Tag Archives: Moonlighting

Moonlighting S5 E12, E13

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“Einme Kleine Nacht Murder”

“Lunar Eclipse”

This is the final two episodes of Moonlighting. They wrapped up the series finishing off the storyline with David and Maddie’s cousin, Annie.

They still have David and Maddie having repressed anger with each other. Even Annie called David out on his anger, which, of course, he denied. However, it is fairly obvious. It is the same anger that has poisoned the series and brought about the end of the show.

These final two episodes included all of the reasons why Moonlighting lost its way. The anger between Dave and Maddie. The overuse of Herbert Viola, in over the top comedy. The cases taking back seat and being tossed aside.

Dave and Maddie end up two of the most depressing characters in TV history.

Even their giant meta ending to the show fell flat. Denis Dugan appearing as Cy the big time producer did give the final repose on the show.

The final clip montage was more sad than anything else. And I do not mean sad in the good way. The last two seasons of Moonlighting really miscalculated what made this show so classic that it wound up in the EYG Hall of Fame. The last two seasons had so much bad in it, but there still had some great moments too. And very few shows can provide three seasons like the first three did.

The rewatch of Moonlighting has now come to an end. I am very happy that Hulu gave me a chance to see the show once again for EYG.

The Anselmo case was never solved.

Moonlighting S5 E5

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“Shirts and Skins”

Episode five of season five of Moonlighting was really pretty good. My memory of season five was low quality, but it really does feel as if the show was trying to get back on track with some decent episodes.

This even avoided the end of the episode silly chase scene that has been a trope of the show for a good part of the run. This was a serious case that centered around a battle of the sexes.

Maddie and David find themselves on opposite sides of a criminal case as investigators and the stress of the situation was causing some serious issues between them and within the office of Blue Moon.

To be fair, the show was behind Maddie’s side of the case, as it featured a woman who had been fired for rejecting her boss’s sexual advances. After that, she bought a gun and shot at him several times, finally winging him in the leg. Honestly, she was totally in the wrong here even if her boss was a complete jerk. Shooting him is going too far.

It’s not that big of a deal, but with the woman getting completely off from the charges, that sent a poor message. I really don’t agree with the idea that it is okay to ever take a gun and shoot at someone, even if they are a big jerk.

It did lead to Maddie and David reuniting and Maddie offering to make him officially her partner.

There were fun bloopers played over the end credits too. Several with those weird birds from earlier this season.

I do think the show quality has taken a step up during this season, and that they were trying to get the show back to where it was. Unfortunately, I just believe that they had done too much damage to the brand by this point to go back. It is sad considering how much they could have done with this show moving forward.

Moonlighting S5 E1

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“A Womb With a View”

The final season of Moonlighting kicked off with a big musical number and one of the jokes in the song was that they were determined to make 22 episodes this season, but the critics claim that they would only get to 16. Funnily enough, they do not get to 16, they only make thirteen.

I can understand why. The first episode of season five introduced us to Baby Hayes, played by Bruce Willis and visited by angel Jerome (played by Joseph Maher). Jerome introduced Baby Hayes to his mom and dad and showed him some of the best and worst parts of the world.

Then, in a remarkably cruel twist, Jerome claimed that the “Creator” has decided that Dave and Maddie were not going to be parents and took Baby Hayes away to let him be born to a different set of parents.

I remember being upset with that decision when I first watched the episode. It was like everything we as an audience member went through in season four was rendered a waste of time with one quick twist of fate… and they did it with another musical number.

They gave Dave and Maddie a three minute scene tacked on the end of the episode to deal with their grief and their loss. It just felt so wrong. Clearly they had decided that the show could not handle a baby in the cast and they went out of their way to fix it. I wonder how many viewers they lost with this stunt?

It made no sense and was a weak way to try and get around a prior season full of narrative. No the best way to kick off a new season.

Moonlighting S3 E13, E14, E15

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“Maddie’s Turn to Cry”

“I am Curious…Maddie”

“To Heiress Human”

Season three of Moonlighting wrapped up with the final three episodes. Episodes 13 & 14 both started off with creative recaps that seemed to make fun of itself for having too many repeats and not enough new episodes. It doesn’t play as well now since I am watching these back to back and there have been no repeats in-between. 

