Moonlighting: “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” Episode (October 15, 1985)

If you remember the television series Moonlighting, you may be wondering why a blog about noir would include an article about it. The series was very popular and it was called many things: romance, drama, comedy—but never noir. Even someone like me, who isn’t particularly fond of categories, couldn’t find much that was noir about the series, but there is one episode, “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice,” that pays loving homage to film noir. It’s a real treat, and the chance to write about it for the Ninth Annual Favorite Television Episode Blogathon gives me the perfect excuse to put it in the limelight of the blogosphere.

For film noir fans, the title of the episode is an obvious play on The Postman Always Rings Twice, the title of the novel by James M. Cain, published in 1934, and the 1946 film adaptation starring Lana Turner and James Garfield. For the episode itself, the title refers to different dreams dreamed by the two lead characters, Maddie Hayes, played by Cybill Shepherd, and David Addison, played by Bruce Willis. Both dreams are about the same murder from the past, but each one arrives at a different conclusion about the integrity of the people involved in that crime.

That’s not the only noir touch, of course. Orson Welles, the famous filmmaker who produced many films noir, introduces the episode, and he begins his introduction with “Tonight, broadcasting takes a giant leap backward.” He goes on to reassure viewers that nothing is wrong with their television sets; the episode really does switch to black and white about ten minutes in. He also says, “Gather the kids, the dog, grandma, and lock them in another room.” It’s all tongue in cheek because the series overall, of course, is mostly devoted to other genres besides noir.

In this episode, the opening credits appear over the usual opening still shots, then continue over shots of the present-day Flamingo Cove, which is abandoned and in disrepair. The soundtrack includes whispers of an opening night from the 1940s, when the nightclub was in its heyday. The present day (1985, when the episode aired) intrudes more directly when Maddie Hayes and David Addison, detectives and partners in the Blue Moon detective agency, enter the old rundown Flamingo Cove nightclub to find the current owner and the prospective buyer, Mr. Bigelow, inside. Mr. Bigelow hired the detectives to find out what they could about his cheating wife.

Before they find their client, Maddie and David have one of their classic arguments, this one about taking on more divorce cases. Maddie finds the work depressing, but David is more pragmatic:

• David: “What are you talking about? Infidelity is as American as apple pie. Without infidelity, there’d be no Ann Landers. There’d be no Divorce Court. There’d be no Dynasty.”

• Maddie: “That’s not my problem. I don’t like it. The deception, the dishonesty, the lack of trust.”

• David: “Let me tell you something. Like it or not, our business is built on a lack of trust. Two people are involved. Maybe they share a business. Maybe they share a bed. One doesn’t completely trust the other. What does he do? He calls us, Maddie. He calls us. Why? Because the world is bad. The world is full of deception. It is full of dishonesty. And I, for one, wouldn’t have it any other way. And I’ll tell you something else. I don’t know about you, I don’t know about you, but I, for one, I, for one, hit my knees every night and thank the man upstairs that there is a little bit of dishonesty left in this otherwise sunny world. You just think about that. That’s all I have to say. Mr. Bigelow! Mr. Bigelow!” [David continues into the Flamingo Cove nightclub followed by Maddie.]

David’s opinions are surprisingly dark, both for the series and for the character. But they are true to the noir theme of the episode. The case involving the prospective owner, Mr. Bigelow, takes an amusing turn, however, when he is disappointed that David and Maddie have no evidence about his wife’s infidelity or that they won’t doctor any of the photos so that he can use them to file for divorce. Mr. Bigelow wants to buy the Flamingo Cove, but he calls off the deal and walks away in a huff because he won’t share the profits with his wife.

David and Maddie are left with the lawyers and the present owner of the nightclub, who talks of its storied past, including its infamous unsolved murder. He explains that a singer and a trumpet player in the nightclub’s band started an affair and one of them killed the singer’s husband. Each of them maintained that the other did it, and so the case was never truly solved.

On the way back to the Blue Moon Investigations offices, Maddie and David argue (again—their arguments are classic and a trademark of the series) about who committed the murder: the wife/singer or the trumpet player. Maddie believes the trumpet player did it; David believes it could be either one. He maintains that Maddie is a sexist because she assumes that the trumpet player committed the murder simply because he is a man. (Given the statistics and what is known today about the crime of murder, David’s accusation doesn’t really hold up all that well.) The argument continues at the detective agency’s offices. Maddie is so angry at David that she leaves work and goes home.

(This article about the television episode “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” from the series Moonlighting contains all the spoilers.)

At home, Maddie falls asleep on the living room couch and dreams of the Flamingo Cove murder. Maddie is the nightclub singer, Rita Adams; the modern-day owner of the Flamingo Cove, whom she met earlier in the day and who told her and David the story of the unsolved murder, is her husband Jerry Adams, a clarinet player; and David Addison is the trumpet player. When David Addison makes his first appearance as the trumpet player, he shows up at the nightclub on his first day as a new hire. He is cocky and sure of himself: He introduces himself as “Chance Cash Johnny Brick Lonesome Shane McCoy, but you can all me Zack.”

