Moonlighting 4×07 — “Father Knows Last”: Ugh, no wonder people quit watching Moonlighting during Season 4! I can’t believe the writers and producers thought they could keep things going even though they eliminated every single element that made the first three seasons so fun. For instance:
– This was the fourth episode in a row that did not feature a case! What the heck?! Even though the cases Blue Moon usually takes on are so cheesy and predictable, at least they remind viewers that there’s a business involved and that David and Maddie are private investigators. How boring to have so many episodes about nothing except the characters’ personal struggles.
– Did Bruce and Cybill have it written into their contracts that they couldn’t appear in any scenes together? I get that Maddie needed time to “think”, but OMG, how long did they drag this out??? Again, no surprise that viewers left in droves. This was just not the way to handle Cybill’s real-life pregnancy. I mean, she was pregnant on the show too, so what was the big deal of showing her from time to time?
– And since David and Maddie were never in any scenes together, there was none of the usual back-and-forth banter to look forward to. The dialogue was reduced to a bunch of whiny arguments from David about why Maddie should want to see him — all set against incredibly maudlin strains of the show’s theme song… it gets old!
As I’ve said before, however, I’m still going to keep watching these eps. I never did finish the series when it aired in the mid-1980s, so I want to see how it ends.