Evening Shade s01e03 Episode Script

It's morning in Evening Shade and Wood Newton has returned the old jukebox to its rightful place in the Barbeque Villa.
Wood's wife, Ava, is still managing her part-time law practice and her campaign for prosecuting attorney, in between bouts of morning sickness.
The leaves are finally starting to change around here, but the football team hasn't.
They remain oh-and-four for the season, and now Wood Newton has to deal with a new kind of game, this one from his past.
My client has no problem with the extradition.
The-the bludgeoning with the hammer is fine, but we're a little confused about the missing thumb that was found in the freezer.
Is that part of the indictment? I'm surprised you're still here.
I figured you'd be out and about with that camera crew from the Sports Network.
Isn't today the day that they're gonna film that story about you? Yes, but I'm not gonna be out and about with anybody.
To tell you the truth, I'm kind of embarrassed about the whole thing.
Well, I can't imagine that it would be any more embarrassing than losing a football game before 5,000 people every Friday night.
Thank you.
I never thought of it that way.
No.
No, if he bit it off that's a little different charge than if he cut it off.
Dad, would you ask Mom again about getting my music to "Float, Float, Soft Little Cloudlet"? No, you ask her.
I'm afraid of her.
And, and when did you find this? Where is that music coming from? Taylor's record player.
Been playing that one for days.
The words keep bouncing around in my head, even when I'm driving to work, you know.
Good morning.
Morning.
Morning.
Those guys from the Sports Network here yet? Not yet.
Are you, uh, you nervous? No.
In order to be nervous you have to have a functioning nervous system.
You blew mine out with that music.
Oh, sorry.
All right, Henry, thanks for your help.
You know, Dad, if I were you, I'd be real excited.
Out of the Record Book's a pretty cool show.
Now, who are the other guys you said they were doing profiles of? Y.
A.
Tittle, Kyle Rote, Doak Walker.
Well, it's for sure nobody's ever gonna do a show on me because I haven't scored a touchdown in three weeks.
Isn't that the one you lost 72-7? Yes.
Yes.
Well, that's just what I needed.
One more thing to do.
Daddy, do you want some more coffee? No, thank you, dear.
Sounds like you meet some interesting people in your work.
Oh They picked up this guy for speeding out on 167.
Turns out he's wanted for murder in Texas.
Mmm.
Also, I have interrogatories on the Bobbie Lee Fetters case, and I have to make a tree costume for Will's school pageant.
And bake cookies.
They need cookies, too? That's the only way they can hold their audience at those things.
Otherwise, people would just get up and leave as soon as their own kid was finished.
Okay make cookies.
Try to find "Float, Float, Soft Little Cloudlet.
" Right.
Look for "Float, Float.
" And try to teach me a cartwheel.
It's for a test in gym class.
Honey, I was never very good at cartwheels.
Of course not.
Your father wouldn't spring for a teacher.
Your daddy's the pro athlete in the family.
Why don't you ask him? Would you, Dad? Yeah.
Later, okay? Uh, Taylor.
You, you wanna take Will and get him ready for school? And make sure he wears the right clothes today.
Your mother was very disturbed yesterday.
He went to school in his Donald Duck slippers.
Yeah, I-I know.
The kindergarten has recess right outside my classroom.
I could hear all the little kids squeezing his toes and making 'em quack.
I don't understand why you have to come over here.
I thought we got enough film at the house.
Well, it's not gonna hurt to show everybody where you hang out.
I just want everybody to act natural.
You don't have to worry about that.
These people are very laid back.
They're not exactly impressed with me.
You know, I haven't won a game in two and a half years.
Well, right, and that's one of the angles I want to use.
You know, how it feels to go from huge success to huge failure Good.
Hey, here's the man of the hour now.
How you doing, you big made-up movie star? Hey, take a look at this.
Wood's wearing rouge.
I don't believe we've met.
Dr.
Harlan Elldridge, and this is the owner of this establishment, Mr.
Ponder Blue.
Hi.
Steve Hamilton.
I'm doing a story on Wood for the Sports Network.
You don't have to tell us, boy.
It's all over town, and you sure came to the right people.
We've known Wood Newton all of his life.
His entire history, his heartaches, his triumphs his tragedies and, of course, I got snapshots of it all.
That's great.
Evan Evans.
