Moonlighting | The 90s TV Babies

Weirdy, weird medium, so pretty through the city world. This is Eighties TV Ladies, where we explored the fabulous female driven television shows of the nineteen eighties with your hosts Susan Lambert Hadham and Sharon Johnson. Hello, I'm Sharon and I'm Susan. For the last few weeks, we've really been enjoying looking back at Moonlighting. I remembered it fondly, honestly didn't remember a lot of the specifics, so it has been really educational looking back on it.

There's a lot of the show that I really admire, and the more I've learned about some of the challenges that the production faced, it makes my admiration level go up. I admire the performances, but you know, it's a hit or miss. A lot of the episodes held up really well. Some of them not so much because of a lot of it having to do with things outside of the control of the show. So but overall, this has really been wonderful to look back.

I agree, Sharon. You know I was skeptical starting the rewatch, a little worried that it might age poorly because it was so of its time. I really loved it. Remember lovering it, but I think it is absolutely worth watching. Again.

It's odder and more interesting than I remember. It's occasionally uneven, like there are some episodes that are not as good as others, which is true of any show, which is true of any show, particularly from the eighties. Yes, we've always see a little bit of a drop in that those later seasons. But I appreciate it more than I thought I would. I appreciate the humor of it.

I appreciate the fourth wall breaking. I appreciate the experimentation in almost every episode, trying something that just hadn't been done in eighties television or since the audacity of it, the willingness of Glenn, Gordon Karen to just say we're going to try all kinds of stuff. Yeah, do it, and the fact that the network said okay, it boggles the mind on some level. It really does, and as we are talking to people and realizing that is challenging. As the show was behind the scenes, it also was people having a lot of fun because I think they knew they were working on something very unique, and certainly it seems like most people were enjoying it, even amongst the stress of it, and hopefully I think are able to appreciate it now that there's just been some time, because you're like, oh, it wasn't that bad, because that's how you remember things.

It's fine, I'm here, but yeah, yeah. But nevertheless, you know, it's good to get another perspective, especially from our nineties TV babies, who always bring lots of surprises and insights that we just really appreciate. So so indeed, it is time to bring in the nineties TV babies are awesome friends who were all born in the nineties various times throughout the nineties to watch these shows for the first time and tell us what they think. Serena Fontanesi, who is a podcaster, content creator and training facilitator and diverse progressive sectors and electoral politics. She lives in Austin, Texas.

And Sergio Perez is an actor, director, and playwright who lives in Los Angeles. He also works with me at eighties TV Ladies and our producing company one thirty four West. So while he's the youngest of our nineties TV babies, he also has a little bit of insider info because he hears about these shows long before we give him assignments. And last but not least. Megan Rubel is an actress, singer, and amazing person who lives locally here in the San Fernando Valley.

It's important to note that part of the reason, Sharon, we bring on the nineties TV Babies is to get a different perspective. We are looking at these shows often because we loved them, I think, and because we you know, but we also looking at them through the lens of nostalgia. You know, we saw them when we were young, we saw them when we were growing up, we saw them when we were formulating ideas of the world. We saw them in the eighties, forty years ago, and so I sort of think it's important to have a different perspective, absolutely, because we bring an understanding of the context of what the seventies, eighties, nineties, et cetera bring to our viewing of these shows in a different way than it is for someone like our nineties TV babies that didn't experience it their babies.

That's right. I think it's vital to have these different perspectives. We didn't have access to that kind of communication when we were growing up. We didn't you know, the world. The world changes and is supposed to change, so I don't know.

I just I wanted to like sort of point out why I love bringing them on and love hearing from them, even if sometimes they put a little pin in the balloon of things for me, because sometimes I'm so expecting them. I'm like, they're gonna love this one, and then they don't. I've gotten it wrong every time when I've just thought, oh, they're going to feel this way about it, and they're kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum, and that's okay. That has been something that I have gotten out of this segment, that gotten out of these episodes that I was not expecting. It's so it's been so great to hear what they have to say, to listen to their thoughts about it, and it helps in some ways for me to put things in in a context I hadn't thought about before.

Hasn't changed my thoughts. I have to say about what I have felt about these shows before I talk to them. But it also it's always good to get somebody else's perspective because we don't all think about things the same way, and that you know, and that diversity is our strength. I have kids, and you often want to show them something and be like, don't you want to love this as much as I loved it? And they don't.

Always sometimes they do, and I kind of learned something too. You sort of get a perspective on the eighties that I don't get when I'm just thinking about it. Anyway, let's get to it. Absolutely, they're gonna surprise me. Let's go.

Please, Welcome back to eighty CV Ladies, the absolutely fabulous nineties TV babies, Serena Fontanesi, Sergio Perez, and Megan Ruble. Welcome back, guys, Hello, Hello, thanks for having us back. It has been a while. How is everyone? How is twenty twenty four treating you?

Amazingly? So much happening at the same time, though, I would like twenty twenty four to calm down. How are you doing this? Surgio? Twenty twenty four is crazy.

I cannot believe that it is already March. That I feel like I was just in the Philippines counting down to January first. But now I'm here in my home in March, which is wild. It's moving quickly, very very quickly. And you but you you over the holidays, you were in the Philippines, Yes, I was.

