As a teenager I loved the series Moonlighting. At 15, David Addision was my hero. Recently my better half bought me the Moonlighting season 1 & 2 box set as a gift, and we just sat down to watch the pilot. I was fully expecting to have my memories destroyed, to be confronted with 80s cheese - and was pleasantly surprised to find that despite the clothes and soundtrack it was every bit as funny, and the leads every bit as engaging, as I remembered. Very strange to see Bruce Willis with hair, but this was great TV - amusing, original and with leads who bickered and talked over each other in the most endearing way, even though they apparently hated each other in real life. So, I sit here with a big smile on my face that one of my favourite series as a teenager still engages the approaching-middle-aged me.
Did anybody else watch this show? I have to admit that it left me with a soft spot for Bruce Willis (yes, I know in cool literary circles you’re not supposed to like the Die Hard films but I love 'em).
I loved that show too! Nice to know it stands up to the test of time. I will have to look it up. My husband and I used to watch the show when we were dating. He would take the “boy’s” side and I would take the “girl’s side.” We still quote some of the lines from the beard burn episode. We got married in 87 and are still married. Woohoo!
I also remember Remington Steele, from a couple years earlier, with a similar premise. Always wondered if David Addison was a deliberate 18th century dig at RS; hard to believe it was accidental.
My father is terrible at remembering the names of actors, so he usually comes up with some sort of physical descriptor from which I’m supposed to identify them. For instance, he might say, “I saw that movie, you know the one with the short guy.” And from that I’m to deduce he watched one of the Tom Cruise “Mission Impossible” films.
My dad’s descriptor for Bruce Willis? “Dirty face,” because by the end of every one of his films, it seems, he always ends up with soot or grease smudged on his face.
Anyway, I too liked Moonlighting when it was on, but have been fearful of watching it now. I’m heartened that you found that it holds up, Keith. Thanks for the reminder!
I loved that show, Keith. It had great writing and two main actors that had real onscreen chemistry. I could happily sit down and watch it again but I haven’t seen it on the TV for years.
I can still recall my favourite line from the show that I believe was in the promo: “Yes, I am looking up your dress.” Obviously a bit of a visual gag, but I can still hear him saying it and it always makes me smile when I think of the scene.
Ha, that ladder scene is hilarious. It’s still a classic, although it’s funny how every time they do a long shot, Maddy gets stockier and taller.
One of the episodes I remember best is the one where they did The Taming of the Shrew (I can’t remember under what pretext - one of them reads it to a kid or something?) - and they still had the slamming doors at either end of the drawing room.
One great thing about the Moonlighting box set I have is that it only contains series 1 and 2 - I remember how disappointed I was with series 3 (where they wrote in Cybil Shepherd having a baby, made the father someone else other than David, put Miss Depesto and her boyfriend to the foreground for whole episodes, and started driving off camera to have car chases through the studio - earlier fourth-wall breaking had been been fun but with no effect on the plot; in the third series it dominated. It also became more and more evident how much the leads hated each other). I’m looking forward to watching some more.
Out of interest, what shows did other forumites love when they were younger that you have since revisited? And which ones lived up to your memories and which ones didn’t?
One of the many pleasures of child rearing. I used to live for the time Charly would come on telle. Kid wasn`t too impressed though
Ah well. Those were the days, eh?
Vic
I actually think there was no pretense at all to that episode – they just did it. It was a terribly innovative and gutsy show for a big network.
Looking back, Moonlighting was one of the first times I was aware that someone was making the show I was watching – that it wasn’t just mass produced at some TV Factory somewhere (I am still not convinced about CSI, btw.)
Best Moonlighting line ever (aside from the epic Man With The Mole On His Nose exchange – Google it):
I watched an episode of CSI yesterday in which a familar face popped up. I didn’t know the actor’s name off the top of my head, but I knew him instantly from Moonlighting - the funny looking assistant guy! I had to look up imdb.com to check, and sure enough - it was Curtis Armstrong, who played Herbert Quentin Viola. I loved Moonlighting too.
I gave David my seasons 1&2 box set and replaced it with the box set of the entire run, seasons 1-5. I’ve been going through them when I get time in the evenings (currently still only on the second series though). They are brilliant. Apparently Cybil Shepherd became a nightmare to work with and from the off hated the fact that the scripts were one-and-a-half times as long as normal TV scripts, because of all the quick-fire banter (the thing that made the show great). I’d forgotten how lightly they take their plots, though. In one episode, a criminal who has been killing people to try to get his money back is chasing after and shooting at David, David’s brother and Maddie, but promptly gives up when David throws the money over the balcony of the mall. Then we cut to the end and just hear he was caught. In another (the classic “man with a mole on his nose” episode), the whole thing ends in a pie fight. (In later episodes, people from the props department just appear on screen and remove the gun from the bad guy.)
Apparently Bones is heavily influenced by Moonlighting. Bones is fun when I catch it, but the show I’m really enjoying on TV at the moment, and which owes a lot to Moonlighting, is Castle, with the guy out of Firefly.
I’ve watched one episode of Bones and enjoyed it - and I’ve seen Castle advertised, and think I’d like that too. I need to shoehorn them into my schedule!
