I remember that my mother loved this show. I also remember watching it at times. I loved going back and learning all new things about the show, the characters, and actors. If you loved watching this show, you have to read this book when it comes out.

It’s good to see someone working on Moonlighting and its impact on contemporary TV. However, I am more than we the “oral history” approach to television studies. The people interviewed here all have their own agendas, many of which come out much too clearly. The amount of bashing of the lead actress by the overwhelmingly male staff makes me want to throw away my DVDs of the show. These guys couldn’t wait to get an actress of her stature for their Remington Steele rip-off, then turned against her the moment she insisted on being treated with respect. They never seemed to forgive her for knowing more about romantic comedy and film than they did. A telling anecdote occurs when Allyce Beasley, another new mother worn down by the shooting schedule, forgot which scene she was supposed to be shooting. Just like Cybill Shepherd, Beasley was taken aside and yelled out for not being prepared. Since she did have Shepherd’s clout, she had to put up with it.

Should such incidents be preserved for posterity? Possibly. However, the lack of analysis here (there are only a few passing references to the sexism of the era) just preserves the “Bruce good/Cybill bad” narrative prevalent in the tabloids of the era. An in-depth study of Moonlighting is desperately needed in TV studies. This book may provide some useful quotes for such a study, but it’s just gossip, not analysis.

Where are all my 80’s TV watchers at? This is definitely a book for you! Moonlighting was the hottest show on TV during the mid-80’s it seemed. Before the time of DVR’s and recorded shows, I had to ensure I was home on certain nights of the week to watch all my favorites. And Moonlighting was definitely one of my favorites!

Cybill Shepard was so beautiful and poised and Bruce Willis was the bad, party boy with a heart of gold. Their chemistry on camera sizzled and I tuned in every week to watch circle around each other like Sam and Diane from Cheers.

Now, so many years later, I can barely remember what the actual show was about, just that I loved it. It was great to read this book and remember so much about the show that I had long since forgotten.

Apparently, there was A LOT of off-screen drama between the two co-stars. I don’t remember that at the time, but I may have been too young to pay attention.

This book looks at the most interesting episodes across all the seasons and provides insight and viewpoints from the writers, directors, producers, co-stars and special guests. What’s interesting to note is that the author directly calls out that this book is not a gossip column and he intentionally left out any gossip from his writings. Another interesting point, Cybill is part of the interviews, but Bruce is not. Hmmmmm

If you read all the way through, there is definitely some drama discussed that occurred between Bruce, Cybill and some of the writers/producers. I walked away with the impression that Cybill caused most of it (maybe her ego was a bit too big?). But there is also some great interviews pieces from one of the female writers who discusses how this was an old boys club (both Hollywood and the show) and that Cybill was in an environment where she was forced to stand up for herself to be treated as an equal. That puts a very different spin on the book as a whole and many of the interviews from the men on set.

And if you look real close, during the time that Cybill was pregnant, you can read through the interviews and see how often that was mentioned as a huge problem, and these are recent interviews. Yes, pregnancy can wreak havoc on a schedule. Yes, high-risk pregnancies can be even worse for schedules. But as I read through some of these interviews, that were given recently (in current society), and I could feel how upset everyone was at all the problems it caused back then, I can only imagine the amount of crap that Cybill, as a female lead, had to take from her employers and co-workers back in the 80’s. It was really eye-opening to me.

Overall, it’s a great book for fans of Moonlighting and for people that like to know what happens behind the scenes. It was a pretty big let-down for me that Bruce was not incorporated in the book. He was clearly well-loved by all of the others that were interviewed so it doesn’t make sense why he wouldn’t be included and the author did not address this specifically. Which makes me believe he didn’t want to take a stroll down memory lane with the rest of the cast and crew. Another hmmmm.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #FayettevilleMafiaPress for providing this book. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy and all views expressed are my honest opinion.

Moonlighting (An Oral History) is a must for fans of Moonlighting! It's definitely a niche audience though, but I guess you wouldn't even bother to read it if you weren't a fan in the first place.

I was a huge fan of Moonlighting a long time ago, but I was too young to know about all the behind the scenes issues and how hard it was to actually produce the episodes. This book is a comprehensive oral history of the rise and fall of the show. I found it fascinating to hear about how certain episodes came together. A main drawback is that Bruce Willis wasn't able to be interviewed due to scheduling issues, but pretty much everyone else including Cybill Shepherd and Glenn Gordon Caron (the creator of the show) have their say.

It honestly seems like it was a nightmare workplace, so I'm surprised they were able to put out what they were able to do. I really enjoyed reading this, but it's definitely a book for people who are familiar with the episodes and want to hear about their creation.

I was a fan of this show. If you are a fan, this book is for you.

It is comprehensive and meticulously researched. At times, I struggled with the writing style - its kind of all over the place at times, especially when the author starts going off on tangents.

Nonetheless, this book is informative and fun to read. There was much I didn't know and some of the events he describes brings back memory.