Rita Adams sings “Blue Moon” in her dream sequence. Killing her husband is Zack McCoy’s idea, and he uses Jerry’s clarinet to bludgeon him to death. Rita Adams is interrogated by Lieutenant Matthews, and he learns from her that Jerry had a $20,000 insurance policy. That bit of information changes the focus of his investigation from an accident to murder. With that switch in focus, the investigation becomes more urgent. Rita is arrested for the murder of her husband because Zack McCoy eventually turns on her and accuses her of the crime that he really committed.

The episode goes back to full color for the sequence between the dreams. Maddie wakes up from her dream and calls David at home. It is now nighttime, and she wakes him up to tell him that the trumpet player murdered the singer’s husband, then hangs up on him. David goes back to sleep and dreams his own version of events.

In David’s black-and-white dream sequence, Rita Adams is again the nightclub singer, but this time she sings “I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out.” Zack McCoy plays the trumpet, but he is so sure of himself this time that he also plays the saxophone, clarinet, and drums. Killing Jerry Adams, the husband, is Rita’s idea: She suggests it, and she gets Zack to do the actual killing with Jerry’s clarinet. Zack doesn’t want to kill Jerry, but he changes his mind when Rita shows up one day at Flamingo Cove with a black eye. Zack finally invites himself to practice with Jerry and Rita, and Rita pushes him into killing Jerry. Zack is the one arrested, and he eventually goes to the electric chair. Rita is there at the execution to pull the lever.

The DVD commentary for “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” is provided by director Peter Werner, cowriter Debra Frank, and series creator Glenn Gordon Caron, and it is full of fun and interesting background information for the episode. It is definitely worth a listen, whether you are a fan of film noir or a fan of the television series.

◊ Glenn Gordon Caron talks about asking Orson Welles to introduce the episode because there was a lot of concern, especially from the network executives, that people would never watch a show in black and white or that they would think something was wrong with their television sets. Caron felt filming in black and white was necessary because the episode was an homage to 1940s film noir. He also notes that Welles died on October 10, 1985, one week after filming for “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice.”

◊ The dream sequences were filmed with old-stock, black-and-white film because they didn’t look the same with color film. The entire series, including “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” episode, was filmed in the old tradition: with great depth of field, and the use of shadows and lighting.

◊ Maddie’s dream sequence was inspired by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) style of noir: slick and glossy, with female-centered characters. Mildred Pierce was one inspiration [although I should point out that Mildred Pierce was produced and distributed by Warner Bros., not MGM]. David’s dream sequence was inspired by the Warner Bros. style of noir: gritty and dark.

◊ The voice-over narration by Bruce Willis in David Addison’s dream sequence is another difference between the two dream sequences. Voice-over narration was a staple of many 1940s films noir.

◊ The song “Blue Moon” was chosen because of the name of the detective agency in the series: Blue Moon Investigations. The song “I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out” was chosen by Cybill Shepherd, who sings the songs herself. The musical numbers were recorded first and filmed on a large soundstage at Twentieth Century Fox that was leased by the producer of the show.

Click here to see some footage of Cybill Shepherd singing in both dream sequences at YouTube. The video also shows the funny clip of Zack McCoy taking over the nightclub band’s performance and playing several instruments.

◊ Debra Frank and Carl Sautter, the writers of the episode, had the general idea for the story first, and they adjusted it depending on who they were pitching the story to. They tailored the story to fit the Moonlighting premise. The series could accommodate very different types of story lines, and “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” was just one example. Another is the episode called “Atomic Shakespeare.”

I binge-watched the entire series, all five seasons, every single episode, one right after the other, and I was sorry when I came to the last DVD and there weren’t any more episodes left to watch. I never watched Moonlighting when it was a hit in the late 1980s, but I’m guessing that I wouldn’t have appreciated all its humor and its cleverness at the time. Thank goodness for DVDs!

This article about the Moonlighting episode “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” is my entry for the Ninth Annual Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted by Terry at A Shroud of Thoughts. Click here for the complete list of blogathon participants and links to their blogs. The list is updated each day of the blogathon, from March 24 to March 26, 2023.

October 15, 1985, broadcast date  •  Season 2, Episode 4; Episode 11 of the series overall  •  Directed by Peter Werner  •  Written by Debra Frank, Carl Sautter  •  Music by Alf Clausen  •  Edited by Neil Mandelberg  •  Cinematography by Gerald Perry Finnerman  •  Opening theme song “Moonlighting” by Al Jarreau, Lee Holdridge  •  Series created by Glenn Gordon Caron

Cybill Shepherd as Maddie Hayes  •  Bruce Willis as David Addison Jr.  •  Allyce Beasley as Agnes Dipesto  •  Jack Bannon as the club owner and Jerry Adams  •  Phil Rubenstein as Mr. Bigelow and Sloan  •  Raleigh Bond as Potter  •  Francis X. McCarthy as Lieutenant Matthews  •  Freeman King as the bartender  •  Bill Handy as the jailer  •  Nick DeMauro as the priest  •  Orson Welles as himself, introducing the episode  •  Jamie Taylor as Jamie Lamont, Blue Moon employee  •  Jonathan Ames as Jergenson, Blue Moon employee  •  Kristine Kauffman as Kris, Blue Moon employee  •  Dan Fitzpatrick as O’Neill, Blue Moon employee  •  Willie Brown as Simmons, Blue Moon employee  •  Inez Edwards as Inez, Blue Moon employee

Produced by Picturemaker Productions, ABC Circle Films  •  Distributed by ABC Distribution Company  •  Broadcast by ABC