Study of Caron.
Some day around the Eighties, the novice screenwriter/producer Glenn Gordon Caron was granted a substantial budget to form a production company to create three short pilots for a TV show with a plot of his choice by a major TV network. The first two pilots that he shot were not appealing to the network on various grounds. When the time came for the last part, they said it was enough playing around, they wanted a boy girl detective show. Detective shows were very much in demand at the time, and Caron reluctantly agreed, for he considered detective agencies on TV unrealistic, only with a condition: To do it “his way”.
This was a great opportunity for Caron, apart from a few writing and production roles, his most well-known major TV show writing experience at the time was an episode of Taxi. James Brooks never called him back though despite the episode’s success (due to attitude problems, as he himself admits). He wrote the detective show as a comedy, much to everyone’s surprise and some protests. However, after one of the leading stars were secured; the rest was merely a hustle and bustle whom no other than Caron himself probably could better describe.
This is a success story, and the show went on to become one of the most important milestones in TV history. It’s called “Moonlighting”.
Casting
The leading star who agreed to participate after reading the fifty page script was Cybill Shepherd. She was an established actress with a unique beauty coupled with musical traits; in fact Caron had written the script with her in mind. She had been discovered by acclaimed director Bogdanovich and she had developed a professional and private relationship with him. After the two movies of her then lover/mentor/director fell flat, her career and fate being tied so intricately with his was on shaky grounds. She was ostracized and cast out mostly due to her relationship with him and her strong tomboyish personality that did not necessarily go well with the toxic masculinity of Hollywood. Her talents and skills were overlooked, with her jobs being attributed to her beauty and her affair. Soon she was being harshly bullied by some critics referring to her personality dubbed as ice-queen and her alleged lack of talent. She quit the unwelcoming environment and did local theatre for some time in small cities allegedly following the advice of a friend of the couple, none other than Orson Welles, discovering her comedic talent along the way. Then, she came back.
Nevertheless, it is still a mystery why she had taken the chance at such a delicate point in her career and agreed to work with an inexperienced producer/writer. Apparently, upon reading the script she loved it, claimed it as an Hawksian comedy (screwball comedy), a director she had watched and came to admire. Caron, not knowing who Hawks was at the time had stepped on a gold mine with his choice of style.
The casting of the second actor was a more difficult one; finding someone to match the distracting glamour of Shepherd while having the talent to carry the difficult part was an arduous task. After nearly a thousand interviews, Caron focused on one person, coincidentally a completely inexperienced and unknown, Bruce Willis. Willis at the time was an aspiring actor with very “normal looks” and limited experience off-Broadway. The network simply did not like the choice. With Caron’s insistence and Shepherd’s support though, and after many, oh so many, table reads and screen tests, finally they gave in. Working with an unknown co-star on top of a writer/producer was a risk that Shepherd was willing to pay for this project, and boy did she pay.
Production
The first year was good, the pace, the wit, the drama and the innovation had locked audiences to the screen feeding off of “Will they, won’t they?” energy. It was fresh, it was new, it was a major triumph. Meanwhile, drama ensued behind the scenes.
First, the initial plan of fifty pages of script had turned to ninety pages due to fast paced verbose conversations created by Caron. It was a novel idea to increase the comedic pace in a TV comedy, in addition to constant banters back and forth allowing minimal time between dialogues in order to produce wit and sarcasm. This very style can be observed in many popular shows later on, such as “Gilmore Girls” or “Sports Night”. It is incredibly fun to watch, but it meant twice the work for the actors to accomplish during the same limited one week production time and it was a major deviation from the traditional length and initial deals. This point was especially critical for Moonlighting because within the three act show, most of the screen time belonged to two co-stars, there were no subplots involving side characters. Watching the show one could feel the duo was tired by mid-season.
Second, Caron was incredibly hands on with writing in addition to the production— every line had passed through him and he finalized the scripts himself, which was very telling about the amount of control he wanted to have over the show. It was his show. Unfortunately he had the habit of delivering the scripts at the last minute and sometimes made changes immediately before the shoots until he achieved the “truth”. The edited final cut were at times delivered just before the air time. The working hours were long, 12-18 hours a day. For an actor it was incredibly challenging, taxing and an open invitation to burn-out.
Mutiny
Cybil Shepherd did not have to defer to the whims of the novice producer with the challenging work conditions, she was the star that made the show happen. As the emotionally and physically exhausting work pace started to take its toll, plus knowing better from her experience, she started to protest. Slowly but surely, the tension began to form between herself and Caron, which was exacerbated possibly with the fact that she was a woman and had more experience and power compared to Caron. In a screwball comedy, pretty much like Moonlighting ironically, it would be entertaining to watch; in real life however, egos were hurt. She quickly found herself in a toxic environment amongst a men’s club formation against her, no doubt perpetrated by Caron; another ardent member of which included her now-famous thanks to movie Die Hard, co-star Willis.
Bruce Willis was more than happy to have a seat at the table finally and he was not going to ruin the single chance he had in L.A. by rebelling against his new-found friendship in Caron. Caron considered Bruce to be an epitome of his created fictional persona of David Addison, a real life opposite of Caron in every way, but admittedly he deeply admired/identified with the character, and through that, with him. On the other hand, he created Shepherd’s character from Shakespeare’s highly criticized, misogynistic play “Taming of the Shrew”. Does this mean her downright sensible and hardworking character Madeleine Hayes was supposedly to be “tamed” by this inexplicably irresponsible and surreal character of David Addison? It certainly was not the case in Season 1, and the balance of power was equal between characters, they had mutual respect for boundaries and their differences, only “taming” became more a prominent theme later on.
