Moonlighting
 An
unusual comedy/drama where the characters all knew that they were
in a television series and many times made witty asides direct to
the camera and the audience.
Maddie (Cybil Shepherd) was a successful and glamorous top
fashion model who had been defrauded by her manager.
Her only
remaining assets were the house, the BMW and the City of Angels
Detective Agency.
The agency had no cases but lots of staff and had been set up
as a tax dodge.
When she visited the business to close and
liquidate its assets, she met David Addison, its main employee,
whose motto was "Live fast, die young, leave clean
underwear".
To save his job, cocky Addison cunningly conned Maddie out of
closing the business. He then managed to persuade her to become
involved in the business - At which stage the agency was renamed
"Blue Moon" after the shampoo that she had previously
modelled for.
The wisecracking David and the strong-willed, reserved Maddie
became a detective team. David also lusted for her, but Maddie
resisted his overtures.
This courtship became the underlying theme of the show. David
finally won a kiss (when Maddie thought he was leaving for good)
but not until the end of the 1987 season did they make love.
In a parody of the film Body Heat he broke into her home
and made love to her on her living room floor. In the meantime,
their rocky relationship survived many break-ups, including a
visit by Maddie's college boyfriend Sam (Mark Harmon).
Sam was an
astronaut, also strong-willed and reserved. Dave and Maddie each
got counselling - her from Dr. Joyce Brothers, him from Ray
Charles.
Moonlighting's constant and widely publicised production
problems resulted in numerous repeat episodes. The 1986 take off
of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew featured Cybill as
Kate and David as Petruchio.
It was a dream sequence where the
characters looked at the camera and commented on their real life
problems.
In 1988 Maddie found out she was pregnant (timed to coincide
with Cybill Shepherd's real life pregnancy). The baby could have
been David's or Sam's. Maddie ran home to Chicago and then married
a near stranger on the train trip back to LA.
The baby was stillborn and Maddie had her marriage annulled.
The series never recovered from this ill received storyline.
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