Crown Media's Michelle Vicary on Adding New Voices and New Faces to the Hallmark Family

Christmas was saved!

The downtime did have people biting their nails, but it also provided a time to regroup. "The onset of the pandemic created significant challenges for every network and production company," said Crown Media Family Networks Executive Vice President, Programming & Network Publicity Michelle Vicary (pictured above) in an exclusive interview with MediaVillage. "When production halted, we found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands, and in some ways that time turned out to be a gift. In addition to taking the downtime to educate ourselves on industry guidelines and precautionary measures to ensure maximum safety on our sets, the break in our production schedule gave us more development time on the front end, allowing us to really flesh out each story and character arc.

"It was time well spent," she continued. "As soon as we were given the green light to resume production, we hit the ground running. In the end, we were able to produce 39 of the 40 movies we had originally planned without compromising production quality. In fact, I fully believe that this year's slate is our strongest yet."

With the announcement of those 39 movies, plus one acquisition, came the news that a host of new and diverse faces had joined the Hallmark family. "We are always looking to add new voices and faces to our incredible family of talent," Vicary said. "Each actor brings something entirely unique to the table, and this ultimately makes our programming that much more interesting. We're proud to introduce a really expansive representation of new talent, including Janel Parrish, Marisol Nichols, Jeremy Jordan, Ana Ayora, Rochelle Aytes, Ronnie Rowe Jr., Aaron Tveit, Krystal Joy Brown, Mallory Jansen, Adrian Holmes, Alvina August, Nazneen Contractor and Lucia Micarelli. (Nichols, Jordan, Ayora, Micarelli and Aytes are pictured at top, clockwise from upper left.)

"This year, our holiday table is bigger and more welcoming than ever," she added. "Our focus is on creating an entertainment destination that is welcoming to all and reflects the broadest possible range of experiences, ethnicities, beliefs, cultural backgrounds and lifestyles. We want our viewers to see themselves in our programming and identify in a meaningful way with our characters. What we've found is that by increasing diversity and inclusion among our on-air talent, characters and narratives, there are so many more stories to tell and our characters are far more multi-dimensional, and therefore more compelling."

Broadening its scope of talent, in turn, opened doors to a variety of fresh storytelling. "We've taken some big creative swings this year and embarked on some exciting new territory with regards to our storylines, locations and talent," Vicary said. She then offered insights into several recent and upcoming Hallmark holiday productions.

"We filmed One Royal Holiday (which premiered Oct. 31) in Connecticut. It's special because of an unforeseen confluence of circumstances. We weren't able to cast until after the pandemic, which as we all know resulted in the most extensive shut down of Broadway in history. In a show of solidarity, we intentionally reached out to some of the Great White Way's most talented performers, casting Broadway stars Laura Osnes,Aaron Tveit, Victoria Clark,Krystal Joy BrownandTom McGowan. The movie became the unintended beneficiary of two of the actors' vocal talents. The original script didn't include songs or musical performances until Laura and Aaron offered their talents and recorded the song Winter Wonderland, which is now part of the opening of the movie.

"Christmas in Vienna (which premiered Nov. 14) was music-based, and from a visual standpoint absolutely stunning. It was filmed in January -- before the onset of the pandemic -- in Vienna, Austria, against the incredibly picturesque backdrop of the world-famous Christmas market and famed concert hall."

"The Christmas Doctor (which premiered Nov. 15) starred Holly Robinson Peete, who also served as executive producer along with Al Roker, whom we love working with. This one was especially resonant and relevant in a year when the importance of doctors and [their] sacrifices are more evident than any other time in recent history. I'm especially proud of this project and honored that it was a part of our 2020 lineup."

"For USS Christmas (premiering Nov. 28), we were incredibly fortunate to film on board the awe-inspiring aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown, which is part of the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in South Carolina. The movie [allowed] us to foster a wonderful partnership with the USO, an organization that supports the families of deployed military, which is particularly important during the holidays."

"If I Only Had Christmas (premiering Nov. 29) is our ninth Christmas movie with Candace Cameron Bure. Candace says it is her favorite of all the movies she has made with us, and that's a huge endorsement. Without giving too much away, the movie is a nod to one of the greatest, most-beloved feature films of all time and I can't wait for viewers to see it."

Amidst everything that was going on behind the scenes during the production shut-down, Crown Media also welcomed new President and CEO Wonya Lucas. "The great thing is that Wonya was already a huge fan of Hallmark," Vicary said. "She's invested in the brand, and that's a huge advantage because we have a leader who knows who we are and what we do best, while also bringing to the table a fresh perspective that can only make our company and programming stronger.

"As for our production schedule, our top priority continues to be the safety and well-being of our cast, crews and the communities in which we shoot," she added in closing. "With that consideration in mind, next year's development process is already in full swing. If we were able to successfully develop and produce 39 holiday movies under such accelerated and challenging circumstances -- and again, I believe these are our best movies yet -- we're confident we're solidly on track to launch our full slate of original movies and series in 2021.

"As I've said, I'm beyond excited about this year's holiday lineup, and I'm equally excited about turning the page on 2020 and rolling out even more great Hallmark-branded content next year."

Photos courtesy of Crown Media Family Networks.

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