I have. I drove through this past summer. The show wasn't filmed there to my knowledge, and you wouldn't recognize anything from there. Nothing spectacular, but it is kind of cool to say that I've been there! Very tiny town. I wonder what the locals thought about their sleepy town of maybe 200 being the inspiration for this show.
shareI live 10 miles outside of Evening Shade. I went to school there (for a while) when I was a kid. One of the Evening Shade High School seniors (who still lives in the area and runs a day care now) wrote to Burt Reynolds and asked him to speak at their graduation. This resulted in pictures of Burt Reynolds and some of the cast being photographed and featured quite prominetly in the yearbook (they overshadowed that year's other speaker- Hilary Rodham Clinton). The girl who asked Reynolds to attend was featured in a People magazine article (I think it had Reba McEntire on the cover) and appeared as an extra on some of the show's episodes. Most of the people in town were mildly excited about the show and the publicity- they even published an Evening Shade cookbook with Burt Reynolds on the cover. The real Evening Shade is not much like the show, it's a town so small that if you were driving down the road and blinked you wouldn't know you had even been there. All in all, it's a pretty cool place to grow up. BTW, Evening Shade didn't have a football team, but their basketball and softball team mascots were the tigers.
shareThe show was acctually based heavily on Linda Bloodworth Thomison's hometown of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. The school mascot is the Mules and most of the jackets, hats, and jerseys are based on Poplar Bluff's.
sharehi all i live in eveing shde for about two years like in 89-91 so its so small its not funny so lets talk all yaa is in sysncation lets have fun its thomas here my friend sha was a extra in that show bye all
shareenglish please
by the way
I grew up in the Evening Shade school district. I went to a neighboring school. partly because I had gone there up till the time we moved into the district and partly because the school was so small it was not really very good.
for example, I think the year I graduated from highschool the Evening Shade graduating class had 12 people in it.
beautiful part of the country but extremely RED politically speaking. I should know I still live a few miles away.
There are actually Two Evening Shades in Arkansas. The one in the northern part of the state, is where the series is based. The other one is just south of Hope on State Hwy 29. I have been to each, you can blink once and miss them both.
shareMy parents and I visited the one in the northern part of the state in 1993, we had even made a home video of it that's sort of a documentary. Would certainly like visiting the other just south of Hope one day and make a home video of that.
shareYou are right. There are two Evening Shades and as I recall the one near Hope arose from the dust after the TV series came out. I traveled that road many times and never saw the signs for the town until the TV series.
shareWTF are you talkin' about?
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
I've been through Evening Shade many times, I live about 20-30 minutes away. I've never seen the show however. :P
shareWe bought 40 acres outside of Evening Shade and can't wait to retire there. At the time we bought the land we didn't know about the TV show. Wish we had watched it when it was on. And wish it would come out on DVD soon!!!
shareMy family owns a farm right outside of Poughkeepsie, so I've been through Evening Shade more times than I can remember. There's a cafe in town (really good food) that has an autographed picture of Burt hanging by the door.
shareA lot of their references were inaccurate. This was probably due to the fact it was a fictional story. One was that Arkansas State University was in Conway. It was actually in Jonesboro. University of Central Arkansas is in Conway. They often referred to Piggott, AR. Their is a Piggott but it is not that close to either one of the Evening Shades.
sharebruisemeister: One [inaccurate reference] was that Arkansas State University was in Conway. It was actually in Jonesboro. University of Central Arkansas is in Conway.You're correct on all counts, bruisemeister. UCA's previous name was the State College of Arkansas; it changed in the mid 1970s, when I was in junior high school in Fayetteville. share
Would that be "Woodys"? Next to the town hall and libary?
shareWhy do I recall there are more than one Evening Shade, AR? I might have dreamed it!
Meantime, never been there, but did visit the set on a few occasions, even met the Burtster and was nearly run over by Quinton. Ahhhhhh, the good old days, so special to me!!
No, but I've stood on a corner in Winslow, AZ.
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
Favorite episodes were ones with Leah Remini as Taylor's girlfriend.
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