I went for a family reunion. It was so much fun. I had a great time. I think this is the first time I've been where I was like, maybe I could, I could live here. Maybe I'm not going to make any decisions right now.

Good to have options though. Oh actually I have it right here for those of you who are listening. Uh, my mom gave me this book of heirloom recipes from the province that she is from in the Philippines, So it's like Kupupangan recipes. And the really cool thing about it is that we learned because there is a family tree in here that we are very distantly related to the woman who wrote this. Well.

Wow, what that's so cool. That is so cool. Did you get it in the Philippines when you were there or you're yeah, because like my mom, she's who I learned everything from. So like she is the one who is the chef in the family, and so when she was there, she visited this restaurant and bought one of these books. Here it is right here, my kodness, right there.

It says manul It. That's my mom's maiden name, so that is this person's grandmother. Wow. And she is maybe like in her nineties so she's old and it goes really really far back. Wow, that is amazing, and so can can Are we going to be able to put this in our audiography?

Are people going to be able to go check that out? Or do you have to go to the restaurant in the Philippines to get it? I actually don't know. All right, we'll look for you look that up. Okay, that is so cool.

Tell us the name again though, utching Lilian's heirloom recipes romancing the past through traditional kalutunapum Pugan cooking. And what is kappa panangkapumpangan? So my parents are from Bumbanga and if you are from Pumpanga, you are a kapampangan. Ah. Okay cool, that is amazing.

And and so what what are special? Is there anything that you can go? Oh? And what's special about these dishes is the what's the base of them? What's unique to them?

So everyone in the Philippines thinks that they're the culinary capital, but the real truth is that Pampanga is the culinary capital of the Philippines. And if we have any Filipino listeners, which I know we do because I look at our stats and I know our geography. Don't fight me on this. I would say that, like, I don't even know how to describe it. I just think it's really really good.

And everyone does it differently, even house to house, so there's no one traditional cupupun in cooking. But that's what I was raised on, That's what I that's what I am gravitate towards. That's so cool, that's so great, what a cool thing. All right, Uh, Megan, I'm getting paid to be a producer for the first time. That's a big success for me.

Also for any creative who's had to sit down and figure out what their rate is for something, shout out to all of us having to do that at some time or another, because that is a rough, emotional, mental, psychological experience. Trying to be like what am I worth is a journey. It gets go home for Easter, and it will also be my cousin's baby's second birthday, and I am super excited about that because she is very cute and very smart. And I found out recently that when her mom goes into her room in the morning to be like, you know, hi, sweetie, good morning, she tells her mom to sit down in the chair because she's not done being in bed yet, and I think that is the cutest thing. And I will also be telling anyone who tries to wake me up just a done, because I'm not done being in bed yet.

And you're doing a puppet Shakespeare show on Twitch. I am so My good friends over at Perception Studios they've been doing a Shakespeare's show called Bardic Inspiration and they invited me to come in and I was like, absolutely, there is nothing I love more than being ridiculous and doing Shakespeare at the same time. But if you do decide to watch, if you tip Perception Studios and all of the funds go to like keeping their Twitch channel alive. Basically, you can suggest an accent or impression for one member or for the entire cast to do. I am awful at accents, So if you would like to mortify me live on Twitch, somebody come and suggests Scottish again, because last time we did that it was not Scottish.

I'll tell you that. Sarita, my dog, started what I've been calling reform school aka private training sessions. How's that going. It's actually going very well. It's working, So that's very exciting and the most interesting thing in my life.

Are you going to see the Great Solar Eclipse of twenty twenty four? I will, because it's going to pass like Austin. You're gonna be able to see totality here in Austin. So that is very exciting and we'll be forward to that. I have to tell you I went and saw the twenty seventeen one, and I promised then to myself that I would go to the twenty twenty four, which at the time seemed forever.

We weren't even sure we were going to still be alive, right, I mean, it was like, well, if I'm alive, if we're still in the United States, I'm going, Oh, in Austin. I've been a guess room. Okay, there I go. I might take you up on that. I might take it up on that too, because it is one of the best experiences of my life experiencing the one in twenty seventeen, the total solar eclipse.

The totality means a lot, and it's going to be longer. It's like twice as long. Yeah, it's a long one. All right, we're here to talk about moonlighting. We gave you all an assignment to watch the Moonlighting episodes and some clips.

Uh, did you have a chance to do that? I watched episodes. I managed to forget about the clips, and you were like, they're only like fifteen and yeah, the way this brain is set up. But I did watch the episodes, okay, cuck cuckock? Cool?

All right? Did you watch the bonus episode as well or the just the the uh for the extra credit or sign? I didn't. Yeah, I didn't do the extra credit, which is actually very unlike me. Well, you just went through Super Tuesday, so and you know you, Megan sergioe.

Were you guys able to complete the Moonlighting watching assignment? Yes? Yes, and I watched an extra episode? Thank god you did. Okay, I did not watch the extra episode.

Oh no, I mean even beyond that. I went and found an extra episode and watched it. Okay, what was it that made you was a specific episode you wanted you went to find? This is so embarrassing. I just wanted to watch them get together.

