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Hallmark Movies: Small Town Royalty Magically Celebrating Rekindled Love! - General Discussion


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I've been going nuts trying to figure out why Aurora Teagarden, who just moved into the beautiful "Julius House" in 2016, has bought another new house. I know it's dumb to care, but I loved seeing that old Victorian and this doesn't make any sense to me. Wonder if the owners of the real house (I think it's real an not a set) didn't agree to filming there any more.

Then Martin leaves...

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On 9/22/2018 at 11:59 AM, JAYJAY1979 said:

I think candace plays in different types of holiday movies...so it isnt the same old for her.  My favorite holiday movie was the one where she time traveled frok the 40s to modern day....though the shoe addict one she's doing this season looks interesting.

Love that movie! One of my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies.

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On 10/17/2018 at 4:49 PM, LexieLily said:

Maybe we should just post reminders in here every Saturday/Sunday of what movies to record/watch on what channel! Lol. 

There's a blog that posts the "family friendly" movies airing every weekend.  Mostly it's just Hallmark, HMM, Inspiration, ION...etc. but during the holiday season, they'll add the Lifetime holiday movies and other holiday movies airing on other channels as long as they're not too risque or edgy. 

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Ok, someone needs to make a Hallmark Movie Bingo card. It would be much less liver killing than a drinking game. You can have spaces that include ...

Outfit montage

Baking montage

Using napkin to wipe food of love interest's mouth

I'm sure there are others but I'm drawing a blank right now.

 

Don't forget the ever-popular "huge event planned for Christmas Eve"  "romantic interests are rivals in a contest"  "animosity turns to affection after love interest A observes love interest B displaying kindness toward a child/person in need"

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I watched "Love, of Course."   I really enjoyed it.   I thought that Kelly Rutherford and Cameron Mathison had good chemistry.   Loved the soup scene.   Loved the Marco Polo/stuck-in-the-corn-maze scene.    Loved their first almost-kiss.    I can see how others will not like it if they don't like Cameron Mathison.  I can also see how some people will think it is kind of slow.    I can also see how people will dislike it because of the usual tropes or cliches.    I still liked it.  

 

Hallmark needs to stop having Kellie Pickler host these Christmas specials.    This is not her strong suit.  

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I also enjoyed Love, Of Course quite a bit.  Very winning leads and beautiful scenery.  I enjoyed the premise too.  

I changed the channel the MOMENT that I saw Kellie Pickler and she began to speak.  No, Hallmark, just no.  She looks super plastic in the preview of her movie and I cannot take an entire movie of her voice.  

Edited by MerBearHou
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2 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I also enjoyed Love, Of Course quite a bit.  Very winning leads and beautiful scenery.  I enjoyed the premise too.  

I changed the channel the MOMENT that I saw Kellie Pickler and she began to speak.  No, Hallmark, just no.  She looks super plastic in the preview of her movie and I cannot take an entire movie of her voice.  

 

The strange thing is that, relatively speaking, Kellie almost seemed more natural, for lack of a better word -- or more like herself -- in the clips from "Christmas at Graceland" than she did in the preview shows.   It's still going to be awkward to watch because she is new to acting and I don't expect much, but if we are comparing her acting in the movie to her hosting skills in these specials for Hallmark, she seems to be slightly more at ease when she is acting.   I don't think that hosting by herself (without a partner) is quite her thing, and it comes off as very uncomfortable for her, which makes viewers uncomfortable too!

I haven't figured out whether or not I'll watch Kellie's movie.   I like Wes Brown, but I don't know if he will be enough to save it.    Well, I'm sure I will watch at least some of it at some point during the 2 months of Christmas, but I don't know how much time I will invest in it.  If there is a movie on the other Hallmark channel on the night Kellie's movie premieres, I will probably be watching that other one or watching whatever is on Lifetime, and then I will get back to Graceland sometime later.

It doesn't help matters any that I am just not that interested in all things Elvis and Graceland to begin with, so the whole setting and premise of the movie are not pulling me in.

