Reunion/DVD History: 2002 - 2005

It's The How and Why The Moonlighting Reunion Campaign & Moonlighting Strangers Fanzine Were Created

By Christie Taylor

If you have stumbled upon this site recently: Welcome. I'm sure you've noticed it's not quite as active as it once was. After 2005, I've come across several emails assuming the Moonlighting Reunion Campaign is still going on. It's not. My friends and I have tirelessly worked throughout that five year long journey and have done all we could do to bring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis together again. The Season 4 DVD featurette is the closest we'll ever get. We're not sorry for what we did. We're extremely proud of all the fanzine issues we produced, all the people we've interviewed and how we helped bring Moonlighting DVDs in countless store shelves. That's why I've added this section, the Reunion-DVD Section, to share what we have done and to chronicle they way things actually happened. Unlike Back To The Future you don't need to ride in a Delorean. All you need to do is read on. Isn't time travel wonderful?

The website was meant to be a fan fiction site. Because of this, the layout was very simple.

Between 2002 and 2005 this site was the flagship for the Moonlighting Reunion Campaign. But it didn't start out that way. The original purpose for moonlighting21.com was to create an up-to-date fan fiction series (Moonlighting In The 21st Century) and sharpen my skills as a script writer (that's why the stories are done in television script format).

Along the way I met Joy Chodan. She proposed the idea of the reunion campaign on a Moonlighting message board. Since she was the only person who publicly complimented my stories, I was the only one who publicly had her back. Ever since then, this site slowly shifted it's focus away from fan fiction toward a quest to see if the impossible was possible.

Despite slow starts and growing opposition (imagine that), the reunion campaign added a critical component: The Moonlighting Strangers Fanzine. The idea was even older than this site. Months before. During the boom of Yahoo groups, I stumbled upon fanzines of 70s-80s TV shows. There were publications dedicated to Emergency!, Starsky & Hutch, Scarecrow & Mrs. King, Remington Steele, etc. But the show I didn't see was Moonlighting. I thought how can a great show such as this not have a magazine dedicated to it? However, seeing that I hadn't written my fan fiction series yet, and I didn't know anyone online, I shelved the idea... until the emergence of the reunion campaign.

After about two months, there were enough people who could help make the fanzine a must read. The vision I had for the fanzine was different than the ones I'd seen before. Their publications were printed. I wanted the feel of a printed magazine that people can download online and can print out what they want offline. I can say without the hesitation, without the fanzine, our campaign would've been over. I can't say why, exactly. Just think about seeing poison being injected into an apple, rotting away at its core from the inside. That's what almost happened to us. If we hadn't found another apple our efforts would've perished. Why was the fanzine so critical to our efforts? It was a vehicle to talk to the people who actually worked on the show and asked them about how they felt about a reunion.

The fanzine turned out to be incredibly important to our campaign. It provided great interviews, fan stories and projects, and was THE tool to help persuade ABC and Lionsgate to produce and distribute Moonlighting on DVD.

During this time, the focus shifted yet again. We didn't just want a Moonlighting reunion motion picture, we also wanted the entire series on DVD. I remember how excited I was when I picked up the Moonlighting Pilot video tape off the rack among other TV VHS tapes. That's right. VHS tapes. DVD production was solely focused on releasing movies. In late 2002, selling TV shows on DVD was the new trend. The great appeal to customers was how production studios released an entire season in one slick package. All 22 (or in Moonlighting's case: 14 to 16) episodes with NO commercials and (in most DVD collections) uncut versions fans haven't seen since these shows originally aired.

We thought having the entire Moonlighting series on DVD was a no brainer. The only obstacle (and it was a huge one) was the musical rights. Broadcasting studios and DVD production companies found it a financial headache to pay musical rights for songs that were originally licensed to be used only on television. That's why some the songs in your DVD collection have been replaced. It's unfortunate because those original songs were chosen for a reason. Replacing what the show's producers had intended can ruin the meaning, sometimes the message, that particular scene. That's bad news for shows that relied heavily on music like Happy Days, WKRP In Cincinnati, Miami Vice and Ally McBeal. We were determined not to let that happen to Moonlighting. Our purpose wasn't only to ask the reunion question in every interview, we also asked the DVD question. It helped us build a case to ABC network, which we ultimately did. The fanzine staff crafted a proposal and Diana Maiocco presented the case to ABC (then later to Lionsgate) in L.A. to not only release the show on DVD, but to preserve the show's character and leave the original songs intact in every episode. Fortunately, ABC and Lionsgate agreed.

Working on the reunion campaign and putting together each fanzine hadn't always felt like a party, but we all had a great time and we're very proud of what we accomplished.

To say those four years meant a lot to all of us is an understatement. We were energized with a lot of dedication, hope, passion and friendship. Doing this in the midst of a heated internet war was even more impressive. Instead of cracking under the pressure, it fueled our motivation and kept us focused on our goal. Thriving through adversity certainly made the quality of our work that much better.

It's rare to bring people who barely know each other together for a common goal. It certainly wasn't for money or fame. It was for the love of a classic television show we felt needed to be preserved and exposed for those who weren't lucky enough to watch David and Maddie magically banter back and forth every Tuesday night (or at least the nights that weren't re-runs). No we didn't we get the reunion movie, but we did make our DVD dreams a reality. We were acknowledged by those who worked on the show (even met some of them face-to-face). Nothing is accomplished if you never try. Hopefully, the history of our campaign has proven that theory.

As an added treat, there are a few versions of the campaign's mission statement and reunion flyers/poster available for you to see. Just click on what you want in the sidebar. Enjoy. :)