★★★★★ 0/5

Friday Flashback: Moonlighting

Moonlighting was famous for 'breaking the fourth wall.'

19
Leave a comment

A bit of fun for today…. 1985’s Moonlighting (which catapulted Bruce Willis to stardom) was famous for ‘breaking the fourth wall’ -a term for speaking direct to the audience.

When the show was cancelled in 1989, it even became part of the storyline.

Here’s a few priceless moments -and Al Jarreau’s theme tune for nostalgia’s sake.

Those who remember the show know too well it was all downhill after David (Willis) and Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) gave in to their unresolved sexual tension. Snorefest from then onwards…..

 

19 Responses

  1. Such a great show, definitely one of my faves of the 80s!
    Unfortunately everyone blames them getting together for ruining the show, a myth everyone repeats. The truth is during the 4th season Bruce was filming Moonlighting during the day and Die Hard at night so his scenes were reduced. Also Cybill was pregnant with twins so they shot around her, with most of her scenes shot at the start of production.
    The fact that the two of them were hardly together afterwards is what ruined the show, as their chemistry was the main drawcard. Once Die Hard was a hit Bruce wanted out of his contract leading to them hating to be around each other and that was pretty much the end.

  3. One of the best shows of its day. I have all the DVDs so I think a rewatch is needed…if not for my huge backlog list of shows to watch!

  6. Loved this show! It would be great for Netflix or Stan to repeat classic shows like this one. This started the fourth wall and no one has ever been able to do it like this again. I miss great tv shows like this.

  7. I remember Cybil shepherd insisted on being filmed in soft focus, they both had Quick fire banter in every scene, and the famous writers strike where they just continued filming with No scripts. That was a low point .

      1. Even on low resolution CRT TVs back in the 80s, the soft filtering on her CUs was obvious. But nowhere near as bad as the CUs of Lucille Ball in the 1974 movie, Mame. One reviewer commented on IMDB re Mame that so much Vaseline was used on the lens for Lucille Ball’s close-ups, you’d need to use Windex to get to see the shot.

  8. Moonlighting was one of my very favourite TV programs at the time – along with LA Law.

    S1&2 of Moonlighting were the best – I should watch the DVDs again.

    I’ve still got a copy of American Cinematographer magazine from July ’86 in which Moonlighting’s DoP, Gerald Finnerman ASC, described making the B&W episode (S02E04 – The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice), the ep being introduced by Orson Welles from memory.

    1. I loved this show as well. I just binged on the whole 8 seasons (plus the movie and specials) of L A Law while in lockdown. Loved it. Next is Hillstreet Blues.

    1. Imagine this…. Ms Shepherd was pregnant during this series and the twins she had are now 33. Ms Shepherd does not get the credit she deserves for her part of the success of this show

Leave a Reply