Structure of the episodes

[billis]

Hi there,

I'm writing a paper of the evolution of scripts on network tv, looking at the number of acts, commercial breaks etc. I've only seen a few episodes of Moonlighting but it seems to have an original structure. 

A lot of episodes (most?) seems to be written like this:

Title sequence + 4 acts + Tag

But I've noticed a few :

Title sequence + 4 acts (no tag)

Did they also do Teaser + 4 acts ? or even Teaser + 4 acts + Tag?


If some of you have the original scripts, or just remember, that would be awesome.

Regarding the commercial breaks, if you watched on ABC, was there one between the title sequence and act 1? That would mean 5 breaks in total, or 4 for eps without tags. 

Thank you. 

[sandra]

Gosh, I really wouldn't know. As far as commercial breaks; I only discovered Moonlighting a few years after its' original run. Perhaps Boink or NJJ would know about this? Or Marlena?

[marta]

 There is a number with Teaser + Title sequence + 4 Acts, I think.

Have a look at S02E14 Every Daughter's Father is a Virgin on UTube to check whether what I think is a teaser is really a teaser in your opinion. Pick the one with the longest running time otherwise you may have the teaser sequence cut down or cut off completely. This one has a tag too.

There are more teasers at  S03E03, S03E12, S03E13, S03E14. I didn't check for tags. 

[notjuanjones]

May 3, 2021 23:54:27 GMT -5 billis said:

Hi there,

I'm writing a paper of the evolution of scripts on network tv, looking at the number of acts, commercial breaks etc. I've only seen a few episodes of Moonlighting but it seems to have an original structure. 

A lot of episodes (most?) seems to be written like this:

Title sequence + 4 acts + Tag

But I've noticed a few :

Title sequence + 4 acts (no tag)

Did they also do Teaser + 4 acts ? or even Teaser + 4 acts + Tag?


If some of you have the original scripts, or just remember, that would be awesome.

Regarding the commercial breaks, if you watched on ABC, was there one between the title sequence and act 1? That would mean 5 breaks in total, or 4 for eps without tags. 

Thank you. 

Hi, Billis. Memory is a dangerous thing, but I do not believe that there was a commercial break between the title sequence and Act 1 during the original ABC run. I am pretty sure they went right into the story. As ever, I could be wrong.

[billis]

May 4, 2021 9:54:30 GMT -5 notjuanjones said:

Hi, Billis. Memory is a dangerous thing, but I do not believe that there was a commercial break between the title sequence and Act 1 during the original ABC run. I am pretty sure they went right into the story. As ever, I could be wrong.

Thanks, I'll try to get more confirmation on that then.

marta: Thank you, that's great. Yeah those are very unusual teasers but of course they count. And it looks like the episodes with a teaser usually don't have tags.

So to sum-up the structures seem to be:

Title sequence + 4 acts + Tag
Title sequence + 4 acts (no tag)
Teaser & title sequence + 4 acts

In that order of frequency. 
Regarding the commercial breaks, I assume they had at least 4 every time, the first one after the title sequence. Except when they had a tag, which would make 5 breaks, unless the title sequence went directly into act 1. 

[Boink]

Billis, I was a loyal Moonlighting viewer through its entire first run, and I am 99% certain that NJJ is correct that the title theme always led directly into act 1, with no commercial break in between.  I have no memory of it ever deviating on that point.

[marta]

Billis, the first one I quoted Every Daughter's... seems to have both a teaser and a tag. If you think this is not a tag I would like you to confirm, please.

[billis]

marta : You're right! I'll include that one, both teaser and tag, thanks.

@boink : Thank you! I'll say 4 commercial breaks after act 1 was the rule then

[marta]

You do not want all instances of tags (and teasers for that matter), do you? There are more tags and some are highly unusual.

Late edit

Thinking about it more - there are plenty of tags. The ‘tags’ in season 4 are more like the 5th act. An episode deals with a case but the 5th act returns to the relationship.

I am not sure whether you are aware, most of the episodes in season 4th did not show leading characters together on the screen and the cases were solved by BW character only. Hence the return to the relationship in the closing scene. The most straightforward examples are in S04E02 and S04E03.

Even later edit

Sorry for giving it in instalments, but cooking focuses my mind.

There is at least one episode with a non-typical structure. It is based on the ‘his and her version of events’ approach (Last year at Marienbad, anyone?). It is S02E4. It has 2x 4 act structure with a teaser and a tag. (Ha! The word ‘brilliant’ comes to mind…)

[essed]

I’m no help, but welcome to the board! Your paper sounds interesting, good luck!

[billis]

Thanks essed

marta: Oh this is great thank you. No I don't need a list of all the tags or teaser, but it's safe to assume most episodes have a tag then (or 5th act)? and teasers are an occasional thing?

[marta]

It is not safe to assume that most episodes have tags. I’ve never watched paying much attention to the structure. There are 66 episodes in total and I saw tags in half of season 4 episodes, which has 14 episodes in total. There are fewer tags in season 5, but approaching half, maybe. I cannot say about earlier seasons.

Certainly, most episodes do not have typical teasers on Utube. I do not have DVD set so I do not know about the actual original episodes. I assume nothing is cut off, but I may be wrong.

Another thing is, ML is often said to have the pioneering ironic attitude to itself, with the breaking of the 4th wall and all that it entails. So the teasers, which you called unusual, may not necessarily always be in front of the title sequence. Have a look at the episode Atomic Shakespeare S03E07. The 4 act period costume play – a spoof on The taming of the shrew is framed by scenes with a modern family where a boy is forced to read the play for school instead of watching ML. The modern scenes work like a teaser and a tag, although the teaser comes after the title sequence.

Another example of a teaser and a tag is A womb with a view S05E01. The teaser is over 5 minutes long, has even less to do with the episode content then the previous ones and everything to do with the production problems. It comes before the title sequence.

[billis]

Well it's definitely a very unique show, thanks again for the help