‘Moonlighting’ Is Finally Coming to Streaming

Fans of the Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd crime dramedy rejoice! Moonlighting is finally coming to streaming on Hulu.

For those not familiar with the show, it ran from 1985 to 1989 and was a solid mix of drama, comedy, thriller, and romance. The show was also one of the first examples of dramedy on TV. It was innovative in other ways, like including fourth wall breaks, and having other characters cameo from different networks.

It also helped to boost Bruce Willis to stardom. While the showrunners knew they wanted him cast in the role of David Addison Jr. immediately, they weren't able to get past the wishes of the network. The network didn't think that any tension between Willis and Shepherd would be believable, so they made the showrunners sit through auditions until they were satisfied. The show ended up being a major success.

Getting the show on streaming has been a long and hard-fought battle, mostly owing to the fact that while Disney now owns the rights to the show, it didn't own the rights to the music that appeared on the soundtrack. Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of the show, recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the struggle to bring Moonlighting to modern audiences...

When deals were made for the music, no one anticipated streaming. In order to exhibit the show [on streaming], the owner of the shows, which is the Walt Disney Company, has to go back and make deals for all that music — and they've resisted doing that for six or seven years now ... With all the attention that Bruce has been getting, hopefully one good thing that might come out of it is we can reinitiate the conversation with Disney about releasing the streaming rights.

It looks like that conversation finally happened. All five seasons of Moonlighting will be streaming on Hulu on October 10.