I haven't seen the show since it was on TV, but I was watching the DVDs and I notices that Cybill's close up are shot differently than the rest of the show. She either was shot with a filter or they put vaseline on the lens. If you watch the special features, you see when they show her interviews, there are streaks because she is shot differently.
shareIn the Special Features on Season 3 they talk about the fact that the director of photography was old fashioned about shooting women, and he would always shoot Cybil's close-ups with special lighting and a filter.
They parodied this aspect of Cybil's close-ups on the Season 3 interview episode with Rhona Barret: when Maddie comes out of her office and sees that there's a camera crew she goes back in and shuts the door then comes out a few seconds later holding a screen over her face, basically mocking the way her character is shot.
"I'm a mannequin. That's what I am, I'm a mannequin." -The Twilight Zone
She looks great in the early (Golden) eps; later eps apparently they didn't bother much as she looks noticeably older. Her hair in those eps looks like a rat's nest.
Check "David's" hair in the real early eps!?
Read the Summer 2004 issue of Moonlighting Strangers where we interviewed Moonlighting's director of photography Gerry Perry Finnerman. He goes into detail in how he lit many ML episodes, including The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice and Big Man on Mulberry Street.
http://www.moonlighting21.com/mlarchives.html
Yah that was purposely done because they figured that the blurry image of Maddie's close-ups were make her look more beautiful. And it covered her wrinkles
I remember watching the show originally and that was the biggest comment about the show.
It's called "soft focus"... and it was used on a handful of shows in the 80's. Mostly prime time soaps, where they'd shoot leading ladies with the filter. To me, the shot may look beautiful, but it's distracting, as it sticks out from the cinematography of the rest of the episode.
share