'Moonlighting,' the show that made Bruce Willis a star, is coming to streaming. What it took to bring the '80s classic to Hulu.

Moonlighting is finally heading to streaming for the first time.

The classic 1980s series, which starred Cybill Shepherd and launched Bruce Willis's career, will be available on Hulu beginning Oct. 10. All 67 episodes will be remastered from film to HD video for Moonlighting's anticipated digital debut. It will also feature Al Jarreau's Grammy-nominated theme song, along with other original music from the show. But why did it take so long for this to happen?

In Oct. 2022, Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron announced that the journey to bringing the show – considered one of the first successful TV dramedies – into the streaming era had officially begun, acknowledging that the process would "take quite a while." The nearly year-long project paid off, with classic TV fans and newcomers alike counting down to Moonlighting's streaming premiere.

What's Moonlighting about?

Created by Caron, Moonlighting was a popular one-hour scripted series that was credited with revitalizing Shepherd's career and catapulting Willis to stardom. The influential detective series, named one of Time's "100 Best TV Shows of All-Time" in 2007, originally ran for four seasons from 1985 to 1989 on ABC.

It followed former fashion model Madolyn "Maddie" Hayes (Shepherd), whose financial misfortunes find her knocking at the door of one of her last remaining assets, a struggling detective agency overseen by carefree David Addison Jr. (Willis). She decides to spare the company after David persuades her to run it with him, creating an unlikely partnership as they solve quirky crimes together as squabbling private detectives at Blue Moon Investigations. Allyce Beasley, Curtis Armstrong and Jack Blessing rounded out the main ensemble.

Sparks flew between Shepherd and Willis onscreen, with their palpable sexual tension fueling the tried-and-true "will they-won’t they" romantic roller coaster that kept audiences intrigued. Off-screen, the two leads "hated each other," according to Armstrong in his 2017 memoir, Revenge of the Nerd.

The show was also rule-breaking in its form, often breaking the fourth wall, infusing fantastical story elements and embracing musical numbers. Moonlighting welcomed a slew of famous faces for brief arcs or one-off appearances over its four-season run, including Mark Harmon, Eva Marie Saint, Ray Charles and Demi Moore, among other notable names. Moonlighting was nominated for 41 Emmys, and won 6 during the course of its run, which included Willis's 1987 win for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

Willis's career before — and after — Moonlighting

The actor was a relatively fresh face when he beat out more than 3,000 actors to land the role of private eye David Addison on Moonlighting. Prior to the gig, Willis's credits included a series of uncredited parts and one-episode guest appearances on classic shows like Miami Vice and The Twilight Zone. But it was Moonlighting that propelled him to Hollywood stardom, winning his first Emmy in 1987 (he also hosted the awards ceremony) and a Golden Globe that same year.

Critics largely praised Willis as one of the standouts of Moonlighting.

"The real star of the series is Bruce Willis," the Sydney Morning Herald wrote in its April 1986 review. "The character is a real motor-mouth who is very, very funny. Willis plays him to perfection."

The Sacramento Bee called the actor’s "high-energy, screwball performance… captivating," writing, "It's rare in TV that an actor takes charge of a show the way Willis does in Moonlighting. Whether or not the series takes flight, watch this man. I think we're going to see a lot more of him."

Willis's star wattage ballooned with the 1988 action blockbuster Die Hard (filmed simultaneously with Moonlighting), where he introduced the world to wise-cracking antihero John McClaine. His career after that point was night and day compared to his pre-Moonlight fame, where he'd go on to star as the leading man in big-budget movies such as Pulp Fiction, The Fifth Element, Armageddon and The Sixth Sense.

Earlier calls to get Moonlighting on streaming

For years, fans had wondered why the series wasn't available anywhere to stream, though it was released on DVD in 2005. Interest grew after Willis's family announced in March 2022 that he was stepping away from acting after he had been diagnosed with aphasia. It progressed to frontotemporal dementia — a brain disorder that can lead to "trouble communicating" or "difficulty with work," according to the National Institute on Aging – in February 2023.

Caron acknowledged that Moonlighting's long-awaited streaming release felt timely in the wake of Willis's diagnosis.

"[It] became even more poignant when Bruce started to fall ill," he told The Wrap following the Hulu announcement. "I realized that most people think of him as a guy who carries a gun and mows down bad guys [in Die Hard and other action films], and he has this whole career as a romantic leading man with all this incredible verbal virtuosity that most people, or a lot of people anyway, have never experienced."

Does this move open the door for other classic shows?

Potentially. Much of the delay in getting Moonlighting primed for streaming was due to issues with clearing music rights, which have long been an obstacle for studios as it often comes with a hefty price tag.

"The holdup for it coming to streaming was primarily because of the clearance rights for so much of the music that was used in the show throughout its run. There were so many big moments that incorporated songs that needed to be cleared, it was cost-prohibitive for years," Damian Holbrook, senior writer at TV Guide Magazine, told Yahoo Entertainment. "Even though it had been released on DVD [about] 20 years ago, a lot of us gave up hope of ever seeing it with the original tunes intact."

Vulture revealed many key songs from Moonlighting will transfer over to streaming, while TVLine confirmed numbers performed by Shepherd, Willis and the cast will remain.

Some of the music on Moonlighting, especially tunes featured in the background, will likely be replaced, Holbrook said.

"This was a huge issue at the height of DVDs, as well. So many of the teen dramas and WB shows, even 90210 and Melrose Place, had issues with song clearances." A famous case study is The WB teen soap, Dawson's Creek, which had its iconic theme song, Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait," briefly replaced with Jann Arden's "Run Like Mad" when it debuted on Netflix in 2020 because of rights issues. A year later, Netflix reinstated Cole's theme song after the singer rerecorded the track and negotiated a new streaming contract.

That being said, Holbrook is cautiously optimistic that Moonlighting's successful venture into streaming will lead other similar classic TV shows down a similar path.

"I hope this opens the door for more shows from that era – Thirtysomething, L.A. Law, Alias and China Beach would be welcomed rewatches. Many of them also featured songs that would require clearance. So hopefully the powers that be are working on those now," he said.

Moonlighting is available to stream on Hulu starting Oct. 10.