I’ve always had a problem with Burt Reynolds. Much as I appreciate the long, successful career he’s managed to have, I dislike him. I have liked him in exactly two movies. Deliverance and Boogie Nights. That’s it. I think my biggest problem with Reynolds is exactly that. He was brilliant in Deliverance. And then he spent the rest of his career smiling, scowling and flexing his way through Fuzz, Gator, Stroker Ace, and City Heat. A terrible string of movies that, for me, ruined any legacy he had as an actor in favour of a legacy as a flash-in-the-plan box office draw. I always found him irritating, and so when I picked up Season One of Evening Shade, I was excited to savage this Burt Reynolds sit-com from the early 90s. This was going to be awful, and I was going to enjoy every minute of it!
But boy, was I ever disappointed. Evening Shade is actually…surprisingly good. Which was really disappointing. And Burt Reynolds was actually…decent. And this show features some of my favourite actors of all time! Ossie Davis, Hal Holbrook, Marilu Henner, Charles Durning, and (in Season Two), Hilary Swank. Reynolds plays Wood Newton, (a name which sounds like it comes out of an Archie comic), a retired football star who now works as a coach in the small town of Evening Shade. Marilu Henner is his wife, Ossie Davis is the owner of the local greasy spoon, Charles Durning is the town doctor, and Hal Holbrook is crusty and magnificent as Newton’s father-in-law.
What makes this show good is the fact that although it’s a sit-com, it doesn’t smack of sit-com at all times. The laugh track is the only reminder that it is in fact a comedy. And the laughs come at the right times, when something funny actually happens. The rest of the time, the show is actually trying to tell a story, and let the laughs come where they may. Which is the way to make a good sit-com. (The way to make a great sit-com is when the laughs come all the time and still don’t ever feel forced, like Seinfeld.) So you get decent stories, featuring interesting characters played by fantastic actors, and that in itself made this a good show. Despite the involvement of Burt Reynolds.
And he’s really not half bad here. His banter with Marilu Henner, and especially with Hal Holbrook, rings true. His persona is pretty fitting to him - it really was the part he was born to play. Wooden cartoon ex-football star. Like The Rock today. However, although Ossie Davis and Holbrook and Durning create some memorable characters, there are others on the periphery that are so cartoonish and irritating that they make the show obnoxious whenever they’re around. Reynolds’ assistant coach, Herman Stiles. Aunt Frieda. And the local stripper, Fontana Beausoleil. (Also a Dick Tracy name, no?) And a town HAS to be small when it has ONE local stripper. Where does she strip? There can’t really be a peeler bar with just one peeler, can there? I have never seen a sign that says “Live! Nude! Girl!”
Anyway, Evening Shade is by no means a classic TV show, but it’s pretty good. Which is better than I expected. And Reynolds is decent. Which is more than I can say for most of his movies. Even Episode Six of Season One can’t bring this show right down to the level of say…Wings. Episode Six is all bout Burt Reynolds’ moustache. No joke. And it features a guest appearance by Ted McGinley. (Jefferson D’Arcy from Married With Children.) That episode alone could kill this show and season entirely. Ted McGinley and the moustache? Thank God that one wasn’t the pilot episode! But Evening Shade succeeds despite some really rotten ideas like that one, and Season One is worth picking up. It comes out Tuesday, July 15th, from Paramount Home Entertainment.