The second episode of these, “I am Curious… Maddie,” is the episode where Dave and Maddie finally do the deed. The will-they-won’t-they dance finally becomes a they-will. After several episodes with Mark Harmon as a roadblock, Dave and Maddie hit the sheets together.

The only problem with that is I disliked how this came to be. I remember not being a fan of the way this worked out when I first saw it back in the 80s. It was so dark. There was so much anger and spite that it did not feel right. I know it was designed that way because Dave and Maddie are always arguing so why not translate that into their first sexual encounter? It just felt like they were way too aggressive, too angry and not showing how they truly felt. 

I would have liked it more had they had their encounter in the episode “Maddie’s Turn to Cry” when Maddie came over to David’s apartment. This is when it should have happened so it was more about two people actually finding themselves instead of such a mean-spirited, almost violent way.

It almost made me feel bad for Mark Harmon. His character of Sam Crawford was such a good guy who seemed to be hurt badly by the relationship between Dave and Maddie.

Cybill Shepherd is clearly pregnant too. You can see how she was wearing clothes that were large and flowing, and using handbags to block her belly. The pregnancy had been part of the problem with getting new episodes out, along with the feud on set with the stars.

Honestly, the breaking of the fourth wall in these episodes felt very off considering the different tone of the episodes.

Season four of Moonlighting goes off the rail. I am curious to see what I think of this next season on rewatch. 

Moonlighting S3 E8

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“It’s a Wonderful Job”

Moonlighting had some great Christmas episodes. We are up to the “It’s A Wonderful Job” episode from season three, which, of course, is a parody of the all-time Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

Everything is set up to have Maddie alone in a bar after making a public wish that she had never kept the agency open. She is approached by her guardian angel, Albert, who goes ahead and shows her what her life would be like had she closed down Blue Moon instead of keeping it open.

Miss DiPesto was a cruel, cold businesswoman running a greeting card company. David married Cheryl Tiegs. Maddie would be fated to kill herself in a car crash.

There are some really good scenes with Cybill Shepherd, especially the scene on the roof of the building with Albert. She was very subtle with her facial expressions, but you could see them change depending on each situation.

Along with Cheryl Tiegs, there were some fun cameos. In particular, Lionel Stander, who played Max on Hart to Hart, an earlier detective show on ABC. Stander was playing Max here as Blue Moon had become Hart Investigations in this alternate future. We also saw Charles Rocket once again as David’s brother Richie. This is the first time in awhile since we saw Jack Blessing as Mr. MacGillicudy, one of the staff workers at Blue Moon.

Again, I found Herbert Viola’s presence in this episode to be fine. I am curious to see when my abject hatred of this character starts because so far I think he has been used very well.

This is a strong episode to follow the best episode they ever had with Atomic Shakespeare. The third season was on fire at this point. Although the kiss at the end of the episode with David and Maddie was confusing, since it felt as if something had changed, but they do not reference it again.

Moonlighting S3 E7

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“Atomic Shakespeare”

One of my favorite hours of television of all-time is next up for Moonlighting. It is the iconic “Atomic Shakespeare” episode that saw David and Maddie taking the place of Petruchio and Katharina, respectfully. It was a show that understood that it did not matter the setting or the format of the show as long as there was David and Maddie.

The show was written in iambic pentameter, honoring the Shakespeare play of The Taming of the Shrew, in which it was based. 

The episode went full throttle into the Shakespeare of it all in dialogue, costuming and sets. Yet, it maintained the certain flair that made this Moonlighting.

Bruce Willis performed “Good Lovin'” after his “wedding” to a bound and gagged Katharina as the entire church sang along. The wedding itself is hilarious, especially the grunts of Cybill Shepherd at the antics of he soon-to-be husband. 

Petruchio, for his part, wore his Rayban sunglasses (so did his horse, btw) and showed himself to be the one man that could handle his Kate. The ending in the town square when Petruchio speaks about how he and Kate were partners and how much better it was than keeping her under his thumb was a fantastic end to the show. It was a great message and gave Kate some strength after being forced to marry him.

