December 24, 2022 • 42 mins
Kira and Amelia have noticed a shift in the Hallmark tone this season and it feels off. The girls discuss what might be at the root, and have some news about the direction of the podcast moving forward.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
This is the FCB Podcast Network.Hello everybody, Welcome to another episode of
a very merry podcast. By theway, um, I wanted to thank
(00:25):
you Amelia before we get started.I wanted to thank you Amelia for hooking
us up with Kinsey Schofield last time, because she came on just listened to
yourself as well, and we talkedfor like two hours. It was so
fun. She's super fun. Shecalled me last night and I answered my
phone. I mean, that's that'show that's how much I enjoy talking to
her. Yeah, yea, AndI knew she called you last night because
(00:49):
I've been texting with her non stop. This the thing because yeah, like
everything, yeah, everything that comesup, I'm like, Kindsey, look
at it. But we had sucha good conversation. So thank you for
connecting her to our podcasts. AndI had to divide our show into two
parts, my jailty because we justtalked and talked and talked, and then
(01:14):
unbelievably, like there's just more MeganMarco insanity that's come out since that interview.
So it's so much going on.But we've got a special AVMP today.
It's a little bit slightly more serious, but Amelia and I have been
having some how should I say,concerns which are reflected in the fan base,
(01:36):
and we're getting letters about it,concerns about what's going on at Hallmark
lately, and we've been really tryingto get into the spirit of the season
and it's been a little difficult.The format has changed over there, and
Amelia, I know a lot ofpeople are going to feel like we're talking
about the gay storylines and we're not. We're actually not. Last season,
(02:01):
you can listen to our podcast andhere that we went along just fine with
all of that. As long asHallmark was sticking to their formula, we
were fine. But something is differentthis year. It has changed drastically,
and not just because some of theirstar players have left, like Kansas Kandas,
Cameron Bray and Dannika mckeller, andthen some of their leadership has changed.
(02:25):
With the culture over there seems tobe changing in a way that's I
don't know, some of the joyhas been bled out of it. So
before we talk about what's going onwith Hallmark and where we think the problems
are, we should have done thisat the top of the season period.
I think it's maybe good to doevery season, but I wanted to lay
(02:46):
out some of our favorite tropes.Here is why Amelia and I do this
podcast, Why we love Hallmark movies, why we love cheesy Christmas movies.
We have a list of tropes thatwe look for in every movie that we
feel are vital to making the perfectcheesy Christmas film, and we look for
(03:07):
them in every film we watch.But Hallmark, obviously, for obvious reasons,
has been the the company, thefilm company that has really launched launched
this and they deserve all the creditin the world for it. And now
everyone's replicating that formula. Um,so let's start with our list of why
(03:29):
why we we love Hallmark and whattropes we expect to see in a cheesy
Hallmark Christmas movie. Um, Amelia, I asked you to make a list,
and I think what I'll what I'lldo is I'll have you just start
reading them off and then I'll fillin where I think if you've missed anything.
Okay, So I grabbed a few, and I'm sure I didn't think
(03:49):
of all of them because they're justso many. Yea, so are some
vital ones. So um, oneof them that I know that we've always
loved is a misunderstanding that could easilybe cleared up with like one quick conversation,
and nobody has the conversation and theyjust let it get out of control.
Right, Yeah, that's my favorite. Yeah, that's important. It's
(04:11):
a good one. Um, welove them. There's usually some kind of
a it's usually a snowball fight.Sometimes there are snow angels or ice skating
something like that, but some kindof an outdoor activity, like I said,
usually a snowball fight. We lovethem, why and why, Oh
my gosh, because it's just welove the well, it's like the fun
(04:31):
of the holiday spirit. But thenalso somebody's gonna slip on the ice and
they're gonna end up like holding ontoeach other and almost kiss but not kiss.
Right, these are this is animportant mechanism in in the Hallmark universe
for people to have physical contact becausein these movies, which is probably another
rule, there's not a lot ofromantic physical contact until the end. So
(04:55):
this is a way for people toget close in a very innocent way.
Yeah. Um. And speaking ofwhich, there is somebody falling off a
ladder and being caught. Yeah,falling off a ladder or falling from a
high space or even tripping. Ithink would be fine tripping and catching someone,
but typically it needs to be aladder. Mean, whenever I see
a ladder in one of these movies, I'm like, yeah, yeah,
(05:19):
a momentum a kind of dark backstorywith which we've we've talked about and some
there have been some of those thisyear, but it feels like the darkness
is still part of part of thestory. Weren't supposed to be, Like
this horrific thing happened to me.Who it's Christmas and you're almost like,
are we just ignoring that? Youknow, it's because there didn't used to
(05:41):
be divorce In Hallmark, people werewidowed because you also had to bring in
the trope of the child of achildish child, yeah, precocious child to
bring some wisdom throughout. So sometimesit was, you know, a best
friend's child, but sometimes the maincharacter would be away or widower. Right,
Well, we don't want the maincharacter to be is a slut who
(06:05):
just couldn't hold a marriage together,or it's just out sleeping around and created
this kid. We cannot have anyof that. Hallmark, when you get
married, you're just happy forever.All right, it hasn't existed until recently,
and there was more divorce storylines,which is fine. I just always
assume that those people moved into Hallmarkland after their divorce. Well sure,
(06:29):
sure. And that actually brings upanother thing that sort of got us thinking
that we had to address this wasI watched what was it called hall Out
the Holly a couple of weeks ago, the Lacy Shabet big movie this year,
and I was so excited because Iwas like, it's Lacy Shabet.
It's going to be a classic Hallmarkmovie. Like two minutes in, she's
been with her boyfriend for three yearsand they're living together. And I was
like, what is this? Wedon't live together at Hallmark. No.
(06:51):
That was honest to goodness, andwe heard from listeners about that. We
heard from listeners about that. Ameliaimmediately texted me like hysterically, was like,
what is going on? Um?I actually find that to sort of
be the final nail in the coffin. That really was pushing it. That
(07:15):
really was put to me. Anyways, go on, yeah, um,
some kind of a there's either usuallya competition or there's a big business deadline
on Christmas Eve. Those are kindof the bit the two. But you're
ramping up to something. It's acompetition. Sorry, let me just put
her in another room. Sure,no, we've you know this is like
(07:39):
this podcast includes a lot of lifewe I was telling Amelia before we got
started that I've been banished from myoffice space, which is just my son's
bedroom, um, since he livesat college most of the time now and
um, this means that I'm outin the open where I can hear every
door slam next door. I canhear all of the animals outside. It's
(08:01):
the school day right now, sothe kids are gone, but my neighbor's
kids will like screen bloody murder fromthe moment they step through the threshold of
their home until the moment they goto bed, which is until like ten
o'clock at night. So they're justvery loud. I love them. I
didn't have a sleep schedule either.I love them, I do. I
love them so much, and Ilove hearing them. But it's noisy around
(08:22):
here, is what I'm saying.So if you hear life going on mostly
pats, just please bear with us. So back to the scandal of the
Yeah, let's ladyshipar had a livingboyfriend. I want to say this,
Amelia. I think one of ourfirst episodes we were talking about favor Hallmark
(08:43):
movies and how we got to enjoyHallmark movies, and I said, one
of the first movies that I everwatched that I actually found myself truly enjoying
was a relationship Bear movie. Can'tremember the name of it now, you
know, the one where she isdating a fake dating a prince and he
brings breakfast and he brings breakfast.I was thinking about that really talking yes,
(09:09):
yes, and that was that indetail? Yes, And I remember
telling you at the time, like, you know what, Amelia. One
of the things I loved about thescene is he brings her breakfast and also
multiple Walmart bags. Was like,which is awesome, And there was folders
on the counter as well. Um, and he brings her breakfast and they
(09:30):
had to her apartment, and thething that I noticed was that they didn't
live together. And I was like, isn't that very sweet? You know,
they had that they don't live togetherand they're dating and they're courting.
That's what I noticed, and Ifelt I found that to be extremely sweet.
So to see this this change,I know, to the regular average
listener who maybe is living with theirboyfriend or girlfriend. You're thinking, what's
(09:54):
the big deal, But this isnot a rule in the Hallmark universe.
This is part of what makes Hallmarkcheesy. Yeah yeah, and we we
love it. We love it.Okay. So the competition we've talked about
that, Um, there's always somekind of a big city small town dichotomy.
