extended_article not showing...

i'm having a problem with displaying the {extended_article} on any of my pages. As an end result, I want on one page to have the headline and {main_article} with a link to the extended article.

for the most basic of template files, i just want to show the main and extended articles. i have this for the code:

{main_article}{extended_article}

now, for my include stuff:
<?php
$phpns['category'] = '37';
    include("news/shownews.php");
?>

using this, i will be able to see the {main_article}, but {extended_article} returns nothing. i can also add any other of the variables ({id} {author} etc.) and they all work perfectly fine.

if i add a pre-include to always show the extended article like this:

<?php
$phpns['category'] = '37';
$phpns['always_show_extended_article'] ="1";
    include("news/shownews.php");
?>

then i can call the {extended_article}, but it also displays the full story where i don't want it to.

any advice? i've been digging through code constantly to try and figure this out and i'm lost at this point... seems like it should work just fine the way i intend...