Moonlighting (TV Series) - Cast and Characters

Cast and Characters

• Cybill Shepherd as Maddie Hayes: Maddie Hayes is a chic and smart former high-fashion model. Left bankrupt when her accountant embezzles all of her money, she is forced to make a living by running the detective agency she had previously owned as a tax write-off. Using her celebrity as a former model, she brings in clients and tries to bring some order to a business previously run without any discipline. By the time he had written 50 pages for the pilot to the show, Caron says he realized he was writing the part for Cybill Shepherd. After reading the script, she immediately realized this was a part she wanted to do and, during her first meeting with Caron and producer Jay Daniel, remarked that it was reminiscent of a “Hawksian” comedy. The two had no idea what she was talking about, so she suggested they screen Twentieth Century, Bringing Up Baby, and His Girl Friday, three of her favorites, to see how the overlapping dialogue was handled. A week before shooting of the pilot began, Caron, Shepherd, and Willis watched Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday.

• Bruce Willis as David Addison: David Addison is a fast-talking, fun-loving detective running the City of Angels Detective Agency. Faced with the prospect of being put out of business, he convinces Maddie that they have always lost money because they were supposed to and talks her into rebranding the agency and going into business with him as her partner. Glenn Gordon Caron had to fight with ABC to put Willis in the lead role having already signed Shepherd for both the pilot and series. Caron claims he tested Willis about a third of the way through testing over 2,000 actors, knew "this was the guy" immediately, and had to fight through twice as many more acting tests and readings while arguing with ABC executives before receiving (initial) conditional authorization to cast Willis in the pilot. ABC, according to Caron, did not feel that anyone viewing would think there could possibly be any "believable" sexual tension between Shepherd and Willis.

• Allyce Beasley as Agnes DiPesto: Agnes DiPesto is the extremely loyal and quirky receptionist for the Blue Moon Detective Agency who always answers the phone in rhyme. As problems arose with getting Willis and Shepherd on screen due to personal issues, the writers started to focus on the relationship between Agnes and fellow Blue Moon employee Herbert Viola. In the series finale, Agnes berates Maddie and David for not being able to figure out their nitwit relationship as the entire set is dismantled and states “if there’s a God in heaven, he’ll spin Herbert and me off in our own series.”

• Curtis Armstrong as Herbert Viola: Herbert Viola started at Blue Moon as an employee from a temp agency. The producers brought Armstrong in based on his work in Revenge of the Nerds and Better Off Dead, hoping to expand the role of Agnes DiPesto by giving her a love interest, thereby taking some of the filming pressure off Willis and Shepherd. As Herbert begins to shine in his duties, he gets promoted to working real cases as a junior detective. Debuting in season three, he appeared in 36 of the series' 66 episodes.

• Jack Blessing as MacGillicudy: MacGillicudy is a Blue Moon employee and became a foil for Herbert Viola and a rival for Agnes’s affections. Debuting in season three, he appeared in 17 of the series’ 66 episodes.