Usually, m, you know,somebody's leaving going is usually they're going
(10:16):
home to a small town for Christmas, leaving behind the big city boyfriend who
doesn't have their priorities straight. M. Let's see. Oh, so similar
to the Christmas competition, there's usuallysome kind of a tree lighting. So
like there's like Christmas ceremonies of somekind, usually as yeah, or it
could be, um, it couldbe like the um house lighting competitions,
(10:39):
the light the lighting competitions that theyhad. But there is there always is
like four carols. Yeah, yeah, that's right. There always is some
kind of town event, community eventthat gives our protagonists a reason to be
in the same space and to seesomething beautiful and and then maybe have a
conversation station about what they're what they'reseeing. So it's always am and I
(11:05):
don't know. One of the thingsI love about Hallmark Universe is is this
idea of these communities of people whogather and care for each other and love
being together in the most special timeof the year. Absolutely. Um,
all right. Something about somebody fromthe big city coming to close something down.
That's another one. We see alot we're going to close the cookie
(11:26):
factory or the little independent in orthe Christmas tree lot, or the you
know whatever it is, a littlediner, that's one, you know.
Yeah, yeah, um, allright, someone who is potentially actually Santa.
We haven't seen this, and youknow, as I go through this,
we did mention even at the endof last year that they weren't quite
(11:50):
as trope heavy, so maybe weshould have seen the writing on the wall
last year. But this year it'sbeen you know, um, it's been
like, yeah, nothing that wewere expecting. Yeah, but anyway,
Yeah, there is all idea ofthat in a long time. Yeah,
yeah, there's always the idea ofthat one sort of guy like the town
you know, I don't know,like the town janitor or he owns a
(12:11):
toy store or something, and hepops up every now and get and he
says something magical and people are like, wait, is that Saint Nick And
you know, yeah, it's alwayscute. Um. So some of the
like the plots are still sort ofthe same, you know, like them
secret Royalty has come up a coupleof times, or not even secret Royalty,
but a royalty angle of some kindis coming up. Or the businesswoman.
(12:35):
You know, these things are stillkind of coming up, but we're
not getting those little sweet moments likewell, baking, that's another one.
Um, they have to bake somethingtogether. Somebody gets like flower on their
face, you know, the personallylike you know, but that's another like
an innocent way to get some physicalcontact. And we love all those cheesy
little moments. And you know,people maybe complain because Hallmark Is has been
(13:00):
in the past, you know,kind of sickly sweet and kind of predictable.
But I think that's the world thatwe live in right now. We
like we personally, you I mean, we like we like knowing how it's
gonna end. We like knowing theWe like knowing the story before we go
in and that everyone's gonna end uphappy. Yeah. No, the predictability
(13:20):
is the draw and that is why, like my daughter was watching one with
me the other day and she's like, how can you say? She's fifteen?
So she's like, how can youstand to watch these? It's the
same story over and over again.Nothing's different, And I'm like, yeah,
that's the point. The point Iknow that it's not different, and
that's what I enjoy. Like Ican sit down and it's like when I
(13:43):
have a cup of hot chocolate.It's really hard to ruin hot chocolate.
So you know that whenever you're sittingdown with a cup of hot chocolate,
you know what you're gonna get.Every time you know, you know you
have a cone of vanilla ice creamcone, you know how it's gonna says
if I can't decide, I'm icecream flavor, Vanilla or chocolate. Those
are the go to flavors because Iknow I'm going to enjoy them and I
(14:05):
know exactly what my taste buds aregoing to get. And that is what
is attractive or has been attractive aboutHallmark and all of these tropes that we
lay out very lovingly and that wemake fun of very lovingly play a part
in creating this predictable, cheesy universethat gives us exactly what we want.
(14:28):
And I'm wondering if Hallmark this seasonAmelia has stopped thinking about what we want
the Hallmark fans want what I've beenthinking about that a lot, and I
think that they thought by changing theformula, they could broaden the audience,
and instead they're just alienating their actualaudience other people, you know, people
(14:54):
who like cynical movies or you know, want a surprise twist. They're not
going to watch Hallmark Christmas movies anyway, So all they're doing is alienating the
people who do want to watch theirmovie or would watch the movies. You
know this, The predictability, allthose things, they were features, not
bugs. They were the reasons wewatched it, not we watch it in
(15:15):
spite of you know, the crazyproduct placement or whatever. We loved it.
Yeah, yeah, but I don'tmake endearing. I don't think that
by changing it up. And youand I have really enjoyed a couple that
were a little bit different. Um. I really liked Three Wise Men and
a Baby, even though it wasa little bit different. We loved that
Five Star Christmas, the original HotSaaS Fress movie. That was I mean,
(15:37):
it did slave a lot of thetropes. It was a lot more
of like a traditional comedy than likea rom com, even though there was
obviously a romantic line. So it'snot that we don't like something different,
but they're just they're they're messing upthe feeling that you get when you watch
what used to be a Hallmark movie. And that's something that mattered to people.
(16:00):
Yeah, it matters to me,and I'll tell you it's so obvious
because even my husband said something aboutit. You know, the last movie
that we watched together, I thinkthat was three, was it three?
Wiseman and a Baby was the lastmovie Hamewark movie on the schedule. And
(16:22):
again I enjoyed it, you know, I liked it, but it wasn't
the same. And my husband waslike, you know what, when that
was over, he was like,you know what, I don't really like
what's going on on Hallmark this series. Like I feel like everything's talkie talkie
talkie, and I don't have anyof the things I've come to expect.
And I think he nailed it.Like there's a lot of exposition in these
(16:45):
things. There's a lot of movingfrom one scene to the next, right
like we would expect moving to ascene by a Christmas tree or moving to
a scene by a bakery. Butthen there's no action involved. It's just
people having another discussion and to getto know each other. And um,
the silly little um situations that youget into that are worth gently you know,
(17:10):
lovingly mocking, or they don't existanymore. They've been struck in favor
of dialogue. And um, youknow, I don't watch a Hallmark movie
for biting great dialogue. You know, that's not what it is. And
in fact, I watch it forthe opposite. I don't want to really
be thinking about the intelligence of thesecharacters, right right, Um, well,
(17:33):
first of all, did I missany important tropes? No, I
think you got them all I was. I almost said flower on face,
but you got it, you gotyou got flower on face. And then
of course, um, you knowthe other thing though that is a hall
I wouldn't call this a trope,but I would say this is an atmosphere
(17:56):
of Hallmark films is that there's noum, nothing ends with animosity. And
um, there's not a lot ofsarcasm in the Hallmark universe because sarcasm is
mean, and um, you know, there's just not a lot of even
the mean people. Like I wasthinking about what was the one last year
(18:18):
we watched with Danika mckeller and Lukewhat's his face? Um, Luke McFarlane
and he's a hockey player. Itwasn't Danneka, was it. I don't
think it was that. Yeah,I believe that was the guest House.
The guest House Alia, I believewas the name of that episode. Yes,
(18:40):
and and uh there was like therewas sarcasm inute, you know,
and there was, but there wasthis feeling of sweetness through the like there's
a bully in there that was bullyingone of the boy dancers in her dance
crew, right, and even thosebullies were like it was the most mild
(19:02):
bullying every ever. It was likeyou're going to dance class, hahaha,
dance classes for girls. You know, they're almost like fools like in the
originals, like court Jester sentence,you know, and like they're just they're
so ridiculous. It's not like,I mean, you feel for this kid.
You want the bully to get uscome up, And it's not like
(19:22):
you're not like thinking about bullying later, you know, right, that's right,
that's the thing you're not thinking andThat's why when you have a widowed
person or a divorced person, you'renot thinking about how they got there.
They're not really hurt like there's thereare several storylines where the main characters are
foster kids, right, and weknow that the horror stories of the foster
(19:44):
care system, but a Hallmark Land, you're not supposed to think about that,
and they go to great pains tomake sure that you don't think about
it. So you have somebody whosays, hey, I have had this
challenging pass here at it, butyou know, here are all the ways
that I'm I feel good and mylife is good now, Allen. And
you're never supposed to linger in darknessin any aspect. And I've seen a
(20:07):
few movies this cycle which do havea few dark moments, and we are
lingering there and I was waiting fora lift out of them and it never
came. Did Paul Revere really saythe British are coming? And how is
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(20:51):
Critical thinking isn't dead, but it'sdefinitely low on oxygen. Join me
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(21:14):
or wherever you get your podcasts.Yeah, and we've noticed a lot of
strange, like unexpected twists, likeI'm in the Royal Nanny. The prince
gets kidnapped and she has to gorescue him in like an action movie,
you know, yeah, sequence,I mean, she's using an umbrella as
a weapon. But still that Imean, before even an attempted kidnapping would
have been a little dark, butto actually achieve it, and he's being
(21:37):
held like that's that's yeah, nothing, No, that was way over the
talking the kids. But still butthey were planning on kidnapping the kids,
ye yeah, which I was like, we can't. There's a kidnapping all
our universe like Christmas, are youkidding? Yeah, it's stuff like that.
Um and we oh we we alsowon choke. You forgot to mention
(22:03):
the best friend whose only interest isin the love life of the protagonists,
they have no autonomy. Historically thathas been the black best friend too.