So you're the, uh, Where Are They Now fella? Uh, no, no.
Actually the name of the show is Out of the Record Book.
Oh.
Aw, he knows that.
This man here is the editor and publisher of our local newspaper, and also the father-in-law of Wood Newton.
Oh, well, I'd, uh, I'd certainly like to get you on camera.
I don't think Mr.
Evans wants to be interviewed.
Oh, sure, I wouldn't mind.
I could tell 'em some stories.
Like the time he married my daughter when she was only 18 and ruined my life.
Of course, that might not be appropriate.
I don't know.
This guy is such a kidder! Extra! Extra! Get your afternoon paper.
Evening edition, late-breaking stories.
Hey, Nub! Huh? You wanna do me a favor? Okey-doke.
Go over to Hays Music, pick up some sheet music for Molly? Oh, sure.
What's it called? "Float, Float, Soft Little Cloudlet.
" "Float, Float, Soft Little Cloudlet"? That's my favorite.
I'll just have 'em put it on your bill.
Did y'all see that? Here's one of the greatest ex-football players in America, and he still takes time out to buy his little girl a song about a cloudlet.
I've been his close friend and his personal physician forever.
They don't wanna know about past infections.
Oh, infections my foot! I've got home movies of every high school football game this boy was ever in, including the state championship game against Jonesboro, where he earned the nickname "Clutch" Newton.
Harlan, is that right? You, you got a movie of that, that play? Well, to tell you the truth, I'd sorta forgotten I had it, but then I transferred all these old movies over to videotape.
I just installed a new 35-inch TV and 14-function VCR up at Tara.
Tara is a little mobile home where Harlan lives.
They don't want to see any high school football movies.
No, no, no.
This might be real interesting background.
Uh, what happened? Well, now, Evening Shade was playing in the state championship game and-and the first time ever.
Four seconds on the clock.
We needed one touchdown to win, and then to make a long story short, our hero there reached up and snagged a desperation sideline pass, stepped over the goal line just as the finishing gun went off.
Boom! No kidding.
So, so fol so folks around here started calling him "Clutch" Newton.
No, they didn't.
You did.
That's right.
And I'll tell you something else.
Nothing Wood Newton ever did around here after that meant as much to the people in this town as that one play.
That's true.
Nothing you done since has meant very much to me, either.
I'm serious.
Now, if you want to see what made Wood Newton a hero in Evening Shade, you just come on up to Tara tonight, take a look at that play.
Well, thank you very much.
We'd, we'd love to.
Hell, I'll even invite you outside.
You can photograph it in front of my pond.
We recently imported a swan for it.
It's gotten kinda sickly, but it's still floating.
I bought this poster of Tom Selleck before I even knew who he was.
I was pushing my shopping cart through Wal-Mart's, and I saw it, and I thought to myself, "Merleen, that is the best-looking man I have ever seen in my life," and it was only a dollar, so I picked it up and sent it out to Baptist Bookstore and got it framed.
And this is an American Indian, and of course you know Billy Graham.
You know, son, I'm so proud they're doing this program on you.
It's high time people remember the contribution you've made to this town.
Thank you, Mother.
There's the door.
I agree with your mom, Wood.
We support you our chance to say so on national television.
Evan! What a nice look he gave you kind, warmhearted.
If I was you, I'd keep that look.
Thank you, Ponder.
Somehow I didn't know that you cared.
Look, everybody! Here is Mrs.
Wood Newton and the Wood Newton children.
Hey.
Thanks.
Sorry I'm late.
I had to talk to my client from Texas.
Okay, I got that tape all cued up.
That's what professionals say, isn't it? What are we watching here? The greatest moment in my life.
It happened about I must've missed it.
Okay, I think we're ready.
Of course, I had to fast-forward around six hours of Merleen straddling state lines.
Every vacation we took for 20 years, there she was.
"There, get a shot of me with one foot in Tennessee, one foot in Mississippi.
" "Hey, get a shot of me with one foot in Georgia, one foot in Alabama.
" "Here, get a shot of me, one f " It's educational.
That way you know what state you're next to.
Oh, you did that with Disneyworld.
"Here take a shot of me with one foot in Frontierland, one foot in Tomorrowland.
" Harlan! Okay.
Now can everybody see? Yeah.
Yeah.
It's good.
Go on.
