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The Creator Of MOONLIGHTING Just Sold An Idea For A New Private Eye Hourlong To CBS!!
Glenn Gordon Caron, who launched Bruce Willis’ career in the 1980s with ABC’s groundbreaking private investigator comedy “Moonlighting,” is getting back in the gumshoe game with a proposed series based on real-life New Jersey licensed investigator Pamela Slaton, according to Deadline Hollywood.
But while David Addison and Maddie Hayes usually focused on murder mysteries, Slaton specializes in reuniting clients with long-lost relatives and loves. The real Slaton starred in her own series, “Searching For …” which aired on OWN.
Since the long-ago cancellation of “Moonlighting,” Caron has kept himself busy creating the short-lived but brilliant sci-fi dramedy “Now And Again” (starring Eric Close and Dennis Haysbert) and the long-lived sci-fi dramedy “Medium.”
Find Deadline’s exclusive on the matter here.
Readers Talkback
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YUP! TWICE IN ONE DAY!
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I have no life.
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Just thinking about how CBS let that show go still makes me a little mad. That was such a great show that ended much too abruptly.
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Was going to say that Now and Again was one of the better shows on tv It got canned way too soon and to make things worse, they ended it on a great cliffhanger but now we'll never know how things ended. I hate it when they do things like that. Those are the things that make me not want to invest in shows too early, then I can catch them later if they are successful. The problem is that if enough people think like I do, then the networks cancel shows before they have time to get going. I hope Glenn Gordon Caron is more fortunate with this new series. He's very talented.
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Are you old enough to even remember Moonlighting? Season 1 - brilliant. It sure nose-dived from there. Jumped the shark - nope - jumped the moon.
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Because David continually referenced looney toon antics and Looney toons were used in Holiday Inn adds in the 80's, when I think of Bruce Willis my mind also thinks of Holiday Inn.
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An ABC show in the 80's called The Finder of Lost Loves, starring Anthony Franciosa.
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Wasn't it?
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Aug. 20, 2011, 2:53 a.m. CST
He was mentioned at some length in Jay Mohrs podcast this week.
by V'Shael
Very funny anecdote about directing Picture Perfect and dealing with Jennifer Aniston.
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maybe it was brucie's character or the show's music..(make a heck of a ringtone,) I think it was how 'david' and 'maddie' were a chemistry of jack daniels and coke cola. I had seen the originals as a lad. It's pretty much the only show that had me turn on lifetime.
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she sometimes solved cases for clients, no?
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Medium isn't really a sci-fi dramedy. Aside from Allison's "gift" it doesn't tackle much else in the realm of sci-fi -- preferring to stick to more realistic stories involving kidnapping/murder/thievery, etc -- it's also about 10x darker than you'd expect given that it's always compared to The Boob Whisperer. There are certainly comedic elements but it's the kind of humor your chuckle at before the next scene makes your skin crawl...
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Allison worked for the DA and often did her own investigating into the cases she was dreaming about -- but she wasn't really a PI. More often than not that's what made the show interesting -- she was out trying to solve a mystery that almost nobody else was interested in solving. PI's typically are hired to get answers -- Allison would dream about them and then have to work all episode to convince everyone something was genuinely wrong (at least most of the time). Still would love a spin-off with her oldest daughter Ariel finding herself in economic turmoil post-college and turning to detective work to make ends-meat. ;)
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...up until Addison and Hayes got it together, whereupon it nosedived like a motherfucker. Kind of similar to how 'The X-Files' was great up until Mulder and Scully got it together, whereupon it nosedived like a motherfucking UFO at Roswell. Learn the valuable lesson history has shown you, writers. Once your patchwork creature finally gets his bride, your castle will collapse around your ears like a motherfucker, because your series belongs dead.
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Moonlighting was the best. what always gets forgotten is that, at the time, fans of the show were chomping at the bit to see david and maddie get it on. yet once it happened everyone lost intrest. <p> which brings up another important lesson, never, ever, ever do what the fans want you to do. ignore the pleas of your fans to do anything, because once they get what they want they will turn on you faster that you can say.."lets do an episode baised on the taming of the shrew"
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of how releasing the sexual tension between the two protagonists can also drain the creative tension out of a show. Castle, I hope you're listening.