Yes, historically, Palmark's gotten alittle bit more diverse, which of course
I as a black broadcaster, enjoythat. But also there's a little bit
sadness in not being able to makefun of Hallmark for it anymore. I
(22:26):
know. And in the early dayswe got a lot more jokes of you
trying to run my love life yea, the black best friend co host.
Yeah yeah. And so while wewe still have a lot of love and
respect for Hallmark outside of what theyare doing with I mean, it feels
like they caved pretty fast to theor suddenly to the demand for LGBT storylines.
(22:56):
And that was fine because as youand I said, well, we
it's not the it's not an ideologythat we love about Hallmark. It's this,
it's this whole universe. Yeah,it's this whole package. So we
were perfectly fine to go along withit. We loved the diversifying. It
came with its own new set offun tropes and oh oh we forgot I
(23:19):
can't believe we forgot this one.A magical merry go Round or yeah,
I mean that's not a calm,it's not in everyone, but when it
comes up, it is a trope. Enough of them. Yeah, a
merry go around or like a sometimesit's a music box. Yeah, magical
like that, Yeah, ornament,Yeah, something that's magical. It has
some kind of magical power to transportyou back in time or forward in time
(23:42):
or whatever. Um. I meananytime I see a Merry go Round,
You're like, I'm not getting onthat portal to another time. Um.
And it's clear that Hallmark is missingthese And I I knew that Kennis Cameron
Baret had left because she is abusinesswoman, and I figured, Okay,
(24:07):
she saw this new business opportunity andshe's looking to grow her brand and she's
learned so much like mad respect forCannas, Cameron Bret I really want us
to try to score an interview withher because they just have so much respect
for her just as a businesswoman period. But now I see, now that
(24:27):
I see what's happening at Hallmark,I see that she saw the writing on
the wall before we did, andthat is that the culture of Hallmark was
changing, probably the leadership change.And it looks to me like the writing
staff has changed too. And itfeels like a lot of these people are
not people who. A lot ofthese writers aren't people who. Not all
(24:48):
of them, not all of them. I'm generalizing here, Hallmark audience,
but many of these new scripts arefrom people. It feels like people who
never watched Hallmark before and didn't reallylike it and have an idea of what
a Hallmark movie is, but feellike, well, I'm going to give
it this new sort of modern edgeto it. And that's not no thank
(25:10):
you honoring any audience, No it'snot. And I think we've also mentioned
that Candice Cameron Beret has a leadershiprole at this new network, Great American
Family. So I think, likeyou said, she's a businesswoman and she
I mean to repeat two things thatyou said. She's a businesswoman and she
saw the writing on the wall,and she knew that there was a huge
market for these movies that are likesafe. You know, the world is
(25:33):
crazy right now and people want tospend time in this world, and if
Hallmark wasn't going to provide it,then she could help provide it. A
Great American Family, we can't wecan't not talk about the controversy that she's
in. We try to keep itlow key on this show because it's only
for fun that we do this,but she is she did find herself in
hot water this past week because shea set or this past month because she
(25:59):
said somebody asked her if you wouldif they would be doing gay love storylines
on Great American Family. She said, no, we'll we focus on traditional
marriage over there, and then ofcourse that was enough to disignite. So
I do just want to gently correctyou that she did not say whether or
not there would be same sex couples, oh, which is oh yeah.
(26:21):
So I'm trying to find the exactquote. So it was something like,
I think the Great American Family willkeep traditional marriage at the core. So
I guess that is that's probably whatshe meant. Well, you know what
I mean, You would have thoughtshe's the second coming of Hitler from I
mean, that statement is nothing.What is that statement? Yeah? I
mean, and I just read anarticle where want a Hallmark Well, a
(26:47):
Hallmark favor who moved over to GreatAmerican Family with Kenna Cameron Bray Neil Bledsoe,
who was in the next movie Wewant a review, actually left in
a Hofey this week put out astage and condemning Candice camember Ray speaking out
against her and saying that the channelgoes against his values. And I mean,
fine, whatever that is, fine, honestly go back to Hallmark and
(27:15):
yeah every time. Yeah, soyou know a lot of what she said
talked about also wanting a home forsome more faith based stories. We know
that Christianity is very important to her. We're both Christians, so I think
that that was not something she wasallowed to express at Hallmark. I don't
think they're going to be like overtlylike Christian movies, but I think the
(27:36):
character probably will be a little morefocus on Christmas as a religious holiday instead
of a secular holiday. I guesswe'll find out. But I did see
one. No, I saw one. I didn't watch the whole thing,
but I did see one which waspretty explicitly a faith based movie, where
it really was a movie about herand her husband's sort of reconnecting and what
it means to be married in theeyes of God and like finding your faith
(27:59):
again. And I think it wascalled something like like The Faith of Christmas
or something like that. So Iguess this is our way of gently admitting
that we have been watching great Americanfamily movie. Yeah, we have been.
I switched over one night. Iwas trying to get into this Hallmark
movie and I just couldn't. Ijust felt like something wasn't there. And
(28:22):
I was like, you know what, do I have this great American family
thing in my cable package, Like, let me go look? And I
started sifting through the channels and thereit is, and so I clicked over
and immediately Milia was, yeah,it's like your home. Yeah. Thrust
into the middle of a of acheesy scene of a girl and a guy
decorating the tree, and she fellright off the ladder right as I tuned
(28:47):
in, and I was like,what, okay, let's do this.
And I watched it and it wasawful. It was terrible in every in
all the right ways. And Iwatched the whole thing, and I think
I texted you other night I waswatching another one. I'm like, Amelia,
this movie is amazing. There isa hot beverage in every single scene.
I've watched six scenes in a rowand this lady is a hot beverage
(29:10):
in every scene, or someone's pouringa hot beverage. It's ridiculous, so
good. I watched one with JillWagner, who is another one of my
favorite formerly Hallmark now jf women.Same thing. She's a big city girl
going to the small town for theShe's her uncle died and she inherited his
farm and it turns out that healways used to run this festival at Christmas
(29:32):
and she reconnects and when she getsto the farm, there's a guy on
a tractor and it's this guy sheknew when she was a kid. And
I'm like, this is everything youknow. And there's no there's certainly no
bigotry and no hate. Like peopleare trying to make it sound they're just
if you watch a Hallmark movie fiveyears ago and loved it, that's what
you're getting. Yeah, And soMilli and I in the best possible way,
(29:56):
Amelia and I have been. Iknow it sounds but we've been struggling
with this. We really have.We don't want to abandon Hallmark because the
Hallmark is the OG and we havethe Christmas Universe. Owes a debt of
gratitude to Hallmark, but I thinkthey have missed the mark this season,
and I'm will be curious to seehow it's reflected in its ratings this year,
(30:18):
particularly when there's so much competition outthere now, like literally every channel
is doing their version yeah of acheesy movie. It will be definitely interesting
to see. But yeah. Soso, like we said, we're gonna
be branching out to JF and Ithink it's worth trying. Like I think
that we have to address the LindsayLohan movie on Netflix, Thank You a
Girl. We are so on thesame page. I was literally just about
(30:41):
to say, please tell me we'rewatching the We're not like dumping and if
there's something that looks great on Hallmark, we're still going to watch it,
absolutely so, but we are we'rebroadening our horizons to just watch great made
for TV slash streaming Christmas movies.Yeah, and I think this puts an
(31:02):
end to my little Hallmark Universe stickbecause now the universe is growing, because
I think I'm just gonna refer toan now as the Christmas Universe or Christmas
Land. It is this whole thingthat has its own set of rules,
its own set of realities, andum, and I think that what I've
seen on GAF, they get it. Now. Maybe Hallmark is going to
(31:26):
be successful with this, Amelia,because you know, the coveted um demographic
is that eighteen to thirty five,right, You and I don't fall into
that anymore. Um, GAF iscatering to a more middle age crown,
and that's you know, the olderI guess the more I'm like, Yeah,
I'm I'm that person, aren't I. So I can't tell if it's
(31:47):
if it's if it's just people likeyou and me just sort of getting older
and not being able to pivot,or if this if if if this is
a direct betrayal of the base,and we're probably not going to know until
the next ratings come out. Well, I mean I was firmly in the
eighteen to thirty five demographic when Istarted watching Hallmark movies, right yeah,
(32:13):
And actually I got into them,as we've mentioned before, because my dad
loved them, who was obviously bolder. So I feel like they used to
be appealing to everyone, and Idon't know if they're trying to like spice
things up, because like gen Zisn't watching them. I'm not really sure
what they're going for here. Butbut that's okay. We've got Candice,
(32:36):
We've got we've got Danica mckeller.She's out there to hold it down.
