• Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Mar 3, 1985
Season #: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Metascore
62

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 20
  2. Negative: 2 out of 20
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Critic Reviews

  1. Kansas City Star
    Reviewed by: Barry Garron
    Sep 28, 2023
    90
    It is Mr. Willis who elevates the show from good viewing to outstanding entertainment. [03 Mar 1985, p.3K]
  2. Reviewed by: Richard Hack
    Sep 27, 2023
    90
    Tallied together, Moonlighting is a welcome addition to primetime TV, offering a satisfying blend of comedy, romance and action — which in itself is unique. Add to the recipe, the special talents of Willis, and you’ve got the stuff from which hits are made.
  3. Reviewed by: John J. O'Connor
    Sep 27, 2023
    90
    Moonlighting is bringing something truly different to the medium; a private-eye formula with wit and style in both the production and the performances. It couls well be the most significant television phenomenon of 1985.
  4. Philadelphia Daily News
    Reviewed by: Dan Geringer
    Sep 28, 2023
    80
    Moonlighting is a sleuth-and-smoocher that is very funny and so downright friendly you keep wishing these people were real so you could hang with 'em on the corner, talkin' trash and lookin' sly. [01 Mar 1985, p.67]
  5. Reviewed by: Richard Zoglin
    Jul 2, 2013
    80
    The show's dialogue is possibly the fastest on TV, the stories are briskly paced and unobtrusive, and Shepherd gets lots of loving close-ups. Moonlighting is a snazzy entry that deserves a full-time job on ABC next fall.
  6. San Diego Union-Tribune
    Reviewed by: Don Freeman
    Sep 28, 2023
    75
    MOONLIGHTING IS a quirky comedy, offbeat and free-floating and rather beguiling and very, very talky, which by the way I find refreshing. [26 Mar 1985, p.E9]
  7. Sioux City Journal
    Reviewed by: Bruce Miller
    Sep 28, 2023
    75
    With a little elbow grease, some long hours and good support from Willis (who should have been in a series long before this) Moonlighting could well go into overtime. [01 Mar 1985, p.B13]
  8. Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    Sep 27, 2023
    75
    As it charges along, the show develops a pleasing velocity that makes the eye-roll-inducing one-liners and random quirkiness forgivable.
  9. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Kay Gardella
    Sep 27, 2023
    75
    This romantic comedy is good fun, albeit a little nutty, as the two principals keep things going for the entire bout. If ABC is awaiting a decision; both fighters are winners and Tuesday's rematch is eagerly awaited. [01 Mar 1985, p.77]
  10. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Lee Margulies
    Sep 27, 2023
    70
    While not without flaws, the two-hour premiere contains enough laughs, style and action to suggest that ABC has a shot at success too. [02 Mar 1985, p.12V]
  11. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Noel Holston
    Sep 27, 2023
    70
    Moonlighting does not have a style and charm all its own. It borrow those important intangibles from NBC's Remington Steele. But it borrows more from the early Steele than the cutesier current incarnation, and that's good. [01 Mar 1985, p.E3]
  12. The Guardian
    Reviewed by: Nancy Banks-Smith
    Sep 27, 2023
    60
    If wit is what you don't expect or even if wit isn't, the opening of Moonlighting is a funny sequence. [30 May 1986, p.10]
  13. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Bill Carter
    Sep 28, 2023
    40
    It's just not very good. [03 Mar 1985, p.3D]
  14. Reviewed by: Tom Shales
    Sep 27, 2023
    40
    We expect television programs to be derivative, but Moonlighting doesn't even do its borrowing with finesse.
  15. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bud Wilkinson
    Sep 27, 2023
    40
    ABC's programming team must be either extremely desperate or extremely short of original ideas, and I'll wager both notions are accurate. [02 Mar 1985]
  16. Detroit Free Press
    Reviewed by: Mike Duffy
    Sep 27, 2023
    40
    Moonlighting is in desperate need of a chemistry lesson. [03 Mar 1985, p.3C]
  17. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Steve Sonsky
    Sep 27, 2023
    40
    Why go for the imitation when you can have the original? Stick with real magnetism and Remington on Tuesdays. [06 Mar 1985, p.5B]
  18. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Lee Winfrey
    Sep 27, 2023
    40
    Moonlighting is a series that looks creatively exhausted as soon as it stumbles out of the starting gate. [01 Mar 1985, p.6D]
  19. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Jon Anderson
    Sep 27, 2023
    37
    When Shepherd radiates any emotions at all, they are narcissism or depression or, worse, both at once. [02 Mar 1985, p.15]
  20. Newsday
    Reviewed by: Harriet Van Horne
    Sep 27, 2023
    25
    In general, pilot films fall into three modes -- promising, bearable and for imbeciles only. Moonlighting is definitely in the last class. [01 Mar 1985, p.20]