‘When Calls The Heart’ Writers Had To Change ‘Disrespectful’ Storyline
Over the years, Hearties have debated about some of the big When Calls The Heart storylines. Oftentimes, fingers have been pointed at showrunners or even producers.
However, in a recent interview, new showrunner Joy Gregory revealed the Hallmark protocol when creating a storyline. This includes a Season 12 example of how they had to make a major change because of a “disrespectful” storyline.
Why Do Some When Calls The Heart Scenes Get Deleted?
When Calls The Heart has a new showrunner, Joy Gregory, for Season 13. Gregory has shared a light on a lot of the writing and storyline decisions. Moreover, in a recent interview on the Official Hearties Aftershow, Gregory, and writers Allie Deveraux, and Liam Fearnley talked about how scenes get rewritten or even deleted. There is an entire Hallmark protocol here.
Surprisingly, Joy Gregory revealed that scenes can be written multiple times. There could be three rewrites by the time they write the script, the directors weigh in, then after the scene is shot, there are choices made in the editing process.
Joy began, “Editing makes choices. We all weigh in on the edit.” Next, she cautioned, “No one’s taking anything away from us that we wish we could have saved.”
Next, she revealed that Hallmark executives, and even Janette Oke, who created the book series, all weigh in on scenes. Multiple people are involved in the storytelling.
Gregory shared how the process works. “We start with something called a story arena, which is just a paragraph or two about the A story, the B story, and the C story.” She then continued. “And that goes through everybody. Everybody’s eyeballs are on that…All the network execs and we really rely on everyone’s sense of what works on the show.”
WCTH Writer Had To Change A Storyline
Being new to the When Calls The Heart writer’s room can mean content needs to be changed. As Joy Gregory was new to the series, she revealed that she appreciated the feedback. But, this also meant more work. She then went on to cite a big-time example regarding Allie, portrayed by Jaeda Lily Miller.
One small example. I had Allie really standing up for what she believed in, in a way that I just got the feedback like, ‘She’s a little too strong. It sounds like she’s not respecting her elders. And we just don’t do that on this show.’ And I was like, ‘Point taken.’ Let me be within the tonal spectrum of the show. Let me honor and respect that.
However, it should be interesting to see if some of Allie’s fire is increased in Season 13, as she is now older and could have some new adventures outside of Nathan’s ever-watchful eye.
When Calls The Heart fans, are you surprised at how many people are involved in the Hallmark show’s storylines?