A lot of our favorites have movedover as well. Yeah, so one
of my I was the only reasonI was disappointed that Jill Wagner left actually
was because she with Christopher Plaha,who was you know, was one of
my favorites. They did one ofmy favorite mystery series on the Hallmark Movies
(32:58):
and Mysteries. So now that she'snot a Hallmark anymore, there an't anymore
of those, which was much whichwas actually a bigger bummer to me than
m Christmas movies because it was Ireally liked that mystery. So and Kennis
Cameron did another one, so thosewere two. Actually, Dana mckeller did
one too, So I'm not sureif they're gonna, you know, switch
up. I'm not sure what they'regonna do. But yeah, yeah,
(33:22):
to tell you how difficult it's been. Our movie this week was a Royal
corgy Christmas, and neither one ofus has been particularly passionate about reviewing it.
We both watched it and it wasfine, right, but like royals
and dogs like there's I can't imaginethat we wanted something more like. That
was the one I was so excitedabout, and I was even talking to
(33:44):
Myrtle's dog trainer last week about it. At the lesson. I was like,
you know, we've got this quargymovie coming up, blah blah blah,
and it's like it just wasn't thatgood. It was the same kind
of like, um, you know, there was a character who was like
encouraging someone to steal the throat fromsomebody else, and not in like a
cartoonish villain kind of way, butjust like in a very mean spirited It's
(34:07):
just it just wasn't right. Then. That was the movie that my husband
was watching, going this it feelstalkie talk He was watching that, going
this feels like too much talkie talkie. I told you, you know,
there's too much talk, and itwas. It was. It was one
scene to the next where there's talk, but not a whole lot, Like
the tropes were almost note for theirdecory in the Tree and baking come on,
(34:31):
Yeah, I just keep disappointed.And I had it took me two
sittings to watch it. I didn'twatch. I didn't watch once. I
paused, like, yeah, Ipaused, and when did other stuff?
Came back to it a couple ofdays later, and I was like,
and it felt like work, Like, Okay, I have to watch the
end of this because we're gonna talkabout it. Yeah, And that was
when I was like, you knowwhat, Millia, we need to pivot
here, like because we're clearly neitherone of us clearly that keen to like
(34:55):
we weren't like, hey, no, we gotta get this done, like
all things were coming up up andwe're like, all right, well,
we'll just push it out, pushit out. And to me, that's
always a sign that you're not reallyexcited about each other, like I cannot
wait to talk about this movie.When can you meet tomorrow? Yeah?
Yeah, we do that when wesee something we really enjoyed. And so
(35:15):
I thought, you know what,it's time to just kind of like pop
this bubble we've been talking about itfor a while. So I know this
wasn't like the most fun episode ofthe show, but we just wanted to
let you know what was going onwith us, what our plan is for
the future moving forward. We're notabandoning Hallmark, but I don't think we
can call ourselves, at least atthis moment in time, an exclusively Hallmark
(35:37):
podcast. Think Hallmark has lost ourbusiness. And again it doesn't have anything
to do with the quote political,the politics of it. Happy to stick
around for wherever they want to gowith that if they just stay true to
the formula, which is what hasmade it successful. Because yeah, I
mean for years they've been introducing moreethnic diversity and more gay couples, more,
(36:00):
and we never we don't care.We've never cared. We've never said
a thing about it, about ourhopes. Now we've got a problem.
Yeah, and we do have aproblem because now we see that's what It
wasn't an issue of who was inthe movies. It's an issue of what
the movies are about and what functionthey serve. I just think whoever is
in charge over at Hallmark right nowhas not loved Hallmark in the past.
(36:23):
That's what I think. I thinkthe people in charge right now and the
people writing the scripts and making themovies, they don't feel like they're the
same ones who love Hallmark. AndI hate to say that, but I
have to say, you know,I was skeptical. We were hurt last
year to hear that CCB was leaving, and danny Ka mckeller was, yeah,
(36:45):
we were. I felt a littlebit betrayed. Yeah, no,
we we took it hard. Andbut I must say, now that I've
seen what's going on, I'm realizingwhy she did that, and I'm realizing
that, you know, she justfor obvious reasons, was ahead of the
curve, ahead of us. Andlike I said, and so anyways,
(37:05):
if you're like us and you're feelinglike there's something missing and Hallmark this year
and it's not bringing you as muchjoy as it has in passed Amelia,
and I can tell you you switchover to GAF, you're going to get
exactly what you want, going toget it exactly. Yeah, I mean
(37:27):
the movie I watched the other nightwas just terrible and can't wait to watch
it exactly now, the one justlike it exactly, and we do.
I just before I forget to mentionit because I have like three times this
season. We do also want tohear from our listeners because we definitely heard
from listeners um about Hallow the Hollywith Lacey Shaver living with her boyfriend and
(37:50):
a couple other people just not feelingit with Hallmark this year. But we
want to hear from everybody. Sojust a reminder before I forget. We
are a very merry podcast on Facebookand Instagram, a very merry pod on
Twitter, and a very merry podcastat Gmail. A very merry podcast,
yes, let us know what youthink. Very merry podcasts at geep mail.
Have you seen have you noticed aproblem? Maybe a million? And
(38:13):
I are just far too sensitive.We've been doing this for too long now.
Maybe we're sensitive. Do you thinkthere's a way back for Hallmark?
Have you been? Have you switchedover to other platforms to watch Christmas Cheese?
Let us know. We want towear other platforms if there's other ones,
let us know. Yeah, We'refor sure doing this. Lindsay low
and thing. Now, I'm curious, Amelia, because you are a general
(38:38):
Hallmark fan, you watch all ofit. Have you noticed this on the
other side of Hallmark on like Murdersand mysteries or some of their you know,
other seasonal movies. They have beengetting like the feeling is gone in
a lot of the movies, andit has been kind of like waning.
(38:59):
I feel like over the last year. Some of that is because, well,
the movies and mysteries there were alot fewer of them this past year,
and I think that's because Dannika McKellar, Candice cararay Um and all left.
So yeah, yeah, they andthey were a big bulk of that
programming. Yeah yeah, so youknow, they just didn't have as many
(39:22):
movies in the can you know beforethe people left, Um, didn't we
have a didn't we get a storylast year? What's the what's the what's
the series over there? That everybodylikes? That Little House in the Prairie
time series? I always think alittle House in the Prairie. UM calls
the Heart? When Calls the Heart? Didn't JF license When Calls the Heart?
(39:47):
They have the When Calls the Heartspin off when Hope calls Amazing?
Okay, but you watch When Callsthe Heart right and I watch the same.
Okay, So if you watched theGAF spit off, come tell us
(40:07):
about it. I'm curious. Well, I watched the first season of One
Hope Calls, um, which wasHallmark briefly was trying to do like a
strictly streaming platform. Maybe they stilldo, but that was one of their
offerings on that, and I'm tryingto think. I think maybe it was
like free with like with your cablesubscription for thirty days or three day trial
or something. And I watched thefirst season of One Hope Calls and it
(40:28):
was really cute, but um,but then you're to start paying for it
differently, and I didn't want itanymore. But yeah, let us know
if you're watching that on GF,Yeah, let us know. And we're
all we're also reviewing the GAF moviecoming up, um Christmas at the Drive
In with Dannika McKellar. So,um, I've got that on my DVR
(40:50):
and I am ready to watch it. I saved it. I wanted to
watch it the other night and thenI was like, well, let's do
this movie. Um, you know, we kind of both were thinking the
same thing. And but it's gotthis guy Neil Neil Bledsoe, who has
since decided to exit GF based onCCB's recent comments. But that's okay.
We still love you, Neil,and we support you, and we wish
(41:12):
you the best and look forward toseeing what you're going to do in the
future. We love all our heartHallmark leading Men, and but I'm looking
forward to seeing Dannika mckeller on inaction again. And I feel very confident
that we will not see any couplesliving together in sin On Go. So
(41:34):
everybody, I hope that this hasn'tbeen too much of a downer, but
we just want to note the directionchange and we've got more fun episodes coming
up. None of that stopping.We're going full steam ahead. Let us
know how you feel. You gotall the information, and Amelia, until
we talk again, I wish youdays filled with cheesy Christmas movies that have
(41:55):
every trope that you ever wanted inthem, and I wish you that warm
feeling that you get when you turnon a movie and know exactly what's going
to happen in every scene. MerryChristmas, Amelia, Amry Christmas. Karen.
(42:20):
This has been a presentation of theFCB podcast Network, where real talk
lifts. Visit us online at FCBPodcasts dot com.