So I looked up what episode they get together for the first time, and I watched that one. No listen, no shame, but that's kind of what the show's about, you know. Oh. Absolutely, the assignment was to watch uh season one episode one, the Pilot, and then season two episode three entitled Money Talks Mattie Walks, and then season two episode four, the dream Sequence Always Rings Twice and season two episode eighteen called Camille. The bonus episode that it sounds like Megan watched was from season three episode six, Big Man on Mulberry Street, one of my favorites, the musical Theater episode Yes.

And then we actually sent a little election of YouTube scenes and snippets sort of takes about fifteen minutes to watch them, maybe less. That were just some unique moments from the show that I thought would would give us a little more flavor for our nineties TV babies. So before we get too far into it, what did you know of this show before we started if anything? And Sergio, you get to answer from before we started working ostensibly on Moonlighting. Before we started working on it, I knew nothing about Moonlighting.

I do remember when it came to streaming and everybody was like, oh my gosh, Moonlighting's streaming now. That's that's so crazy, and I just it didn't really mean much to me because I didn't know anything about it. I got all Megan, what about you? Same absolutely nothing. Had never heard the title, not a single thing.

See, And this is why we're talking to you guys about this show. This is great, this is this is fascinating. This is very interesting, Sarita. I had heard of it, and I thought it was a movie. I had heard of it, and I've seen as I like saw Like Shepherd and Bruce Willis.

I was right, right, right or right? Okay, I know that this is the thing that exists, but I had never watched it. Okay, all right, all right? And so outside of Moonlighting, did you know of Bruce Willis and or Sybil Shepherd and from where? Yes?

Yeah, I've seen them. I needed a lot of stuff. I knew of Bruce Willis, not Sybil Shepherd. And my first encounter, I think with Bruce Willis was Bandits, the movie, which is still one of my favorite films. I don't think I had.

That's a deep cut. Okay, you should watch Bandits if you like Bruce Willis. I do believe Bob Thornton and Kate Blanchett oh being ridiculous together. Wow, you should watch Bandits. Okay two thousand and one?

How did I miss that anyway? Okay? Wow? All right? So that was.

That was your introduction to Bruce Willis. All right, Sergio, I knew of Bruce Willis. I don't know, I've never I've never seen anything with him in it, so this was all new to me. I just yeah, or Sivil Shepherd, that's fair enough. So here here's the thing.

You know, it's one of those shows, not unlike Remington Steele, where the person that was the star of the show, that got the show we're making the show was Sybil Shepherd because she was the movie star, right, That's why I was sort of making her comeback. Yeah, and like a huge movie star from a very young age, right. And Bruce Willis was unknown, like the network did not want to cast him. I didn't know he was unknown. Oh yeah, I thought he was just like new He was known in New York.

I don't know that he'd even done anything on film at that point. He was working, he was doing theater in New York. He was working as a bartender, as Cheryl told us, because I knew him from New York and he was in a band, yeah, Bruno and the Something. And in this way he would have ruined my life in Maryland. Oh for sure.

He wrecked my credit, he was more unknown than Pierce Brosnan. Yeah, because Pierce Brosnan had done a couple of things and had done, you know, some things. That's so wild because the show in so many ways just feels like here's everything Bruce Willis can do. Yes, like it showcas feels like a side character. Yeah, like it showcases everything he does well.

He gets like honestly, it's an enviable role. He gets the vulnerability that like Bruce Willis does actually very well. He gets to like kind of like snarky sexiness. He gets to be a bat and he gets to be like that weird but also actually legitimately very sexy thing that Bruce Willis does where you're just like you would have wrecked my early damn it, you would have ruined my life. Okay, high level first thoughts on the show.

I loved it. I loved the sense of humor and I normally am not like a pun person either, But it's more than that. It's not just like dumb dad jokes. It's like very witty and quick and I loved that. But it doesn't take itself too seriously, which I also loved.

I love a detective show, but like you watch four episodes of Law and Order back to back, and you're like, I think I'm depressed, Like I think, I think this has gone a little dou no. Whereas this was just fun and that was so refreshing. I liked it and loved the examples, especially that you sent of it breaking the fourth wall in such an extreme way. I loved its commitment to that. I loved that it was like, there's no rules around this.

Sometimes we'll call, sometimes we'll say Bruce Willis, sometimes we'll say David, who knows. I really loved that though it never felt pretentious, I think it always felt very genuine, and that's something I really liked about it. Excellent, Sergio. If you know me, you know I really adore things that are unconventional, witty, clever, and like just things that do things that you've never seen before. And even though this came out in the eighties, I was just like, Wow, they are doing things that people even today aren't doing.

I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun. What I loved most about it is that as I was watching, I just never knew what to expect. I never knew where they were gonna go, So like not to jump too far ahead, but like the season two finale, I just kept watching the clock and I saw I had fifteen minutes left, and I was just like, oh my god, how are they going to resolve this? This is gonna be crazy.

What's gonna happen? And then they just did what they did, and that was just so baffled by it. But it was so funny and so good. It's so good. I was amazed.

Honestly, I was amazed, and I loved the examples that you sent. I thought the Shakespeare clip was really funny, and like, just Sybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis are a just absolutely brilliant pair. They were just so like, I don't know how to even describe it, like you know, when they're just two performers who were just so in tune with each other and like their characters that they can just rattle off like nothing. It was so impressive to watch. Yeah, you've you've kind of left both of us a little speechless here.

