Cast & Producer Comments about Maddie and David Having Sex in "Moonlighting"

Regarding Act IV, Episode #86314: Maddie & David 'Do It'
Cast Comments

Before it actually occurred

The two major topics of discussion about Moonlighting during the first three seasons revolved around the chemistry between Cybill Shepherd & Bruce Willis and if and when Maddie and David were ever going to "get it on." Prior to the famous lovemaking scene in "I am Curious...Maddie," no matter who the interviewer or what the media format, eventually the question came up about sex between Maddie and David. Here are some of the cast comments to those inquiries.

In late January or early February 1986, Bruce Willis & Cybill Shepherd were interviewed by David Hartman for Good Morning America where par for the course, the central topic of discussion was their personal relationship and if and when Maddie & David were going to end up in bed. To put this in the proper timeframe, this interview was conducted during the filming of the episode "Every Daughter's Father is a Virgin." Click the video icon to watch an excerpt from that interview. (RealOne media player required to view)

The cover of Newsweek Sept 8, 1986 Glenn Caron was one member of the show interviewed by Newsweek magazine for the September 8, 1986 cover story on Moonlighting. In the article titled "Sly and Sexy: TV's Fun Couple" Newsweek asked Caron about sex between Maddie and David. His comments were reported as, "...Caron has acknowledged that asking Moonlighting addicts to endure much more foreplay would be 'emotionally sadistic.' In fact, he already has a scene written in which his protagonists end up erotically entwined in a supermarket. But the very fact that he revealed this to Newsweek probably means that it won't happen that way. All that Caron will predict for publication is that 'the relationship is obviously going to build at some point this year'..."

Cybill Shepherd was interviewed by Glamour magazine for the October 1986 edition and the article ended up being titled "Will Moonlighting's David Addison Be Great in Bed?" Hey, people I am NOT kidding here. This is a real article. If you click on the cover of the Glamour Magazine to the left, you can read this for yourself. LOL!! In hindsight, I will very gently make the observation that Ms. Shepherd was (fortunately for Maddie Hayes) somewhat off in her assessment.

Around the time "I am Curious...Maddie" was being filmed but before it aired, Bruce Willis was interviewed by Bryant Gumbel on the Today Show (March 1987). Here is the video excerpt where he discusses Maddie and David having sex. Click on the video icon to view this. (RealOne media player required to view)

After it had occurred

In an interview in Playboy Magazine dated November, 1988, Bruce Willis spoke out against the media criticism of Maddie & David having had sex:

"See, we've pulled off things that people said would never work. I'm not really interested in people's hypotheses of what would happen if Maddie and David married or in people who were saying that if Maddie and David screwed, the show would go off the air. Or if they lived together, or if they fell in love. We've continually proved people wrong. And at times, we've pissed 'em off, and I feel real glad about that, that we don't do a show that's predictable."

In an interview in US Magazine dated Oct. 2, 1989, when asked how he felt about "the legendary love scene," Bruce Willis responded:

"We got a lot of flak about that scene because my character never said, "I love you." And I DID say it, but they chose to put the music over it. So, America: I did say it."

When the DVD for the pilot episode was released in early 2000, in the commentary by Bruce Willis and Glenn Caron, the topic came up. Here is a transcript of what they said:

Bruce: It's been historically noted that once Maddie Hayes and David Addison actually slept together and had sex, that the show took a turn, and I've actually heard George Clooney refer to it, because apparently it was a storyline about him and Julianna Margulies that they had held off having them sleep together or something, because they made reference to Moonlighting, that it was always more interesting to watch us before we slept together than it was after we slept together.

Glenn: As the guy who sort of engineered that choice, I must tell you, I still believe with all my heart, that the show became less interesting, not because you slept together, but because there were a whole bunch of serendipitous things that happened that were beyond everybody's control. Cybill got pregnant with twins and was unavailable to us. So there was really no chance to explore and suddenly, I had Claymation Cybills and I was finding any way I could to shoot -- do you remember that?

Bruce: That's right!

Glenn: We won an Emmy for that. And all it was was me desperately trying to figure out how to get a show done without the actors. As a writer though, I thought.....'cause everybody said, "You can't have them together. It'll kill the show." And I went, "No, no, no, no, if they're genuinely whole people, if I've created whole characters, then they will change yet again, as we all do when we meet people, when we're involved with people and then those people stay in our lives." You know, there were great stories to be told there, and we sorta never got to tell them because all these other things were going on. I started directing movies, you were in some, you know, all our lives got much more complicated, but the principal problem at that point was, you know, it just became harder and harder to shoot a whole show....