Glenn Caron is showing Cybill and Bruce how a scene in the detective
show "Moonlighting" should be played in the most comic way.
Caron yells: "Come in!" to a make believe client and then says: " Cybill sits on hands and knees with her 'behind' facing the camera looking for a cheque that she dropped on the floor." The crew think it's very funny.
Now as the shoot starts, the scene begins with Cybill's 'behind' on the screen and her partner David Addison (played by Bruce Willis) coming in to the office saying: "Are you praying or finally coming to your senses?" Cybill doubts if this is really funny. Cybill: "Glenn don't you think it will look more like praying if I sit up a little more?".
Caron directly: "No! I'm not interested in the praying joke, it's funnier that people get the inpression that you are being "taken" from behind." Everybody on the set is now laughing out loud. Glenn: " And while you're sitting like that, could you please say your lines looking through your legs?".
INGREDIENTS
This is the way a scene comes to life in 'Moonlighting'. All the main 'ingrediënts' that makes this show a big succes are described in this scene.
The stars of the show Cybill Shepherd (playing Maddy Hayes) and Bruce Willis (playing David Addison), the funny and fast remarks, the sexual innuendos between Maddie and David who definitely have feelings for each other but both don't want to admit it.
ABC liked Caron's idea about the show and Caron accepted the offer to write a script. Caron: "When I came to page 35, I saw Cybill's face splashing off the pages! I wanted a cool blond heroin for the part. The type of woman you see in Hitchcock's movies. A woman like Grace Kelly. A lady with class and style that sometimes loves and sometimes hates the guts of that strange but interesting guy who's already working at the detective agency."
When Caron had written fifty pages he'd send the script to Cybill Shepherd, a somewhat forgotten star.
She had been a topmodel and acted in several movies and a tv-show but wasn't to populair in these days and did not get any joboffers until Glenn came through.
At that time some journalist described her as "a lady with no talent, a toothpaste smile and with as much star qualities as a dead hamster." Boy! Was he wrong!
Cybill was on her way back to the screen!
Cybill: " I knew I had talent, I just needed to show the world I guess. I liked the script immediately but I wanted to see more before I decided to accept the job and that the show was really good."
And good it was.
So she signed and waited for the producers to find her opponent for the David Addison part.
AUDITION
It wasn't that easy...
Until on the last day of the auditions Bruce Willis walked in looking like a streetbum with three earrings and some torn up jeans saying: " Hi I'm Bruce Willis, let's do this!."
That was it, the producers knew HE was the one and made him play a scene with Cybill.
And BOOM! there it was …….. Chemistry!
Cybill: "The first time Bruce and I were in the same room together there was a reaction! Chemistry, fireworks!
He was attractive and funny at the same time and not a lot of people have that, you know."
Then they all knew they had something good going on.
The audience loved it and chose Cybill as the most sexy woman of America and Bruce ended up 4th on the list of most sexy men .
TV-Guide chose them both as most talented duo on television.
The jury's report said about Cybill: " She has style and a lot of courage. She takes risks and is not afraid to fall on her face! Her special talent is that she can make you laugh in the middle of a superdramatic scene. There is no one else that is so sexy, beautiful and interesting to watch as Cybill Shepherd".
Bruce Willis is famous for his comic talent. Especially because of the fact that he looks into the camera and tells jokes to the audience ("I always have this effect on women") was loved by the critics.
Jury about Bruce: "He's the most original type on television. He's got something that you don't see evrey day. He's new, different and even though we have seen him now for so long on the show, you still don't know what he's gonna do or say next".
About the show :" The fastest talking comic duo of the year, these 'detectives' charmed us with the most brutal dialogs".
HARD WORK
Solely appreciation by the press!
But to keep it that way you have to work hard.
Bruce and Cybill worked over 70 hours a week.
Cybill: "I have a personal life that's limited to 10 minutes on a Friday night".
When she recently married there wasn't a huge party. A photographer said: "It was the shortest ceremony I ever attended". They married at 4 pm.
Cybill says: "I left my guests at 7.15 pm to go to sleep".
Her husband says: "Cybill's honeymoon is "Moonlighting".
Bruce Willis had the same problem.
People asked him if he liked living in LA but he couldn't answer that question 'cause he never had the time to go round and about the city.
He says: "When I get up it's dark and when I go home it's dark again. I have no clue what this city looks like."
Bruce gets up at 5.15 am, drags himself to his swimming pool and swims a couple of laps.
Then he takes a shower and drives to the studios. After work he goes straight home to learn the script for the next day or to watch some videos.
They are lucky to have a summer break then! Wrong!
They spend the whole summer reading scripts for new movies, tv-shows and commercials.
That's what they fill their time with...and their pockets!
BREAK
For example Bruce's last summer break.
First he did the 'Winecooler' commercials for the amount of 5 million dollars.
Then he had the leading role in 'Blind Date' for another million or so.
And somewhere in between he also managed to record an album called 'The Return of Bruno'.
Not bad for a guy who had been a bartender 2 years earlier.
Both Cybill and Bruce owe their succes to 'Moonlighting' and to each other.
They're both irreplaceble.
If Cybill quits, Bruce is out of a job too. And vice versa.
But we don't have to worry about that. They still don't irritate each other!
Cybill: "That chemistry between us is not acting! People think it's something between Maddie and David but that's not true. It's something between Bruce and Cybill and we use that on the show. That sexual attraction is real, it's not acting. It's just there or it isn't!"