That's that's fair because I think I think we both agree to a large extent of everything you've talked about. And honestly, I remembered the show. I remembered how much fun. It was, but I'd forgotten a lot of the specifics and it was eye opening to go back and start watching some of these episodes and as you said, Sergio, basically that they're they're doing things on this show that nobody has done since. Really people have tried, they've tried to kind of capture that spirit a little bit, but not taken it to the limits that that this show did at its height.

And yeah, it's creatively, it's it's just absolutely brilliant. That is so it's so great that that translates because it's hard to know and Scharita high level first thoughts on the show. Okay, I didn't love it. It was a little and and I wanted to because I liked I liked the setup. We love o reverse racks to riches.

The fun fact, the entire music video of You Better Have My Money by Rihanna is all about her business manager who ran off with a bunch of her money and that's what she wrote that song about. And like that in the video, she kidnaps the business manager's wife and it's like, oh, it's a hijie's I had was I had no idea. I mean, I'm aware of the song, but I honestly have not clearly clearly not listened to it carefully. So that's I have to go find that video. It's about It's about her, her old business manager trying to swell a bunch of her money, which is why never be too big to sign your own chicks.

But yeah, like you know that I love Shit's Creek like we love I love a reverse racks to Riches. Remits right, But it was she so slow, and I can acknowledge this might be the ADHD talking of just like ooh, this is like and I and there were moments where I was like, that's funny, this is interesting. Like it wasn't a bad show by any means, it's just the pacing of it was too slow for me to really be like, I want to keep watching this. Okay, okay, very exciting, always coming in with a controversial take. Welcome to my world, Sarita.

I'm usually the person sitting in the corner. Everybody else is on one side of the issue, and I'm over here by myself with my popcorn, going Nope, you guys are all wrong, so totally I'm I totally get it. A caucus of one in the corner. Yes, and I'm right, Well I didn't want to say and so when you went on, Megan, you went on to watch them get together? I did, Yeah, And to be fair, I do want to keep watching it.

I do really enjoy it and want to go back to I mean, we watched the pilot, but I want to go back to season one and like watch it straight through. Yeah, I just want to keep watching it. But yeah, I specifically wanted to watch them get together. I needed the conclusion of that, or at least the semi conclusion of that, to feel satisfied before I walked away, and that actually, once we get into later conversations, I actually kind of regret watching it before this in some ways though, because that is a very revealing episode about a couple of different things, Like in the conversation around feminism, so is it feminist? Okay, here's where I get stuck on this.

The show is not about her. The show is about their relationship, and so it's hard to pick it apart in that way and be like, is it upholding her in a feminist light when it's like she's so tied to him purposefully because it's about their relationship. Similarly, I don't think we can call something feminist just because the men are idiots in it, which this show is really great at doing. Like the men are just idiots. It's kind of fun, but it doesn't inherently make it feminist.

I kind of land on it is because she is empowered, she is smart and capable. There are representations of other types of women on the show. Again, as I think we always say, it is certainly not intersectional, like but for the white women on the show, there seems to be a broad representation of the type of women that are presented, what they want to do with their life, what their goals are, how much power or lack thereof they have in situations. There seems to be like a widespread and so I'd say yes, But it's hard to say yes when the show itself is contingent upon this woman's relationship to this man. If you take him out of it, the show is not as interesting and doesn't really exist.

So yeah, my answer is yeah, sounds like it's more almost a kind of sometimes yeah, yeah, but leaning more towards trying to get there perhaps, Yeah, it kind of As I was thinking about that, I thought a lot of the MINDI project where it's like, I would definitely say the MINDI Project is a feminist show, but the entire show is about her relationship to various men, and it's meant to be that. I don't think it is problematic to tell those stories. It just all of a sudden becomes like, well, if it's not about uplifting just the woman herself and Mindy Project, because she's it's about her relationships with multiple people, although overall Danny it ends up being a little less this but like Moonlighting, it's really about their relationship.

So it's hard. Yeah, well, especially since it's I mean, we've watched I think Susan and I've watched more episodes than you have. But as you go forward, there become more and more episodes that are about not necessarily about a case, more about whatever's going on in their lives. Like Mulberry Street tense is basically so in a lot of ways, it does become kind of a relationship show. Yeah, I think she definitely held her own and wasn't just like, yeah, you can talk to me any kind of way, but to even still just be like a lot being those things, whether she can take it or not, is you said bonders to me because even in the premise of the show, right, like she since the boss, like she owns the business, Sergio.

Is it feminist? Is it progressive? I think of all the things that you've had us watch so far up to this point, this one has felt the most ambitious in the conversations it wants to take on and the the way that it presents these things. Is it feminist? I think I sort of fall into the same category as Megan, where I'm like, eh, yeah, it's feminish, like it's it's feminist feminish yeah, where I can see feminist characters, but like an overarching like concept and like what it is trying to accomplish might not be But yeah, I think I'm gonna I'm gonna stay with feminist because that just seems like the buzzword, you know, and that's sounds great, all right?

And and is it progressive? It's not intersectional? No, I struggle with if it's progressive or not. I don't think. I don't think so by the standards of today.

