Ok, here's a list, in no particular order…(and a little rambly)
The Pilot – Dancing in the bar. (Of course) “Do you really think I’m cold?” "Did I say that? I’m burning up over here…”
And that song. Someone on here said "Since I fell for you" is the ‘other’ theme song for the show, and I so agree. David in the rain…
But back to the bar:
…then he steals the watch. This is a big deal because it helps us understand Maddie and her distrust of David. I saw the pilot way after I saw seasons 2-4, and until then, I just thought she was sort of a snob. Imagine how vulnerable she must have felt after that romantic moment, to discover it was all just to get his way. Just like in …
Money Talks, Maddie walks – but which scene to pick? David catches the cork…in a white tux? The first of many heart stopping entries he makes on the show…he cleans up pretty nice. The nicest.
His speech to get her to fold. You can see the inner conflict here…he still doesn’t trust her, and is mostly motivated by self-preservation. If only he’d shown his real fears, maybe she would have reassured him, and they would have walked away together with all the money…but instead, he stomps on her aorta (there’s your heart reference from Maddie, by the way)
Somewhere under the rainbow – the converstation about wishes.
Dream Sequence: the epilogue. (“She loved him.” “He would have done anything for her.”) Of course, the B&W parts are amazing television. I love reading the stories of what everyone went through to make the episode. How fitting that the epi that is such an artistic achievement also has their relationship summed up in unspoken words.
The Next Murder You Hear…the story at the beginning, and then later, the way it touches Maddie, and the way David sees her loneliness. You really sense the tone for the show being set here, interestingly by a guest star.
Knowing her – outside the car with Gillian. That song, that almost kiss, the way he takes her hand…ga gong, ga gong…extremely hot, and a view into how David became David.
Gunfight…”unbutton that button”- love that whole scene where he’s getting her ‘ready’ to go into that nasty bar. Especially since, in real life, Bruce is the newbie and Cybill is the experienced actor. Wasn’t this the first scene shot after the pilot?
Mostly, I love the fact that we hear him say button again in Heiress…button by button by button…
That sound she makes right after he describes kissing her belly.
I lived this scene, and I know the subtext, the part that Maddie never properly puts into words. She makes it about class, about compatibility, taste, anything but the real issue, which is that she is really an old fashioned girl who doesn’t want to give her heart, or her body, to anyone else, unless she knows it’s forever. As liberated as she is, she still wishes deep down that there had been a ring on her finger for her first time, whenever that was, and that there wasn’t a parade of regrets going down memory lane. More than anything, though, she doesn’t want to add David to that parade. She has this crazy idealistic hope that if they can just tone it down and ‘do it right’, it’ll stick this time. It’s just too bad that David’s broken heart makes him so flinchy when it comes to baring his soul, that they couldn’t have made a different pact right then and there. It was such an eye opener for me to rewatch, as I realized that I put my poor man through the same torment a few years after the show was over, with remarkably similar results. Difference is our baby is beautiful, almost 20, and now one of 5. (I let him come with me when I ran home to Mama!)
Trip to the Moon- the scene where Maddie won’t come out. I’m pretty sure this scene by Bruce is one take, possibly cut once or twice. An impressive performance where we can still see Bruce’s roots on stage, loaded with allegorical meaning. When he calls her the way he does so often, “Hey, yo, Maddaay!” it makes me think of Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire. Wouldn’t young Bruce have made a perfect Stanley?
“The stuff dreams are made of” – I too love that scene with the office chair in Funeral for a Doornail.
The scene where David has trashed his office. How does Bruce Willis do that? This is one of the best examples on the show – I can think of a few on the big screen, too – where he can replace pages of dialogue with a single, motionless pose. (Maddie’s return in Tracks of My Tears is a pretty good example, too.)
There are a couple of times - maybe season 1 or 2 where David says “Ohmygoodness!” in this mocking, sexy way. One, he’s following Maddie out of the car, and another, he’s in his office. Can’t find them right now, but I find myself saying it like that from time to time.
I rewatched the last scene of the Big Bang again last night…hands down, it really is one of the best moments on TV ever. She really hits him quite hard, doesn’t she? And it’s funny to me how shocking the “Bitch” “Bastard” lines are, even now when we hear that on TV all the time. It’s the venom in the delivery, I think.
Well, I better stop here…I could go on, and probably will later! So glad to have a place to put these ‘essed’ thoughts!