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Post by I Love Melvin on Sept 5, 2023 13:37:25 GMT
As half of a double bill with a straight couple, but that's progress I guess, the progress being that gay characters are progressively moving from peripheral to lead characters on the channel. The fact that it's Hallmark will probably get a big "So what?" from a lot of people who have an instant aversion to the assembly-line product the channel routinely cranks out, but for those of us who see Hallmark more as a Neti Pot for the mind, a kind of ritual brain cleansing which goes in one ear and out the other, it's not unwelcome news. The two actors are Luke McFarlane and Peter Porte, both of whom have appeared in the past as romantic leads for women on the channel yet have been very open in their public lives about their sexuality and their partnerships. Luke recently appeared as one of the two leads in the mass-released, gay-themed Bros (2022) and thereafter announced his "retirement" from Hallmark, but has been coaxed back to play a character more in line with his own self and sexuality. Peter Porte made a hit a couple of winters back in Dashing in December, a gay holiday rom-com for VH-1, a bit of a groundbreaker in the genre of TV romance movies. Interestingly, Marcus Rosner, the male lead to actress Ashley Williams, appeared as a gay character in last year's Canadian theatrical comedy My Fake Boyfriend with Sarah Hyland, so who knows where that may lead.
Trivial or not, this is an indicator of a kind of inclusivity which seemed in jeopardy for a time at the channel. After its beginnings with a Christian media group, the channel went through takeovers and rebranding until Hallmark officially took over in 2001, engineering the idea of the "Hallmark movie" which has both entertained and repelled audiences ever since. Things hit a snag in 2019 when company president Bill Abbott OK'ed the banning of a commercial which featured two lesbians kissing at their own wedding, under pressure from one conservative group in particular. After counter-protests by GLAAD and other media groups, the commercial was reinstated, but the next year Abbott departed the channel to head the newly-constituted Great American Family Channel, taking sympathetic-minded staffers and stars with him. This left the Hallmark Channel with a clearer path to inclusion in all its forms and things have moved in that direction ever since. If you've managed to read this far...Ladies and gentlemen, I give you....Notes of Autumn. (And what you do with that is up to you, of course.)
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Post by kims on Sept 5, 2023 14:50:02 GMT
Candace Cameron Burre moved out of Hallmark because it isn't "family" oriented anymore. A few years ago I thought Hallmark was recognizing that all people are not white when their films began including supporting roles with people of color.
I don't watch Hallmark often, but it is the antidote when I OD on all the tragedies, hateful speech and people who think they are somebody when they ridicule people.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Sept 5, 2023 17:08:29 GMT
Candace Cameron Burre moved out of Hallmark because it isn't "family" oriented anymore. A few years ago I thought Hallmark was recognizing that all people are not white when their films began including supporting roles with people of color. I don't watch Hallmark often, but it is the antidote when I OD on all the tragedies, hateful speech and people who think they are somebody when they ridicule people. I think you've hit on the appeal of the channel as an antidote; there's so much that people from all ranges of the political spectrum want to clear their mind of, at least momentarily. Candace was part of the exodus with Bill Abbott; I respect her for being good at what she does, but "family" and "family values" have been heavily coded for generations now and it doesn't land with me, who's been traditionally excluded on that basis, the same way it may land with others. You're right that the channel has been getting more racially diverse, to the point of starting its own "Mahogany" franchise to do more than just pay token attention to inclusion. What they really need at this point is to find some new plots, but since they have a new movie every week that's probably asking for a lot. |
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Post by kims on Sept 5, 2023 19:46:48 GMT
I'm frequently tempted to send them a thesaurus. "Amazing" covers every emotion and I said somewhere else, my favorite "sparks fly between" two characters. At Christmas when I watch Hallmark most to keep me in the holiday spirit, and at least half the films state "sparks fly between" I sometimes hope one of the characters will burst into flames-which kinda defeats the purpose of why I'm watching their films.
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Post by I Love Melvin on Sept 9, 2023 16:32:50 GMT
I'm frequently tempted to send them a thesaurus. "Amazing" covers every emotion and I said somewhere else, my favorite "sparks fly between" two characters. At Christmas when I watch Hallmark most to keep me in the holiday spirit, and at least half the films state "sparks fly between" I sometimes hope one of the characters will burst into flames-which kinda defeats the purpose of why I'm watching their films. You're not alone; sometimes I wish all the giant candy canes and giant nutcrackers lining the sidewalks of every town in every Christmas movie would just combust. Hallmark has to be watched ironically sometimes for sure, which is why I can understand why some people hate these movies with a passion; they can be maddeningly formulaic and shallow in many cases. What I find interesting is that this divide in taste doesn't seem to replicate the divide over political issues in this country. People who probably wouldn't speak to each other in person can all be sitting in front of their TV's watching the same thing without any angst involved. I'm not exactly sure what conclusions could be drawn from that, but any place where common ground can be found these days is a good thing. |
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Post by Broadway on Sept 14, 2023 0:22:48 GMT
I have never seen any Hallmark movies, but I applaud them for diversifying their characters and starting to be more inclusive. It is a pleasant surprise to see non-heterosexual relationships in one of their films, as I always thought they were a pretty conservative channel. Hopefully this will continue and they will diversify even more.
