TVSquad

Today is my 40th birthday, and in many ways it's truly hard to believe that Moonlighting is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Where the hell did the past 20 years go? I can empathize with Bruce Willis when on the commentary track he talks about the hair he had back then. Me too Bruce. 

For people who have never seen this show, it's really hard to express how popular it was. For 1985 and 86, this was the hip show to watch in the mid 80s. It had the snappy dialogue, the great chemistry between the two stars, and a pure old-fashioned entertainment value that really appealed to all ages. There were reports of the backstage feuding between Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd, but those reports really came full force later in the show. For the first two seasons it wasn't that much of a big deal (believe it or not, back then, Entertainment Tonight had other things to report). 

The shows hold up beautifully, really. The dialogue sparkles, the two leads really do "movie star" turns in their roles, the plots are fun and often unpredictable, and the overall production is great. It's funny to see how TV shows nowadays are much different than they were back then. Everything from the look and pace of Moonlighting is unlike anything on TV today (of course, you can say that about a lot of shows from the 80s, especially the hour long dramas), and you really see such blunt spots for the commercials to be inserted (Willis and director Will MacKenzie even joke about it at one point).

It would have been really nice to get more commentaries. I mean, Willis and Shepherd only show up to comment on one episode each (I wonder what it took to get them to do it), and it's not the same episode. Which isn't a big surprise. As the song says, some walk by night, some fly by day.