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MOONLIGHTING tanked because: 1. Cybil Shepherd got pregnant in real life. Not only did this take her away from the set, make production more difficult, this was in an era when they hadn't figured out how to shoot around such things. They tried, but at the end of the third season (when they finally did get it on) Shepherd was noticably fat. 2. At the same time, Bruce Willis broke his collarbone skiing. This took him away from the set, making production more difficult. 3. Shepherd was, depending on who you talk to, some degree of a diva. Her fights with Glen Gordon Caron resulted in her walking out, making production difficult. 4. Willis was becoming a movie actor. This took his head out of the game. 5. The show, with its rapid fire dialogue, required more scripting and took up more production resources than any other show at the time. 6. Breaking the Fourth Wall began as a quick, cute throwaway gag in the 2nd season, and quickly became a leading characteristic of the show. How are you supposed to invest real emotion in characters who keep reminding us that they're not real? The combination of all these factors created a herky-jerky writing and production schedule that interrupted the organic flow of the series. These are the factors that ruined it, and would have ruined it if Dave and Maddie had never got together at all. On the other hand, the sexual tension between the two characters had reached a point where if they *hadn't* gotten together, credulity would have reached the breaking point; this would have probably been another factor as to why the show tanked. Long story short: If it had just been written better, without the all production problems in the background, it would have been fine. And in fact, the Marc Harmon episodes that were written around them getting together, were actually some of the best in the series.
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Good job breaking it down dude. I would like to add that those production problems lead to some episodes not being edited, printed and shipped to ABC hq in NYC until the weekend before the show was scheduled to air. They even missed the deadline more than a few times. The ABC announcer had to come on and say "Due to technical difficulties the episode scheduled for tonight will not be seen. Stay tuned for an encore presentation." In some ways things are better now.-----later-----m
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Rationalize it all you like Greggers; I've read that all before, but simple truth is on-screen (where it counts) the eps took a nosedive right after that arc revolving Mark Harmon, sleeping with Maddie, dave fallin' for Maddie etc. Maybe even earlier with Herbert Viola. First 2 and a half seasons were classic, I was watching at the time and the show was HUGE in the 80s. Funny how people today have forgotten how enormous Moonlighting actually was.
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The writers strike. There was a writers strike which was the straw that broke the camel's back.
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Aug. 20, 2011, 5:45 p.m. CST
Moonlighting was probably the first great thing I ever saw on TV
by proevad
Think I was 13 or 14 when it came out and I had never seen a show that smartly written. Then of course, they had to fuck it up after the 1st season. Even the first season probably doesn't hold up very well now, but it was fresh as hell back in the day.
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Aug. 20, 2011, 6:55 p.m. CST
"You can't just barge in here like this!" "Tell it to the writers!"
by CountryBoy
I couldn't believe my young eyes when I saw that. I was like "Did David just mention the WRITERS of his show?" The mind reeled. If I remember correctly, there was also an episode where some real-life TV journalist interviewed "Dave" and "Maddy" about why their show had stopped production. Crazy times.
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No, actually Carl's hat, that's fine -- if you think that any story with sexual tension ruined once the couple gets together, more power to you. I think just think there are so many other things that went wrong with MOONLIGHTING after Season 3 that David and Maddie getting together was the least of the problems. And I guess in general, I think the opinion that the story is ruined once the couple "does it" is a very limited way to look at storytelling.
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You're right, I forgot that! That's a big one.
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That TV journalist was Rona Barrett, the Perez Hilton of her day. And that episode was *crazy* indulgent, and not one of my favs. Again, the blatant reminder that Maddie and David were TV characters devalued emotional investment. Hence, the Whoopi Goldberg episode was the worst of the early era.
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Anyone can do Erin Brokovitch these days.
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Spot on, sir. And i thought the Taming of the Shrew episode was hilarious.