I don't think so. Doesn't mean I can't still enjoy it. Okay, this is probably a good time to take a break. We'll be back and we're back. So the dream sequence always rings twice, which is the black and white episode that has the introduction by Orson Wells.

Do you have any knowledge of who Orson Wells was Megan? Yes, Sergio, yes, Sarita, Yes I do, because one when my mom was a baby in Spain, Orson well said that baby is unhappy because she was pride and he held her and made her stop crying. What wait, they were at a cafe. Yeah, start at the beginning, leave nothing out, did nonsense that stree up Well at all. So my mom is a Saysian boar abroad.

She was born in Seville's in Saba, Spain. My grandfather was in the Air Force, so that's where he was stationed at the time, and my mom was a baby, so my aunt was maybe three and a half four, So my grandma is by herself at a cafe with a toddler and a baby who was very fussy, and Orson Wells happened to be like a table or two over and basically like half joking, half not joking, was kind of like someone want to shut that baby up, and was like, let me see the baby, like bounced to my mom. A couple times and she settled down. I'm speechless. Also, Orson Wells is not who I would expect to settle a baby, disturb a baby.

Maybe she would not settle one down. That's remarkable. Yeah, my grandma like she wasn't she knew that he was like someone and like you know, like his demeanor and like people around it, right, like she somebody didn't fully know who he was. Is this a story that your grandmother would tell people? Is that how you know it?

Or how do you? How did discuss? How did it come about? This? It is a story that my grandma tells about her time in Savilla.

But what's funny is is not the story that she leads with, nor is it the story that she ends it. Like it is, it is a middle story for Orson Wells in a baby in Spain, It'll turn into the story where Orson well stole your mother shit, Now she took her to the bullfights Hei, Yeah, with Hemingway. Hemingway was around. Hemingway was probably next to him and said, or do something about that baby right by tigging about like oh, there were people around him, and my grandma was just like, I don't know, your mom was being very fussy all day and you're like the way that like the story, like the the interesting part of the story to them is that a stranger was able to calm my mom down, and not like who the stranger was and like the context of everything, like my my grandma tells it as such a like tired mom story.

All right, that's fair, you know, yeah, yeah, I let was calming down. That was basically what she was like. She was like, your aunt was like fidgeting everywhere because she's four and your mom is trying and I'm just trying to eat lunch. So yeah, somebody wants to hold the baby doll. But doesn't it go really one of two ways when you have an infant in your hand off to a stranger.

They either cry louder or they're so startled they're like oh and then they stop. So right, it was a risky move because it could have gone the other way, and my mom could have just really doubled down and then like get me out of here. But she was so startled that she settled down. And what's your mom's name, Stephanie, I all I'm hit picturing is a you know, orson Wells going Hello Stephanie, you should stop crying. Are sure?

It was so dry? God? Do you know I directed Citizen Came Do what I tell you? May if we get if any of us get famous, may we all not be too famous. Don't be too famous worse to live by.

That is the number one lesson. Oh my gosh. Never be too big to not sign your own check, and never be too famous to not hold a baby. That's right, It's so true. All right?

So, Sergio, did you know who Orson Welles was? Yes? I didn't realize that he directed, produced, and starred in Citizen Kane, which I have seen, so it had a whole other layer of him introducing that episode, right. I mean, I was thinking about this while I was watching it, where I was like, because they mentioned the forties in that episode, because it's obviously like based off of like more films and all that and like draws upon a lot of those tropes. I was like, wait a minute, the forties for the eighties are what the eighties are for us like today right now.

And that was crazy to me just putting that into perspective, because I was like, oh, so like just culturally thinking about how much from the eighties that we still draw up. It's definitely the same, and it feels the same for folks in the eighties to do that for the forties. So that's just where my mind went. Yeah, and it's kind of that's a crazy thing to think about because because it's also for people who grew up in the eighties, the idea, you're like, you technically know it's been forty years, but then when you say something like that, you're like, oh, that's how different the world is. Yeah, for them to be like, not only is it's going to be in the forties, but we need orson Wells to tell you it's going to be in the forties and that it's going to be in black and white, and that's different than what you are used to.

Don't be alarmed, don't be jarred. In the same way that I can think of other shows having to do a big setup for a flashback or for a time jump or something just to go back to the eighties and now like the nineties, or is the kids like to go up the nineteen hundreds? So distresiectu. Even so, there is a big difference culturally in the difference of the forty years between the forties to the eighties than from the eighties to now. The differences in the number of changes that the world went through in that that first forty year period from forties to eighties, to me is very different from the last forty years.

At least that's the way it feels to me. Sousan, I don't know if that feels you. I feel like it's more or less. Oh less, you think the changes are less, well, I'm not saying that. I'm saying culturally that the changes are less.

I mean there been there's still have been a lot of changes. But if you think about who people were in the forties to who people were between the forties and the eighties, and how much changed and the way things changed as compared to the eighties to now, yes, there are a lot of the cultural baselines have not changed as significantly in the eighties to now as they have from the forties to the eighties, where you went through the civil rights movement, where you went through the women's movement, where the pill came along, where the Vietnam War came along, and the whole anti war thing happened. Those were we had a president assassinated those and another president shot at Yeah, I agree with you that there was.