Edited by TVFan17
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22 hours ago, TVFan17 said:

Hallmark needs to stop having Kellie Pickler host these Christmas specials.    This is not her strong suit. 

I couldn't help this snarky comment but what exactly is her strong suit? She's sort of ok in micro, micro-doses - which I guess means not at all, lol! I do admire her hustle, cause she keeps on trucking! Look forward to reading the comments on the movie. I was ASTONISHED that she was actually in a lead role of a movie, but sure why not. There certainly aren't any quality actors out there at all to cast in these movies /sarcasm

Hallmark movies are operating in this really weird space to me these days. I mostly enjoyed the movies and had my fair share of issues with them which many posters have noted over the years. I think that maybe there are things that the executives are determined to never address that continue to be more and more glaring as time goes on. 

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2 hours ago, msani19 said:

I couldn't help this snarky comment but what exactly is her strong suit? She's sort of ok in micro, micro-doses - which I guess means not at all, lol! I do admire her hustle, cause she keeps on trucking! Look forward to reading the comments on the movie. I was ASTONISHED that she was actually in a lead role of a movie, but sure why not. There certainly aren't any quality actors out there at all to cast in these movies /sarcasm

Hallmark movies are operating in this really weird space to me these days. I mostly enjoyed the movies and had my fair share of issues with them which many posters have noted over the years. I think that maybe there are things that the executives are determined to never address that continue to be more and more glaring as time goes on. 

I guess her strongEST suit is that she sings, isn't it?    I'm sure she is a better singer than she is an actress or host, although I have forgotten how good of a singer she is or isn't, as her season of American Idol was sooooo long ago and I have not kept up with her country career since then.    I watched AI when she was on, and I remember that she was never my favorite, but I think she had a decent enough voice.   It just wan't memorable to me, I guess.

Oh... and dancing.  She did a good job on Dancing with the Stars, which I would not have expected.

But singing and dancing sufficiently does not make someone a good host or actress, of course.  The solo hosting of these preview specials is not something she seems to be comfortable with, and I am not expecting miracles from the acting either.  As I mentioned above, the plot of her movie doesn't pull me in anyway, because I just don't care that much about Elvis or Graceland.  So it is something that I will probably not watch on the night it premieres (instead choosing to watch the movie that premieres on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel).     I may only devote 30-45  minutes to it whenever I do finally catch it at a later date.  I will be surprised if I can watch it all the way through, even though I do like Wes Brown.

Edited by TVFan17
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Kelli strikes me as someone who has “likeable” going for her.  I didn’t watch American Idol, but I remember she shaved her head when her best friend started chemo.  People tend to forgive only modicum of talent when the person seems nice (see Cameron Mathison).

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On 10/21/2018 at 6:32 PM, msani19 said:

Hallmark movies are operating in this really weird space to me these days. I mostly enjoyed the movies and had my fair share of issues with them which many posters have noted over the years. I think that maybe there are things that the executives are determined to never address that continue to be more and more glaring as time goes on. 

Thank you. I couldn't pinpoint why Hallmark has been annoying me lately but I'm definitely feeling the same way as you. I'm still looking forward to some of their movies but the fact that they keep slapping things together is making me lower them on my priority watch list lately. They have a wonderful niche and a growing fanbase, I just wish they would do better with their productions and especially their storylines just like they used to years ago. But how can they when they get nothing but praise on their Facebook page?

 

On the plus side for oldies but goodies, it looks like even though some of the movies have been banished to the app, they still may show up on demand. I notice a few of my faves of olde have appeared this month (Freshman Father, Meddling Mom, why no Midnight Masquerade, I'll never know) so you may want to keep an eye out if you're looking for stuff from their catalog way back when.

Edited by MissyPoo
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On 10/15/2018 at 5:39 PM, mikeb said:

Thanks for the info.  I DVR'ed the HMM Christmas Movie preview show, but have not watched it yet.   I have enjoyed all of Alicia's Christmas movies as well (to varying degrees), so will give her new one a chance.  I also agree that it is disappointing Paul Campbell and Kimberly Sustad's movie appears to be serious.