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all shows on tv these days are for women. it's like they gave up on the male audience.
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Aug. 21, 2011, 7:29 a.m. CST
The X-Files was slowly going South a LONG time before Mulder & Scully became a couple
by Nasty In The Pasty
Hell, we never even got them...uh, "coupling" on-screen once during the series! The writers kept being coy about the M&S shipping, basically detailing a relationship that occured almost entirely off-screen for the last four or so seasons of the show. If anything killed the series, it was just being a serialized sci-fi procedural that ran for WAY too fucking long. Imagine if Lost ran for NINE YEARS. The creators of that show were wise to end it when they did. Had The X-Files ended right before the first movie came out in 1998, it'd be a more well-regarded series overall, but they just had to drag it out to pad out the show's syndication package with as many episodes as possible (not to mention a HORRIBLE second movie years after the fact). **Sigh**
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"Castle" will disintegrate if those two get together (if they haven't already. Have they? i haven't watched in a while) ... it happened in Moonlighting and people lost interest (or at least I did). It happened in 'I dream of Jeannie' in spite of Larry Hagman saying it would be the death of the show. It didn't happen, or almost happened, or sort of happened but never quite happened to Sam & Diane (and later Sam & Rachel) on Cheers, which probably helps explain why Cheers lasted as long as it did and never lost its spark Moonlighting was quirky and fun for a while and then became grating and stupid and I was happy to see the back of it and had it not been for this post here at AICN I would have happily lived out my days never thinking about Moonlighting ever again. It's already happened on "House" and the show has become noticeably duller. When pretty boy and the hot Mossad chick on NCIS finally get it on that will be the end of it too ... Ditto when beardy blondy guy and hot girl with the weird eye on NCIS Los Angeles get together ..... and ditto when the two from The Mentalist get together
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Aug. 21, 2011, 9:17 a.m. CST
re The X Files, I thought they kept it alive because they were contractually obliged to do so. Am I wrong?
by ragingfluff
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Aug. 21, 2011, 10:21 a.m. CST
Raging fluff is correct- hooking up leads = tv show death
by Carl's hat
Greggers, you remind me of the woman who runs the Dave and Maddie site. She will blame the downfall of Moonlighting on global warming, the Mayan calendar, John Wilkes Booth, anything or anyone, 'cept the bleeding obvious, that is that people turned off after they saw Dave and Maddie hook up. Granted all those things you mentioned are important, but they were all manifested in the show through that choice by the writers. Dave went from being Dave to the Bruce Willis that everyone knows today, that is a guy who looks like he's badly constipated, arrogant and takes himself way too seriously. Hurts me to say that 'cause I was a huge Bruce Willis fan when he was in Moonlighting, but nothing he has done since then has captured the magic he had back then. That charisma all died the night he and Maddie slept together. Oh, and I still partially blame Herbert Viloa.
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Well, okay, not really. Actually, the way you said it, I imagined a woman in a house with a lot of cats pushing her html skills to the very limit (flashing text! frames!) to keep her love of all things MOONLIGHTING alive. Very 90s. Does she have some sort of DVD campaign going (I guess now it'd be blu-ray)? It seemed you couldn't have a fansite in the 90s without a campaign of some sort. But I digress. Your main complaint seems to be that Bruce Willis somehow turned into a douche because the characters got together. I would argue that Bruce Willis turned into a douche because of Seagrams Golden Wine Coolers. You see, they were both "wet" and "dry," and the paradox was too much for his positronic brain to handle, and things just got very bad from there on out. (And with that, I just jumped the tracks from 90s nostalgia to 80s nostalgia.) But on a slightly more serious note, I watched a few episodes of MOONLIGHTING about a year ago, and (get ready -- here comes the Haterade) I discovered that they weren't as good as I remembered. Specifically, Bruce Willis, who'd I thought was the funniest, coolest thing in the world, came off as a low rent Bill Murray; a critique that I think I remember hearing at the time, but that now, seeing the show from an older perspective, I could really appreciate. David Addison is a dumb guy doing a Bill Murray impression. Still entertaining, but not what I thought it was.
