TV ACRES: Character Bios - Burt Reynolds & Marilu Henner as Woodrow & Ava Newton (Evening Shade)

NEWTON, Woodrow & wife, Ava
(Evening Shade)
2102 Willow Lane
Evening Shade, AR

Woodrow ("Wood") is a former pro football quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Wood returned to his hometown to become the P.E. teacher and coach for the The Mules football team [on a losing streak] for Evening Shade High School.

Burt Reynolds and Marilu Henner as Wood and Ava Newton - EVENING SHADE
Ava & Wood Newton

Wood is an alumnus of Evening Shade High School where he earned the nickname “Thumper” while playing on the football team [jersey #37]. As a pro player Wood was called "Clutch" and wore jersey #22. His favorite song is "Blueberry Hill" by Fats Domino.

Ava [née Evans] is 33-years-old and a prosecuting attorney. In her pre-teen days she was overweight and nicknamed "Chubby Evans." Now married 16 years, Wood and Eva share their home with their four children: Taylor, a 15 year-old who attends Evening Shade High; Molly, an 11-year-old who attends Evening Shade Elementary School; Will, a 4-year-old; and baby Emily Frieda who was born 5/6/91 despite Wood's vasectomy. Brownie is the name of their family dog. [Carl the mule is the high school team mascot.]

The Newton’s friends are Ponder Blue, the philosophical owner of a local rib joint named Blue’s Barbeque Villa; Dr. Harlan Elldridge, the town’s cranky physician and a member of the Civil War Society; Merleen Elldridge, his sexy wife; Evan Evans, Ava’s father, the publisher of The Argus, the town’s newspaper [Evan still holds a grudge against Wood for marrying his daughter when she was only 18 and he was thirty]; Frieda Evans, Eva's outspoken aunt; Fontana Beausoleil, Evan’s new wife, a dimwitted stripper who likes to run naked [she discovers Merleen is her mother who had given her up for adoption]; Herman Stiles, a wimpy math teacher who works as Wood‘s assistant football coach; and Nub Oliver, a slow-witted newspaper delivery man who pulls around a little wagon nicknamed "Chariots of Fire."

The Cast of EVENING SHADE
Newton family and friends standing on their front porch
(top row) Doc Harlan, Wood, Evan, & Ponder Blue
(bottom row) Molly, Ava, Frieda, & Herman

SOME EVENING SHADE HIGHLIGHTS

Wood discovers his most celebrated high school touchdown catch was actually out of bounds while reviewing old game footage,
Will Newton shaves off half of of his dad's moustache as he slept.
At Christmas, Wood is angered at his kid's materialism so he gives all their presents to a needy family
Wood's high school flame, Becky Kincaid Winstead returns
for his 30th reunion and causes some jealous moments.
Two talented teenage girls (Yvonne and Yvette) want to join The Mules football Team. The women in town vote "Yes" and the men vote "No!"
On Wood's annual hunting trip into the mountains, he and the guys reluctantly invite the girls along. After Wood tries to scare the girls dressed up in a bear costume, the girls get the guys back by stealing all their clothes and leaving them totally naked in the wilderness.
Ava goes into labor while Terry Bradshaw delivers a speech at the Booster Club Sports. The baby's umbilical cord is wrapped around its throat so Emily Frieda must be born via a Caesarian.
A criminal named Harvey Lujack breaks out of jail and heads to Evening Shade to settle a score with attorney Ava, who put him there.
Wood cancels all of his appointments to spend the weekend with a special friend: Kenny Rogers.
Bully cousin Readith returns to Evening shade after 30 years (in a casket)
Ava becomes Arkansas' Attorney of the Year in 1992
Fontana gives birth to a girl, Scout Evans on 3/20/93
The Mules 57-game losing streak is broken on 4/3/93.
In an attempt to show Wood's little girl Emily that Halloween is not scary but fun, he reluctantly dons a fairy costume.
Hollywood star Cynthia Gibson comes to town and wants to buy Evening Shade.
Wood becomes Mayor of Evening Shade in 1994

TRIVIA NOTE: The Colonial Revival home with a charming broad porch seen as the Newton home is actually a private residence built in 1883 and known as the Wilson-Mehaffy House after its former owners William Wilson and Tom Mehaffy who owned the property from the turn of the century through the 1940s. It is located at 2102 Louisiana Street (at 22nd) in Little Rock, Arkansas. The house was purchased in 1974 by Townsend Wolfe, director of the Arkansas Art Center and his wife Jane, a guidance counselor for the Episcopalian dioceses. Some of the exterior locations shots for the series were taken in the real-life city of Evening Shade, Arkansas in Sharp County but most of them were filmed in the towns of Little Rock and Fayetteville.

Michael Jeter who played Herman Stiles on EVENING SHADE died March 30, 2003. He was found dead Sunday in his Hollywood Hills home by his life partner, Sean Blue. In a 1997 interview for Entertainment Tonight, Jeter disclosed that he was HIV-positive. Born on Aug. 26, 1952, in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., Jeter earned fame as The Other Mr. Noodles on PBS's SESAME STREET (a role he inherited from Bill Irwin a.k.a. "Mr. Noodles"); a 1990 Tony Award for his role of Otto Kringelein in the musical Grand Hotel, and a supporting actor Emmy for his role as assistant football coach Stiles on the EVENING SHADE series. He died at the age of 50.

EVENING SHADE/CBS/1990-94

Burt Reynolds	as	Wood Newton
Marilu Henner	as	.Ava Evans Newton
Melissa Renée Martin	as	Molly Newton
Jacob Parker	as	Will Newton
Jay R. Ferguson	as	Taylor Newton
Elizabeth Ashley	as	Freida Evans
Ossie Davis	as	Ponder Blue
Charlie Dell	as	Nub Oliver
Charles Durning	as	Doctor Harlan Elldridge
Linda Gehringer	as	Fontana Beausoleil
Burton Gilliam	as	Virgil
Ann Hearn	as	Margaret Fouch
Hal Holbrook	as	Evan Evans
Candace Hutson	as	Molly Newton
Michael Jeter	as	Herman Stiles
Brian Keith	as	Briggs Stiles
Alexa Vega	as	Emily Newton
Ann Wedgeworth	as	Merleen Elldridge