You know, there were so many movements that happened in that time period, and you're right, yes, there was an attempted assassination. There was an assassination of a president, and then there was an assassination of a presidential candidate and public figures in a way that thankfully we don't have as much, but yet so many nuances have changed in this last forty years. Sure that that is also very different. I think now. I think the speed, yes, is increasing.

That's the biggest difference. The speed of the change in that forties to the eighties is is like a slow is like a bicycle as compared to the rocket ship that's been the eighties to now, because of technology, because of social media, because of the Internet. But there's also this sort of compactness. For instance, there are there seem to be young folks today in their twenties and thirties that are much more familiar with music, movies, television shows of the of the eighties than we were of what was going on in culture in the forties. There seems to be a marked difference there, and the fact that we may have known about it were like, yeah, there's nothing to do with me now, whereas now songs, movies, television shows seem to last, or the ones that hold on seem to last a little bit longer than they do now, maybe because there's not as much of a difference in the let's take music and the kind of music people were listening to in the eighties as they are there is now.

There's a certain amount of similarity that there wasn't between nineteen forty and nineteen eighty music changed significantly, and just access to information. What's interesting is, you know, like I saw Citizen Kane in my senior year of high school when my high school English teacher drove me to downtown Los Angeles to see it at an art house, wow, because I asked him because my mom wouldn't let me go to downtown Los Angeles alone, and none of my friends would go because I didn't know how to explain it to them and they heard it was black and white. Thankfully by English teacher, mister Ellizoyd was amazing and a very special teacher for many people, including me, and so he gave me some context for that movie both before and after I saw it that helped me put place it in film history at a time that I was interested in film but didn't understand how to study it right, Like you wouldn't have taken a film class in high school in the eighties.

But it's interesting to think about just how different those decades are and then how the same right that we're still dealing with a lot of the same as we've discovered in the show. We're still dealing, weirdly with a lot of the same problems and questions and issues some of them were dealing with that we thought we had kind of put away and we're done dealing with. And to really that site of the forties are to the eighties what the eighties are to now is just so kind of crazy to think, kind of boggling. Really, Yeah, it's it's I think it's I think in a lot of ways, it's just really spot on. You probably had to pull up stuff on this show before you sat down and watched any of it.

Definitely just because we've been Yeah, for those of you who are listening who don't know, I am an Eighties TV Ladies super fan and I listened to every episode before they come out, so I just have such a vast knowledge works For one thirty four West and eighties TV ladies and helps manage our social media presence and magnificently magic magnificently you. So I'm also often throwing things at him and going, just trust me. It was hot in the eighties, and it was, but you do a very good job given that it's not your natural habitat. I'm starting to feel like it is when you over. Oh yeah, I live on land and in water in the now and the eighties as all good folks should do.

Another thing, I absolutely love the way it portrays Los Angeles in the pilot. I know that that was directed by Robert Butler, who is like a television god. I just think it's really funny because I'm like, Okay, when he said that he was going to rip off Remington's steel, he like was like, let's do it Weston Bonaventure Diamonds. German like, well, let's go, We're going in And then he did it, and I was like, Okay, this all seems so familiar to me. I did love that.

I I love the the physical comedy was something that was just so impressive, the timing of everything, the basketball going into the trash bit and then falling on Elice Beasley's head and then the ball hitting and then her just standing still like that is absolutely peak comedy. I think that that is like it. And the thing is it looks so funny, but people don't realize how hard it is to pull off. You have to be super skilled, like immensely skilled to just get the timing of all that correct. And I absolutely like, was so just charmed by it.

Also, Sybil Shepherd is a force when she comes out in like the pilot episode, like all of her outfits are amazing. By the way, Yes, the timing of the season two finale, where like I said previously, where I was like, oh my god, how are they going to wrap it up? And then they literally wrap it up. They're like, okay, let's go cut. Everyone's gone lights off, we're leaving.

That was great, you guys, I bet you. Glenn Gordon Karen was up until three A. I'm going, God, what am I gonna do with Whoopee Goldberg and Judd Nelson in a way that is satisfying, And then he was just like, screw it, We're gonna We're gonna do it again. We're breaking the fourth wall, folks. And I thought that was really funny.

Of all the things we've watched, this is the most in tune with my humor. I think. Yeah, Like, even when they're doing the film noir episode what is it the dream sequence? Yes, always rings twice, Always rings twice. At first I was like watching and I'm listening and like the things that Bruce Willis is saying are finally processing where he's like, yeah, I play my trumpet out on the balcony under a flashing neon light because it makes me look cool, And I'm like, yeah, that is what they do in those kinds of movies, isn't it.

And I don't know. It was also really cool because there's just such a reverence for that genre in the way that it was presented. Yeah, such such a reverence and such a joke. Like it again the two things that I would because I also think of Community and then maybe The Simpsons as as something that is both referential and nodding and homaging to a lot of things but also sending them up. Okay, so last thoughts, serita.

