For some reason, for three days now, I’ve been obsessing about the 1985-89 ABC series Moonlighting, with Cybill Shepherd, once “just” a model, and Bruce Willis, who was kind of shiny and new, and with his hairline pretty much intact. I’ve been obsessing about him especially, but the two were brilliant together. Shepherd proved herself a deft comedienne, and I later became a big Willis movie fan. My favorites aren’t the Die Hards but the two films he made with M. Night Shyamalan, The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, where his performances were nuanced and, to me, deeply moving.
But this show was charming and innovative. Breaking the Fourth Wall in this season opener, for example:
And sometimes it had the audacity to get philosophical:
And it was never afraid to allude to literature. Dr. Seuss, for example:
Or Shakespeare. In “Atomic Shakespeare,” the show took on Taming of the Shrew. Hit it, Bruce:
Shepherd’s Maddie could sing, too. This is lovely:
And sometimes they danced. Willis was surprisingly good. And Shepherd was at least game.
The show lasted four seasons but probably should have ended at two and a half or three. It burned out its stars, who couldn’t sustain the high bar it had set or the toll it had taken on their professional relationship. It burned out its writers, too, who lapsed into cutesiness and destroyed the sexual tension between David and Maddie by having them give into it.
But it was a grand ride; when it was good, Moonlighting was very good.
As was Willis, an actor I enjoy immensely.
What probably brought on this Moonlighting musing is his struggle with aphasia. God has graced him with a supportive and loving family. Willis has graced me with a host of memorable characters—including Moonlighting’s David Addison, Jr.
Thank you, Bruce Willis.
A Work in Progress 