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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