Yesterday, while cleaning the house, I popped in the old DVD player a DVD from the Moonlighting – Seasons 1 & 2 DVD. I watched two episodes: The Murder’s in the Mail and Brother, Can You Spare a Blonde?. Looking at the episode information (linked), I notice this was timely, as the recently deceased Charles Rocket starred as Richard Addison in Brother, Can You Spare a Blonde?.
Boy, I had forgotten how good this series was. For those of you too young to remember, Moonlighting was a rare 1980s hit for ABC, a detective show that rarely solved crimes ala Law and Order. In reality, it was a “hip” romantic, comedy. Maddie (Cybil Shepard) was an sucessful, glamorous, and somewhat icy, top fashion model who had fallen on hard times. Her manager had cheated her out of most of her life savings. While looking at her remaining assests, she found she still owned the “City of Angels” detective agency. A notably unsucessful business designed as a tax dodge. When she visited this business to close and liquidate its assests, she met David Addison (Bruce Willis), its main employee. To save his job, the cocky Addison conned her out of closing the business. He then managed to get her involved in the business. It was renamed “Blue Moon” after the shampoo for which Maddie served as a well known spokesperson/model. The wisecracking David and the strong-willed, reserved Maddie became a detective team.
To give you an idea of how neat this show was, the two episodes I watched featured:
- A Dr. Seuss dialog sequence.
- A pie fight.
- An opening welcoming viewers to the second season to fill time because the episode ran short.
- Bruce Willis with hair
All in all, great fun from a series that many folks don’t even remember. I’m hoping that Season 3 is released on DVD soon, as it contains my favorite episode: Atomic Shakespeare.
