TMC
08-28-2022, 02:32 AM
https://jacksonupperco.com/2022/08/24/when-two-good-characters-and-leah-remini-meet-a-bad-premise/
Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m featuring the first half of a two-part pilot for an unsold Evening Shade spin-off starring Charles Durning’s Harlan and Ann Wedgeworth’s Merleen — two of that ensemble’s funniest players. Created by Burt Reynolds and writer James Hampton, this proposed series was to follow the hilarious twosome as they opened their home to three single expectant mothers, played by Maria Canals, Kristin Rose, and Leah Remini — the latter in a different role than her recurring character on Evening Shade. This was all arranged by the harebrained Merleen, who, as we know from her own history, had given up a child (Fontana) as a pregnant teen. Also in the cast, meanwhile, were Ja’net Dubois as Harlan’s colleague Maxine, Anita Gregory as Merleen’s housekeeper, and had the series been picked up, Ossie Davis’ Ponder Blue was allegedly set to routinely crossover.
Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m featuring the first half of a two-part pilot for an unsold Evening Shade spin-off starring Charles Durning’s Harlan and Ann Wedgeworth’s Merleen — two of that ensemble’s funniest players. Created by Burt Reynolds and writer James Hampton, this proposed series was to follow the hilarious twosome as they opened their home to three single expectant mothers, played by Maria Canals, Kristin Rose, and Leah Remini — the latter in a different role than her recurring character on Evening Shade. This was all arranged by the harebrained Merleen, who, as we know from her own history, had given up a child (Fontana) as a pregnant teen. Also in the cast, meanwhile, were Ja’net Dubois as Harlan’s colleague Maxine, Anita Gregory as Merleen’s housekeeper, and had the series been picked up, Ossie Davis’ Ponder Blue was allegedly set to routinely crossover.