3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No flies on Dave and Maddie in the "Moonlighting" pilot, July 7, 2005
This review is from: Moonlighting [VHS] (VHS Tape)
With the first two season of "Moonlighting" now out on DVD, the demand for just the pilot episode will be considerably less than before. But there is still something special about our introduction to Dave and Maddie, especially since it is more fun to remember the beginning of the series than to recall how it all ended. Written by Glen Gordon Caron and directed by Robert Butler, the "Moonlighting" pilot aired as a two-hour television movie on March 3, 1985 (in retrospect the "in like a lion, out like a lamb" idea certainly fits this show). The chief charms here were both the amount of dialogue that Caron was cramming into the script and the sparks that were flying between the two stars. Little did we know there would be much more of both in the future. At this point we were simply excited by the idea that not having flies on you is a good thing and that if you are being questioned by the police bringing a pair of sunglasses or ordering pizza with your one phone call would be good things.
Maddie Hayes (Cybil Shepherd) is a famous ex-model known as the "Blue Moon Girl," because of the ads she did for a shampoo. When her accountant embezzles her fortune, Maddie has to sell off the few failing businesses she owned as tax write offs. One of those is the City of Angels Detective Agency, run by David Addison (Bruce Willis), who wants to keep his job, his staff and his company car(s) (not necessarily in that order). So he tries to talk Maddie into forming a partnership. The only problem is that, at least at first, they cannot stand each other. He thinks she is a "blonde piece of fluff" and she considers him a "sissy fighter." So the question is can they make it through the pilot without falling in love with each other. The catalyst becomes the case they stumbled on when a dying man produces a broken watch from his mouth and slips it onto Maddie's wrist before he drops dead, courtesy of a knife in the back. Whether she wants to or not, Maddie Hayes is going to find out what it means to be a detective.
When I watched the pilot again for the first time in about a decade I kept thinking that there was something a little strange about it, but I simply dismissed such thoughts because like any pilot the actors are just starting to find their characters. Then it suddenly dawned on me why the episode sounded strange but still looked great after twenty years: Dave and Maddie are talking to slow in this pilot. At the time we were all marveling at how fast they talked on "Moonlight," but they are not yet up to warp speed in this first effort. This was also before the show become an example of postmodernism, primarily through its self-reflexivity, but even from the start you can see that this series is a dramedy. Remember, this was a show that was being nominated for Emmys as a dramatic series while being considered a comedy by the Golden Globes. Both, of course, were right. Today the idea that "Designing Women" or "Gilmore Girls" are situation comedies even though they are hour-long programs is not a radical idea, but it sure was twenty years ago.
In terms of the supporting cast in the pilot, Allyce Beasley as Agnes DiPesto is only on the cusp of becoming endearing because besides answering the phone in rhyme and having a bucket fall on her head she is really just background in this one. Among the guest stars the two who stand out are Dennis Lipscomb as Simon, whose slow and measured cadences stand out quite well in marked contrast to the speedy delivery of the two stars. Plus he appreciates the finesse of the word "duress." Then there is Jim McKrell as Dr. Spellner, Maddie's dinner date, who is wonderfully oblivious that his smooth condescension is not going over well with anybody, let alone Maddie. For familiar faces the guy with the blond Mohawk, whose name is apparently Klaus Gunter, is Dennis Stewart from "Grease," while Allistair, Simon's Man, is Brian Thompson, who goes on to be Luke and then the Judge on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (the television series, not the movie). Die hard fans of the series are going to want the entire show on DVD, but for those who just want to remember how "Moonlighting" was such a breath of fresh air, this pilot episode certainly suffices.
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