“Moonlighting” Pilot
Not many ’80s television shows can stand the test of time and still seem like good products today, but for me, Moonlighting definitely fits the bill. I just got done ordering all five seasons of Moonlighting on DVD, and have been spending a lot of time reliving the memories. This used to be my favorite show when I was a kid, and I’m happy to see that it’s still entertaining even now.
One of my favorite episodes of all is the Pilot. I had a VHS tape of this when I was younger, and I watched it over and over and over again, to the point where I knew almost all of the dialogue by heart. I thought the plot was terrific: beautiful ex-model Maddie Hayes is left penniless by her embezzling accountant, and has to take stock of where her businesses stand. One is the Blue Moon Detective Agency, which she had been holding onto as a tax write-off. She’s determined to shut the place down after having a look at it, but private investigator David Addison convinces her to give the place a second chance. They soon embark on a case together, and the rest is history.
The case itself was pretty cryptic and was actually one of the stronger mysteries of the entire series. It centered around a punk-looking guy with a huge mohawk haircut and a unique watch that looked sort of like a higher end Zenith watch. A lot of people are after the watch, so viewers assume that it’s valuable or at the very least holds an important clue.
It turns out that the end game for the bad guys is a cache of diamonds, which David and Maddie manage to get their hands on — for a few brief moments before the jewels are lost forever after being dropped from the top of a skyscraper.
Anyway, I must have seen this episode at least 50 times, but I’m still not tired of it. Man, I love Moonlighting!