Moonlighting - Seasons 1 & 2

Casual Moonlighting fans will likely remember "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" as "the one in black and white." Operating as investigators on a dubious "unfaithful spouse" case, private investigators Maddie Hayes and David Addison (of the Blue Moon detective agency) are told about the notorious Flamingo Cove Murder, which involved a clarinetist, his songbird wife, and the new cornet player in their swing orchestra. The clarinetist was murdered, and the singer and cornetist (?) always swore that the other did the killing, right down to their dual executions.

Hayes and Addison instantly form opposing opinions as to who is "obviously" guilty, leading to an argument, after which each goes home and dreams his/her side of the story. It's fairly weak for a wraparound, but the dreams make it worth it.

Done in a film noir style, "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" references films of the era (especially The Postman Always Rings Twice) in addition to being solidly crafted, designed, shot, acted, written, and directed. (That year saw the series nominated for sixteen Emmys, eight of them for this episode.)

Each's dream perfectly suits their personalities. Maddie's is more reminiscent of the expected style: straightforward, romantic, and melodramatic (with a nicely cathartic first kiss for Shepherd and Willis), while David's involves more ironic voice-over, wisecracks, and parodic fourth-wall breaking. (For those reasons, I prefer David's, although a tad more seriousness would have made it perfect.)

And how they did this, I don't know, but Orson Welles made his final filmed appearance by introducing this "Very Special Moonlighting." ("Television," he says with the ever-present glint in his eye, "is about to take a huge step ... backwards.") "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" is my second favorite of the series; only the second-season finale "Camille," guest starring Judd Nelson and Whoopi Goldberg, tops it for pure entertainment value.

The DVDs are very good quality and even the ripping to iPod MP4 format is smooth with no hiccups. That said, I forgot how irritating the constant bickering between the two lead characters is! I must have been much more tolerant in my teens watching this show, but it really grates on me now. I don't think I can stomach more than one season of 'Moonlighting'. I still vote 'Remington Steele' as my all-time favourite TV show from the 80's -- the relationship between the two lead characters is much more comfortable.

This was actually a requested Christmas present for my 13 year old who had seen repeats on television and thought it was good. I caught it first time around when it was new and different, there really wasn't anything like that on TV. My son loves it but cannot believe the shoulder pads and the big hair; did we really dress like that?? Not to mention Bruce Willis with hair! If it's 80s nostalgia you're looking for, then this is the one for you.

Too bad this is not available on re-runs. It was a good show then and now.

Twenty years down the road, here's how Moonlighting holds up:

Brilliantly.

Who would have thought that Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd, essentially playing themselves, would have fallen so easily into the modern-day Nick-and-Nora routines created for them by an amazing stable of writers? Yet they did, and the writing is a big reason why. Alternating goofball antics, look-arent-we-silly scenes with truly moving ones, the Moonlighting creative team made Maddie Hayes and David Addison one of the great showbiz couples.

Not everything worked. The pastiche episodes, such as the homage to Taming of the Shrew and the black-and-white noir tribute, flirt with brilliance, and one is indebted to Caron and Co. for being so audacious as to try such innovative stuff at all. Some of the self-consciously cute bits -- reading fan mail, talking to the camera -- get a wee bit tiresome, but once Maddie and David get back into the whirl of their latest case, it's all good again.

Others have noted that the series went downhill quickly because of Caron's unwillingness to adhere to network budgets and timetables, Shepherd's and Willis' egos, etc. In later seasons, Allyce Beasley and Curtis Armstrong carried many episodes virtually alone, and while both were charming in small doses, they reached overkill quickly. More critically, although the sexual teasing between Maddie and David was a powerful force in the show, Caron and the writers didn't know how to keep them apart forever. Once David/Maddie finally hooked up, everything REALLY became problematic, starting with that famous seduction scene as Maddie/David knock over furniture to get to each other -- at the time, Moonlighting fans were uncomfortably aware that Shepherd was pregnant with twins during all that knockabout filming! Then Caron and Co. really didn't know what to do with their characters, introducing one weird plot twist after another to reconcile the Maddie/David situation, all the while relegating the mysteries to the background.

And we fans just sighed and waited for the end, which wasn't long.

But the glory of the series is probably enhanced by its brevity. For its first three seasons, this was the best show on television. And watching it now, you'll be amazed at how the writing and directing match the best of what's on contemporary TV, minus the tons-of-violence that modern tastes demand in such shows -- violence which would, in the case of Moonlighting, have merely gotten in the way of much more interesting goings-on.