Product Description

Maddie Hayes (Cybil Shepard), a wealthy former model, discovers one morning that her business manager has stolen all the money she has in the bank. However, it turns out that she still owns some non-liquid assets -- money-losing companies which were maintained as tax write-offs -- one of which is a detective agency run by David Addison (Bruce Willis). Maddie meets with him to inform him that the company is to be shut down, but he persuades her to keep it open by convincing her that the detective agency can make money. Maddie becomes David's new boss and accompanies him on adventure after adventure. While their personalities clash, a sexual tension arises in the time they spend together. But the question always remains... will they or won't they?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2186 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2005-05-31
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Extra tracks, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 1200 minutes

Amazon.com
Glamorous Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) is an ex-model with a problem--her accountant just ran off with her money. Granted, he did leave her with a few broken-down businesses. One happens to be a detective agency run by charming loudmouth David Addison (Bruce Willis). Her attempt to shutter the agency fails when they stumble across a crime and David convinces Maddie to help him solve it. And with that, one of television's most popular partnerships was born. Moonlighting made a star out of newcomer Willis and turned Shepherd (Taxi Driver), who had already found fame through fashion and film, into a bona fide TV star.

Created for ABC by Glenn Gordon Caron (Remington Steele), the romantic comedy/detective drama was a mid-season replacement that quickly became a hit. There were only six episodes in the first season, including the two-part pilot, but 18 were produced for the second. Rhyming receptionist Agnes DiPesto (Allyce Beasley) was a regular from the start, while Herbert Viola (Ray’s Curtis Armstrong) wouldn’t hit the scene until the third season (as with Paul Sorvino and Mark Harmon). The first two seasons attracted an eclectic array of guest stars, including Tim Robbins ("Gunfight at the So-So Corral"), Beasley's husband Vincent Schiavelli ("Next Stop Murder"), Dana Delany ("Knowing Her"), Richard Belzer ("Twas the Episode Before Christmas"), and Whoopi Goldberg ("Camille"), who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance. The most notable guest was surely Orson Welles, who introduces the black and white noir spoof "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice." It would be his final TV appearance. Moonlighting ran for three more years. While the Emmy-winning Willis would abandon TV for the big screen, Shepherd found subsequent small screen success with Cybill. Caron, meanwhile, would launch another mid-season replacement series which became a surprise hit: NBC's Medium with Patricia Arquette. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

One of the best television shows ever
"Moonlighting" truly is one of the best television series of all time. It was extremely creative, loaded with great humor and drama, and occasionally some action and intrigue. It faltered a bit in its last two seasons, but even they are worth 5 stars.

The premise: Maddie Hayes (Cybill Sheperd) is a former model running a nearly bankrupt detective agency. David Addison (Bruce Willis) convinces her to run the agency together as partners instead of shutting it down. They bumble their way through many mysteries, solving most of them. Maddie and David couldn't be more different - Maddie is conservative, reserved, preoccupied with being responsible, and slightly repressed and uptight. David is spontaneous almost to a fault, and not terribly responsible. These stark personality differences lead to some very funny banter in every episode. Yet, both have big hearts, and over the course of Seasons 1 and 2, they fall very much in love - even though they cannot admit it - especially to themsevles.

In the typical episode, David and Maddie work on a case. However, there's much more going on. Events in the case parallel events in one or both of the main characters' lives, or their relationship with each other. It's obvious that the writers, directors, cast and crew are having a great time making this show. The writing is very clever, and as the series progresses, the characters occasionally show awareness that they are characters on a television show - to great humorous effect. In later seasons, there are episodes that have themes - such as a black and white film noir take-off, and a hilarious modernized version of Shakespear's Taming of the Shrew. In its first two seasons, Moonlighting is a bit more conventional - though still innovative and still one of the finest television programs ever.

Moonlighting has other strengths. One is Agnes DiPesto, the delightfully quirky receptionist that answers every phone call with a different rhyme. Another is a roster of great guest stars, like Orson Wells, Tim Robbins, Dana Delany, Whoopi Goldberg, and many more (and the ones I named are all in the first two seasons, so you'll be seeing them on this DVD set). Moonlighting also features great music - not just the classic theme song by Al Jarreau. Nearly every episode has great classic tunes. The first two seasons include songs by Little Richard, Patsy Cline, Smokey Robinson, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, The Temptations, The Isley Brothers, and Gene Kelly, and many others.

The picture and sound quality are excellent for a 20-year-old TV show, and better than when these episodes were broadcast on Bravo in recent years. This set is a great value, too, considering that you get a total of 23 episodes (all 5 episodes from the brief Season One, which began late in the year, plus 18 episodes from Season Two, which ran a regular fall-to-spring schedule). The DVD extras are a lot of fun, especially two short documentaries (one for each of the first two seasons) that feature interviews with Bruce, Cybill, the actress that plays Miss DiPesto, and some of the writers and crew members. They all have interesting stories to share about their experiences making Moonlighting.

Highly recommended.

If you're curious about why it has taken so long for Moonlighting to come to DVD, it's because Lions Gate had great difficulty securing the necessary rights to all of the songs featured in the various episodes. The music came from a variety of different sources and record labels, some of which have gone bankrupt or been taken over by other corporations in the last 15 years. A few years ago, Lions Gate considered releasing Moonlighting on DVD without music, but this was unacceptable to Glenn Caron, the series' creator. Finally, they obtained the necessary rights to all of the songs that so greatly enriched this wonderful show. They also got Bruce Willis & Cybill Sheperd involved in some of the DVD extras, and now we can finally see the result of all this hard work!

