Burt Reynolds enjoyed a long and successful movie career that spanned many decades, but arguably one of his best performances came on the small screen. Back in the ’90s, Reynolds starred in “Evening Shade” as the head coach of a bungling high school football team in a small town in Arkansas. The show ran for four seasons until 1994 — unfortunately, if you’d like to see any of them, your only good option at this point is to fire up the DVD player.
Even though it may not appear on any lists of the best sitcoms of the ’90s, “Evening Shade” was a solid hit for CBS during its run, earning Reynolds an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Like so many other older shows, however, it’s mostly been scrubbed from existence in the world of streaming. All four seasons were available on Amazon Prime for a while, but the licensing rights expired, and it seems that Amazon didn’t bother renewing them.
Thankfully, all is not lost if you want to watch (or re-watch) “Evening Shade.” If you don’t mind paying for some old-school media, there is a DVD box set available. Or, if you prefer a much cheaper option, all of the episodes have been uploaded to YouTube – although the quality is pretty rough.
Evening Shade, like many other shows, is disappearing
As far as sitcoms go, “Evening Shade” had a remarkably strong cast of comedic characters. Marilu Henner, Ossie Davis, Charles Durning, and Michael Jeter all brought plenty of laughs, and Jeter also picked up an Emmy for his work on the series. But as the series picked up speed, so too did rumors that not all was well behind the scenes: In 1993, reports emerged suggesting fights had occurred during filming, and, in March of that year, Reynolds collapsed on set due to stress. After Season 4, Reynolds finally got the call that the show had been canceled — having previously been promised a renewal.
Although many shows from the ’80s and ’90s have found new homes and second lives on streaming services, not all are so lucky. The reasons why some shows live on and others don’t are complicated. Sometimes, a streaming service doesn’t think a show is worth the licensing rights. In other cases, licensing the original music that went along with the show can be prohibitively expensive. While there’s been no reason given as to why “Evening Shade” hasn’t been picked up for streaming, those of us who remember it no doubt hope it finds its way back sometime soon.
