Candace Cameron Bure recently went forward with an update regarding the various types of storylines that will come along with Great American Family, a brand new network that is attempting to compete with The Hallmark Channel for the upcoming holiday season.
Bure vacated her role at Hallmark in order to work alongside Bill Abbott, the CEO of Great American Family, who she has previously worked with well before Hallmark. Abbott ended up leaving the network rather suddenly in the wake of his refusal to air a commercial for Zola, a wedding planning site that highlighted a pair of women kissing. He made the claim that he just was seeking a career change, but now he seems to be starting up another network in an attempt to be a rival for the left-of-center Hallmark.
Both Bure and Abbott expressed just how the messages in GAF movies would be different from Hallmark.
“My heart wants to tell stories that have more meaning and purpose and depth behind them,” Bure stated in an interview for The Wall Street Journal. “I knew that the people behind Great American Family were Christians that love the Lord and wanted to promote faith programming and good family entertainment.”
The actress, at 46-years-old, expressed ot the outlet that Hallmark has slowly become “a completely different network” than when she first signed on because of a “change of leadership.”
Most memorably, Hallmark has been slowly creating quite a bit more LGBTQ stories, which includes the first original holiday movie entirely centered on a same-sex couple titles “The Holiday Sitter,” slated to first air on the 11th of December.
Previously, the network has had gay characters in their movies but they have never before been the focal point of the film. In the wake of fairly intense pressure coming from various LGBTQ advocacy groups, the company finally promised to add this new flavor of movie into the mix and “creating a Hallmark experience where everyone feels welcome.”
In light of these changes at Hallmark, things have been quite different for GAF. While Bure did not issue any promises to cut all same-sex romance within the films, the start did state that it would not be a central focal point like at her previous network.
“I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” she stated. Abbott spoke up and agreed with her, stating, “It’s certainly the year 2022, so we’re aware of the trends. There’s no whiteboard that says, ‘Yes, this’ or ‘No, we’ll never go here.’”