Since TCM shut down their store, I get a movie catalog every few months and it often has a big section dedicated to Hallmark movies. It's amusing to read through all the descriptions and see how formulaic they are, but recently I have noticed a small handful that don't star the same two characters! Some of them aren't even about Christmas. Progress!
Thanks for posting the brief history of the Hallmark channel, too. It's always interesting hearing about stuff like that.
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Post by Broadway on Sept 14, 2023 0:32:21 GMT
Apologies for double-posting. I thought of this after I posted and could not figure out how to include a quote in an already-created post.
and at least half the films state "sparks fly between" I sometimes hope one of the characters will burst into flames-which kinda defeats the purpose of why I'm watching their films. Haha, that reminds me of one of the Hallmark Christmas movies I read about that has the summary "Marketing executive Lauren must learn to open her heart with the help of four ghosts of ex-boyfriends who visit her leading up to Christmas." I immediately thought that she clearly murdered four of her ex-boyfriends if all of them are dead and came back to haunt her. That would make for a different Hallmark movie plot, wouldn't it?
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Post by I Love Melvin on Sept 15, 2023 23:44:18 GMT
Apologies for double-posting. I thought of this after I posted and could not figure out how to include a quote in an already-created post.
and at least half the films state "sparks fly between" I sometimes hope one of the characters will burst into flames-which kinda defeats the purpose of why I'm watching their films. Haha, that reminds me of one of the Hallmark Christmas movies I read about that has the summary "Marketing executive Lauren must learn to open her heart with the help of four ghosts of ex-boyfriends who visit her leading up to Christmas." I immediately thought that she clearly murdered four of her ex-boyfriends if all of them are dead and came back to haunt her. That would make for a different Hallmark movie plot, wouldn't it
That's hilarious. It absolutely would make a unique Hallmark movie. It might work on Hallmark's sister channel, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, but even there I don't think they've featured a murderous female executive learning the spirit of Christmas. You made the mistake of applying logic (ie: ghosts are dead people), whereas those rules don't apply in the Hallmark Universe. |
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Post by I Love Melvin on Sept 28, 2023 12:51:56 GMT
Well, the darn thing came and went and in a way which didn't particularly challenge any expectations. The Hallmark tropes and cliches were fairly firmly in place. Instead of a woman having writer's block and needing to clear her head, it was a man. Instead of a woman dithering about chucking it all and following a true passion for cooking, it was a man. But in a way that's good; there was no attempt to differentiate these gay characters and somehow make them different or "other". They were given the same tried-and-true scenarios to play out which have been the lot of Hallmark characters from the beginning. The big takeaway for me was that they were fully integrated into the Hallmark Universe, something as rigidly defined as the Marvel Universe. Luke McFarlane was best friends with a straight woman and Peter Porte was best friends with a straight man, so that when the home switch happened, each of the four had access to a new potential partner. It was this easy interplay between the straight and gay characters which showed me the seriousness of the network's new approach. But, on the other hand, the gay couple were sort of kept under the protective umbrella of the straight couple; the next step for Hallmark should be to send the gay couple, be it male or female, out there on its own.  |
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Post by kims on Sept 28, 2023 16:21:21 GMT
I suspect a Hallmark film featuring a gay couple alone as lead characters will not come soon. I also suspect that the powers that be at Hallmark are analyzing the viewership numbers, public reaction and sponsor reaction. My impression is that the audience for Hallmark is conservative. As Hallmark loses some conservatives, will more tolerant viewers replace their numbers?
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Post by I Love Melvin on Sept 28, 2023 23:21:35 GMT
I suspect a Hallmark film featuring a gay couple alone as lead characters will not come soon. I also suspect that the powers that be at Hallmark are analyzing the viewership numbers, public reaction and sponsor reaction. My impression is that the audience for Hallmark is conservative. As Hallmark loses some conservatives, will more tolerant viewers replace their numbers? That's a very good question. And I'm sure you're right that there are focus groups looking at that as we speak. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the youngest potential viewers, who don't even watch stuff on cable TV any more, couldn't care less about Hallmark, which leaves the channel in the position of trying to hold onto the viewership they already have. VH-1 did a Christmas movie with gay leads a couple of years ago and Lifetime did one which had a name headliner (Fran Dresher) as the mother of one of the men, which probably helped it get made, but I suppose we're likelier to see gay leads on Netflix. |
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