“When Calls the Heart’s” Brian Bird on Family TV Shows, eFangelism, & Modern Parables
April 22, 2015 by
Brian Bird has been a writer and producer in Hollywood for 30 years, working on shows like “Touched by an Angel” and the sitcom “Step by Step.” His latest project is season two of the Hallmark Channel series “When Calls the Heart,” which is based on the popular novel by Janette Oke.
The show takes place in the year 1910 and tells the story of Elizabeth Thatcher, a young teacher accustomed to high society life who gets assigned to a frontier town called Coal Valley. She makes new friends there, but also faces surprising challenges.
Brian joined me recently on “Christopher Closeup” to discuss the show, his upcoming movie “Captive,” and his insights on the role that Christians can play in Hollywood to change our culture for the better.
Here is an edited version of our interview. To listen to the whole thing, click on the podcast links on the website url noted at the bottom of this post:
Tony Rossi: When I was a kid and my parents and I would watch TV as a family, they would choose shows that they weren’t embarrassed to watch with me. Now that I’m older it’s flipped. If I watch TV with my parents, I try to find shows that I’m not embarrassed to watch with them. One of those shows is “When Calls the Heart.” Is one of the appeals of creating this show the fact that families can watch it together, regardless of age?
(Photo by Mary Denman, Denman Photography)
Brian Bird: Yes. Most of my career, Tony, I’ve been involved in shows [or films] that whole families can watch together. It’s the nature of what my personal mission in the world is: to create faith- and life-affirming kinds of programming. In the last decade to 15 years – really since the end of “Touched by an Angel” – the paradigm has shifted in terms of what’s on television these days. It’s not safe viewing for families or for sons and aging parents. It’s zombies and vampires and dead body shows and crystal meth dealers. Some of it is really well done programming. [But] marketplace forces are driving away, sort of, family programming.
We find with “When Calls the Heart” that . . .
To read full article, see http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christophers/2015/04/when-calls-the-hearts-brian-bird-on-family-tv-shows-efangelism-modern-parables/