Moonlighting: Classic P.I Dramedy on DVD

Moonlighting was in its prime a few years before I was old enough to watch TV shows that aired that late on a regular basis. I admit it. I was eleven. My primary memory of the show is watching it win an award with my family, on TV, and my younger brother getting up before us and saying "I'll give you the moon"…You can assume the rest.

Even though I didn't see it much, and didn't get what I did see, probably, I remember not liking the show. Reviewing the DVD set, I was most excited to hear the theme again. I know to many people, the show remains a classic, with its quirky banter and chemistry between its stars, or as the box says "sharp and sassy repartee". I know it told odd stories in inventive ways, was funny and "sexy" and all that.

But for me I prefer John McClane to David Addison, by a lot. And Cybil Shepherd and her whiney character Maddie Hayes always seemed to me just too much. The battle-of-the-sexes motif doesn't interest me. I don't find either of them that "witty" and even now, I could care less if these two end up together. If we're talking romantic-men vs. women-office-dramedy, I much prefer the dialogue and characters of Ally McBeal which isn't probably the best comparison, but I'll go with it.

Of course, that might just be me backing a show of my "generation" that I can relate to instead of this 80s award-winner and critic's darling. Or I might just be rebelling against the comparisons to Tracey and Hepburn (whatever…) or the overkill love fest from fans, or maybe I'm just too picky. In any case, I'm sure Moonlighting fans (and people who love to hate the batty Ally or her creator David E. Kelley) will beg to differ. Hey, a guy who wrote for Moonlighting currently writes for Boston Legal. Weird.

In any case, while I would never want to be in a room alone with David Addison or Maddie Hayes, let alone both of them (and I'm not even getting into Ms. Dipesto and those annoying phone answering things she does…) if you're one of those Moonlighting fans, here's what you can look forward to on the Season 1 & 2 DVD.

First, yes, it's two seasons, but it's only 23 episodes, or roughly one season of a regular show. I'm not sure why this was- I'd have to look into when the shows aired. Interestingly, only a handful of episodes were actually written by show's creator Glen Gordon Caron (creator of the current NBC drama, Medium).

The final episode involves Whoopi Goldberg as a con artist, maybe a precursor to her role in Ghost. Also look for Judd Nelson in that episode. I guess in '85 he was still cool. Also be on the lookout for Tim Robbins, Dana Delaney and as himself, Orson Welles.

Caron, who also wrote for that other '80s detective pair show, Remington Steele, is interviewed in an eleven-minute short along with Shepherd and Alyce Beasley, Bruce Willis (who mainly just sits there) and some of the writers. The most striking thing to me was Caron seems like a very grounded and nice guy. I don't know why that stands out. The short also includes interviews with fans and, for some reason, an actor who appeared in the pilot. Not sure what that's about. The whole thing has a kind of low-budget feel to it.

The clips they use to illustrate how funny and clever the show was are neither funny nor clever. The stills they showed of ads for Moonlighting looked like they were ripped out of a TV Guide and had terribly cheesy taglines. And other than Shepherd saying she and Willis used to fight off screen to subconsciously prepare to spar on screen, there's nothing really interesting there to the casual viewer.

But fans of the series may find it insightful. Along with that you get a 2-part (for some reason) "behind the scenes" featurette totaling an hour in length, episode commentaries on several episodes.
The set is relatively easy to navigate and features some cool 3-d art on the cover. Well, cool if you actually like the show.