Bruce Willis as David Addison on the pilot episode of Moonlighting
Vitals
Bruce Willis as David Addison Jr., wisecracking private detective
Los Angeles, Spring 1985
Series: Moonlighting
Episodes:
– “Pilot” (Episodes 1.01-1.02, dir. Glenn Gordon Caron, aired 3/3/1985)
– “The Murder’s in the Mail” (Episode 1.07, dir. Peter Werner, aired 4/2/1985)
– “Funeral for a Door Nail” (Episode 2.17, dir. Allan Arkush, aired 4/26/1986)
Creator: Glenn Gordon Caron
Costume Designer: Robert Turtrice
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
For Bruce Willis’ 70th birthday today, I was inspired by a reader’s recent comment to revisit the series that launched the actor to initial fame. Moonlighting premiered with its two-part pilot episode 40 years ago this month, starring Willis opposite Cybill Shepherd.
Pitched by Shepherd to showrunner Glenn Gordon Caron to feature Hawksian comedy in the spirit of His Girl Friday, the series begins with former superstar model Maddie Hayes (Shepherd) swindled out of her fortune by a shady accountant, leading her with little choice but to quickly liquidate her few remaining assets, which include—to her bemusement—the City of Angels Investigations agency run by the unflappable detective David Addison Jr. (Willis).
Aside from a single episode of Miami Vice and uncredited appearances in the background of movies like The Verdict, Willis had been a relative unknown before he beat out approximately 3,000 other actors auditioning to play David on Moonlighting. Willis would eventually win an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the performance that transformed him to stardom, establishing his sarcastic screen persona that he would incorporate into action-based roles in franchises like Die Hard and The Expendables.
Of course, that’s not to say that Moonlighting didn’t have its share of action. The feature-length pilot itself ends with David and Maggie each taking turns scaling up the massive clock at the top of the Eastern Columbia building, about 250 feet above downtown L.A., though set-pieces like this would be ultimately phased out in favor of increasingly madcap chase scenes and brawls.
What’d He Wear?
David typically dresses in suits and sport jackets tailored in shades of gray and neutral tones, drawn from the “greige” palette popularized by Giorgio Armani at the start of the decade. Casual-wear was less common but still significant, beginning with the brown leather blouson he wears with trousers and tie during the final act of the pilot episode.
“Watch the jacket!” David warns Maddie as she clambers over him while the two dangle from a ladder hanging off the side of the Eastern Columbia building. The busily detailed, full-fitting jacket is characteristic of ’80s fashions. The shell is a soft oiled leather in a drab shade of brown with olive undertones. The ribbed-knit cuffs and hem are a darker brown fabric. The large hip pockets are outlined by a swelled seam and accessed by straight horizontal zip openings, with an inset hand pocket over each accessed with a vertical-welted entry.
A straight front-zip extends up to the neck, covered by a fly that closes with six snap-buttons—including a snap to close the standing collar over the neck, though David always wears the jacket fully open. A brown plastic zipper around the back of the collar echoes the functionality of jackets like the Army’s M-65 field jacket, where unzipping the collar reveals a hood, though the zipper on the back of David’s collar may merely serve form rather than function. The shoulders are covered by a large round yoke, bisected over the top of each shoulder by seams that run down the length of each sleeve.
“Pilot” (Episode 1.01-1.02)
In the pilot episode, David wears a light bone-colored shirt with a mottled finish, reflective of the tonal jacquard weave characteristic of designer Jhane Barnes (as seen on the shirt’s label.) A back-to-back recipient of the Coty Menswear Award, Barnes was a trendy menswear designer through much of the 1980s and ’90s who specialized in crafting complex geometric designs that would then be translated onto instructions for jacquard looms. Her designs ranged from subtle—as modeled by Willis—to colorfully busy, rivaling Dan Flashes.
David’s long-sleeved shirt has a narrow collar, a breast pocket, button cuffs, and a covered fly front.
David had been at the office before taking Maddie to the Eastern Columbia building in the pilot, so he was dressed for work as usual in a loosened tie. The tie follows a subdued micro-checked pattern of an olive-and-black puppytooth ground, overlaid with criss-crossing “uphill” burgundy stripes and “downhill” teal stripes. Presumably to avoid a strangulation hazard, he removes the tie during his attempts to scale the side of the building up to its massive clock.