This is the FCB Podcast Network.Hello everybody, Welcome to another episode of
a very merry podcast. By theway, um, I wanted to thank
(00:25):
you Amelia before we get started.I wanted to thank you Amelia for hooking
us up with Kinsey Schofield last time, because she came on just listened to
yourself as well, and we talkedfor like two hours. It was so
fun. She's super fun. Shecalled me last night and I answered my
phone. I mean, that's that'show that's how much I enjoy talking to
her. Yeah, yea, AndI knew she called you last night because
(00:49):
I've been texting with her non stop. This the thing because yeah, like
everything, yeah, everything that comesup, I'm like, Kindsey, look
at it. But we had sucha good conversation. So thank you for
connecting her to our podcasts. AndI had to divide our show into two
parts, my jailty because we justtalked and talked and talked, and then
(01:14):
unbelievably, like there's just more MeganMarco insanity that's come out since that interview.
So it's so much going on.But we've got a special AVMP today.
It's a little bit slightly more serious, but Amelia and I have been
having some how should I say,concerns which are reflected in the fan base,
(01:36):
and we're getting letters about it,concerns about what's going on at Hallmark
lately, and we've been really tryingto get into the spirit of the season
and it's been a little difficult.The format has changed over there, and
Amelia, I know a lot ofpeople are going to feel like we're talking
about the gay storylines and we're not. We're actually not. Last season,
(02:01):
you can listen to our podcast andhere that we went along just fine with
all of that. As long asHallmark was sticking to their formula, we
were fine. But something is differentthis year. It has changed drastically,
and not just because some of theirstar players have left, like Kansas Kandas,
Cameron Bray and Dannika mckeller, andthen some of their leadership has changed.
(02:25):
With the culture over there seems tobe changing in a way that's I
don't know, some of the joyhas been bled out of it. So
before we talk about what's going onwith Hallmark and where we think the problems
are, we should have done thisat the top of the season period.
I think it's maybe good to doevery season, but I wanted to lay
(02:46):
out some of our favorite tropes.Here is why Amelia and I do this
podcast, Why we love Hallmark movies, why we love cheesy Christmas movies.
We have a list of tropes thatwe look for in every movie that we
feel are vital to making the perfectcheesy Christmas film, and we look for
(03:07):
them in every film we watch.But Hallmark, obviously, for obvious reasons,
has been the the company, thefilm company that has really launched launched
this and they deserve all the creditin the world for it. And now
everyone's replicating that formula. Um,so let's start with our list of why
(03:29):
why we we love Hallmark and whattropes we expect to see in a cheesy
Hallmark Christmas movie. Um, Amelia, I asked you to make a list,
and I think what I'll what I'lldo is I'll have you just start
reading them off and then I'll fillin where I think if you've missed anything.
Okay, So I grabbed a few, and I'm sure I didn't think
(03:49):
of all of them because they're justso many. Yea, so are some
vital ones. So um, oneof them that I know that we've always
loved is a misunderstanding that could easilybe cleared up with like one quick conversation,
and nobody has the conversation and theyjust let it get out of control.
Right, Yeah, that's my favorite. Yeah, that's important. It's
(04:11):
a good one. Um, welove them. There's usually some kind of
a it's usually a snowball fight.Sometimes there are snow angels or ice skating
something like that, but some kindof an outdoor activity, like I said,
usually a snowball fight. We lovethem, why and why, Oh
my gosh, because it's just welove the well, it's like the fun
(04:31):
of the holiday spirit. But thenalso somebody's gonna slip on the ice and
they're gonna end up like holding ontoeach other and almost kiss but not kiss.
Right, these are this is animportant mechanism in in the Hallmark universe
for people to have physical contact becausein these movies, which is probably another
rule, there's not a lot ofromantic physical contact until the end. So
(04:55):
this is a way for people toget close in a very innocent way.
Yeah. Um. And speaking ofwhich, there is somebody falling off a
ladder and being caught. Yeah,falling off a ladder or falling from a
high space or even tripping. Ithink would be fine tripping and catching someone,
but typically it needs to be aladder. Mean, whenever I see
a ladder in one of these movies, I'm like, yeah, yeah,
(05:19):
a momentum a kind of dark backstorywith which we've we've talked about and some
there have been some of those thisyear, but it feels like the darkness
is still part of part of thestory. Weren't supposed to be, Like
this horrific thing happened to me.Who it's Christmas and you're almost like,
are we just ignoring that? Youknow, it's because there didn't used to
(05:41):
be divorce In Hallmark, people werewidowed because you also had to bring in
the trope of the child of achildish child, yeah, precocious child to
bring some wisdom throughout. So sometimesit was, you know, a best
friend's child, but sometimes the maincharacter would be away or widower. Right,
Well, we don't want the maincharacter to be is a slut who
(06:05):
just couldn't hold a marriage together,or it's just out sleeping around and created
this kid. We cannot have anyof that. Hallmark, when you get
married, you're just happy forever.All right, it hasn't existed until recently,
and there was more divorce storylines,which is fine. I just always
assume that those people moved into Hallmarkland after their divorce. Well sure,
(06:29):
sure. And that actually brings upanother thing that sort of got us thinking
that we had to address this wasI watched what was it called hall Out
the Holly a couple of weeks ago, the Lacy Shabet big movie this year,
and I was so excited because Iwas like, it's Lacy Shabet.
It's going to be a classic Hallmarkmovie. Like two minutes in, she's
been with her boyfriend for three yearsand they're living together. And I was
like, what is this? Wedon't live together at Hallmark. No.
(06:51):
That was honest to goodness, andwe heard from listeners about that. We
heard from listeners about that. Ameliaimmediately texted me like hysterically, was like,
what is going on? Um?I actually find that to sort of
be the final nail in the coffin. That really was pushing it. That
(07:15):
really was put to me. Anyways, go on, yeah, um,
some kind of a there's either usuallya competition or there's a big business deadline
on Christmas Eve. Those are kindof the bit the two. But you're
ramping up to something. It's acompetition. Sorry, let me just put
her in another room. Sure,no, we've you know this is like
(07:39):
this podcast includes a lot of lifewe I was telling Amelia before we got
started that I've been banished from myoffice space, which is just my son's
bedroom, um, since he livesat college most of the time now and
um, this means that I'm outin the open where I can hear every
door slam next door. I canhear all of the animals outside. It's
(08:01):
the school day right now, sothe kids are gone, but my neighbor's
kids will like screen bloody murder fromthe moment they step through the threshold of
their home until the moment they goto bed, which is until like ten
o'clock at night. So they're justvery loud. I love them. I
didn't have a sleep schedule either.I love them, I do. I
love them so much, and Ilove hearing them. But it's noisy around
(08:22):
here, is what I'm saying.So if you hear life going on mostly
pats, just please bear with us. So back to the scandal of the
Yeah, let's ladyshipar had a livingboyfriend. I want to say this,
Amelia. I think one of ourfirst episodes we were talking about favor Hallmark
(08:43):
movies and how we got to enjoyHallmark movies, and I said, one
of the first movies that I everwatched that I actually found myself truly enjoying
was a relationship Bear movie. Can'tremember the name of it now, you
know, the one where she isdating a fake dating a prince and he
brings breakfast and he brings breakfast.I was thinking about that really talking yes,
(09:09):
yes, and that was that indetail? Yes, And I remember
telling you at the time, like, you know what, Amelia. One
of the things I loved about thescene is he brings her breakfast and also
multiple Walmart bags. Was like,which is awesome, And there was folders
on the counter as well. Um, and he brings her breakfast and they
(09:30):
had to her apartment, and thething that I noticed was that they didn't
live together. And I was like, isn't that very sweet? You know,
they had that they don't live togetherand they're dating and they're courting.
That's what I noticed, and Ifelt I found that to be extremely sweet.
So to see this this change,I know, to the regular average
listener who maybe is living with theirboyfriend or girlfriend. You're thinking, what's
(09:54):
the big deal, But this isnot a rule in the Hallmark universe.
This is part of what makes Hallmarkcheesy. Yeah yeah, and we we
love it. We love it.Okay. So the competition we've talked about
that, Um, there's always somekind of a big city small town dichotomy.
Usually, m, you know,somebody's leaving going is usually they're going
(10:16):
home to a small town for Christmas, leaving behind the big city boyfriend who
doesn't have their priorities straight. M. Let's see. Oh, so similar
to the Christmas competition, there's usuallysome kind of a tree lighting. So
like there's like Christmas ceremonies of somekind, usually as yeah, or it
could be, um, it couldbe like the um house lighting competitions,
(10:39):
the light the lighting competitions that theyhad. But there is there always is
like four carols. Yeah, yeah, that's right. There always is some
kind of town event, community eventthat gives our protagonists a reason to be
in the same space and to seesomething beautiful and and then maybe have a
conversation station about what they're what they'reseeing. So it's always am and I
(11:05):
don't know. One of the thingsI love about Hallmark Universe is is this
idea of these communities of people whogather and care for each other and love
being together in the most special timeof the year. Absolutely. Um,
all right. Something about somebody fromthe big city coming to close something down.