Their movie is based on a true story. Not sure if this is the best link or not, but it is about the actual couple and the Charlotte Inn.

This is from Hallmark about  the movie

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It took me a couple viewings to realize that the first two movies kicking off the HMM Christmas movies this afternoon, "The Christmas Secret" and "The Christmas Note" take place in the same fictional small town and share a supporting character who owns a bakery (who has much more important role in the first movie).  So used to seeing same actors in multiple Hallmark movies, did not make connection at first that she was playing same character.  I guess not suppose to notice that none of the other characters from "The Christmas Secret" are at the town's big tree lighting ceremony at the end of "The Christmas Note".   Apparently, they are both based on books from Donna VanLiere, who has a series of 7 Christmas Hope books.

Edited by mikeb
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Thanks for the heads up mikeb!

I really wish they got the original actor for the grandson but I guess tis life sometimes in Hallmarklandia. Those two movies are so good, I may just DVR them to watch back to back later. I finally got a chance to watch The Christmas Hope on my DVR from Lifetime last year (yep, sometimes I keep the good ones on my DVR all year lol) and it was good. Sad, but good. I want to watch it again to see if it fits into the other movies in some way.

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Caught some of "With Love, Christmas" today and noticed a dead giveaway that it was filmed in Canada.  There was an exterior shot of a skating rink and the name on the side of building included 'Centre' instead of 'Center'.

The female and male leads were competing for promotion to Creative Director at an ad agency.  I was expecting a cop-out ending where they both were promoted to Co-Creative Director, but was pleasantly surprised when she got the promotion and he was gracious about it. 

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Hello everyone!  I don't think I've posted in this thread since last January.  Many of you were so kind last winter offering suggestions as to which Hallmark holiday movies were the most worthwhile.  I found so many favorites!  I already have the DVR programmed to record a bunch of them again, along with quite a few new ones.

Last night I watched A Gift to Remember which I missed last year.  That's the one about Darcy, who works in a bookstore in Philadelphia, and the very attractive man whom she runs into on her bike.  He gets amnesia and she takes care of his dog and tries to help him figure out who he is.   During the first few minutes I didn't think I was going to like it, but then the actors seem to settle into their roles and had very nice chemistry.  I enjoyed the mystery aspect of trying to figure out who the amnesia victim was and it was nice that they were able to spend some quality time together getting to know each other as the sparks began to fly.  The romance happened quickly, but it wasn't exactly insta-love or let's get married after knowing each other for two days, so that was good.  I also liked the additional romance between the landlady and the sweet restaurant owner.  Plus the dog Bailey was adorable!

The other night I had the Hallmark channel on while I was scrolling through the TV guide and setting my DVR to record Christmas movies, I ended up watching about the last half hour of Love on the Sidelines because the lead actor was so cute.  I tuned in when he was playing poker with his buddies and there was a young blonde girl talking about making jerseys.  I totally thought it was the lead character's daughter, but it turned out to be the leading lady of the film.  In a close up you could see her face was older, but otherwise she looked and sounded like a teenager.  I thought she was making jerseys for her home economics class.  (They probably don't have those classes anymore, but still.)  They looked so weird together!

Anyway... The Most Wonderful Time of the Year beckons from my DVR!  I'm looking forward to chatting about Christmas movies with y'all this season. :)

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AnnaRose...thanks for mentioning A Gift to Remember; couldn't remember the title.  I am one of those who almost never watch the Hallmark Christmas Movies.  I resent the absence of Golden Girls and Murder She Wrote...that should give you an idea of my age.  But Mr. Kemper was watching baseball (til the wee hours) and I channel surfed in another room; came upon the book store one.  Loved it! The actress was believable (and not stick-thin); the actor was nice-looking (in a Ken Doll Hallmark way) and amiable.  He kind of looked like the actor who played Paul's murdered son on The Young and the Restless.  I digress.  I also watched one with Candace Cameron Bure (not usually one of my favorite actresses) where she played twins who switched places.  I enjoyed it, too! My Grinchy heart must have grown two sizes; I will also catch a couple others.

