When Calls the Heart | |
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Genre | |
Based on | When Calls the Heart by Janette Oke |
Developed by | Michael Landon Jr. |
Showrunners |
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Starring |
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Country of origin |
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Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 12 |
No. of episodes | 123 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers |
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Production locations | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
Running time | 39–84 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network |
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Release | January 11, 2014 – present |
Related | |
When Hope Calls |
When Calls the Heart is a Western drama television series inspired by Janette Oke's book of the same name from her Canadian West series and developed by Michael Landon Jr. The series began airing on the Hallmark Channel in the United States on January 11, 2014, [1] and on Super Channel in Canada on April 16, 2014. [2]
The series originated from a two-hour television movie pilot in October 2013, starring Poppy Drayton as young teacher Elizabeth Thatcher and Stephen Amell as North-West Mounted Police officer Wynn Delaney. [3] In the television series, Erin Krakow plays the lead role alongside an ensemble cast.
On March 21, 2018, Hallmark renewed the series for a sixth season. The season premiered with a two-hour Christmas special that was broadcast as part of Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas event, and was to continue for a 10-episode run starting in February 2019. [4] However, due to the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal involving Lori Loughlin and her subsequent removal from all Hallmark properties, the season was put on a "retooling" hiatus and resumed in May to conclude in June, with Loughlin's scenes edited out. [5] [6]
On February 22, 2023, ahead of the tenth season premiere, the series was renewed for an eleventh season, which premiered on April 7, 2024. [7] On May 10, 2024, the series was renewed for season twelve, which began production in July 2024. [8]
When Calls the Heart tells the story of Elizabeth Thatcher (Erin Krakow), a young teacher accustomed to her high-society life. She receives her first classroom assignment in Coal Valley, a small coal-mining town in Western Canada which is located just south of Robb, Alberta. There, life is simple, but often fraught with challenges. Wishing to thrive in this 1910 coal town, Elizabeth must learn the ways of the Canadian frontier. [9] Elizabeth charms most everyone in Coal Valley, except North-West Mounted Police Constable Jack Thornton (Daniel Lissing). He believes Thatcher's wealthy father has doomed the lawman's career by insisting he be assigned in town to protect the shipping magnate's daughter.
Abigail Stanton's (Lori Loughlin) husband (the foreman of the mine), her only son, and 45 other miners, were killed in an explosion, due to the mining-company site manager's irresponsible management and lack of due care in his management of the mine. The newly widowed women find their faith tested when they must go to work in the mine to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table, and help pay the wage for the town's teacher. [10] The town of Coal Valley was renamed Hope Valley in the first episode of the second season after the coal mine was closed.
Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
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First released | Last released | |||
When Calls the Heart | October 19, 2013 | |||
1 | 12 | January 11, 2014 | March 29, 2014 | |
2 | 7 | April 25, 2015 | June 13, 2015 | |
New Year's Wish | December 26, 2015 | |||
3 | 8 | February 21, 2016 | April 10, 2016 | |
Christmas | December 25, 2016 | |||
4 | 10 | February 19, 2017 | April 23, 2017 | |
The Christmas Wishing Tree | December 25, 2017 | |||
5 | 10 | February 18, 2018 | April 22, 2018 | |
The Greatest Christmas Wish (Blessing) | December 25, 2018 | |||
6 | 9 | February 24, 2019 | June 2, 2019 | |
Home for Christmas | December 25, 2019 | |||
7 | 10 | February 23, 2020 | April 26, 2020 | |
8 | 12 | February 21, 2021 | May 9, 2021 | |
9 | 12 | March 6, 2022 | May 22, 2022 | |
10 | 12 | July 30, 2023 | October 15, 2023 | |
11 | 12 | April 7, 2024 | June 23, 2024 | |
12 | 12 | January 5, 2025 [11] | TBA |
The series, originally planned to be filmed in Colorado, is filmed south of Vancouver, British Columbia, on a farm surrounded by vineyards. The fictional frontier town of Coal Valley (later Hope Valley) was erected in late 2013. Some of the set trimmings and a stage coach came from the Hell on Wheels set. [27] The Thatcher home is the University Women's Club of Vancouver. [28]
The series was renewed for a second season, [29] which aired from April 25 to June 13, 2015. Hallmark Channel announced in July 2015 that the series had been renewed for a third season, which aired from February 21 to April 10, 2016, [30] with a sneak peek airing during the 2015 Christmas season. [31]
In mid-2016, it was announced that Season 4 would premiere on the Hallmark Channel Christmas Day with a two-hour special. On April 11, 2016, Lissing and Krakow announced via the series' Facebook page that Hallmark Channel had renewed the series for a fourth season, which aired from February 19 to April 23, 2017. [32] [33]
On April 24, 2017, series star Erin Krakow announced via the Hallmark Channel website that the show would return for a fifth season, [34] which premiered in February 2018 and ended in April. [35] Filming for season five began in Vancouver on August 22, 2017, and ended on December 21, 2017. [36] [37]
On March 14, 2019, Hallmark announced it had dropped Loughlin from future company projects due to her role in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. [38] On April 10, 2019, it was announced that season six would resume on May 5, 2019, with Loughlin's scenes edited out. [6]
On April 13, 2019, the series was renewed for a seventh season which aired February 23 to April 26, 2020. [39] [40]
On April 26, 2020, Hallmark Channel announced via a video from Krakow that the series would return for an eighth season, which aired from February 21 to May 9, 2021. [41] [42]
On May 9, 2021, Hallmark Channel announced via a video from Krakow that the series would return for a ninth season, which aired from March 6 to May 22, 2022. [43] [44]
On June 17, 2022, the series was renewed for a tenth season. [45]
On February 22, 2023, ahead of the tenth season premiere, the series was renewed for a 12-episode eleventh season. [46]
On May 10, 2024, Hallmark Channel announced, via an Entertainment Tonight exclusive, that the series would be returning for a twelfth season, with 12 all-new episodes. Production is scheduled to start in July of 2024. [47]
The first season of the series was subsequently picked up by CBC Television for rebroadcast as a summer series in 2015. [48] The network has since aired all six seasons. [49] [50] The series became available internationally on Netflix in August 2017, but was taken off in early 2021. Seasons 7–9 were added to Peacock in November 2022.
A spin-off of the show, When Hope Calls , was announced at Hallmark's Television Critics Association summer press tour on July 26, 2018. The series debuted on August 30, 2019, as the initial offering of the Hallmark Movies Now streaming service. [51] [52] The second season aired on Great American Family.
The show was awarded the Epiphany Prize for Inspiring Television at the 2019 MovieGuide Awards. [53]
Lori Anne Loughlin is an American actress. From 1988 to 1995, she played Rebecca Donaldson Katsopolis on the ABC sitcom Full House, and reprised the role for its Netflix sequel Fuller House (2016–2018). Loughlin is also known for her roles of Jody Travis in The Edge of Night (1980–1983), Debbie Wilson in The CW series 90210 (2008–2012), Jennifer Shannon in the Garage Sale Mystery television film series (2013–2018), and Abigail Stanton in When Calls the Heart (2013–2019). She was a co-creator, producer, and star of the two seasons of The WB series Summerland (2004–2005).
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