That's another one. We see alot we're going to close the cookie
(11:26):
factory or the little independent in orthe Christmas tree lot, or the you
know whatever it is, a littlediner, that's one, you know.
Yeah, yeah, um, allright, someone who is potentially actually Santa.
We haven't seen this, and youknow, as I go through this,
we did mention even at the endof last year that they weren't quite
(11:50):
as trope heavy, so maybe weshould have seen the writing on the wall
last year. But this year it'sbeen you know, um, it's been
like, yeah, nothing that wewere expecting. Yeah, but anyway,
Yeah, there is all idea ofthat in a long time. Yeah,
yeah, there's always the idea ofthat one sort of guy like the town
you know, I don't know,like the town janitor or he owns a
(12:11):
toy store or something, and hepops up every now and get and he
says something magical and people are like, wait, is that Saint Nick And
you know, yeah, it's alwayscute. Um. So some of the
like the plots are still sort ofthe same, you know, like them
secret Royalty has come up a coupleof times, or not even secret Royalty,
but a royalty angle of some kindis coming up. Or the businesswoman.
(12:35):
You know, these things are stillkind of coming up, but we're
not getting those little sweet moments likewell, baking, that's another one.
Um, they have to bake somethingtogether. Somebody gets like flower on their
face, you know, the personallylike you know, but that's another like
an innocent way to get some physicalcontact. And we love all those cheesy
little moments. And you know,people maybe complain because Hallmark Is has been
(13:00):
in the past, you know,kind of sickly sweet and kind of predictable.
But I think that's the world thatwe live in right now. We
like we personally, you I mean, we like we like knowing how it's
gonna end. We like knowing theWe like knowing the story before we go
in and that everyone's gonna end uphappy. Yeah. No, the predictability
(13:20):
is the draw and that is why, like my daughter was watching one with
me the other day and she's like, how can you say? She's fifteen?
So she's like, how can youstand to watch these? It's the
same story over and over again.Nothing's different, And I'm like, yeah,
that's the point. The point Iknow that it's not different, and
that's what I enjoy. Like Ican sit down and it's like when I
(13:43):
have a cup of hot chocolate.It's really hard to ruin hot chocolate.
So you know that whenever you're sittingdown with a cup of hot chocolate,
you know what you're gonna get.Every time you know, you know you
have a cone of vanilla ice creamcone, you know how it's gonna says
if I can't decide, I'm icecream flavor, Vanilla or chocolate. Those
are the go to flavors because Iknow I'm going to enjoy them and I
(14:05):
know exactly what my taste buds aregoing to get. And that is what
is attractive or has been attractive aboutHallmark and all of these tropes that we
lay out very lovingly and that wemake fun of very lovingly play a part
in creating this predictable, cheesy universethat gives us exactly what we want.
(14:28):
And I'm wondering if Hallmark this seasonAmelia has stopped thinking about what we want
the Hallmark fans want what I've beenthinking about that a lot, and I
think that they thought by changing theformula, they could broaden the audience,
and instead they're just alienating their actualaudience other people, you know, people
(14:54):
who like cynical movies or you know, want a surprise twist. They're not
going to watch Hallmark Christmas movies anyway, So all they're doing is alienating the
people who do want to watch theirmovie or would watch the movies. You
know this, The predictability, allthose things, they were features, not
bugs. They were the reasons wewatched it, not we watch it in
(15:15):
spite of you know, the crazyproduct placement or whatever. We loved it.
Yeah, yeah, but I don'tmake endearing. I don't think that
by changing it up. And youand I have really enjoyed a couple that
were a little bit different. Um. I really liked Three Wise Men and
a Baby, even though it wasa little bit different. We loved that
Five Star Christmas, the original HotSaaS Fress movie. That was I mean,
(15:37):
it did slave a lot of thetropes. It was a lot more
of like a traditional comedy than likea rom com, even though there was
obviously a romantic line. So it'snot that we don't like something different,
but they're just they're they're messing upthe feeling that you get when you watch
what used to be a Hallmark movie. And that's something that mattered to people.
(16:00):
Yeah, it matters to me,and I'll tell you it's so obvious
because even my husband said something aboutit. You know, the last movie
that we watched together, I thinkthat was three, was it three?
Wiseman and a Baby was the lastmovie Hamewark movie on the schedule. And
(16:22):
again I enjoyed it, you know, I liked it, but it wasn't
the same. And my husband waslike, you know what, when that
was over, he was like,you know what, I don't really like
what's going on on Hallmark this series. Like I feel like everything's talkie talkie
talkie, and I don't have anyof the things I've come to expect.
And I think he nailed it.Like there's a lot of exposition in these
(16:45):
things. There's a lot of movingfrom one scene to the next, right
like we would expect moving to ascene by a Christmas tree or moving to
a scene by a bakery. Butthen there's no action involved. It's just
people having another discussion and to getto know each other. And um,
the silly little um situations that youget into that are worth gently you know,
(17:10):
lovingly mocking, or they don't existanymore. They've been struck in favor
of dialogue. And um, youknow, I don't watch a Hallmark movie
for biting great dialogue. You know, that's not what it is. And
in fact, I watch it forthe opposite. I don't want to really
be thinking about the intelligence of thesecharacters, right right, Um, well,
(17:33):
first of all, did I missany important tropes? No, I
think you got them all I was. I almost said flower on face,
but you got it, you gotyou got flower on face. And then
of course, um, you knowthe other thing though that is a hall
I wouldn't call this a trope,but I would say this is an atmosphere
(17:56):
of Hallmark films is that there's noum, nothing ends with animosity. And
um, there's not a lot ofsarcasm in the Hallmark universe because sarcasm is
mean, and um, you know, there's just not a lot of even
the mean people. Like I wasthinking about what was the one last year
(18:18):
we watched with Danika mckeller and Lukewhat's his face? Um, Luke McFarlane
and he's a hockey player. Itwasn't Danneka, was it. I don't
think it was that. Yeah,I believe that was the guest House.
The guest House Alia, I believewas the name of that episode. Yes,
(18:40):
and and uh there was like therewas sarcasm inute, you know,
and there was, but there wasthis feeling of sweetness through the like there's
a bully in there that was bullyingone of the boy dancers in her dance
crew, right, and even thosebullies were like it was the most mild
(19:02):
bullying every ever. It was likeyou're going to dance class, hahaha,
dance classes for girls. You know, they're almost like fools like in the
originals, like court Jester sentence,you know, and like they're just they're
so ridiculous. It's not like,I mean, you feel for this kid.
You want the bully to get uscome up, And it's not like
(19:22):
you're not like thinking about bullying later, you know, right, that's right,
that's the thing you're not thinking andThat's why when you have a widowed
person or a divorced person, you'renot thinking about how they got there.
They're not really hurt like there's thereare several storylines where the main characters are
foster kids, right, and weknow that the horror stories of the foster
(19:44):
care system, but a Hallmark Land, you're not supposed to think about that,
and they go to great pains tomake sure that you don't think about
it. So you have somebody whosays, hey, I have had this
challenging pass here at it, butyou know, here are all the ways
that I'm I feel good and mylife is good now, Allen. And
you're never supposed to linger in darknessin any aspect. And I've seen a
(20:07):
few movies this cycle which do havea few dark moments, and we are
lingering there and I was waiting fora lift out of them and it never
came. Did Paul Revere really saythe British are coming? And how is
George Washington chosen to leave the FirstAmerican Army? Join us for the Growing
Patriot Podcast, a place for curiouskids to ask the big questions about our
(20:27):
nation's history and get kid friendly answers. From the country's top experts. Help
your child learn about and cherish America'sexceptional history. Subscribe to Growing Patriots on
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get yourpodcasts Today. These days, it seems
like everybody's talking, but no oneis actually listening to the things they're saying.
(20:51):
Critical thinking isn't dead, but it'sdefinitely low on oxygen. Join me
Kia Davis on Jeff Listen to yourselfevery week as we reason through issues big
and small, critique our own ideas, and learn to draw our talking points
all the way out to their logicalconclusions. Subscribe to Just Listen to Yourself
with Kia Davis an FCB Radio podcastson Apples, on Spotify, iHeart,
(21:14):
or wherever you get your podcasts.Yeah, and we've noticed a lot of
strange, like unexpected twists, likeI'm in the Royal Nanny. The prince
gets kidnapped and she has to gorescue him in like an action movie,
you know, yeah, sequence,I mean, she's using an umbrella as
a weapon. But still that Imean, before even an attempted kidnapping would
have been a little dark, butto actually achieve it, and he's being
(21:37):
held like that's that's yeah, nothing, No, that was way over the
talking the kids. But still butthey were planning on kidnapping the kids,
ye yeah, which I was like, we can't. There's a kidnapping all
our universe like Christmas, are youkidding? Yeah, it's stuff like that.
