In English, Moonlighting means having a second job, doing consultancy. This is because, as anyone who knows English understands, the word would be translated as moon bathing, that is, working until late at night or after hours. This premise is important for the name of a highly successful American series in the 1980s, which, in Brazil, became known as The Cat and the Mouse. If you’re over 40, you know which series I’m referring to, but what matters is that, in homage to its star, Bruce Willis, and a wave of revival from that decade, the original series will be shown again. That’s right, the Hulu platform has recovered the rights and will make it available. Something ultra interesting for those who like entertainment and TV. Let’s see.

Moonlighting was on the air for just four years, but it was definitive. Launched in 1985, in Brazil it was shown on TV Globo, becoming a worldwide sensation for almost the entire time it was on air. Starring Cybill Shepherd, coming from the cinema and the success of Taxi Driver and an unknown Bruce Willis, in his debut role, the proposal was to update the formula of Taming of the Shrew or Much Ado About Nothing, where the main couple overcome mutual hostility until you fall in love. In this case, Madelyn “Maddie” Hayes (Cybill Shepherd), a former model who wakes up bankrupt and has to start working to regain financial stability and discovers that one of her old investments was a private detective agency, Blue Moon, where his employee and manager, David Addison (Bruce Willis) is a roguish and creative detective. The two obviously have opposite personalities – she is organized, he is chaotic – and they also have different interests. At first, Maddie wants to sell the agency, he needs her to keep the business going. Little by little, the former model becomes involved in the world of mysteries and investigations and, of course, they become partners.

If the formula seems the same as many other series, be aware: this was the first, the others are imitations. With quick dialogues that seemed improvised and clear sexual tension between its protagonists, it was an immediate success. Moonlighting was considered one of the first influential and successful examples of dramatic comedy or “dramedy”, which is so common today and the series is on Time’s list as one of the “100 best TV shows of all time”. times”, with David and Maddie leading one of the most beloved couples on TV.

Showrunner Glenn Gordon Caron, who was one of the producers of the similar Remington Steele, is behind the return of the series. He managed to achieve several bold moves, such as breaking the fourth wall and having the characters talk to the audience directly, he accelerated the pace of the action and was directly inspired by the classic “screwball comedies” of the 1930s and 1940s in cinema, such as those by director Howard Hawks. The boldness led to episodes where the production team and sets get involved in the plot, like the one where Maddie and David “discover” that the show is being canceled, and the office is dismantled around them as they argue with a producer. It was hilarious. Furthermore, it did a crossover with other hits of the time, such as having Remington Steele‘s star, Pierce Brosnan, participating in an episode and taking on the influence of Hart to Hart – which will have a post soon on MiscelAna – when in an episode based on the film It’s a Wonderful Life, the alternative reality that Maddie sees features Jonathan and Jennifer Hart (Robert Wagner and Steffanie Powers) buying Blue Moon and even featuring a cameo from Max (Lionel Stander).

Obviously, not everything was rosy. Bruce Willis was not an easy choice and after he “stole” the series, he and Cybill Shepperd also had disagreements behind the scenes. To make matters worse, stretching the “will they stay or not stay” of the two to the maximum, when the series brought David and Maddie together as a couple, it was precisely when it lost its audience, creating the famous “plague of Moonlighting”, which refers to how the public roots for the couple, but loses interest when they are together. Of course, it’s a simplistic reading, but it created the tradition of almost never keeping a protagonist couple without crises or together all the time. It’s not an exaggeration, you can Google it and you’ll see that the “fault” lies with Moonlighting.

With the success and its stars having other priorities (Cybill had children, Bruce became a global sensation with Die Hard) the recordings suffered a lot, as did the audience. Another aggravating factor was the writers’ strike that lasted from March to August 1988, which further disrupted the recordings. In this forced hiatus, the cancellation was brought forward. And the return was precisely the episode I mentioned about the end of the series, which ended with the credits saying that “Blue Moon Investigations ceased operations on May 14, 1989. The Anselmo Case was never solved… and remains a mystery to this day.”

For all its importance and the impact it had on TV, we celebrate the “return” of the original series to the Hulu platform, which is partially owned by Disney but only in the United States. For now, at least. We must thank showrunner Glenn Gordon Caron who committed himself for years and faced the worst challenge of releasing: the rights to the soundtrack. “In five seasons, I think we only did 66 shows. We used 300 songs. The idea of going back and renegotiating with all those people when they actually have you in trouble was not something any studio expected,” he mentioned in an interview.

For Glenn, the health of Bruce Willis, who suffers from Aphasia and is in an advanced stage of frontotemporal dementia, which is associated with difficulty speaking and understanding writing, sounds, and visuals.

“As I became aware of Bruce Willis‘ illness, it became more urgent to me, because I knew that much of the world knew him as a guy who carried a gun [because of his action movies], but they didn’t know that he was a romantic lead. They didn’t know that he was incredibly funny and incredibly verbally skilled. I would write these eight-page monologues for him at 5:30, and he would memorize them perfectly by 7:20, mainly because he was musical and approached everything as a musical proposal,” he recalled.

Some Hulu content is on Star Plus, here in Brazil, and we are rooting for it to be released worldwide. And here’s a recommendation for younger people: it’s worth enjoying and checking out because being innovative isn’t for everyone and this was content that changed a lot of things. Great news for those nostalgic!

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