And what a splash. Here was the battle of the sexes being played out with the wit and style of old Tracy-and-Hepburn flicks. Fellow gumshoe David Addison (Bruce Willis) is the macho type who'll never admit he's wrong, especially not in front of the woman he covets.

In this case, the woman is Maddie, a blond sophisticate too busy trying to earn a buck to take his advances seriously. "Let's talk sex," David says. "Who would've guessed? I like sex, too."

Bruce says the kinds of outrageous things to me a lot of men would like to say to women," Shepherd says, explaining the show's success. "But in the end, he makes an ass of himself, and I come out on top."

Well, yes. But for many, an intrinsic part of Moonlighting's appeal is the Cybill Shepherd story itself. Every time Maddie speaks or takes another pie in the face while in pursuit of her quarry, Cybill Shepherd is "sending up her own image," as executive producer Glen (sic) Caron puts it. It's not just that Shepherd's an ex-model herself -- she's an ex-model who's made a stunning comeback. (In the late Seventies, a notorious affair with director Peter Bogdanovich forced Shepherd to abandon Hollywood for a recording career that never quite ignited.)

This season, the lampooning promises to continue. That singing career that never quite took off? On at least one of the early episodes, Shepherd will be crooning the ballad "Blue Moon" and the up-tempo "I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out" as part of a special dream sequence.

And speaking of dreams, Shepherd was thinking the other day about the almost fantasylike turn her life has taken. The ratings for a summer rerun of Moonlighting had just been released, and it seemed the show had won the night. "I almost cried when I heard that," she says. "After so many years of trying and hoping..."

Instead of tears though, she and Willis celebrated over a couple of beers in her trailer. Tracy and Hepburn would have done as much.