ding12 said:
vchimpanzee said:
ding12 said:
Who's the Boss? was dropped but it's on TV Guide Network. I think the only thing I can figure out about Hallmark is that it won't air a show with crude characters or something non traditional family as it would affect the Hallmark image.
Mona was crude.
Yeah, perhaps Mona and the live in arrangement and sexual innuendos with Tony and Angela were later considered not family oriented appropriate in Hallmark's eyes so the show was dropped. On Golden Girls, Frasier or Cheers, there were sex jokes but didn't make up the character of any character or family makeup, although some characters were promiscuous like Sam Malone. Cheers is somewhat an oddball anyways buried at night.
Hallmark Channel's history was more on lines with a Christian channel convert to a regular channel, but it probably still has that base and I'm not sure if it's part of family tiers on some digital cable systems still. I don't know how backwards it's thinking is, but I do wonder if Hallmark would pass on a show with gay characters.
Actually, after thinking, I believe the real reason WTB? might have been dropped was due to lack of space. They like to run their shows in 2 hour blocks mostly. Hallmark had just started that Martha Stewart daytime block, which at the time was airing in the early evening for a couple of hours as well....that pushed shows like Little House, The Waltons, etc. up further in to the evening (when WTB? had been airing, in addition to the daytime which the Martha block was taking up) and they were about to add Frasier. I don't guess they had much reason to renew a show they didn't have a good time for. That's one reason, perhaps. They added Mary Tyler Moore last year for a while, which isn't a traditional "family" setting, and same for The Bob Newhart Show, but it did feature a couple. I personally think a show like WTB? is way more fitting on Hallmark than The Golden Girls, which will be airing in a prime afternoon slot.
Hallmark's roots can be traced back to a Catholic channel, I believe. Believe it or not, they have actually become more family-friendly and safe over time. In the early 2000s, they produced a lot of murder movies (granted, they were pretty tame) and aired shows along the lines of JAG, Walker Texas Ranger, Diagnosis Murder, M*A*S*H, Matlock, Rescue 911, Columbo, Hart To Hart, etc. (in addition to stuff like Little House and Dr. Quinn). They actually produced some pretty good original movies back then. Now they're silly 120 minute love stories most of the time. The real gravitation towards family oriented stuff was in the late 2000s. They've always had bad demographics from what I've understood, so they tried to "lighten" the schedule up some (notice the mystery series/movies as well as more serious original films are now on Hallmark Movie Channel) along with bringing in Martha Stewart and co. Hallmark has some more competition now with channels like GMC and INSP, but they are true religious channels.
I can't picture Hallmark showing anything with a gay character. Their original movies are very conservative and traditional. They acquired The Middle for 2014, I'm curious to see how they will work that show in as it will be quite different for them and may not sit well with a lot of their audience.
