Bruce Willis.  The very name conjures a smile as it brings up scenes like the "negotiation" in The Fifth Element.  There should be a picture of Bruce Willis next to the word élan in the dictionary.  Although Bruce could handle serious roles, as he did in The Sixth Sense, and villains like in The Jackal, it is the happy-go-lucky persona of John McClane, who pops up under various names in Bruce Willis films, that has been a delight to watch.  You always knew what you were getting with a Bruce Willis movie when he played an action hero: a reliable dose of adrenaline punctuated by his incredulous expressions and witty banter.

Bruce has been forced into retirement by a diagnosis of aphasia, a condition that affects one's ability to communicate.  When caused by an injury, it can get better, but considering that Bruce has left acting, he probably has the progressive kind.  It seems a particularly cruel stroke of fate that this man whose quick tongue has had us in stitches for decades is now struggling to communicate.  It also seems a time when anyone who could do a kindness for Bruce should step up.

The powers that be at Disney do not see it that way.  Bruce Willis is not a member of the alphabet community, he's a white man, and he's a devoted father to his children.  He just doesn't qualify for any concern from Disney, which is sad because Disney owns Moonlighting, an early Bruce Willis TV series in which he played a private detective.

Image: Bruce Willis in 1985 (edited).  YouTube screen grab.

Everything we love about Bruce Willis is in Moonlighting.  His co-star, Cybill Shepherd, held her own in their repartee, and their chemistry was reminiscent of the greatest screen pairings, like Rock Hudson and Doris Day, or Cary Grant and, well, anyone.

Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of Moonlighting, reached out to Disney to make the show available for streaming.  The response?  "Someone from the studio told him, 'Well, we don't see Disney that way' — an apparent reference to the show's more PG-13 material not fitting with the family focus of the streamer's content at the time of launch."

That was their excuse four years ago.  Now it's that the show has so many songs, and there are licensing concerns.  It would seem that Disney just doesn't want to spend the money to acquire the rights to the songs on Moonlighting.  The company didn't mind spending the money for The Muppet Show, but, somehow, Moonlighting just doesn't seem that important.

And that's a shame because, now that Bruce has been handed such a devastating diagnosis, it would be an act of pure charity, both to him and his loyal fans, to bring Moonlighting to streaming platforms so we can revisit just what it was that made Bruce so special, right from the very beginning.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible.