Series Description

The Evening Shade TV show was a 30 minute comedy series on CBS about a retired professional football player who returned to his home town to coach the High School's persistently losing team. The coach's interactions with his wife, father-in-law, teachers, and the town's residents provided endless fodder for the funny scripts.

Evening Shade Cast

Burt Reynolds .... Wood Newton
Marilu Henner .... Ava Evans Newton
Michael Jeter .... Herman Stiles
Ann Wedgeworth .... Merleen Elldridge
Hal Holbrook .... Evan Evans
Charles Durning .... Dr. Harlan Elldridge
Ossie Davis .... Ponder Blue
Elizabeth Ashley .... Freida Evans
Jacob Parker .... Will Newton
Jay R. Ferguson .... Taylor Newton
Charlie Dell .... Nub Oliver
Linda Gehringer .... Fontana Beausoleil
Burton Gilliam .... Virgil
Ann Hearn .... Margaret Fouch (1990-1993)
Candy Hutson .... Molly Newton (1991-1994)
Melissa Martin .... Molly Newton (1990-1991)

Evening Shade Trivia:

The series was named after the town where it took place. Its name was "Evening Shade, Arkansas". The title and locale was, believe it or not, suggested by Senator and former first lady of Arkansas (and the U.S.), Hillary Rodham Clinton!

There is a real Evening Shade, Arkansas. During the series' run, businesses in the town did quite well selling t-shirts and other "touristy" items adorned with the show's logo.

The name of the high school's football team was "The Mules". When coach Newton took over, they hadn't won a single game in two years!

Cast won most of the Awards for Evening Shade. Burt Reynolds won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award! The show itself didn't win either an Emmy or a Golden Globe for "Best Series" but it did get two nominations! In 1992 it lost to "Brooklyn Bridge" and in 1993 it lost to "Roseanne".

Evening Shade attempted to "spinoff" another series titled, "Harlan and Merleen". It would have starred Charled Durning and Ann Wedgeworth as Harlan and Merleen Elldridge, their roles on Evening Shade. A pilot was produced but wasn't sold as a series. The pilot was broadcast, however, as a two part special on July 13 and July 20, 1993.

Burt Reynolds also starred in movies and five other TV series titled "Riverboat", "Gunsmoke", "Hawk", "Dan August", and "B.L. Stryker"!

Charles Durning served in an engineering battalion during World War II. Mr. Durning's entire battalion was captured by the Germans and taken to a big open field. Then machine guns that had been hidden in trucks suddenly opened fire on the captives! Many of the dead soldiers had only one bullet in their heads meaning that the survivors of the machine gun fire were killed execution style! Only about 20 out of the 100 soldiers managed to survive and Charles Durning was one of them, although he did get shot in both legs and in one hip! You can see a recreation of that horrible massacre by watching the 1965 film, "Battle of the Bulge".

Even with the damage from his being shot, Charles Durning became a professional dancer and a dancing teacher after the war! He also spent a while as a professional boxer. He even boxed in Madison Square Garden!