A LANDMARK SHOW NOW ON DVD AT LAST!!!!
Moonlighting came in 1985 and had a great impact in all the fiction written for television since then. Why? Well.. let's see...

It all started as the basic detective formula: two incompatible oddballs brought together having to solve one case in each episode - basically the same premisse present in most of the shows until then.

But there is more than meets the eye.

Moonlighting introduced new values such as MUSIC.... no other show had such a dramatic use of music as Moonlighting. Here, the usual "chase music" present in all shows were changed for Motown, blues, old rock classics and other kinds of music that where always used to a dramatic effect. The choice of each song we hear throughout the seasons was cleverly made... It means that most of the shows that came after... from CHINA BEACH to SEX AND THE CITY to SIX FEET UNDER owes a lot to the way Moonlighting started to use music. I just feel sorry that the producers never released a bigger soundtrack on cd because the CD that came in 1987 was far from its potential....

More...

Moonlighting opened up the TV narrative to the inner mind of the characters... in the sence that from then on, everything was possible in terms of what's going on inside the characters and the way we see it on the screen. The usual voiceover narration (that's as far as TV shows went until Moonlighting) was replaced by dreams, animation, musical numbers, richer editing, etc... again, Moonlighting opened the path to the great TV fiction we see today. THE SOPRANOS owe a lot to that.

More...
No other TV show relied upon the viewer's bond to the characters as Moonlighting... you can see that by the incredible number of ways fiction and reality merged during many episodes... many times, David Addison adressed the audience directly. Many times the characters show the sets and the fact that they are in a TV show... something that 99% of the TV shows at that time could not do. It is true that Moonlighting was not the only show to do that. SLEDGE HAMMER, many times did the same... but Moonlighting wasn't only a comedy...

...It was perhaps one of the first TV shows to blend different genres that were usually kept separated. Was it comedy? Was it detective-genre like MAGNUM P.I.? Was it romance? It was certainly not fantasy... but there was a lot of fantasy in it.

...It was one of the first TV "self-aware" shows that even paid homages to Cinema (Film noir, great musicals, keystone cops... just to name a few).

It was also one of the first TV shows that actually had great supporting roles with plots and conflicts on their own.

Moonlighting brought also more mature themes and an increasingly complexness to the leading character's motivations. And in this sence it is fascinating to see that in Moonlighting we have a detective show where many episodes go by where Maddie and David do not have cases to solve... where the spotlight is in their relationship.

It is like the show started as a formula and drifted to something richer, more complex, newer...

TODAY, fiction is miles beyond Moonlighting... but the show remains fascinating as an example of a TV product where everything is right. I trully believe Moonlighting had an important role in the development of TV fiction into what we see today.

By the way... this DVD edition has been long anticipated by many fans like myself... It seems that it took a long time to secure the rights to all the great songs in the episodes... but now that everything is in order... let's enjoy the perfect chemistry between Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis... the last heirs of Katherine Hapburn and Cary Grant...

Simply great!!!!!!!!!

Comments from a long time Moonlighting fan
These DVD's have been long anticipated. As the webmaster of the popular Moonlighting site, http://www.DavidandMaddie.com, I think I can speak for the entire fan community when I say, "These babies are way overdue!"

"Moonlighting" was a smart, sassy and very popular series in the mid to late 80's. Maddie Hayes and David Addison were the "hot" couple on TV back then. When this show first aired, it created such a buzz not only for its innovative scripts and the creative risks it took--but for the phenomenal casting of Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis in these roles. They were all the rage in 1986 & 1987 and no one that lived through the 80's could possibly have gotten through the time without knowing who they were.

The fans of the series have been loyal and new fans have been born out of more recent airings on cable channels both here in the US and overseas. Their persistance and work have paid off with the release of these DVD's.

Season One has in addition to the Pilot, 5 episodes that deal with Maddie and David trying to survive with few or no clients. And the ones they do have are usually not what they seem to be on surface. There are some really funny scenes as the two banter and investigate. The well-known "Looking for a man with a Mole on his nose scene" is in a season one episode.

Season two delivers 18 great episodes as the pair get to know each other better and better, the most famous one being the black and white episode "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice." Other notable episodes include a very funny Christmas episode complete with Mary, Joseph, Three Kings and a camel; the episode with the wacky chase scene with Maddie, David, a client, and her husband all dressed in identical black dresses with a veil as they race after each other to the tune of the William Tell Overture; the Buenos Aires trip with Maddie and David at a casino, the hilarious "My Fair David" which features a contest to see if David can act like a mature adult; as well as the episode with the first real kiss shared between the duo.

The music in the episodes is also a notable part. There are Motown classics, pop tunes, as well as Big Band era tunes sung by Cybill Shepherd ala Rita Hayworth in "Gilda".

Some of the exciting guest stars in seasons one and two included Dana Delany, Tim Robbins, Orson Welles, Barbara Bain, Mark Linn-Baker, Whoopi Goldberg and Judd Nelson. You also get to meet David's goofy brother aptly played by SNL alum Charles Rocket and Maddie's parents, the wonderful Eva Marie Saint and the late Robert Webber.

So don't delay in ordering these; TV this good only comes around once in a Blue Moon.

Added to on April 3, 2005. I just noticed that so far the Amazon.com listing doesn't mention the extras that have been announced for this release. So I will list them here for those that want to know.

The list has been announced to include:

Cast and Crew commentaries including Glenn Gordon Caron, Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis;
Not Just A Day Job - The Story of Moonlighting;
The Moonlighting Phenomenon;
Deleted Scenes;
Gag Reel

This sounds like a nice mix of fun and informative extras.

For those that keep asking: yes, the Pilot episode is included.