Throughout the show’s later seasons, it became a habit for the character of Shepherd to constantly apologize for being sensible. At one point she handed down the detective agency to Willis’ character, and made him the boss and herself the assistant. What was going on? That is not how screwball comedy works and removed the comedic element to it. To the unsuspecting audience such as I, it only seemed off to see the straight character of the comedy show to apologize to the off-beat one and at times smelled of real egotistical revenge gotten via subdued personal messages plotted artificially into the scripts. Due to this I stopped watching around Season 3. Cybill Shepherd’s performance was consistent from start to finish despite any hardships she may have encountered, which now I attribute to her level of expertise. It was the performance of Willis, whose anger felt REAL and vindictive that made it disturbing for me, it was no longer an enjoyable comedy. His ego seemed hurt; as if he could not wrap his head around that his co-star did not acknowledge his patriarchal superiority. The sensible shrew was not to be tamed, her spirits were not to be broken by the boy band.
Theorem
I’m in no way claiming that Shepherd did not have issues; there are reports of her having a highly demanding diva quality, as her later co-workers also verified those behaviors. I am simply more interested in Caron. Whatever the reasons may be; instead of looking out for the wellbeing of the actors; to find ways to make stressed out crew comfortable; he never gave in from his “perfect idea” of what the show should be, as the producer of the show. Instead, he opted to create alienations to support and justify his views at the cost making everyone miserable, including himself. He lobbied against Shepherd, criticized her about her being unprofessionally late for scenes, which could be the case, too; but he himself handed the scripts consistently late as well: Apparently an act that was not considered unprofessional by anyone. Final season, Shepherd asked for his departure and got him fired.
This is a perfect example of perfectionism at its worst. I’ve read, listened to, searched for every aspect of the Moonlighting incident I could get my hands on, unfortunately I did not go after this topic with the intention to write about it and I can’t cite all the sources, but I’ll leave the Caron interview link below. I’m convinced, despite all the best intentions, it was Caron’s obsession with perfection, combined with a little narcissistic misogyny and a lot of inexperience on working with famous actors that brought the show crumbling down and got himself fired, despite all the rumors he had spread. This whole piece is my personal opinion, based on my perceptions as an audience, it is not news article or a piece of investigative journalism, and you don’t have to agree.
Perfect Me.
For me, perfectionism is trying to get reality as close as possible to the blueprint in one’s head. The blueprint of what is the definition of acceptable or desired in that particular situation.
But what is acceptable? When the bar for being acceptable is low, it is fairly easy to achieve. The problem is the bar is seldom low for a perfectionist. It is the ultimate love-child of craving for approval and fear of making mistakes. Craving for approval keeps the bar high: 90 pages scripts delivered at the last minute with constant application of novel ideas; or shooting door slamming scenes over and over until the perfect sound is achieved. Fear of making mistakes asks for total and absolute control over everyone and everything: writing every script himself, turning them late and criticizing colleagues for getting pregnant without notifying him.
Now a pause here, because I’m in a dialectical dilemma before slamming down perfection.
If it weren’t for the persistent, ambitious, at times downright abusive insistence of Caron, would there be a show called Moonlighting, as far as we know it? Fast paced dialogues, witty comebacks, childish banters on hallways, the endearing attraction of polar opposites of Maddie and Addison? Or unforgettable melancholic sunsets with Al Jarreau singing at the background with sunshine falling on Shepherd’s face in our memory? The show was full of idyllic moments for me. I cannot imagine my childhood without Moonlighting, it was such a contributor to the zeitgeist of the Eighties.
Then I think about Michael Jackson, the talented soft-hearted child that was abused and tortured to perfection in his entertaining performances by his father. Spending days and nights on the road, constantly experiencing segregation as a black child, staying at hotel rooms without his mother where his brothers had sex with groupies on the next bed, all the while being beaten up when he made the slightest mistake during rehearsals. Raised to become perfect himself, there are other musicians and performers, and there is Michael Jackson. May he rest in peace.
I have no doubt, perfectionism at the hand of a great mind and talent leaves a legacy. Their ideas when realized become a gift to the humanity, if stars align for them, if their intentions are noble and their end-product universal.
And it is achieved at the expense of others, unapologetically.
The end word.
An ideal parallel universe is created in the mind of the perfectionist, always trying to be caught, but it can never be, for there is no perfection at the hand of a human. Yet, the end result is still pretty close to perfection. The perfectionist works to materialize that ultimate blueprint that cannot be, burning themselves and people around them along the way.
Does the perfectionist have a use in society? Do they create anchors for us to not step back into our comfort zones and help us move forward, even though they make their fellow companions miserable as they get caught up in the whirlwind that they create?
Are they our hope of creating a bigger, better product than mediocre, as the Sistine Chapel, Moonlighting or Thriller and leave our mark on Earth as a humanity?
Or are they simply tortured souls that need to be saved from themselves?
I don’t know.
Resources:
https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/glenn-gordon-caron?clip=1#interview-clips
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