Reading this post was heaven. That was one of my favorite shows – haven’t seen it in years – but my memory of it is strong and sharp. Fantastic writing. Great rapport between the two stars. Sizzle! Great supporting cast. I still can’t forget the kind of revelation that Bruce Willis was at the time. Like … look at him!! Who is that? He’s so funny, so quick!! He made much of his dialogue seem improvised. Perhaps a lot of it was improvised. It makes me think that if he had been around in the 1930s, he would have been great in screwball comedies.
Anyway – Moonlighting fans: go check out the post!
I am so glad you mentioned this. I have been a Moonlighting fan forever. I’ve recently bought the dvds and sometimes when I’m not feeling well, I just lie on the sofa and bliss out while watching them. The passion between them – I always believed it. I know they had trouble on the set and whatever, but it never, ever showed up on tape. I think it’s the perfect show.
It was SUCH a great show … such amazing, genuine chemistry, as RTG pointed out … and you’re so right about Bruce Willis being a revelation. I watched Moonlighting during the formative pre- and early-teen period, and that character had a serious hand in shaping and cementing my tastes in men. He and Alex P. Keaton. I married someone MUCH more like the latter, but I will always have a soft spot for the former.
I remember loving this show until Dave and Maddie got together. As soon as that happened, all the tension (and the magic) vanished. Maybe yearning and unfulfilled promise touches us more strongly because we can all identify with feeling that way.
As I said on the post on my site, I think the general assumption that it took them too long to get together is wrong. They should have never gotten together — it transformed it into soapy territory that just didn’t mesh with the wacky detective stuff and tangents into film noir and Shakespeare. Of course, in the end, it was the off-screen nonsense that doomed the show as much as anything.
Like any of the screwball comedies in the 30s – it’s the build-up to the romance that is funny and terrific. Once there’s a clinch, the credits need to roll!
LOVED Moonlighting. I had a thing for Agnes Dipesto. She killed me every time she spoke. (Though I’ve always found the actor who played her love interest–whose name I forget but who I’ll always know as Booger–to be really annoying.)
And I just want to give a kudos to “Another Sheila”‘s taste in men, ‘cuz it’s impeccable. (Alex P. Keaton was also one of my huge childhood crushes.)