Evening Shade – Season One (CBS DVD/1990 - 1991)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: C+
After the
Religious Right, Hal Needham and one box office bomb too many derailed his
record box office run, Burt Reynolds made a surprise comeback and on TV, a
medium that had also been very good to him with Evening Shade. The comedy
about the small Arkansas town of the title was a surprise hit and thanks to the
makers of Designing Women and a
great cast that included Hal Holbrook, Michael Jeter, Ossie Davis, Charles
Durning, Elizabeth Ashley, Marilu Henner and Ann Wedgeworth, an in-decline CBS
had a much-needed hit.
Never a
big fan of the show, I have to admit it has aged well and the supporting cast
helps, though the writing is not bad either.
There is some chemistry and it is better than the many airheaded sitcoms
of the time, which was like a wasteland (and pretty much still is) by the time
this arrived. However, it could not have
competed against the sitcom at its peak and in overall quality is no Golden
Girls, but I’ll still give credit where credit is due.
The 1.33
X 1 image is poor and even if the show was shot on film, it was finished on
analog NTSC videotape and looks poor here throughout, including an annoying
softness throughout, digititis and aliasing errors throughout. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is barely stereo,
low in volume and just proves CBS used older, analog masters that should have
been shelved. There are predictably no
extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