David’s gray double forward-pleated trousers may have been orphaned from one of his suits. These slacks have five pockets—two side pockets; a coin pocket just below the right front belt-line, covered with a single-button flap; a jetted back-right pocket; and a set-in back-let pocket covered with a single-button flap. The bottoms are plain-hemmed, and he holds them up with a dark-brown leather belt that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle.
Though David would eventually adopt slip-on loafers as his preferred footwear, he wears tall boots throughout the pilot, including with his suits. This may have been fortuitous for David, as there’s a very good chance his low-slung shoes would not have remained on his feet during the high-rise ladder stunts. His boots through this sequence feature smooth burgundy leather uppers, with reinforced yokes around the tops of each mid-calf shaft and black leather soles that have tall riding-style heels.
Watch that hand, David! Any more serious and they’ll move you to cable.
“The Murder’s in the Mail” (Episode 1.07)
David pulls this jacket back out of his closet for a sequence in the season finale, “The Murder’s in the Mail” (Episode 1.07). This time, he layers it over a slubby crew-neck sweater knitted in mixed stone-gray and beige yarns. This sweater would reappear during a fateful rendezvous with his now-married ex Jillian Armstrong (Dana Delany) in “Knowing Her” (Episode 2.06).
In “The Murder’s in the Mail”, David wears the jacket and sweater with dark-brown wool double-pleated trousers that have belt loops (but, evidently, no belt), slightly slanted “quarter top” side pockets, two button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. David’s low taupe leather loafers have woven vamps, worn with brown socks that have fancy burgundy track stripes.
After yielding his gold tank watch with its black dial to the police in the first episode (“the watch my grandmother gave me for graduating high school,” he explains to Maddie), David begins wearing a mixed-metal Rolex Datejust through the rest of the first season. The case is stainless steel with a round gold dial and a 3:00 date window, attached to a steel-and-gold “Jubilee”-style bracelet.
“Funeral for a Door Nail” (Episode 2.17)
This jacket reappears for its final appearance at the end of the second season in the penultimate episode, “Funeral for a Door Nail” (Episode 2.17) when he pulls it over a shirt and trousers following a rough Friday night… which is about to turn into a rougher Saturday morning when Maddie insists on repaying money to a dead client for services they couldn’t render.
The light slate-blue shirt is patterned with narrow, closely spaced tonal stripes, and it has a breast pocket, button cuffs, and plain button-up front that David wears with the top few buttons undone. He tucks the shirt into dark-gray wool reverse-pleated trousers that have side pockets (but no back pockets), plain-hemmed bottoms, and belt loops for his brown scaled leather belt that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle. His dark-brown leather shoes appear to be tasseled loafers.
In the car that morning, David wears black acetate-framed sunglasses with the iconic wayfarer-style cat-eye frame developed by Ray-Ban in the early 1950s. David’s sunglasses don’t feature any prominent branding but they may still be Ray-Bans, as Ray-Ban didn’t start adding their now-recognizable temple logos until later in the ’80s when stars like Tom Cruise (in Risky Business) and Don Johnson (on Miami Vice) had revived the style into a status symbol that found quick imitation among Ray-Ban’s competitors.
David’s complement of jewelry now includes a blacked-out wristwatch and a pair of pinky rings, all on his right hand. The thicker of the two rings is silver with a ridge through the center, stacked with a thin gold band.
“Funeral for a Door Nail” is also the funeral for David’s first brown leather jacket, as it’s never seen in future episodes after he inadvertently blasts it with water from a fire hose during the final scene. After a similar brown suede-like jacket sporadically appears through the third season, David would adopt an A2-style brown leather flight jacket during the last two seasons.
How to Get the Look
Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd on the pilot episode of Moonlighting
David’s fondness for fashionable brown leather jackets allow him to easily dress down the shirts and ties he wears with his gray and neutral suits when the situation calls for it, whether that’s scaling a clock at the top of a skyscraper or fisticuffs with an avaricious attorney.
- Brown soft leather blouson jacket with six-snap/straight-zip front, standing collar (with rear zip), round shoulder yoke, large patch-style hip pockets with horizontal straight-zip entry and inset vertical-welted hand pockets, and ribbed-knit cuffs and hem
- Bone-colored mottled long-sleeved shirt with narrow point collar, covered fly front, breast pocket, and button cuffs
- Gray double forward-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, right-side coin pocket (with single-button flap), jetted back-right pocket, flapped back-left pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Dark-brown leather belt with gold-toned single-prong buckle
- Burgundy smooth leather mid-calf boots with riding heels
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the series, available on DVD and also streaming on Hulu.
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