Okay. The aesthetic of this show was simply to die for, because it's like, and this is something that I've actually been reading a lot about recently of particularly from eighties and nineties comedies, these style basically uniforms that a lot of desires were doing for their character. Like the one that I was recently was Regime from Living Single, and then they modeled fran Dresser off of Regime. Like they actually like they a lot of side by side of like them in the same outfit for the same pieces, but like takes a little bit for their specific character. But they each have this like style uniform of how they're outfit to put together.

And uh, Moonlighting follows that a lot with Sibyl and like it's all like for her, it's it's very eighties of kind of the like not super exaggerated shoulder pats, but a little bit of a shoulder pat with the triangle top and the straight pencil bottom, but in these like gorgeous like satins and then the big l pals and then that matches the like muted jewel tone office and then that's got to gorgeous plunge it a sheet to go with. Like, like her style uniform is justus last thoughts. Uh, like you said, I definitely modern birds time in that like you a woman as part of the lead of the show right, and she is running things in a lot of ways. I don't know that I'll keep up with it, but maybe. I mean, you guys have really sold me on the Shakespeare episode that I feel like I need to check out again as a true theater major.

And I just am so fascinated by the fact that Willis was like, was essentially nobody moving on to this show, and like, what a wild choice. He had eleven auditions with the studio before they would let them wow, and they kept telling the producer creator, no, no, no, and he kept saying, this is the guy, and kept bringing back in and wore him down until they finally said, you can't trust your guts. That's a mess. Yeah. Yes, And so there weren't any female directors, but this show actually had a number of assistant directors who went on to, you know, either be directors or continue in entertainment, and so there was a lot of There were a lot of women kind of behind the scenes.

They weren't necessarily in the bigger roles, but they were given the beginning of their career off of moonlighting. So that's rat. Yeah, I think there was an intention. We spoke with Cheryl Maine, who in one of our episodes, Who's Amazing, And you should listen to that episode because she's now a unit publicist on huge movies. And she started in post production on Moonlighting.

I started as an assistant and by the end of the show was post production supervisor. Am that is very feminist? Yes, And then when the show ended, Glenn actually took her and a number of people with him to his basically he had a deal at that point, and they stayed with him until basically the deal, and then she stayed at Warner Brothers and became a publicist. So she's like credits Glenn and Bruce Willis with her career and the cool part is to follow through, right Is that like we're going to keep giving them more and more opportunities and putting them in spaces they should be. That's awesome.

Yeah, and that's something that is still not common now, right, And you know, it's it's always interesting to think about, like what are the trade offs of all Right, Well, maybe her character on screen wasn't as feminist as she could be, but in some ways they were really walking walking the walk of what does it look like to center a woman, to centure women, to just center the success of women in in production as well. I have done a great disservice by not saying how absolutely obsessed I was with mister Pesto, Like what love her? Absolutely love her again the episode that was not required watching, but her and Sybil Shepherd at the bar and she just pounds the drink and then is yelling at the bartender.

I lives, Oh in my heart. It lives in such a large place in my heart. I was so happy, and I had forgotten how great their relationship is over the course of the show, and they become closer friends over the course of the show and are sort of constantly kind of checking in with each other, you know, Sybil will check in on mister Pesto, you know, Mattie will check in on Miss to Pesto, and mister de Pesto will check in on Maddie and be like, are you okay? You seem like you're having a bad day, you know, and then they have a conversation. You know.

Usually it's about the men in their lives. So I'm not sure where it is on the Bechdel scale, but it is a nice element that is not often an element of eighties television, unless it's an all female show. So you know, Glenn and said, I have to keep giving him credit because he deserves it. He knew Sibyl Shepherd was perfect as Maddie, and he knew, despite all the pushback that he got from the network, that Bruce Willis was exactly who he needed to play David Addison. And you take either of them out and there is no show and we're not here talking about them, right, It's true.

It's true. When you think about the other people they talk about potentially casting, you're like, Okay, that would never have worked. They might have been fine, Yeah, it would have been a fall, but they weren't going to take it, to take it to that level. They just weren't the right person. And I think again, they were both seemed so game, even if behind the scenes they weren't.

Once they were on screen, they were pretty magical. I also am going to give props to Elise Beasley and in the season three you guys didn't really see any Curtis Armstrong, but when Expert when they came in to kind of fill fill in the gaps very clearly, I mean at least was there the whole time, which actually made me think while we're listening to this, I'm like, oh, it started off being she was the third lead, so it was two women and one man at the beginning of the show were the leads of the show. Even the Curtis Armstrong Alis Beasley episodes, they actually hold up really well too. You know, they're not quite they're they're very different, so they're not trying to do them, but they're pretty compelling.

And I truly actually believed that they potentially could have done a spinoff with just that. But don't I don't know if that was ever taken seriously, Well that's a good question. Now, that could have been great. Yeah, I really I think that their cares were such that that would have could have been could have been something really great if somebody had just asked me, yes, I could have explained to them, just as Sharon should be running a network, you and Stan Zimmerman should have re running a network. It would be fun.

That would be good, that'd be a good network. I'd watched that, So are you going to watch more moon Lighting? I definitely want to watch more. I intentionally did not. I did that one episode, and then I intentionally didn't do anymore because that one colored my judgment so much that I was like, Okay, wait, I need to stop.

