For A Series | James J. Agazzi, Production Designer, Bill Harp, Set Decorator |
DVD releases
Anchor Bay EntertainmentAnchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
released the original pilot episode on DVD in region 1. Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
later released the entire series of Moonlighting, including the pilot episode, on DVD in Region 1. Each release contains bonus features including commentaries and featurettes.
In Regions 2 & 4, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation. It was established in November 1979 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, releasing 20 titles: The Anderson Tapes, Bell, Book and Candle, Born Free, Breakout,...
has released all 5 seasons on DVD. A complete series box set was also released in Region 2 on September 14, 2009.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Dates | Special Features | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |||
| Moonlighting - The Pilot Episode (1985) | 1 | January 25, 2000 | Bruce Willis' Original Screen Test, 12-Page Booklet which includes Photos, Bios, & Cast/Crew Lists | ||
| Seasons 1 & 2 | 25 | May 31, 2005 | October 6, 2008 | March 21, 2006 | "Not Just a Day Job, the Story of Moonlighting, Part 1", "Inside the Blue Moon Detective Agency, the Story of Moonlighting, Part 2", "The Moonlighting Phenomenon", Select Episode Commentaries |
| Season 3 | 15 | February 7, 2006 | April 20, 2009 | March 7, 2007 | "Memories of Moonlighting", Select Episode Commentaries |
| Season 4 | 14 | September 12, 2006 | June 22, 2009 | July 17, 2007 | Select Episode Commentaries |
| Season 5 | 13 | March 6, 2007 | September 14, 2009 | November 15, 2007 | "Maddie And David In The Making", Audio Commentaries |
Parodies
RiptideRiptide (TV series)
Riptide is a TV detective series that ran on NBC from 1983 to 1986, starring Perry King, Joe Penny, and Thom Bray. Riptide was created by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell, and produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions. The main theme was composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter...
, a once-popular detective series whose ratings had declined to the point of cancellation after airing against Moonlighting in the 1985–86 television season, aired an episode (the show's second-last) in 1986, in which that show's detectives acted as mentors to "Rosalind Grant" (Annette McCarthy) and "Cary Russell" (Richard Greene), the bickering stars of a television detective show pilot. Although their names were an allusion to Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
and Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
, the characters were written as parodies of Shepherd and Willis, even adopting some of their real mannerisms and clothing styles, and their dialogue contained many nods, both obvious and subtle, to Moonlighting
The episode was explicitly promoted by NBC (Riptide