Okay, here we go.
All right.
Harlan, let's go.
Hey! Hey, hey! Hey, Wood, there you are.
That's right.
Ol' 37.
What do you think of that, kids? You ever think your dad was that young? Nope.
I can't believe it.
Look what a baby you are.
You look just like Taylor.
Look at that little bottom and how you run.
Now take a look here where where Wood jumps up for that pass.
Look at that! Hey, Dad, you had some pretty good moves there.
Then you just come down right near that sideline and two steps and bingo! Touchdown! How 'bout that? Now, you fellas just saw some football.
Harlan, could you, uh could you run that play back again in slow motion, please? Sure, I'll use my super slo-mo.
Probably take about three days to watch this.
All right, now pause it right there! What? When you came down Yeah? You had one foot out of bounds.
What? That's right, Wood.
You're out of bounds.
Huh? Holy cow.
This is awful.
The best moment of your life and it never happened.
Now, I'll tell you, Coach.
I mean, I ain't saying that I feel that way, but, you know, there's some people that feel like this is the last straw.
I mean, you know, it's one thing to lose every game this season, but to go back and start losing games from 30 years ago I mean Anyway, I just thought you ought to know there's some people that's pretty riled up about this thing.
Thank you for sharing that with me, Marion.
I thought Ava was joining you for lunch.
Oh, she's got morning sickness, which seems to last all day these days.
Boy, I got to get home.
I gotta make a tree costume for Will.
I'm going to bake some cookies, too.
How can you even think about cookies at a time like this? People are devastated.
Well, I don't see why.
Honey, a lot of small-town legends turn out to be hollow at the core.
Just like Fudd Redinger.
You remember him, Ponder? You mean the guy that caught the 90-pound catfish in the Chamber of Commerce Fish Derby? Supposedly.
Except I happen to know that what he actually did was he went and he bought a catfish from an aquarium store in Little Rock, and then he fed it table scraps for a year.
I mean, can you imagine anybody sinking so low just to win a stupid outboard motor, and win a sweatshirt that says, "Drink beer, have sex, and throw up"? Hey, Coach? Yeah? You know, Marion's got a point.
If Jonesboro asks for that pennant back, this could get real nasty, like the Civil War.
Say, Wood? Hmm? Thanks a lot for everything.
Oh, yeah, Steve.
I'll I'll see you around, huh? Now, you have that Cathy Lee Gifford send me one of those pictures.
Just have it say, "Harlan, I love you.
I want you.
" Will do, Harlan.
You know, you go along doing stuff you think is going to be important something's going to mean something someday.
It turns out that none of that stuff means as much as something you didn't even think much about.
Yeah.
I know what you mean.
I used to have chitlins on the menu here for years.
Nobody bought them, so I took them off.
Everybody pitched a fit.
"This kind of place," they said, "you've got to have chitlins.
" Finally, I had to put them back on.
Yeah.
This stupid play's exactly like that.
I never knew that the state championship meant so much to the people in this town.
Well, I, for one, am tired of hearing about it.
It's ridiculous.
I mean, what difference does it make what this man did on one night 30 years ago? Obviously, it was a much bigger deal to everybody else here than it was to him.
Look what he's done since.
I mean, I don't keep up that much with football, but it's my understanding that he was Honorable Mention All-American one year, and All-American the next, Southwest Conference Most Valuable Player, runner-up for the Heisman Trophy, Rookie Quarterback of the Year in the NFL, still is fourth-ever in completed passes in the NFL record books, and single-handedly won the Eastern Division playoff game by completing six passes with a minute and 53 seconds left on the clock, and, with ten seconds left, and no time outs, he scored the winning touchdown on a quarterback keep with a broken collarbone, and grown men wept.
Now, I, uh just think that that should count for something, in spite of the fact that he married my daughter and ruined my life.
Hear! Hear! Thank you.
I, uh, think we just got the ending to our story.
Hey, Coach? Too bad that movie took away your play.
I never let myself be photographed.
It's just a rule I have.
Hey, hey, what you say? Mules, take that ball away! What you say, Mules? Take that ball away! Well, I think I'm going to try some of those chitlins.
Well, I don't actually have chitlins.
Uh I just put them on the menu.
Merleen, with Ava feeling so bad, I'll never be able to thank you enough.