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Aug. 21, 2011, 11:13 a.m. CST
very few shows from years ago hold up to the cold hard light of our adulthood
by ragingfluff
I adored 'Starsky & Hutch' when I was a kid. I watched an episode a few years ago ... it was so appallingly bad I went into a depressive funk for about a week and still even now have a twinge of despair thinking about it
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Man, he was the epitome of cool in the mid 80s and everytime I go into a fast talking little spiel, my wife says "you're doing David Addison again aren't you?" I've got the dvds for seasons 1-3 and I still like it, but Greggers is right, geez some of the jokes are lame. Still, the overlapping dialogue, the music, the whole breeziness of the show just make me remember how life should be...fun. The 70s and 80s shows made you feel glad to be alive, then grunge came in the 90s and I wanted to shoot myself. Another question for you, could you guys have seen Michael Keaton playing David Addison?
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Aug. 21, 2011, 12:08 p.m. CST
re: "could you guys have seen Michael Keaton playing David Addison?"
by jim
Yes. At least Michael Keaton as he was in "Night Shift"
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It's been over 20 years since seeing the Whoopi episode. But, I remember digging it at the time.
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Aug. 21, 2011, 12:39 p.m. CST
christ, i forgot what bruce willis looked like when he had hair
by ragingfluff
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...starring vince vaughn and kristen bell. make it happen hollywood. i mean, if we can get a "bewitched" movie then what the fuck, why not, right?
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Aug. 21, 2011, 1:15 p.m. CST
Mutely, I was ahead of the curve -- I hated it at the time.
by Greggers
Remember when Judd Nelson was A-List? Judd Fucking Nelson. So hot off THE BREAKFAST CLUB, movie star Judd Nelson AND Whoopi Goldberg on the same show seemed like a big deal. Plus, the episode had interstitials. Interstitials make everything seem more important. But the episode with the wacky action spilling out onto the wacky movie lot was high-larious, especially when I first say it. In BLAZING SADDLES. Or PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE. But I could forgive that. It was the end, when the show basically just threw up its hands and said "Hey, this is bullshit, let's just end it, nothing you just spent the past 55 minutes on matters." That was one of the most lazy, self-indulgent farts on the audience's face in the history of television. It took many years and Frank Darabount's THE MIST to top it in terms of serving up a shitty ending. Still, like a battered wife, I blamed myself and came back for next season. Seriously, Season 2 was probably the strongest season, but the Marc Harmon arc that ended Season 3, complete with Maddie *going into heat* for an entire episode, then having it never mentioned again, look like Shakespeare in comparison.
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Some walk by night, Some fly by day, Nothing could change you, Set and sure of the way. There is the sun and moon, They sing their own sweet tune, Watch them when dawn is due, Sharing one space. We'll walk by night, We'll fly by day, Moonlighting strangers Who just met on the way.
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Aug. 21, 2011, 1:29 p.m. CST
This morning, my typos are directly proportional to my passion. Let's go with that.
by Greggers
I relly didn't like that episode!
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That woman walks like a farmer
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Or one of them did, I can't remember which. And I remember an episode about a lady who thought she was a real leprechaun and cast Irish curses on people. That's all I got.
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1.) 'The 70s and 80s shows made you feel glad to be alive, then grunge came in the 90s and I wanted to shoot myself.' Couldn't agree more. Despite being Gen X, i frikkin' despised grunge. Almost as much as i do Hipsters now. 2.) Micheal Keaton would have made a great D.M., just as much as he did Bruce Wayne. It's officially gotten nostalgic to the point of sad now., btw. 3.) i haven't actually watched Moonlighting since i was a kid. It's not available through Netflix. Would i be ruining fond memories watching that show again?
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Funny you should ask. Actualy studies have been performed, and I can report the following data: Bruce Willis is 70% less clever and funny than you remember. Cybil Shepperd is only 10% less hot. This is science.
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...it was Cybil's charming, empowering attitude of refusal toward Willis that i'm fond of. And is Willis only 10% less hot? That's what i'd like to know.
