Moonlighting (TV series)

Moonlighting
Created by	Glenn Gordon Caron
Starring	Cybill Shepherd Bruce Willis Allyce Beasley Curtis Armstrong (1986–89)
Theme music composer	Lee Holdridge Al Jarreau
Opening theme	"Moonlighting" Performed by Al Jarreau
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	66 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Glenn Gordon Caron
Running time	approx. 45–49 minutes per episode
Production company(s)	Picturemaker Productions ABC Circle Films
Distributor	Disney-ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	March 3, 1985 – May 14, 1989

Moonlighting is an American comedy-drama mystery television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes (67 in syndication as the pilot is split into two episodes). Starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis as private detectives, the show was a mixture of drama, comedy, and romance, and was considered to be one of the first successful and influential examples of comedy-drama, or "dramedy", emerging as a distinct television genre.

The show's theme song was performed by jazz singer Al Jarreau and became a hit. The show is also credited with making Willis a star, while re-launching the career of Shepherd after a string of lackluster projects. In 1997, the episode "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" was ranked #34 on (the 1997) TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. In 2007, the series was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-Time". The relationship between David and Maddie was included in TV Guide's list of the best TV couples of all time.

The series revolved around cases investigated by the Blue Moon Detective Agency and its two partners, Madelyn "Maddie" Hayes (Shepherd) and David Addison Jr. (Willis). The show, with a mix of mystery, sharp dialogue, and sexual tension between its two leads, introduced Bruce Willis to the world and brought Cybill Shepherd back into the spotlight after a nearly decade-long absence. The characters were introduced in a two-hour pilot episode that preceded the series proper.

The show's storyline begins with the reversal of fortune of Maddie Hayes, a former model who finds herself bankrupt after her accountant embezzles all of her liquid assets. She is left saddled with several failing businesses formerly maintained as tax write-offs, one of which is the City of Angels Detective Agency, helmed by the carefree David Addison. Between the pilot and the first one-hour episode, David persuades Maddie to keep the business and run it as a partnership. The agency is renamed Blue Moon Investigations because Maddie was most famous for being the spokesmodel for the (fictitious) Blue Moon Shampoo Company. In many episodes, she was recognized as "the Blue Moon shampoo girl," if not by name.

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