Evening Shade

Evening Shade
Promotional cast photo
Created by	Linda Bloodworth-Thomason
Starring	Burt 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 by	Ossie Davis
Opening theme	Instrumental theme by Sonny Curtis (1990–1992) Theme with lyrics by Bobby Goldsboro (1992–1994)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	98 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Linda Bloodworth-Thomason
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Production company(s)	Bloodworth-Thomason Mozark Productions CBS Productions Burt Reynolds Productions MTM Productions
Distributor	20th Television (U.S.) CBS Television Distribution (DVDs and non-us, 2008–present)
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	September 21, 1990 – May 23, 1994

Evening Shade is an American television sitcom 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 is a fan.

The general theme of the show is the appeal of small town life. Episodes 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-be-que, which is situated on Albert Pike Blvd. and South Patterson St. in Hot Springs National Park.

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 - a position that is slightly controversial as the team 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, the owner of the local newspaper), are devoted to one another despite the age difference. Ava is an ambitious and successful practicing lawyer who in the first season is elected District Attorney while pregnant with their fourth (unintended) child, Emily. Among Wood's and Ava's closest friends are the somewhat older Harlan Eldridge, the town doctor, and his trusting wife, Merleen, who is always eager to believe the best of people.

The show's plots focus on the various difficulties that Wood faces in living a much different life than he'd 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 who 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 assistant coach Herman Stiles, the most the school can afford due to budgetary pressures. Herman is well-meaning and intensely eager to learn the job. In the course of the first season he catches the eye of the somewhat prim and proper high school principal, Margaret, and they begin dating.