When re-watching the series, it has all of what the 80's where about. A brilliant soundtrack: the temptations, rolling stones, ray Charles, Mitch Ryder, James brown,... Sexual innuendos, gender parity clashes. The actors from the times were also relevant: Whoopi Goldberg, Terry O'Quinn, Judd Nelson, Brooke Adams, and what about having an intro from Orson Welles and Eva Marie-Saint as Maddie's mother. The references to "old Hollywood" are excellent: Harold Loyd, a bit of Shakespeare and musicals. Each episode introduces different kind of creativity: the animated paste that will be later used in Celebrity deathmatch, the reference to John Landis type of comedy, the references to the horror movies of the time (chainsaw massacre, mike myers, exorcist, poltergeist, etc...). The dialogs are excellent and the second part which had lower audience at the time (series 4 and 5) are actually more appreciable now. It is like a concentrated package of all what was the 80's about into a 5-season TV series.

Since 1980, the first-run, network television shows I have watched regularly could be counted on the fingers of one hand. "Newhart," "Twin Peaks," "Andy Richter Controls the Universe." Last, and probably least, was "Moonlighting." "Moonlighting" started life as a TV movie that was followed, like so many ducklings, by five additional episodes. It concerns a glossy fashion supermodel (retired) who woke up one day to discover she had been bamboozled out of all her money. Advised by her lawyer, she began closing businesses that were kept in her portfolio as tax write-offs, including a detective agency run by wise-cracking David Addison (Bruce Willis).I was hooked from the TV-movie pilot. I can remember the moment when Willis was no longer unknown. I religiously watched every episode. When the six episodes of the first series ended, I was coming off a terrible strep throat that left me with severe laryngitis for a fortnight. Nevertheless, serving as a groomsman at a friend's wedding the next week, I whispered the good news of a great show to everyone at the reception. "If it comes back, watch it!" My friend is still married, but upon revisiting the series for the first time in a quarter century, I wondered If I should have skipped the wedding. I cannot imagine why I made such a fuss.As an actress, Cybill Shepard's greatest ability is to look good on camera. "Moonlighting" is a better showcase for the talents of Bruce Willis. Willis lived the Hollywood dream that almost never happens. After a few tiny parts he got a star-making role that propelled him to superstardom (see also Pierce Brosnan from the show "Moonlighting" was patterned after, "Remington Steele"). Willis was never used to better effect. Seeing him mumble through his lines these days, it's hard to remember the time when he could go out in an alley and loudly sing "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" to Shepard's sexy walk. Where did that man go? "Moonlighting" had some very good qualities. It was never short on snappy dialogue (often spoken at the same time by Willis and Shepherd). It always looked good. Too good, perhaps. Rumor has it the makers of "Moonlighting" always demanded more money and sometimes barely got the show to air on time. This strikes one as unprofessional.Perhaps the subversive and tongue-in-cheek elements do not hold up as well. When Willis or Shepherd break the "fourth wall" (i.e., talk directly to the camera) or let on that the know they are only characters in a show. Shades of Pirandello! It was funny at the time but it has hardly aged well. Nor have other antics that looked neat at the time, such as a Shakespearean farce stuck in the middle of a season for no particular reason except for the writers to show what wiseacres they were.DOUBLE SPOILER And the show went downhill fast. Many attribute this decline to the main characters "getting together" after a couple of seasons of sexual tension and teasing. But the main characters of "Remington Steel" never got together and that show also tanked after a few good years. Darned if you do, darned if you don't.I stayed with "Moonlighting" from the pilot right to the bitter end, and it was pretty bitter. Looking back, as is the case with "Twin Peaks" which I also revisited recently, I wonder now why I bothered. "Moonlighting" might have been on the cutting edge, but that which is closer to the edge dull the fastest. Despite many things in its favor, including Willis and the good writing and the high production values, "Remington Steele" has weathered better. "Moonlighting" really is one of those shows where "you had to be there at the time to get it."

I have lived with this series on and off ever since the DVDs were released, endlessly fascinated by the kind of insights into men and women that it throws up. OK. So last night I watch Taxi Driver for the first time (I don't care for the adulation of gangsterdom). And guess what? Look at the scene where Robert de Niro first approaches Cybill Shepherd. See the David Addison smirk? See the Mattie Hayes flirtation? And what about the mohawk-ed thief in the Moonlighting pilot, wasn't that a way of signalling the separation of the New Jersey boy from the psychopath Vet? So David Addison is a Travis Bickle who skipped Vietnam and hightailed it out to the Coast instead, got himself a life and a sense of humour. And Betsy? Well, she gave up politics and got into modelling instead, and never looked back either.

David Addison was a character who knew when to have fun at work and enjoy life compare to most American men for the last 50 years. Furthermore, he is one of the few guys who don't back down from a fierce verbal argument with a female particularly with his boss Maddie Hayes. Grant it, Addison was a sexist person which is the one thing I don't like about him; however, if he has a point to make, he will not hesitate to argue with a woman even to the point of disobeying her orders.All in all, it was a very fun show. I love the secretary manning the Blue Moon Detective Agency. She would have made a fortune writing poetry or songs the way she answers the telephone every day.