This was clever, funny as can be, and still gave us the flavor of David and Maddie, advancing their characters, without even having it be their characters. 

This is one of my favorite episodes of TV ever, right up there with “The Constant” of LOST and the pilot of Twin Peaks. The risks the show took with this episode were great, but this provided a remarkable result.

And Cybill Shepherd was meant for this time, because she absolutely rocked those dresses. They could not have been comfortable, but she was unbelievably gorgeous in them.

I did not want to put it at the top of my Moonlighting episode list until I saw it again, to see if it held up. After finishing the episode, I can safely say that this is the best episode of Moonlighting ever made and that it holds up beautifully.

Moonlighting S3 E6

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“Big Man on Mulberry Street”

This was where I was introduced to Billy Joel’s hit “Big Man on Mulberry Street” in yet another classic Moonlighting dream sequence.

I love Billy Joel and I enjoy many of his songs. I would not be lying if I said that every time I hear this song, I think of the huge dance routine with Bruce Willis on this episode. 

Bruce Willis showed off his moves in this dance routine, and the director really highlighted his strengths while using the other experienced dancers to make the routine look great. Bruce may not be a great dancer, but they made him look like a million bucks.

Then, there was a story involving David’s ex-wife and the obsession that it created in the mind of Maddie. Who was this woman? What happened? Why had she never heard about this before? It took this relationship to yet another level as it all built to later in the season.

The episode did start off oddly as Maddie was meeting for breakfast with a client waiting for David to show up with the photos they had been hired to take. David slinked in, hungover and without the photos.

This, of course, led to an argument between David and Maddie, and, to be honest, most of the time I am with David when he is arguing with Maddie, but there was no excuse this time and his laissez faire attitude really felt like it was inappropriate. It was as if David could not accept that he was fully in the wrong and that what he had done was a betrayal.

This whole story aspect just went away completely when David had received a phone call telling him that his former brother-in-law had died. Meaning that there was, at one time, a Mrs. Addison.

There were several really strong monologues in the episode delivered by our two leads and it took a deeper look at the individual characters and the budding relationship with Maddie and David.

Moonlighting S3 E4

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“Symphony in Knocked Flat”

Another one of my favorite episodes when I was watching in the late 1980s, Symphony in Knocked Flat has a lot of classic Moonlighting tropes and still plays very well. 

There was a ton of slapstick involved in this episode, especially in the third act inside the arena and boxing ring. You can tell the influences of The Three Stooges and Charlie Chaplin in this episode, as well as some nods to Rocky IV.

There was also a really fun scene at the Blue Moon offices with two sets of FBI agents and a repetitive scene that both Maddie and David repeated lines within. A fourth wall break added in as David quipped that the writer’s just Xeroxed the other scene.

“No, it was par for the course.“

That scene was one of my favorites and I remembered it immediately as soon as Maddie said that line the first time. 

Moonlighting could handle these over-the-top, silly episodes better than any show I can remember and still have the credibility with the characters and the story that they are telling.

It kicked off with a fun cold open with David and Maddie and the Temptations. 

Oh, and by the way, Cybill Shepherd absolutely killed that dress she wore to the symphony. She looked unbelievable!

Moonlighting S3 E1

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“The Son Also Rises”

Season three started off with a message to the audience with Dave and Maddie sitting on her desk. It was a joke about how Moonlighting lost all those Emmys after receiving 16 nominations for season 2. It was a funny joke, but I remember watching those Emmys and being really mad about Moonlighting losing.

We get to meet David Addison’s father, David Addison. Who knew that our David was a junior?

He came to see David to tell him that he was going to get married. David Sr. wanted David Jr. to meet her.

Thing was that David Jr. had already met her. Four years before, he picked her up in a bar and slept with her.

This episode had a nice balance between seriousness and silliness from David Jr.

Paul Sorvino appeared as David Addison Sr. Brynn Thayer played the woman. Two solid castings for the show. We added to the family of our two main leads.

By the way… Maddie looked amazing.