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One look at the cast of this show and it's clear that the level of professionalism is second to none. Forget the fact that the show had excellent writing and a wealth of talent to draw from; just to watch the likes of Hal Holbrook, Ossie Davis, Elizabeth Ashley, Charles Durning, Ann Wedgeworth, Michael Jeter, Burt Reynolds and Marilu Henner breath life into these wonderful characters was a joy to watch. These are actors at the top of their game. And let's give credit where it's due. This is a cast and crew who are friends and colleagues of Burt Reynolds. This series places at the top of my list of shows I miss the most. Here we are, some ten years later, and TV time is dominated by trashy daytime talk/theme shows and reality-based garbage on prime time. It's discouraging, to say the least.

This show wasn't on long enough to make a huge impression, and that's bizarre, because it had more than its share of ingredients for success.

It was a comedy that tended to go between "situational" and "outright humor". It was just a bit short of the boisterousness of "Coach", for example, and perhaps a bit more eccentric than "All In the Family".

It's hard to say what the show was about, because it was basically about the "good feeling" of the people. The show was an exercise in "positive reinforcement", but it wasn't dull.

Indeed, the comedy found it's way into the story with one major clown figure and one liner wit from several others.

The one liner wit of Holbrook and Reynolds just reached the right level. One step up would have been annoying. The actors and writers knew just how far to go. With two huge superstars, and a cast of other stars, along with the cleverness, one would have expected the show to continue. It probably was a case of not being able to decide where to go from there in time for the next season. The last episodes gave an ambiguous feeling, like they were searching for a new direction.

An underrated television program from the early years of the last decade which featured good stories, interesting subplots, and brilliant mixture of comedy and drama. Was Burt Reynolds's last time that he gave a good and consistent performance as an actor. Evening Shade(1990) is definitely better than any of the shows on NBC today which passes for quality television. Also contributing to the good acting was Charles Durning and Ossie Davis. One of my favorite shows from that time period that derserved to stay on air longer.

I admired many of Burt Reynolds performances... he never seemed to take himself seriously but would take on any kind of role. Comedy to drama, to action and playing a lovable character to a despicable jerk. That is acting. He has done well at that and has the box office and numerous awards to back it up, but when he surrounded himself with a bunch of close friends who also happened to be first rate actors... the magic of Evening Shade happened. Well scripted first rate story lines all fluidly performed by this stellar cast. I often surf the net looking for information on a DVD box set release. Shows of much less stature, and certainly much less quality are already out so I keep on hoping to spend some more quality TV viewing evenings... in the town of Evening Shade!

....which is such a shame because it really was very well acted and the writing was excellent, very witty and sharp and it will be difficult to repeat that kind of standard these days. I notice that there was a recent show out called 'A minute with Stan Hooper' which tried to emulate 'Evening Shade', and it did the job very well...but still didn't match up in my opinion.

Burt Reynolds was surrounded by a wonderful cast but he barely had to speak, because they did the work for him! Still,it wouldn't have been the same without him - he was perfect in the role and Marilu Henner was perfect as his wife.

The much missed Michael Jeter was the highlight of the show for me. He was so funny...a classic character actor with so much talent. But he wasn't alone, this show was full of fantastic actors; Ossie Davis, Charles Durning, Marilu Henner & Hal Holbrook are the actors that I remember...but I was just looking at the IMDb list of actors I see that Hilary Swank and Leah Rimini were in the show too - its fabulous to see that such quality stars started offin this great little, much respected show.

I really wish they'd repeat it on one of the comedy channels, it would be such a waste if it wasn't shown again.