18 February 2015
The Short Answer (TSA)
In part one of this “Short Answer,” we found out that, if you read a book by the light of the full moon on
a clear night, you were using “moonlighting” to read.
And . . .
In by-gone
days, if you took a second job, working at night, you were
“moonlighting.” Today, you’re “moonlighting” whenever you
take a second job, no matter what time of day you work.
Then, in part two, I found out that reported
cattle thefts and killings in late-19th century Ireland were called
“moonlighting.” It’s hard to know what really
happened. No “moonlighter”
was ever caught. Some think it was all just hysteria fueled by some
sensational news reports.
Finally, in part three, we’ll
remember a television series,
Moonlighting, that first aired
on 3 March 1985. This series didn’t really hit the ground running.
Instead it sort of hit the ground tumbling. And the tumbling
continued through a relatively short run on ABC. Created by Glen
Gordon Caron, the series was destined to garner an amazing list of
awards and “firsts” during its topsy-turvy progress through 66 episodes.
Model, turned-actress, Cybill
Shepherd, was cast in a lead role, as “Maddie.” She was looking to
score a big hit after several lackluster projects. And, it was hoped
that new-comer Bruce Willis' debut, cast opposite Sheppard, as “David,”
would be a hit with prime-time TV audiences.
Series Leads: Cybill Shepherd & Bruce Willis
In the series, wealthy Maddie is
reduced to poverty when an embezzler leaves her nothing but the
ownership of a few businesses that were tax write-offs -- intended to
lose money. But, David, head of one of those losing businesses, the
Blue Moon Detective Agency, convinces her that, together, they could
turn the business around and realize a substantial profit.
The series suffered many of the usual
issues in pre- and early production. Caron said he picked Willis to
play “David,” opposite Shepherd, about a third of the way through
auditions. But was forced to continue auditioning because the
network believed that Willis wouldn’t generate any “sexual
tension” if paired with Sheppard. It’s almost too much of an
understatement to say that the network was . . . mistaken.
Glen Gordon Caron
From the beginning, one issue would
keep the series “tumbling” throughout its run on ABC. Some said
Caron was a perfectionist and used movie techniques in filming. These techniques were, generally, not used in television production because of both cost
and time constraints. One way or another, Caron's attention to detail
earned the series critical praise and industry plaudits, but took its
toll in terms of time and money.
The, sometimes, 120-page weekly
scripts were twice the length of those for most single television
episodes. The individual episode production costs kept reaching
upward toward 2 million dollars – again -- nearly double the cost
of an average television series episode of the time.
But, the series began to garner awards
and an impressive list of “firsts.” Was the series a comedy or a
drama? A drama or a comedy? Well, it was both. Considered the
first successful TV “dramedy” (dramatic-comedy), this style
maintains an equal balance of humor and serious content.
Emphasizing the success of the series with this difficult fusion of
styles, were nominations by the Directors Guild of America, for both
Best Drama and Best Comedy in the same year – for two years in a
row.
The series successfully presented
“fantasy” episodes featuring the regular cast in different times
and places. One of the episodes, "The Dream Sequence Always
Rings Twice," was among the most expensive of this series’
already expensive individual episodes.
Unfortunately, the same attention to
detail that brought awards and praise also brought cost and delays.
Unable to film an average episode within a week’s time, the series
began airing reruns much earlier than the summer season -- simply
because the new episodes were not completed in time for broadcast.
The series never produced the standard 22 episodes in a single
season. During one season, only 16 episodes were completed.
On the good side, the delays and time
constraints contributed to one of the series most innovative
features. It “broke the fourth wall” more completely, than,
maybe any other series to date. “Breaking the fourth wall”
refers to episodes in which the characters’ dialogue makes
direct references to the series itself and speaks about the network,
the audience and the script writers.
One episode began with a television
critic sarcastically reminding viewers of the plot of the last original
episode aired -- after several weeks of premature reruns. Other
opening sequences included Shepherd, Willis, other actors, viewers,
or TV critics directly addressing the audience about the series's
production.
These introductions weren’t
originally intended to be part of the episodes. They began as an
attempt to fill air time when the script didn’t include enough
dialog to fill the entire hour. In some other episodes, featured sequences
included the crew dismantling or changing the sets or the production
crew stepping into the scene.
Theatrical players
are trained to maintain the illusion of the reality of the subject
matter of the performance at all costs. Such “breaks” in the “fourth wall” had been, generally, considered fatal to a production.
But nothing succeeds like success.
Amazingly, not only did Moonlighting
break the fourth wall with a steal ball, but did so with such style
and flair that . . . it worked! Audiences registered positive
reactions to sequences that, in other circumstances, might have cost
the series its popularity.
In spite of all the production issues,
Moonlighting had received 16 Emmy nominations by its second
season. Caron believes that the sudden decline in rating during the
4th season of the series resulted from an on-camera separation of
Shepherd and Willis. Shepherd had given birth to twins, and Willis
was shooting Die-Hard during that season, and the couple had
conspicuously few scenes together
Others attribute the decline to
predictable plot developments. During the third season, Shepherd and
Willis became an on-screen couple – ending over two years of
building romantic tension between the two stars. When romantic tension is a major
theme of the ongoing "story" of a series, the loss of that tension is
always considered a risk. And romantic tension had served Moonlighting well.
In the final season, the ratings
declined. And, with the Writer’s Guild strike of 1988, the
production of the series' season finale was canceled as was the
series, itself, in May of that year.
Characteristically, the last
episode ended with the Shepherd and Willis discovering the
Moonlighting sets being disassembled. An “ABC executive”
is on hand to inform them of the cancellation.
Then, the series disappeared.
Not
having produced enough episodes to be picked up for syndication, 10
years would pass before the series' episodes were released on DVD.
The back-story of
Moonlighting,
from beginning to end, seems more like an adventure than just the
simple production of a television series. During its brief life, the
series developed a devoted following and a list of credits, awards,
and “firsts” that guarantee it a prominent place in television
history.
