Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 22, 1994 TAG: 9401220330
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM JICHA FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Yes, "Moonlighting" still stings. More precisely, it was the way the celebrated ABC series imploded. The widely accepted version is that Shepherd's temper tantrums were the detonator.
She doesn't deny she did her part. She just doesn't want to take the rap alone. "Basically the problem was there were too many rats in too small a cage," she told TV writers on the midseason press tour.
Shepherd left little doubt who is included in her pack of vermin. Either this spring or next fall, she will introduce a new sitcom for CBS. Asked why she is getting back into a series after having such a bitter experience on "Moonlighting," she smiled and said, "Bruce Willis isn't in this series."
Lest anyone suspect there is lingering animosity, Shepherd went on, tongue in cheek, "We get along great now that we don't see each other."
So much for the hope of "Moonlighting" fans that there might someday be a reunion. If it doesn't happen, it won't be because of Shepherd. To the contrary, "I wish there was a reunion movie," she says.
To underline her sincerity, Shepherd said she would suppress her ego and participate even though she is certain Willis would be paid more. "I know that would happen and I can accept it now."
Willis, who was an unknown when "Moonlighting" debuted, has gone on to become a big-screen star, even if he has had as many bombs as blockbusters.
Shepherd, meanwhile, has scuffled for work. Her primary source of income has been as a commercial spokeswoman for L'Oreal beauty products. She makes a pretty penny doing it, but she aspires for more.
Next month, she is starring in an NBC movie called "Baby Brokers." She plays a childless woman who is bilked when she tries to buy a baby.
Most recently, she has been on a stadium singing tour. She played the Pyramid and the Liberty Bowl in her hometown of Memphis and the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The covergirl-turned-actress-turned-singer wasn't performing tunes from the four albums she has cut; she sang "The Star Spangled Banner" prior to basketball and football games.
"I was so nervous I almost got sick but at least I didn't grab my crotch," she said with a smile, a reference to the furor triggered by Roseanne Arnold's gross antics while singing the national anthem before a San Diego Padres baseball game.
In "Moonlighting's" day, Shepherd was as much a target of the tabloid scandal sheets as Roseanne is now. Although it bugged Shepherd at the time, she said that learning people are going to say outrageous things about you, true or not, is an important part of the maturation process for a performer. "How much they write about you is a measure of your success." If that is the case, Shepherd was the ranking star of the late '80s.
In spite of her battles with Willis and the show's producers, Shepherd said not all of her "Moonlighting" memories are dark. "It was love and war; torture and bliss; my days of wine and roses. It was the greatest opportunity of my life. It brought out the best and worst in everyone so it also taught me how to survive a war."
Even knowing what she does now, she would resume combat at a moment's notice. "I'd do it again in a second," she said. "And I'd do it better."
Obviously then, she hasn't avoided doing another series because of what happened on "Moonlighting," as had been suspected. "That had nothing to do with it," she said. "My resistance had to do with quality. I wasn't going to do a series until I found one that I could be proud of."
The new series is in its formative stages. Shepherd will play a single mother who works outside the home. But she is confident it will turn out the way she wants it to because she has been promised as much. "I'm using the power I have in television to write my own ticket," she said.
This sounds like the prelude to Set Wars II but Shepherd contends this won't be the case. "I have a new mantra: Stay open; stay open. I don't think I'll have a problem surrendering power to male directors."
Besides, she was never the shrew she was made out to be, she reiterated. "The person who approached me to do the series was Jay Daniels, who was the producer on "Moonlighting." That the offer came from someone who knows what really happened means a lot to me."
That and the fact that Willis wasn't asked.
by CNB