Evening Shade

Evening Shade is an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from September 21, 1990, to May 23, 1994. The series stars Burt Reynolds as Wood Newton, an ex-professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who returns to rural Evening Shade, Arkansas, to coach a high-school football team with a long losing streak. Reynolds personally requested to use the Steelers as his character's former team, because he was a fan.[2]

For other uses, see Evening Shade (disambiguation).

Evening Shade
Promotional cast photo
GenreSitcom
Created byLinda Bloodworth-Thomason[1]
StarringBurt Reynolds
Marilu Henner
Michael Jeter
Jay R. Ferguson
Hal Holbrook
Ossie Davis
Charles Durning
Elizabeth Ashley
Ann Wedgeworth
Charlie Dell
Candace Hutson
Jacob Parker
Narrated byOssie Davis
Opening themeInstrumental theme
by Sonny Curtis (1990–1992)
Theme with lyrics
by Bobby Goldsboro (1992–1994)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes98 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersLinda Bloodworth-Thomason
Harry Thomason
Burt Reynolds
Running time30 minutes
(with commercials)
Production companiesBloodworth/Thomason Mozark Productions
Burt Reynolds Productions
MTM Enterprises
CBS Productions
Distributor20th Television
CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original networkCBS
Original releaseSeptember 21, 1990 (1990-09-21) –
May 23, 1994 (1994-05-23)

The general theme of the show is the appeal of small-town life. Episodes often ended with a closing narration by Ossie Davis, as his character Ponder Blue, summing up the events of the episode, always closing with "... in a place called Evening Shade." The opening segment included clips from around Arkansas, including the famous McClard's Bar-B-Q, which is situated on Albert Pike Blvd. and South Patterson St. in Hot Springs National Park.

Summary

A former pro football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers who quit due to injury, Wood Newton has settled down to a quiet life as the coach of the Evening Shade High School football team—which is notorious for losing every game. He and his wife Ava, whom he married when she was only 18 (a frequently-voiced grievance by her father Evan Evans, owner of the local newspaper) are devoted to each other despite their age difference. Ava is an ambitious, successful practicing lawyer who in the first season is elected District Attorney while pregnant with their fourth (unintended) child, Emily. Among Wood and Ava's closest friends are the somewhat-older town doctor Harlan Eldridge and his trusting wife Merleen, who always believes the best of people.

The show's plots focus on the various difficulties that Wood faces in living a very different life than he ever expected, as well as the obvious family pressures of two jobs and four children. Additional tensions come from Ava's Aunt Frieda, Evan's perennially discontented sister, who especially disapproves when Evan begins dating Fontana Beausoleil, who works as a stripper and discovers in season two that she is the long-lost daughter Merleen gave up for adoption when she was 15. Evan and Fontana get married in a three-part episode in season two and have a child in season three. The show also gets mileage out of the incongruity of the decidedly-unathletic, but well-meaning and eager to learn, assistant-coach Herman Stiles, the best the school's budget can afford. During the first season he catches the eye of the prim-and-proper high-school principal Margaret and they start dating.

On July 13 and 20, 1993, CBS aired two parts of an hour-long pilot, Harlan & Merleen, as a proposed spin-off of the series. The pilot had the Eldridges open their home to young pregnant women who needed help (one was played by Leah Remini). The pilot did not achieve series status.

Characters

Main

Recurring
  • Dorothy (Jane Abbott)
  • Virgil (Burton Gilliam)
  • Andrew Phillpot (David A. R. White), Taylor Newton's best friend
  • Neal "Thor" Heck (Pepper Sweeney) (1991–93)
  • Aimee Thompson (Hilary Swank) (1991–1992), (Ari Meyers) (1992–1993), Taylor's girlfriend
  • Irma Wallingsford (Alice Ghostley) (1992–1994)
  • Daisy (Leah Remini) (1993), Taylor's girlfriend after his break-up with Aimee, a New York transplant
  • Wanda (Lisa Kudrow) (1993–94), waitress at Blue's Barbeque Villa
  • Emily Newton (Alexa Vega) (1993–94), Ava and Wood's youngest, who appears as a 5-year-old in the final season

Nielsen ratings/broadcast history
Season Timeslot Rank Rating Households
1) 1990–1991 Friday night at 8:00 pm (episodes 1-4, 6-7); Monday night at 8:00 pm (episodes 5, 8-24) #49 12.1 N/A
2) 1991–1992 Monday night at 8:00 pm #15 15.6 14,367,600
3) 1992–1993 #19 14.5 13,499,500
4) 1993–1994 #27 13.2 12,434,400

The series enjoyed strong ratings during its entire run, hitting its peak in season two with a number 15 Nielsen ranking. At the time, this was a notably higher position than The Cosby Show, which had recently fallen from a five-year streak as TV's number-one program. Evening Shade was still a top-30 performer, after CBS cancelled the series in May 1994. Skyrocketing production costs, mainly attributed to the large salaries of the show's top-caliber, all-star cast, were the primary reason given for the cancellation (which was confirmed by Marilu Henner in her September 1994 appearance on Charlie Rose). However, some have speculated that the show's ending was a decision made by Reynolds, rather than CBS, as his recent marriage troubles with Loni Anderson (from whom he was divorced in 1993) were thought to have affected his work.

After its cancellation, reruns of Evening Shade were picked up by The Family Channel; however, due to the network's conservative censorship standards, only 40 of the series' 101 episodes produced were aired by FAM, which were also edited considerably from their original broadcast versions.

Production

The show's production company, Mozark Productions, was a joint venture by creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason of Missouri and her husband, Arkansas native, Harry Thomason, which concurrently produced another successful show set in the South, Designing Women. Hal Holbrook's Designing Women character was killed off to free the actor to star in the newer program. The series was produced in association with CBS Productions, Burt Reynolds Productions, and MTM Enterprises. CBS retained full ownership of the series while MTM syndicated the series in the United States.

Home media

On July 15, 2008, CBS DVD/Paramount Home Entertainment released the first season on DVD, albeit with music changes and rescoring[3]

On April 12, 2019, Visual Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 for the first time.[4]

Episode list
Main article: List of Evening Shade episodes

References
  1. Letofsky, Irv (October 29, 1990). "The Sitcom Behind the Sitcom: Television: The countdown to an 'Evening Shade' rehearsal can be comedic. Just ask writer and producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
  2. Wallace, David (February 17, 1991). "TELEVISION: The Dawning of 'Evening Shade': How the producing team of Harry and Linda Thomason lured Burt Reynolds and other movie heavyweights to a sitcom". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
  3. "Evening Shade – Paramount Announces Long-Awaited DVDs for Burt Reynolds' Series". TV Shows on DVD. March 31, 2008. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2016..
  4. "Evening Shade – the complete collection #7130". Visual Entertainment Incorporated. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
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