Um and we oh we we alsowon choke. You forgot to mention
(22:03):
the best friend whose only interest isin the love life of the protagonists,
they have no autonomy. Historically thathas been the black best friend too.
Yes, historically, Palmark's gotten alittle bit more diverse, which of course
I as a black broadcaster, enjoythat. But also there's a little bit
sadness in not being able to makefun of Hallmark for it anymore. I
(22:26):
know. And in the early dayswe got a lot more jokes of you
trying to run my love life yea, the black best friend co host.
Yeah yeah. And so while wewe still have a lot of love and
respect for Hallmark outside of what theyare doing with I mean, it feels
like they caved pretty fast to theor suddenly to the demand for LGBT storylines.
(22:56):
And that was fine because as youand I said, well, we
it's not the it's not an ideologythat we love about Hallmark. It's this,
it's this whole universe. Yeah,it's this whole package. So we
were perfectly fine to go along withit. We loved the diversifying. It
came with its own new set offun tropes and oh oh we forgot I
(23:19):
can't believe we forgot this one.A magical merry go Round or yeah,
I mean that's not a calm,it's not in everyone, but when it
comes up, it is a trope. Enough of them. Yeah, a
merry go around or like a sometimesit's a music box. Yeah, magical
like that, Yeah, ornament,Yeah, something that's magical. It has
some kind of magical power to transportyou back in time or forward in time
(23:42):
or whatever. Um. I meananytime I see a Merry go Round,
You're like, I'm not getting onthat portal to another time. Um.
And it's clear that Hallmark is missingthese And I I knew that Kennis Cameron
Baret had left because she is abusinesswoman, and I figured, Okay,
(24:07):
she saw this new business opportunity andshe's looking to grow her brand and she's
learned so much like mad respect forCannas, Cameron Bret I really want us
to try to score an interview withher because they just have so much respect
for her just as a businesswoman period. But now I see, now that
(24:27):
I see what's happening at Hallmark,I see that she saw the writing on
the wall before we did, andthat is that the culture of Hallmark was
changing, probably the leadership change.And it looks to me like the writing
staff has changed too. And itfeels like a lot of these people are
not people who. A lot ofthese writers aren't people who. Not all
(24:48):
of them, not all of them. I'm generalizing here, Hallmark audience,
but many of these new scripts arefrom people. It feels like people who
never watched Hallmark before and didn't reallylike it and have an idea of what
a Hallmark movie is, but feellike, well, I'm going to give
it this new sort of modern edgeto it. And that's not no thank
(25:10):
you honoring any audience, No it'snot. And I think we've also mentioned
that Candice Cameron Beret has a leadershiprole at this new network, Great American
Family. So I think, likeyou said, she's a businesswoman and she
I mean to repeat two things thatyou said. She's a businesswoman and she
saw the writing on the wall,and she knew that there was a huge
market for these movies that are likesafe. You know, the world is
(25:33):
crazy right now and people want tospend time in this world, and if
Hallmark wasn't going to provide it,then she could help provide it. A
Great American Family, we can't wecan't not talk about the controversy that she's
in. We try to keep itlow key on this show because it's only
for fun that we do this,but she is she did find herself in
hot water this past week because shea set or this past month because she
(25:59):
said somebody asked her if you wouldif they would be doing gay love storylines
on Great American Family. She said, no, we'll we focus on traditional
marriage over there, and then ofcourse that was enough to disignite. So
I do just want to gently correctyou that she did not say whether or
not there would be same sex couples, oh, which is oh yeah.
(26:21):
So I'm trying to find the exactquote. So it was something like,
I think the Great American Family willkeep traditional marriage at the core. So
I guess that is that's probably whatshe meant. Well, you know what
I mean, You would have thoughtshe's the second coming of Hitler from I
mean, that statement is nothing.What is that statement? Yeah? I
mean, and I just read anarticle where want a Hallmark Well, a
(26:47):
Hallmark favor who moved over to GreatAmerican Family with Kenna Cameron Bray Neil Bledsoe,
who was in the next movie Wewant a review, actually left in
a Hofey this week put out astage and condemning Candice camember Ray speaking out
against her and saying that the channelgoes against his values. And I mean,
fine, whatever that is, fine, honestly go back to Hallmark and
(27:15):
yeah every time. Yeah, soyou know a lot of what she said
talked about also wanting a home forsome more faith based stories. We know
that Christianity is very important to her. We're both Christians, so I think
that that was not something she wasallowed to express at Hallmark. I don't
think they're going to be like overtlylike Christian movies, but I think the
(27:36):
character probably will be a little morefocus on Christmas as a religious holiday instead
of a secular holiday. I guesswe'll find out. But I did see
one. No, I saw one. I didn't watch the whole thing,
but I did see one which waspretty explicitly a faith based movie, where
it really was a movie about herand her husband's sort of reconnecting and what
it means to be married in theeyes of God and like finding your faith
(27:59):
again. And I think it wascalled something like like The Faith of Christmas
or something like that. So Iguess this is our way of gently admitting
that we have been watching great Americanfamily movie. Yeah, we have been.
I switched over one night. Iwas trying to get into this Hallmark
movie and I just couldn't. Ijust felt like something wasn't there. And
(28:22):
I was like, you know what, do I have this great American family
thing in my cable package, Like, let me go look? And I
started sifting through the channels and thereit is, and so I clicked over
and immediately Milia was, yeah,it's like your home. Yeah. Thrust
into the middle of a of acheesy scene of a girl and a guy
decorating the tree, and she fellright off the ladder right as I tuned
(28:47):
in, and I was like,what, okay, let's do this.
And I watched it and it wasawful. It was terrible in every in
all the right ways. And Iwatched the whole thing, and I think
I texted you other night I waswatching another one. I'm like, Amelia,
this movie is amazing. There isa hot beverage in every single scene.
I've watched six scenes in a rowand this lady is a hot beverage
(29:10):
in every scene, or someone's pouringa hot beverage. It's ridiculous, so
good. I watched one with JillWagner, who is another one of my
favorite formerly Hallmark now jf women.Same thing. She's a big city girl
going to the small town for theShe's her uncle died and she inherited his
farm and it turns out that healways used to run this festival at Christmas
(29:32):
and she reconnects and when she getsto the farm, there's a guy on
a tractor and it's this guy sheknew when she was a kid. And
I'm like, this is everything youknow. And there's no there's certainly no
bigotry and no hate. Like peopleare trying to make it sound they're just
if you watch a Hallmark movie fiveyears ago and loved it, that's what
you're getting. Yeah, And soMilli and I in the best possible way,
(29:56):
Amelia and I have been. Iknow it sounds but we've been struggling
with this. We really have.We don't want to abandon Hallmark because the
Hallmark is the OG and we havethe Christmas Universe. Owes a debt of
gratitude to Hallmark, but I thinkthey have missed the mark this season,
and I'm will be curious to seehow it's reflected in its ratings this year,
(30:18):
particularly when there's so much competition outthere now, like literally every channel
is doing their version yeah of acheesy movie. It will be definitely interesting
to see. But yeah. Soso, like we said, we're gonna
be branching out to JF and Ithink it's worth trying. Like I think
that we have to address the LindsayLohan movie on Netflix, Thank You a
Girl. We are so on thesame page. I was literally just about
(30:41):
to say, please tell me we'rewatching the We're not like dumping and if
there's something that looks great on Hallmark, we're still going to watch it,
absolutely so, but we are we'rebroadening our horizons to just watch great made
for TV slash streaming Christmas movies.Yeah, and I think this puts an
(31:02):
end to my little Hallmark Universe stickbecause now the universe is growing, because
I think I'm just gonna refer toan now as the Christmas Universe or Christmas
Land. It is this whole thingthat has its own set of rules,
its own set of realities, andum, and I think that what I've
seen on GAF, they get it. Now. Maybe Hallmark is going to
(31:26):
be successful with this, Amelia,because you know, the coveted um demographic
is that eighteen to thirty five,right, You and I don't fall into
that anymore. Um, GAF iscatering to a more middle age crown,
and that's you know, the olderI guess the more I'm like, Yeah,
I'm I'm that person, aren't I. So I can't tell if it's
(31:47):
if it's if it's just people likeyou and me just sort of getting older
and not being able to pivot,or if this if if if this is
a direct betrayal of the base,and we're probably not going to know until
the next ratings come out. Well, I mean I was firmly in the
eighteen to thirty five demographic when Istarted watching Hallmark movies, right yeah,
(32:13):
And actually I got into them,as we've mentioned before, because my dad
loved them, who was obviously bolder. So I feel like they used to
be appealing to everyone, and Idon't know if they're trying to like spice
things up, because like gen Zisn't watching them. I'm not really sure
what they're going for here. Butbut that's okay. We've got Candice,
(32:36):
We've got we've got Danica mckeller.She's out there to hold it down.
