Main Cast: Cybill Shepherd, Bruce Willis, Allyce Beasley, Robert Ellenstein, Jim McKrell
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
Plot
First telecast in early 1985, the 2-hour pilot film for the lighthearted TV detective series Moonlighting opens with fashion model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepard) discovering that her business manager has skipped with her fortune. The only asset she has left is the ramshackle Blue Moon Detective Agency, manned by acerbic David Addison (Bruce Willis). Maddie takes an immediate dislike to David, while he considers her a sexual conquest-to-be. The twosome continues to bicker their way through their first case, pausing for amenities only when it appears that both of them are about to be bumped off. Once safely back in the office, their verbal guerilla warfare resumes, leading the viewer to expect marvelous things from the subsequent Moonlighting TV series. Little of the series' fabled self-consciousness (talking directly to the audience, making references to the quality of the scriptwriting, etc.) surfaces in the Moonlighting pilot, but the film works well despite this "drawback." The series itself ran (or, as it turned out, limped) until May of 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Although the style of the series would be quirkier than the pilot episode of Moonlighting, that two-hour start does display the excellent timing between Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd that made the show a hit. Their level of banter, which can be compared favorably with some of the best screwball comedies, seems to have appeared full-blown right from the start. The characters would grow deeper over the run of the show, adding a level of poignancy to their verbal dueling, but it is easy to see from this episode why the show was picked up for a series. There is nothing all that mysterious about the murder mystery storyline, but what is on screen is a greater mystery - a case of actors bringing out the comedic best in each other. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Rachel Bard - Grandma; Blake Clark - Newsstand Man; Frederick Coffin - Pawnbroker; Suzanne Fagan - Female Driver; Sam Hennings - Jonathan Kaplan; James Karen - Plastic Surgeon; Dennis Lipscomb - Simon; Joan McMurtrey - Mother; John Medici - Andre; Henry Sanders - Investigator #1; Rebecca Stanley - Susan Kaplan; Dennis Stewart - Blond Mohawk; Joe Whipp - Investigator #2; Brian Thompson - Simon's Man; Liz Sheridan - Selma; Michel Voletti - Maitre D'; Mary Hart
Credit
Robert Turturice - Costume Designer, Robert Butler - Director, Lee Holdridge - Composer (Music Score), William Hiney - Production Designer, Michael D. Margulies - Cinematographer, Glenn Gordon Caron - Producer, Jay Daniel - Producer, Glenn Gordon Caron - Screenwriter
