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The Writers of Virtual: Lizzie

So I am Lizzie … and this is my world.  You are welcome to it.  Where to begin?  I am east coast born and bred and have been living on the west coast ever since I was old enough to make my own decisions (i.e. could run away from home without getting caught).  New England is a nice place to be from and a great place to visit - but I have shoveled my last driveway.

I discovered Moonlighting with the rest of the viewing audience back in 1985 and I felt all the things that the rest of American was feeling.  I loved the show. I loved the characters. I loved the writing.  I remember Bruce's drama with the press and his "bad boy" rep which seemed to dissipate when he married Demi - for a while.  I hated the writers/producers for going on strike and I resented Cybill for having to take so much time off.  But back then, the show was on so sporadically it was hard to get too upset toward the end because any show that was new was better than watching the same old rerun every week.  This was all before the studios figured out about MID-SEASON replacements.  I did watch faithfully until the end and it was a very bittersweet ending.  A part of me was glad that it was over since the entire 5th season was so painful to watch.  Those were not the characters I fell in love with.  I can honestly say that I have only watched the Annie arc 3 - maybe 4 - times in my life.

Then years later the gods smiled on me - and the rest of the world - when Moonlighting showed up on Lifetime every day.  I fell in love with the show and with Bruce and Cybill and Glenn's writing all over again.  That lasted a couple of years then it was gone - again.  Finally came this latest rerun party on BRAVO.  This time I decided to tape all the episodes - in order - so that if Moonlighting faded back into oblivion again, I would not be at the mercy of  cable programming directors.  Now I am in DVD heaven and want to start a campaign to have all the episodes put on DVD in order, by season, with all the original scenes uncut.  I can't decide who OWNs the show and who would be the people to flood with requests.  So until then …

The Bravo run came at a time when in my life when my situation had changed.  I was now ONLINE and discovering all the cool stuff that the web has to offer.  Information, pictures, forums and fan-fiction.  Who'd have thought of that?  What an idea!  More stories about the characters we have grown to love.  From X-Files, to Dr Quinn, to General Hospital, to … the list goes on and on and on.

I had toyed with fan-fiction for a couple of other shows (conspicuous absence of show names here).  Good attempts but nothing really to be proud of.  I had always wanted to write and had been threatening to write a screenplay since the early 90's.  I remember thinking that Moonlighting's writing was so out of my league that I should not even attempt a fan-fiction.  Then one night an idea hit me.  I tried to ignore it, but the long drive to work everyday left my mind with a lot of free time.  I found FanFiction.net and thought - what the hell - what is the worst that could happen?  So I wrote Number One Son and posted it.  Then came Say It Again Sam the follow up to Number One Son.  Response was good and I was slightly encouraged.  It was by no means up to GGC's standards but I think it could have held it's own with the other season 5 crap (is that something to be proud of?).  I put my virtual FF pen away until I was struck with an idea of David and Maddie meeting years later.  Fought it hard for a couple of months and then gave in to Drop Dead Gorgeous.  The writing was better and it did not need to be held up to the CCG litmus test since we were talking about our characters 12 years later.  I was done with my foray into Moonlighting and fan-fiction - or so I thought.

Finally I read a fanfic called "It Was All a Dream."  In my comments I realized that I felt the last great show was "Between a Yuk and a Hard Place."  In fact I will go so far as to say that the last great - truly great - scene was that night in the elevator. No words just feelings and a reconnection - of sorts.  It got me wondering what would have happened if Maddie and David talked and tried to work out their relationship then.  It was supposed to be a one chapter tangent - 272 pages and 14 chapters later was Look Me In The Heart.  

During the writing of my stories I got to know Sarah, Diane, and Dana.  They were all more than encouraging.  Encouragement from excellent writers - writers you respect - is so rewarding.  Like the rest of you, I was reading Virtual Season 6 and loving it.  I tentatively asked Dana if I could write one episode for Virtual 7 and she and Diane and Sarah welcomed me with open arms.  So here I am.  My one, stand alone episode, has been turned into 4 and the experience with the staff has been wonderful.  Diane and I have become one hell of a team and episode 6 and 7 of Virtual 7 was a true collaboration.  Something that I have never experienced before.  It was a challenge since she is a PHILLY Girl (oops … Philadelphia Girl ;-)) and I am now residing in LA LA Land.  But hell, Diane never sleeps so the time zone thing was not really an issue.

So that is my world - I really hope you enjoy the Virtual Season, as much as I enjoy being part of it.  I am still planning my screenplay (non-Moonlighting related) and if the gods are truly shining on me, it will actually get it to the screen and maybe even have Bruce playing the lead.  I suppose that means I will have to write something where the hero gets beat up and gets a girl half his age … so I guess it won't be Bruce attached to my project.  Oh Well …


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