By the way...the fact that I don't enjoy the movies is no disrespect to those who love them.  Different strokes.

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I just watched Christmas at Pemberly Manor which I guess was supposed to be a modern Christmas version of Pride and Prejudice. I realize that, by now that there are so many Hallmark movies,  they're probably being written by the children of Hallmark employees but really, how hard is it to get the names right? All the characters had P&P names except the caretaker, Willoughby, which is a name from Sense and Sensibility. I think they meant Wickham who actually was the son of the Pemberly caretaker. And if they didn't want the guy to be named Wickham (who was not a nice guy) then go for a completely different name, not a main character from another Jane Austen book - it just looks careless.

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I watched Christmas at Pemberly Manor too and it was alright, but I thought it was kind of weak to lead off their new Christmas movies. Michael Rady made a decent Darcy, but Hallmark has GOT to get better at casting Elizabeths if they insist on doing P&P over and over! I did like Jessica Lowndes better than the girl in the Marrying Mr Darcy movies (Cindy Busby?), but still didn't think they really got the casting right here either. A great opportunity for diversity would have been to make George her gay friend from college instead of a former love interest who still pines for her. That seemed like an unnecessary addition to the plot. The plot was about what I expect from these movies and I do think the actors had decent chemistry. If there's nothing else I'd rather watch I would watch this one again, but it probably won't be one I seek out next year.

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I fell asleep during Christmas at Pemberly Manor (which is not the movie’s fault - I always fall asleep in front of the tv which is why I have to dvr everything) but I didn’t like the casting and didn’t really care for the story so I’m just going to delete without watching the second half.

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11 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

I watched Christmas at Pemberly Manor too and it was alright, but I thought it was kind of weak to lead off their new Christmas movies.

One possibility for leading with this movie is that there will be another new Pride and Prejudice-themed Hallmark Christmas movie (Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe starring Lacey Chabert in late November) so they wanted to spread them out.

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Someone posted elsewhere on PTV that they have the streaming service Philo which offers a base plan that has 43 channels for $16 a mo (for $5 more they have a few additional channels). I mention this because they just added all three Hallmark channels. Users can save as many programs as they want for up to 30 days at a time. 

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Dang, Philo is kind of tempting. The MP household has Sling but Philo has some more channels for a cheaper price. There'd be a trade-off for some faves I watch right now like Pixl and Boomerang. The unlimited DVR is awesome too cause I always max out lol. I'm not sure if Philo lets me scroll back a few days to watch older stuff I may have missed but I'll have to ponder it.

As for Christmas at Pemberly Manor, I may be in the minority but I liked it. It had a few chuckles and Jessica L has been growing on me since last year she was in one of my faves. I liked Michael Rady and thought he stood out more here than in his previous movies. It trotted a long a little here and there and some of the sets didn't make sense as well as the literary references like someone mentioned earlier (Wickham vs Willoughby), but considering some of their horribad first entries of previous years, I may have had low expectations going in but ended up pleasantly surprised. I'll probably give it a rewatch later.

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20 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

I watched Christmas at Pemberly Manor too and it was alright, but I thought it was kind of weak to lead off their new Christmas movies. Michael Rady made a decent Darcy, but Hallmark has GOT to get better at casting Elizabeths if they insist on doing P&P over and over! I did like Jessica Lowndes better than the girl in the Marrying Mr Darcy movies (Cindy Busby?), but still didn't think they really got the casting right here either. A great opportunity for diversity would have been to make George her gay friend from college instead of a former love interest who still pines for her. That seemed like an unnecessary addition to the plot. The plot was about what I expect from these movies and I do think the actors had decent chemistry. If there's nothing else I'd rather watch I would watch this one again, but it probably won't be one I seek out next year.

