The Blue Moon Detective Agency will be back in business. At some point.
Moonlighting, the classic 1980s detective dramedy, is heading towards streaming at some point in the possibly near future. Series creator Glenn Gordon Caron made the announcement today on Twitter that work had begun on prepping the series after teasing it was coming on Monday, although he was a little light on the details.
CAT'S OUTTA THE BAG
Can't keep it under my hat any longer–the business of getting all 5 seasons of "Moonlighting" starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd ready for streaming has begun! pic.twitter.com/7XVZauGkHF
— Glenn Caron (@GlennGCaron) October 5, 2022
Moonlighting is perhaps best remembered in equal parts for serving as the launching pad for new comer Bruce Willis and for the tabloid stories of his behind-the-scenes fighting with his co-star Cybil Shepherd. Shepherd starred as model Maddie Hayes who is forced to run a detective agency she owned after her accountant embezzled everything else she owned with Willis as David Addision, the fast-talking and wise-cracking detective she gets saddled working with. The pair shared an intense chemistry on camera with millions tuning in for off-the-wall mysteries with a large dose of romantic comedy, will-they-or-won’t they banter.
However, the behind-the-scenes bickering between the two allegedly delayed shooting on an already complicated production process that routinely put the show behind schedule. Over the show’s four full seasons – season one was a mid-season replacement and so had a shorter episode order – the show never met its obligation for a full twenty-two episodes.
Although one of the biggest television shows of the 1980s, Moonlighting has been notoriously hard to see in the years since, mostly due to the rights to numerous pop songs from the 1960s, 70s and 80s that are used through the series’s run. All five seasons were released on DVD between 2005 and 2007, though they have all gone out of print. It has not yet appeared on a streaming service before today’s announcement.
It should be interesting to find out what business needs to be taken care of in order to get the show onto a streaming service. Obviously, there are music rights issues that will need to be attended to. As the series was shot on film but only broadcast and released on DVD in standard def, a high definition remaster would be a nice. And maybe an option for people to be able to hear a the numerous episode specific commentary tracks that were on the DVDs.
