moonlighting-related stories
Posted Apr 14th 2009 5:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
AOL has chosen the
best TV shows of the 1980s, and it's not a bad list. But I'm sure everyone reading this will have their own thoughts.
Sure, there are shows that were my favorites I'd like to see on the list, but those would be personal choices. The only problem I have is
where the shows place on the list. For example, is
Fraggle Rock really a better show than
Spenser: For Hire,
Miami Vice, and
Kate and Allie (even beyond the fact that it might be an odd show to compare to the other shows in the first place)? Is
Facts of Life better than
MacGyver?
Continue reading What are the best TV shows of the 1980s?
Posted Apr 10th 2009 12:14AM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E21) Okay, so this is the second slice of
Office bread in the
Parks and Recreation sandwich, and, in keeping with my long tradition of strained metaphors, it kind of felt like an end piece. Edible, sure, but it would have been nicer if it was as good as the episode that came before it.
While I'm enjoying frazzled Jim much more than "what-me-worry?" Jim, they're pushing the cringe humor between Minor and him a bit too far. Somewhere in the last couple of episodes, we went from "fun" to "not fun" (or, as we call it in the entertainment trade, from
Last Crusade to
Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls).
It was actually more interesting to watch my wife watching the episode: her face was twisting in grief for Jim's inability to figure out what a "rundown" was. It's a testament to good writing that we care so much for the characters that we feel their pain just as strongly as they do, but we need some laughs to lighten the load...
Continue reading The Office: The Michael Scott Paper Company
Posted Feb 10th 2009 10:03AM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: TV on DVD, The Office, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Valentine's Day is on a Saturday this year, so why not eschew the whole dinner and a night out routine for a day in from the cold watching TV boxed sets on DVD? What better gift is there than an entire day of laziness catching up on those boxed sets you got for Christmas and have had no time to watch? But choose carefully. No one can take a whole day of
Rock of Love or
Matlock.
Beauty and the Beast: The Complete Series - A tolerable "chick flick" type series, you can probably get away with watching just the first two seasons, before Linda Hamilton left and her character was killed off. And once your significant other gets used to the idea of Ron Perlman in Beast make-up, maybe you can convince her to watch
Hellboy with you.
Continue reading Five boxed sets for Valentine's Day
Posted Jan 13th 2009 6:08PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free
If you were to make a list of the TV shows from the '80s you could bet wouldn't come back as a reunion movie, ABC's
Moonlighting is one of them. Not only is the show 20 years old, but there was constant tension/problems/fights/delays on the set of the show (sometimes Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd weren't even speaking to each other, except in scenes as Dave and Maddie), and when it ended Willis went on to a major big-screen movie career and you'd think he wouldn't want to look back on some TV show he did in 1986. But you'd be wrong.
Liz Smith reports that
Willis and Shepherd ran into each other at an Encino deli (probably the last place I would think they would run into), and they were quite happy to see each other, even getting a little teary-eyed talking about old times. They're both up for a reunion movie (this year marks the 20th anniversary of the show's end), but they'll only do it if creator/producer Glenn Gordon Caron is in charge of the show again.
Glenn is currently doing
Medium, and before that created
Now and Again, which I really liked and should have stayed around a lot longer than it did.
Posted Jun 17th 2008 8:40AM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, The Middleman
(S01E01) "I think Jughead's a real hoot." - Wendy Watson
From the beginning, I can tell this show is going to be pretty campy. That always tends to make me nervous. There are very few shows that can do camp and still be truly entertaining. I consider Batman to be one of those shows, although I know there are many who disagree. The corny looking mutant, the cheap special effects, the conversation about dating; all these things point straight towards camptown, but it's only the first three minutes.
Generally, I am not a fan of shows with quickly spoken dialog. It reminds me of how great Bruce and Cybill did it on Moonlighting. However, when it's done right, it not only sets a tone for the show but also gives the characters more freedom to have fun with the script. In the case of Middleman, I think it really works. Matt Keeslar and Natalie Morales have a nice rapport and their serious tone is a nice juxtaposition to the outrageous situations. One more point for the show.
Continue reading The Middleman: The Pilot Episode Sanction (series premiere)
Posted Apr 23rd 2008 5:41PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Psych, Casting, Reality-Free
This sounds like good casting to me.
Cybill Shepherd is joining Psych for a mini-arc as Shawn's mom. The actress, best known on TV from her hit series
Moonlighting (remember, her and Bruce Willis?), has recently been on Showtime's
The L Word. Cybill's not a great dramatic actress, but she is pretty funny and should fit in perfectly with the goofy, good-natured fun on
Psych.
When
Psych comes back to USA Network on July 18 with new shows, her episodes (at least two) will be broadcast. She's playing Madeleine, Henry's ex-wife and Shawn's mama. So far in the series, Maddie (like Maddie Hayes in
Moonlighting perhaps?), has not been shown in the scenes depicting Shawn -- and Gus's -- childhood. Corbin Bernsen, who plays Henry, has worn a hairpiece for the retro scenes and goes bald for the present day scenes. We'll see whether Cybill's in both scenes or not...
According to the show, when Madeleine appears in Santa Barbara, she's coming from Europe and wants to visit her sonny boy. The visit, so we're told, dredges up some old memories. And since this is a crime/caper/mystery show, perhaps Maddie's bound to get involved in one of Shawn's cases.
Posted Oct 26th 2007 3:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities, Obituaries
A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.