Hallmark does not do gay best friends. The moms on Facebook would have a heart attack. They were so upset about the gay in an Up Christmas movie a couple years ago you would've thought they showed to men kissing onscreen. In reality all he did was admit he wasnt interested in the lead because he was gay. 

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Honestly, I loved Christmas at Pemberly Manor.  The only thing I found sketchy was the bright June sunlight in the day shots.  I hope they’ll do a sequel on this one.  I thought Michael and Jessica had good chemistry and it’s probably been his best role on Hallmark.  I thought it was a strong showing especially for a Christmas movie premiering while most were at Halloween parties, including me.

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I enjoyed it as well. I could finally stomach Jessica in a movie, and that’s probably because I really like Michael Rady. I also liked the mayor and his assistant, and Darcy’s assistant. 

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4 hours ago, In2You said:

Hallmark does not do gay best friends.

There was a gay sister on a movie I watched this weekend.  We never saw her with a girlfriend, but she said several times during the movie that she was gay.  Can't remember the title, but Andrew Walker played a guy who hired a woman to redecorate his apartment.

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I caught up on some movies.  I watched Love, Of Course.  I thought the first half was kind of boring but when they kicked the romance into high gear, I enjoyed it quite a bit.  They had good chemistry. And this is where Cameron Mathieson's soap past is a positive.  He's not a great actor but he does have good chemistry with his co-stars, in general, and it's a little sexier chemistry than we're normally shown.  Rutherford had a lot to do with it as well.

I don't mind the stars of Christmas at Pemberly Manor but goodness was it boring.  I could barely see the Pride & Prejudice of it all.  They just seemed to be characters loosely based on the book's characters with one from Sense & Sensibility thrown in in passing and another acting as the obligatory "real" Santa. It just felt like any other Hallmark movie but trying to make it seem like it was more than that by using P&P character names.

Oh and Lucy had more chemistry with the mayor than she did with the Aryan-looking "wait, he's not gay?" assistant to Darcy.  C'mon.....Hallmark.

Edited by Irlandesa
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Ohhhh...

Crown for Christmas is back, and so now it's officially Christmas in my heart.

This year's addition to "The Book of Voiceover Observations on CfC":

During the "3-second rule" dinner, Theodora is drinking orange juice, and dining on orange soup (I assume it's butternut squash).

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5 hours ago, In2You said:

Hallmark does not do gay best friends.

The movie division really needs to catch up with the rest of the company. I was shocked (in a good way) to see a married gay couple featured in the new Hallmark Keepsake catalog of ornaments that I picked up at my local store. One of the men is a Hallmark employee, and the caption clearly labels the other man as his husband, and they are even shown being physically affectionate. Gasp!

Speaking of, I'm catching up with the recent Fall movies, and just watched Falling for You (with the Bachelor Bake-Off). It mostly bored me to tears, which was disappointing because I liked the premise, but to make it more interesting I re-imagined the bickering bachelor brothers as a romantic pair. They argued like an old married couple, rather than rival siblings, and now I can't unsee it. That movie also featured a potentially interracial couple, so I guess it had that going for it. It's like spotting a unicorn! 

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I liked A Gift to Remember.  I've been a fan of Ali Liebert's work since Bomb Girls.  I liked that the movie was set in a city and everyone actually wanted to be living there.  I am a little judge about how Liebert's character was judging the amnesiac guy for not having Christmas decorations up.  You have no idea who he is.  How do you know he's not Jewish?  I mean, sure, I knew he wasn't going to be Jewish because this is Hallmark and virtually everyone is gentile, but you'd think it might have occurred to her given that the character is living in a city with a decent size Jewish population.  Other than that, I think it's one of the better Hallmark Christmas movies.