So, Sergio, would you watch more moon Lighting? I think so? Actually, yeah, it's definitely something that I'd like to revisit. Excellent because I feel like I just got a little taste. Yeah, yeah, especially for network television in the late in the mid to late nineteen eighties.

Really that they were able to pull this off and become beloved and become, you know, as big a hit as it was, It's it's kind of mind boggling. It's so culturally, you know, it was the Friends of its day, right, it was the you know, it was. It was definitely something that that that landed and exploded in the culture in a way that it's hard to do now because people just aren't watching, you know, not everyone is watching the same thing, and so very little surprises us too, Yeah, because we have so much to watch. But how about that will be Goldberg and Judd Nelson, right, which is Camille Season two, episode eighteen. I loved the Whoopee episode one, loving Whoopee, but also it was a faster pieced episode, like because they had the like the title cards like put in Devil in a blue dress.

They played that and the songs like yeah and a young Jed Nelson, which you know, Jed Nelson's sort of over by the time you guys came on board, but it's kind of a big deal. I don't know who Jeded Nelson is, as I'm thinking, yeah, I didn't look up the day. I'm gonna guess this who Okay, But apart from that, he was probably why he looked he was part of the Brett pack. Yeah, that's why he looks so familiar. It came after Breakfast Club, really so he had become a star.

He had done sane almost fire. He was a star no way, really way, so it was like a big deal that they had along shut Yeah and whoope. Goildberg had just done her first movie, Oh the Colors, that was her first movie. That was her first movie. I've forgotten that too.

I assumed that this had to be after Breakfast Club because of the literally big camera shots of j Nelson Gabe like and here he is, like you know when they have like the special celebrity guest star. That makes sense. I just didn't. I didn't think to look up the dates. I'm very curious if there's going to be a new generation of people kind of find that show.

Yeah, well, how come out with Sergio, tell all your friends to watch. No, you know what? One last thing, yeah, I Oh my gosh. When in the Shakespeare episode, Sybil Shepherd pulls the curtain and there's just vases and there's a label that says throwing vases. That is when I was like, there, you go, there it is.

No one's ever going to talk that like that. That's just they set the bar in the nineteen eighties and it's yet to be cleared because throwing vases behind the car. Oh my gosh, don't even give me a start. I got started, But I loved it. I love That's one of my favorite moments too.

That's one of my favorite in that episode. Mm hmm. I watched the clip and I was like, oh, I need to watch this one in its entirety. As a Shakespeare person, I was like, Yes, it made me appreciate the writing a whole lot because I know that scened decently well between Kate and Petrucchio, and so where they actually pulled the Shakespeare lines and where they were like no, we're going to insert a joke here instead, or where it felt Oh it was perfect. I rewound and watched that YouTube clip because I was like, that is just excellent.

That is some Muppets level nonsense, and I want more. Yeah, I think the show is at its best when it's at the Muppet level nonsense. It really does. And and and season two starts to really hone in on that in the beginning of season three, and they're just there's a lot of kind of this perfect balance. It's one of the examples too.

I think that showcases both of them well because all of the like witty, zippy quick stuff showcases Bruce Willis really well. But when they get into like physical humor or just being kind of wacky, they're actually both really good at it. So it elevates both of them, I think, which listen to me like one of the most stunning women that could be conceived just being like, you know what, I'm down to be ridiculous and also deliver a one liner and also be super powerful and then super vulnerable and sexy in this next thing. How much exponentially hotter you get to me at least with all of that is like hot. Damn Okay, that is so funny.

I'm so glad. Then when his horse. Yeah, that's crazy. That's crazy. Stolen directly from mel Brooks.

Anyway, thank you, Sergio, thank you and thank you, Megan absolutely, thank you, Sirita, thank you, and Sereda. Do you want to tell us about your podcast? Sure? My podcast, not Ugly Pod. We have two seasons up and we're actually Insider Tip getting ready to come back for season three, which is very exciting.

It's conversations with folks exploring how people think about beauty, how they thought about beauty throughout their lives, and how we can challenge the way we It's a society talk about bee. I really have enjoyed it. I listened to a couple episodes. I'm really enjoying it. So thank you.

I'm so proud of you and all of you. It's always delightful. Thank you, Bye guys, thank you so much. In today's audiography, there will be a link in our description on where you can watch the YouTube playlist of fun scenes that we gave to the nineties TV babies, and you can find more about Moonlighting and the team that got the Moonlighting DVD released at Moonlighting twenty one dot com. The link will be in our description.

They have a ton of great content and interviews and a Facebook page. Be sure to check out Sita's Not Ugly Pod. It's so much fun. It's also Women's History Month. Thank you women and all your history.

But I just want to remind everyone that abortion access across the country is severely limited for millions of women. If you need an abortion or want to help people across the country access vital healthcare, please go to abortionfinder dot org, where you can donate and you can also find out information. Thank you all for listening, Thank you for your feedback and comments. Did any of you guys out there recently watch or rewatch Moonlighting? And if so, what did you think.

We love hearing from you. Send us messages at our website eightiestv Ladies dot com. That's eight and zero s t V L A d I E s dot com. We hope Eighties TV Ladies brings you joy and laughter and lots of fabulous new and old shows to watch, all of which will lead us forward toward being amazing ladies of the twenty first century. So Pretty to the city World.

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