- Lonny Chapman: He was a veteran stage and screen actor/director who appeared on several TV shows over the years, including Murder, She Wrote, NYPD Blue, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, Riptide, Hotel, Knight Rider, Trapper John, M.D., Simon & Simon, Vegas, Quincy, M.E., Charlies Angels, Kojak, McCloud, and many, many others. He also starred in several Broadway plays, including Come Back Little Sheba, and served in World War II. He died of heart disease at age 87.
Continue reading TV Obits: Chapman, Brewer, Ramos, Mauch, Nedboy
Posted Oct 19th 2007 8:41AM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews
(S04E04) To whomever it may concern:
The problem with writing reviews within a few hours of watching an episode of a show is that very often doing so leads to hyperbole. You need to generate an opinion so quickly that minor points of contention can easily turn into "catastrophic flaws", while solidly good episodes become "masterpieces that will no doubt usher in a new golden age of television." It is incumbent upon a reviewer, then, to keep his excitement in check and guard against the urge to over-state things.
All that being said, tonight's episode was The. Best. Episode.
Ever. More after the jump...
Continue reading The Office: Money
Posted Jul 6th 2007 4:22PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities
And I second that. I'd love to see a Moonlighting reunion movie. Now all Cybill Shepherd has to do is convince Bruce Willis.
Shepherd tells Entertainment Tonight that she still thinks Willis is "hot" and that she would be up for doing Moonlighting again. Of course, Willis is really busy doing movies these days and who knows if he wants to look back like that, especially since the two had a lot of tension on the set (though I think Willis would be more up for it now than, say, 10 years ago).
Continue reading Cybill Shepherd wants to do Moonlighting again
Posted May 7th 2007 4:20PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Medium, Pickups and Renewals
Medium has become the Yes, Dear of "psychic who sees ghost genre and helps people," a show that not too many seem to talk about but gets pretty good ratings and gets renewed every year. See also: JAG.
NBC has given the Patricia Arquette show a fourth season, a week before the official fall 2007 lineup is announced at the network's upfront presentation. NBC President Kevin Reilly praised the show as only a network executive can (and while you read the praise, replace the title Medium with any show that NBC has canceled in the past 6 months).
Continue reading Medium renewed for a fourth season
Posted Mar 13th 2007 1:55PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd
For a while there, Moonlighting was great, wasn't it? It's a show that truly defines the 80s (the clothes, the attitude), it was really fun and clever, and made Bruce Willis an A list star. Sometimes it's easy to forget how SCREWED UP the show got there for a while. Almost every episode had some problem (script delays, fighting between cast members), and there were whole episodes that were affected by a writers strike and episodes where costars Allyce Beasley and Curtis Armstrong had to take over. It was a rather up and down show, especially in the last couple of years. But it was always entertaining and even joked about these delays and problems in a good, wink-wink sort of way.
Continue reading DVD review: Moonlighting, The Final Season
Posted Mar 5th 2007 9:29PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
- Doctor Who - The Invasion and The Sontaran Experiment
- Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends - Season 1
- Hawaii Five-0 - Season 1
- The Loop - Season 1
- Moonlighting - The Final Season (review coming tomorrow)
- Northern Exposure - Season 6
- Sabrina, The Teenage Witch - Season 1
- South Park - Season 9
- Stargate: Atlantis - Season 2
Posted Nov 17th 2006 11:32AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Web, Celebrities
Since TV is in everyone's home, it's one of the pop culture things we can all talk about. Entertainment Weekly lists their 10 Big Watercooler Moments, those moments on TV shows that we were all talking about the next day at work (or school).
While some of their choices are obvious and deserving to be on the list (Lucy going into labor on I Love Lucy, Ellen DeGeneres coming out on Ellen, Maddie and David finally doing it on Moonlighting, the "Who Shot J.R." ep of Dallas), are they really serious when they list the episode that Michael J. Fox left Spin City? Really? Hey, I like Fox, but was his character (or even the show) that important and talked about? I think that Fox announcing he was ill was certainly something we all talked about, but I don't think that it should be on this list. Especially considering what EW left off the list: the finales of M*A*S*H*, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Friends; several Seinfeld moments (that was the topic of discussion every morning after where I worked), and the final episode of Newhart with Suzanne Pleshette.
I mean, Felicity cutting her hair? Gah.
[via TV Filter]
Posted Nov 12th 2006 3:03PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, NBC, Medium, Animation
Medium's creator Glenn Gordon Caren is finally getting to play out some of the ideas he came up with in his days as a
Moonlighting writer. Remember all the cool, wacky
Moonlighting episodes? The film noir episode. The
Taming of the Shew redo. Turns out Caren had wanted to do an animated episode back in the day. Technology, cost and opportunity have finally aligned to revive the animation idea - this time for
Medium.
Johnny Bravo creator Van Partible has
contributed 2-D animation for the show's two-hour third season premiere to represent the psychic dreams of Allison's daughter Bridgette. The cartoon dreams start out comedic and get increasingly darker when, you know, death nears.
They should dole out all of
Moonlighting's old ideas to any show that needs a jump-start for sweeps week. Now, if only
Medium would take on
Macbeth.
Posted Sep 12th 2006 2:29PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD
Avatar: The Last Airbender -Book 1 - The Batman - Season 2
- Black. White - Complete Series
- Diagnosis: Murder - Season 1
- Grey's Anatomy - Season 2
- Las Vegas - Season 3
- Moonlighting - Season 4
- The Office - Season 2
- Roseanne - Season 5
- Smallville - Season 5
- SpongeBob SquarePants - Season 4, Volume 1
- Stella - Season 1
- The Swan - Seasons 1 and 2
- Teen Titans - Season 2
- Wildboyz - Seasons 3 and 4
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