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Not normalLy a fan of the Jessica gal but I didn’t hate the Pemberly movie (the actor was really good). It seemed like they only borrowed names from Jane Austen, not storylines. Didn’t understand the point of George the mayor, and also how a well-known city events planner would want to stick her nose in a small town Christmas festival but whatever. Also the decorations looked so cheap! Anyway, was completely distracted by the mayor’s blindingly white, large veneers, and yes was hoping he and the blonde would get together.

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I didn't make it to the second commercial break with Pemberly. I was annoyed with the random naming of characters from P&P with no resemblance to the P&P plot except Darcy is rich, and he and a character named Elizabeth fall for each other.

It just seemed really lazy. I know these things have a formula-- but this one seemed especially phoned in. (see also-- the poster above who couldn't understand why a character was named Willoughby which is from Sense & Sensibility) 

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16 hours ago, magpye29 said:

There was a gay sister on a movie I watched this weekend.  We never saw her with a girlfriend, but she said several times during the movie that she was gay.  Can't remember the title, but Andrew Walker played a guy who hired a woman to redecorate his apartment.

Ha Bride for Christmas. I went back and forth for a few viewings wondering if she was being facetious or serious but the consensus seem to be serious. Hallmark took a little more chances back in the day.

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17 hours ago, dalek said:

I liked A Gift to Remember.  I've been a fan of Ali Liebert's work since Bomb Girls.  I liked that the movie was set in a city and everyone actually wanted to be living there.  I am a little judge about how Liebert's character was judging the amnesiac guy for not having Christmas decorations up.  You have no idea who he is.  How do you know he's not Jewish?  I mean, sure, I knew he wasn't going to be Jewish because this is Hallmark and virtually everyone is gentile, but you'd think it might have occurred to her given that the character is living in a city with a decent size Jewish population.  Other than that, I think it's one of the better Hallmark Christmas movies.

This reminds me - I feel like I have said this every year but I will repeat it. With how many Jews there are apparently are in entertainment, you'd think Hallmark or one of these channels might have one working for them in some capacity who would promote making at least one Chanukah/Hanukkah movie. There have been a few mixed Christmas/Chanukah movies over the years but nothing recently. I feel like it would change things up a bit, and I think Chanukah as a holiday lends itself very nicely to a romantic movie (miracle occurring over 8 nights/days).  We talk about needing more racial/ethnic diversity and sexual orientation diversity - let's add religious diversity. And not to be selfish with what I am familiar with, at least as someone who considers herself more culturally Jewish, I'm all for others as well. I'm not as familiar with some other religions' holidays that may/may not be around this time of year, but why not (yeah, I know this is probably less likely to happen and potentially most difficult for them)?

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I know they have tight budgets so probably can't afford to pay for many extras, but I thought the size of the crowds at the different nights of the festival in "Christmas at Pemberly Manor" were laughable - especially since there was dialogue about big turnouts.  There have been more people at some of my family's parties.  Maybe it is especially hard to get folks to show up as unpaid extras for Christmas movies when filming in June.

Edited by mikeb
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1 hour ago, mikeb said:

I know they have tight budgets so probably can't afford to pay for many extras, but I thought the size of the crowds at the different nights of the festival in "Christmas at Pemberly Manor" were laughable - especially since there was dialogue about big turnouts.  There have been more people at some of my family's parties.  Maybe it is especially hard to get folks to show up as unpaid extras for Christmas movies when filming in June.

Yeah, it was pretty funny. “Look at the great turnout!” Cue to 15 people watching Jane sing. It can’t be that hard getting locals to stand there for half an hour and pretend to enjoy the music.

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8 hours ago, twoods said:

Yeah, it was pretty funny. “Look at the great turnout!” Cue to 15 people watching Jane sing. It can’t be that hard getting locals to stand there for half an hour and pretend to enjoy the music.

In a coat when it is 80 out?

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(so, just to be sure, and because every year, it gets kind of messy as Christmas draws near and the movies multiply - are we keeping all Hallmark talk, including Christmas movies, here, and the rest/other networks in the Holiday thread, or are we spreading the discussion over both topics ? What's the consensus ?)

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