You know, I don't know what Evan and I would have done if we had to tackle that machine alone.
Oh, I'm thrilled to do it.
I just love sewing.
When Harlan and I were first married, and he was in the Army, I used to spend days making us these matching his-and-her outfits.
Oh, I just thought they were the cutest things.
We would wear them around the base, and just got all sorts of comments.
And then, one time, we wore these matching plaid Bermuda shorts and tops to this real low-rent, interracial jazz club, and that's where Harlan got beaten up, and so he asked me not to make them anymore.
I wouldn't pay much attention to that because, you know, plaid Bermuda shorts are not I know lots of people that would like to beat Harlan up.
These are not bad.
Needs more chocolate chips.
Oh Not bad? Mm-hmm.
Oh, well, I I like to take criticism from a man that has Baby Ruths for lunch.
You know, I can't understand making a kid as young as Will have such an elaborate getup just for some dinky little deal at school.
I mean, what's wrong with a child just holding his arms out and saying he's a tree? I never heard such bitching and moaning over having to cut out just a few leaves.
I mean And, by the way, did you look at these leaves? They're no good.
Well, horseradish! What do you know about leaves? You don't even keep your yard raked.
I cannot believe that you all are fighting like this, after that beautiful speech that Harlan told me that you made about Wood today.
Aw, that was nothing.
Well, I bet Wood didn't think it was nothing, did you? It was a nice speech.
Oh, come on.
You can do better than that.
It was a very nice speech.
Well, look, don't don't knock yourself out.
All right, it was a hell of a nice speech.
I'll never forget it.
You're a hell of a guy, in spite of the fact that I married your daughter and ruined your life.
Well, thank you.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Oh, that's so sweet.
Now I'm going to have to make you all matching outfits.
Hey, not bad.
I mean, for your first tree.
Want to show your mom? Okay.
Good night, Dad.
Good night, son.
Thanks for making the costume.
You're welcome.
Hey, Dad? Mm-hmm? Before I go to bed, I'd like to tell you something.
I mean, about not really making that big play.
I know what you're going to say.
What's done is done.
It happened a long time ago.
You're going to take a lot of kidding for it.
No.
I don't care.
That's what I wanted to tell you.
I think it's great you were out of bounds.
You do? Yeah.
It's going to take a lot of pressure off of me.
Since you're not a hero, nobody's going to expect me to be one.
I'm glad you're pleased.
Yeah.
I think it's great.
In fact, when my birthday rolls around, you don't even have to buy me a present this year.
Oh.
In that case, at Christmastime, I'm going to tell you about how I ran the wrong way for a touchdown in the Texas-Arkansas game.
You did? No kidding? Scout's honor.
You better hit the sack.
All right.
Good night, Taylor.
Good night, Clutch.
I love you, Dad.
I love you, too, son.
Tonight Love has come to find me All right Lonely days behind me You're the one I've waited for Never Never going to leave you Forever, I just want to I thought you hated this music.
Oh, it's starting to grow on me.
Figure I ought to go with the flow.
Feeling better? Mmm.
You know, the cutest little tree came in here a few minutes ago to kiss me good night.
Really? Hmm.
Y'all did a great job.
Sometimes I'm amazed at how often you still amaze me.
What are you thinking about? Nothing.
Just how funny it is that two inches on either side of a white chalk line can stir up so much emotion in a town 30 years later.
Well, I don't know about 30 years ago, but today you were pretty impressive.
You made a tree, baked cookies, managed to find "Float, Float, Soft Little Cloudlet.
" I mean And, to top it all off, oh, you're very sexy.
You're the one I've waited for This music's starting to grow on me.
Sorry.
We're closed for repairs.
Dad? Oh, not not to you, honey.
Well, you never taught me how to do a cartwheel.
Okay, you know, I've never really done a cartwheel.
I mean, that's what cheerleaders do.
But I I can stand on my hands, and that's that's practically the same thing.
You just you just keep going, you know? It's it's relatively simple.
Just just just just watch me here.
You just you just go up on your hands, and then Oh! Gosh! Dad, I'm sorry.
Did you get that? I think so.
Good.
'Cause I can't do it again.
They say that no man can be a hero in his own home, but it seems that that's where most of us have our best chance.
And, as for whatever happened to Clutch Newton, he's here, right where he belongs, in a place called Evening Shade.