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Good lovin'.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRaqV7A8YQo
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This was a fantastic show that could have had a long run...can't believe CBS cancelled it, nor can I believe it STILL hasn't been released on DVD! One of my prized possessions is an original script signed by the cast. :)
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Aug. 22, 2011, 10:01 a.m. CST
The problem with Now and Again, not that I had one, but most
by Grammaton Cleric Binks
of the public probably couldn't decide if it was a love story, or a show about a super human experiment. Did John Goodman sign your script?
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Secret to doing a television series like this is to NEVER have them together. It ruins everything, makes them boring.
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Hate proceduarls, but love Private eyes...Whatever happend to real private dicks? The ones who have been divorced several times, drink like Ted Kennedy and have a gambling habit? Oh wait....*rushes to write that down!
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Name a show where the sexual tension between the stars was at the center of the show's success, and lasted several seasons (say...at least three). Let them finally get it on. How many shows have survived this? I'm not at all saying it hasn't happened. I'm asking if anyone has an example of it.
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Sam got together with both Diane and leter Rebecca, and it ran for eleven years and stayed fresh and funny the whole way through. Now Frasier, on the other hand, was totally ruined when Niles and Daphne finally hooked up.
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Aug. 22, 2011, 12:48 p.m. CST
The Jump The Shark website has a whole list of victims in
by Grammaton Cleric Binks
the "They Did It" section. Moonlighting and Who's the Boss are prime examples.
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Aug. 22, 2011, 1:28 p.m. CST
However, often when they finally "do it", it is late in the series
by jim
when the writers have run out of ideas of what to do with their characters. A last ditch attempt to infuse some life into a show already well into its decline.
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Their wasn't really much sexual tension between them, but the possibility was inevitably there. So, the writers had them hop into the sack after she told him she'd faked it all those times when they were together. Effective way to put a kibosh on any future hook ups. Fans who wanted it saw them get together, and their characters were able to genuinely move on by saying they'd tried it but they just weren't into each other that way anymore.
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TV show couples are much more interesting when they struggle with sexual tension than they are when they are in a relationship with each other. When they finally evolve into relationship status, they lose certain aspects of their character. They can't react to each other in the same way they would if they weren't a couple and it's their reactions to certain situations that make the viewers like their characters in the first place. House is a good recent example. When House and Cuddy hooked up, House immediately ceased being House. He couldn't react to Cuddy the way he did in previous seasons and as a result, the character and the show lost a lot of its spark. In the case of Sam and Diane on Cheers, neither character changed the way they reacted to each other whether they were in a relationship with each other or not. They related to each other the same way regardless and the affects of being a tv couple didn't penetrate into the basic character traits that made them watchable characters in the first place.
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Aug. 22, 2011, 2:03 p.m. CST
Is the Jump the Shark wesbite still going? I went there a while ago and it had been turned into TV guide
by ragingfluff
apparently TV Guide bought the name off the guy who ran the site for oodles and oodles of dollars
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Aug. 22, 2011, 2:25 p.m. CST
Didn't Jerry & Elaine become a couple again at the end of the first season
by jim
or maybe second? Then undid it with a quick conversation next season with George and Jerry: "Didn't work out" "that's a shame"? carolinamaestro, I have to disagree with your House example. I thought they did a good job of showing, through their relationship, why they shouldn't be in one despite the sexual tension. It was new territory for the character of House and him not being able to react to Cuddy the way he previously did in a way made their rather dysfunctional relationship even less functional. And all that led to how the season ended and where House ended up.
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Hart to Hart maybe? It ran five seasons, but might not be what you're looking for. Pretty sure they started out a couple. It was before my time. i've never actually seen it...
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Also Chandler and Monica later in the series. TWO major hook-ups and the show didn't suffer creatively either time (although the C+M hookup came out of nowhere, so I guess it doesn't really count).
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Aug. 23, 2011, 1:38 p.m. CST
The Rachel/Joey prolonged almost-hookup did show a lack of creativity
by jim
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