EVENING SHAME

EVENING SHADE
1990-1994 CBS

EVENING SHAME
MAD #313, September 1992
w: Dennis Snee
a: Angelo Torres

Sitcom about Wood Newton (Burt Reynolds), a football player who moved back to his hometown of Evening Shade, Arkansas to coach a high school football team. The show often centered around a local diner and the other characters were his wife Ava (Marilu Henner), Evan Evans (Hal Holbook), his sister Freida (Elizabeth Ashley), Harlan Eldridge (Charles Durning), Murleen Eldridge (Anne Wedgeworth), Ponder Blue (Ossie Davis), Fontana Beausoleil (Linda Gehringer), and Herman Stiles (Michael Jeter). The show was created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.

Early on in the show, Ava gave birth to another child and Evan was only dating Fontana initially.

   -The deputy here is Barney Fife, a character Don Knotts played on The Andy Griffith Show, which was also set in the South.
   -The 800 number was what Jerry Brown used in his campaign for President in 1992. Bill Clinton was not yet elected President but was still Governor of Arkansas when this was written. Gary Hart had been a politician also brought down by a reputation for infidelity. "Inhale this" refers to a quote by Clinton while he was running. Having smoked pot was considered disqualifying for a politician at one time and Clinton tried to work his way around the question of whether he had by saying "Yes, but I didn't inhale".