A lot of our favorites have movedover as well. Yeah, so one
of my I was the only reasonI was disappointed that Jill Wagner left actually
was because she with Christopher Plaha,who was you know, was one of
my favorites. They did one ofmy favorite mystery series on the Hallmark Movies
(32:58):
and Mysteries. So now that she'snot a Hallmark anymore, there an't anymore
of those, which was much whichwas actually a bigger bummer to me than
m Christmas movies because it was Ireally liked that mystery. So and Kennis
Cameron did another one, so thosewere two. Actually, Dana mckeller did
one too, So I'm not sureif they're gonna, you know, switch
up. I'm not sure what they'regonna do. But yeah, yeah,
(33:22):
to tell you how difficult it's been. Our movie this week was a Royal
corgy Christmas, and neither one ofus has been particularly passionate about reviewing it.
We both watched it and it wasfine, right, but like royals
and dogs like there's I can't imaginethat we wanted something more like. That
was the one I was so excitedabout, and I was even talking to
(33:44):
Myrtle's dog trainer last week about it. At the lesson. I was like,
you know, we've got this quargymovie coming up, blah blah blah,
and it's like it just wasn't thatgood. It was the same kind
of like, um, you know, there was a character who was like
encouraging someone to steal the throat fromsomebody else, and not in like a
cartoonish villain kind of way, butjust like in a very mean spirited It's
(34:07):
just it just wasn't right. Then. That was the movie that my husband
was watching, going this it feelstalkie talk He was watching that, going
this feels like too much talkie talkie. I told you, you know,
there's too much talk, and itwas. It was. It was one
scene to the next where there's talk, but not a whole lot, Like
the tropes were almost note for theirdecory in the Tree and baking come on,
(34:31):
Yeah, I just keep disappointed.And I had it took me two
sittings to watch it. I didn'twatch. I didn't watch once. I
paused, like, yeah, Ipaused, and when did other stuff?
Came back to it a couple ofdays later, and I was like,
and it felt like work, Like, Okay, I have to watch the
end of this because we're gonna talkabout it. Yeah, And that was
when I was like, you knowwhat, Millia, we need to pivot
here, like because we're clearly neitherone of us clearly that keen to like
(34:55):
we weren't like, hey, no, we gotta get this done, like
all things were coming up up andwe're like, all right, well,
we'll just push it out, pushit out. And to me, that's
always a sign that you're not reallyexcited about each other, like I cannot
wait to talk about this movie.When can you meet tomorrow? Yeah?
Yeah, we do that when wesee something we really enjoyed. And so
(35:15):
I thought, you know what,it's time to just kind of like pop
this bubble we've been talking about itfor a while. So I know this
wasn't like the most fun episode ofthe show, but we just wanted to
let you know what was going onwith us, what our plan is for
the future moving forward. We're notabandoning Hallmark, but I don't think we
can call ourselves, at least atthis moment in time, an exclusively Hallmark
(35:37):
podcast. Think Hallmark has lost ourbusiness. And again it doesn't have anything
to do with the quote political,the politics of it. Happy to stick
around for wherever they want to gowith that if they just stay true to
the formula, which is what hasmade it successful. Because yeah, I
mean for years they've been introducing moreethnic diversity and more gay couples, more,
(36:00):
and we never we don't care.We've never cared. We've never said
a thing about it, about ourhopes. Now we've got a problem.
Yeah, and we do have aproblem because now we see that's what It
wasn't an issue of who was inthe movies. It's an issue of what
the movies are about and what functionthey serve. I just think whoever is
in charge over at Hallmark right nowhas not loved Hallmark in the past.
(36:23):
That's what I think. I thinkthe people in charge right now and the
people writing the scripts and making themovies, they don't feel like they're the
same ones who love Hallmark. AndI hate to say that, but I
have to say, you know,I was skeptical. We were hurt last
year to hear that CCB was leaving, and danny Ka mckeller was, yeah,
(36:45):
we were. I felt a littlebit betrayed. Yeah, no,
we we took it hard. Andbut I must say, now that I've
seen what's going on, I'm realizingwhy she did that, and I'm realizing
that, you know, she justfor obvious reasons, was ahead of the
curve, ahead of us. Andlike I said, and so anyways,
(37:05):
if you're like us and you're feelinglike there's something missing and Hallmark this year
and it's not bringing you as muchjoy as it has in passed Amelia,
and I can tell you you switchover to GAF, you're going to get
exactly what you want, going toget it exactly. Yeah, I mean
(37:27):
the movie I watched the other nightwas just terrible and can't wait to watch
it exactly now, the one justlike it exactly, and we do.
I just before I forget to mentionit because I have like three times this
season. We do also want tohear from our listeners because we definitely heard
from listeners um about Hallow the Hollywith Lacey Shaver living with her boyfriend and
(37:50):
a couple other people just not feelingit with Hallmark this year. But we
want to hear from everybody. Sojust a reminder before I forget. We
are a very merry podcast on Facebookand Instagram, a very merry pod on
Twitter, and a very merry podcastat Gmail. A very merry podcast,
yes, let us know what youthink. Very merry podcasts at geep mail.
Have you seen have you noticed aproblem? Maybe a million? And
(38:13):
I are just far too sensitive.We've been doing this for too long now.
Maybe we're sensitive. Do you thinkthere's a way back for Hallmark?
Have you been? Have you switchedover to other platforms to watch Christmas Cheese?
Let us know. We want towear other platforms if there's other ones,
let us know. Yeah, We'refor sure doing this. Lindsay low
and thing. Now, I'm curious, Amelia, because you are a general
(38:38):
Hallmark fan, you watch all ofit. Have you noticed this on the
other side of Hallmark on like Murdersand mysteries or some of their you know,
other seasonal movies. They have beengetting like the feeling is gone in
a lot of the movies, andit has been kind of like waning.
(38:59):
I feel like over the last year. Some of that is because, well,
the movies and mysteries there were alot fewer of them this past year,
and I think that's because Dannika McKellar, Candice cararay Um and all left.
So yeah, yeah, they andthey were a big bulk of that
programming. Yeah yeah, so youknow, they just didn't have as many
(39:22):
movies in the can you know beforethe people left, Um, didn't we
have a didn't we get a storylast year? What's the what's the what's
the series over there? That everybodylikes? That Little House in the Prairie
time series? I always think alittle House in the Prairie. UM calls
the Heart? When Calls the Heart? Didn't JF license When Calls the Heart?
(39:47):
They have the When Calls the Heartspin off when Hope calls Amazing?
Okay, but you watch When Callsthe Heart right and I watch the same.
Okay, So if you watched theGAF spit off, come tell us
(40:07):
about it. I'm curious. Well, I watched the first season of One
Hope Calls, um, which wasHallmark briefly was trying to do like a
strictly streaming platform. Maybe they stilldo, but that was one of their
offerings on that, and I'm tryingto think. I think maybe it was
like free with like with your cablesubscription for thirty days or three day trial
or something. And I watched thefirst season of One Hope Calls and it
(40:28):
was really cute, but um,but then you're to start paying for it
differently, and I didn't want itanymore. But yeah, let us know
if you're watching that on GF,Yeah, let us know. And we're
all we're also reviewing the GAF moviecoming up, um Christmas at the Drive
In with Dannika McKellar. So,um, I've got that on my DVR
(40:50):
and I am ready to watch it. I saved it. I wanted to
watch it the other night and thenI was like, well, let's do
this movie. Um, you know, we kind of both were thinking the
same thing. And but it's gotthis guy Neil Neil Bledsoe, who has
since decided to exit GF based onCCB's recent comments. But that's okay.
We still love you, Neil,and we support you, and we wish
(41:12):
you the best and look forward toseeing what you're going to do in the
future. We love all our heartHallmark leading Men, and but I'm looking
forward to seeing Dannika mckeller on inaction again. And I feel very confident
that we will not see any couplesliving together in sin On Go. So
(41:34):
everybody, I hope that this hasn'tbeen too much of a downer, but
we just want to note the directionchange and we've got more fun episodes coming
up. None of that stopping.We're going full steam ahead. Let us
know how you feel. You gotall the information, and Amelia, until
we talk again, I wish youdays filled with cheesy Christmas movies that have
(41:55):
every trope that you ever wanted inthem, and I wish you that warm
feeling that you get when you turnon a movie and know exactly what's going
to happen in every scene. MerryChristmas, Amelia, Amry Christmas. Karen.
(42:20):
This has been a presentation of theFCB podcast Network, where real talk
lifts. Visit us online at FCBPodcasts dot com.
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