Not surprising Hallmark Channel associates with antigay site

[lilwriter85]

I was flipping channels earlier and saw that the Hallmark Channel has started airing a lot of their cheesy Christmas movies. It always been obvious that Hallmark is a conservative network. Everything they make is pretty family friendly and I remember when they aired VH1's original movie A Diva's Christmas Carol, they edited out some of the language and they edit out some the shows they rerun. I decided to research their stance on gay marriage/rights and I found that they they and their sister network Hallmark Movie Channel often associates with the MovieGuide site which is anti-gay and slams shows and movies with LGB characters. Someone had a petition on change.org about it.

http://www.change.org/petitions/hallmar ... y-web-site

[RosyDaisy]

This is why I have deleted both channels from my DirecTV guide.

[PennySycamore]

I can't stand the daytime programming anymore since they dumped the Martha Stewart block of programs (Martha's program, Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn, Emeril's Table and Petkeeping). I still watch their overnight programming (The Golden Girls through I Love Lucy), but less than I used to. I did watch a bit of Home and Family on the first day to see if it was as bad as it looked and, no offense to Marie Osmond, but I don't want to watch a talk show that she hosts. Marie is just too vanilla and well, that Home and Family show plain sucked! I did notice that the premiere of Home and Family drew about 100,100 fewer viewers that Martha did. How's that schedule change working out for you, Hallmark Channel?

I've always been surprised that Hallmark would show the Golden Girls since the it tended to be gay friendly. I remember the episode where Blanche's brother Clayton wanted to marry his partner. I loved how Sophia told Blanche that gay people wanted to marry for the same reasons straight people did -that they wanted to spend their lives with the person they loved and to grow old with them. It was beautiful!

[lilwriter85]

I used to watch Fraiser reruns on Hallmark. I remember Goldern Girls fans were fuming on IMDB about some of the edits Hallmark does to the show. I think most of the movies Hallmark makes are worse than what Lifetime makes. For awhile, I've figured that Hallmark is anti-gay based on some of the movies they make. Some people bash on Lifetime movies quite a bit, but I've noticed for the past few years that they make better movies than Hallmark. Lifetime is pretty liberal network and a big support of LGBT rights. They don't shy away from making LGBT related movies and their movie Prayers for Bobby brought tears to my eyes. I think Lifetime puts more of an effort into their movies and they tend to get better actors than Hallmark does. Hallmark mostly works with people who were never huge in their prime. Lifetime does get the past their prime actors but the ones they get are talented. One recent Lifetime movie that was really good was Talhotblonde directed by Courtney Cox.

Hallmark movies are too syrupy and the background music in a lot of the movies is just irritating. The only Hallmark movie I sometimes look out for is The Christmas Choir which isn't a syrupy irritating romance movie like a lot of the Hallmark movies. Hallmark is probably loved by fundie lite types.

[lilwriter85]

Didn't Donnie and Marie have talk show in the 90s?

[valsa]

Well, I guess some channel has got to be anti-gay as most other channels are waking up to the fact that gay is now mainstream.

Back when I was in high school (about a decade ago), one of my classes watched Remember the Titans as it was being played on a Disney channel and, back then, they edited out the part of the movie where one male character kisses another male character (I remember thinking it was ironic as Disney was airing it during February (Black History Month) with a message of promoting inclusion- just not for gays)

I happened to catch an airing of Remember the Titans a couple months ago on Disney Family and, lo and behold, the boy-on-boy kissing scene was included. Pretty bad when a channel is more homophobic than Disney Family.

[DifferentGurl]

I guess that means we aren't going to see a Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel where two guys kiss under the mistletoe. :P

[PennySycamore]

Didn't Donnie and Marie have talk show in the 90s?

Yeah, I think they did. Never watched it, though.

I really wonder what role Martha's politics factored into the Hallmark Channel's decision to give her show the ax. She's a liberal and a good Democrat. Teh gays tend to luv Marta too. As Sterling (Patrick Stewart) said in the movie Jeffery, referring to Martha, "I adore her".

[Guest Anonymous]

Didn't Donnie and Marie have talk show in the 90s?

Yes, and it was called "Donnie and Marie" and then she ran off in a bout of PPD and the show ended. That show was my first exposure to them, and it was weird when I found out he was part of a boy band.

[lilwriter85]

Well, I guess some channel has got to be anti-gay as most other channels are waking up to the fact that gay is now mainstream.

Back when I was in high school (about a decade ago), one of my classes watched Remember the Titans as it was being played on a Disney channel and, back then, they edited out the part of the movie where one male character kisses another male character (I remember thinking it was ironic as Disney was airing it during February (Black History Month) with a message of promoting inclusion- just not for gays)

I happened to catch an airing of Remember the Titans a couple months ago on Disney Family and, lo and behold, the boy-on-boy kissing scene was included. Pretty bad when a channel is more homophobic than Disney Family.

I was also in high school when Remember the Titans first came out and I remember watching the edited version on the Disney Channel. I think Disney Family and other similar channels(e.g. ABC Family) have become liberal in the past few years I think Hallmark Channel will remain homophobic. I read sometime back that they might be getting into making scripted dramas. When I read that, I thought to myself that the 40k moms would probably praise any scripted show made by the Hallmark Channel. They probably won't make shows that feature gay characters and of course 40 k moms will love that. 40 k moms loathes ABC Family because one of their shows has lesbian characters.

[Bbfamteam]

Are you surprised given that the hallmark channel shows little house on the prairie reruns all the time?

[anniebgood]

I was also in high school when Remember the Titans first came out and I remember watching the edited version on the Disney Channel. I think Disney Family and other similar channels(e.g. ABC Family) have become liberal in the past few years I think Hallmark Channel will remain homophobic. I read sometime back that they might be getting into making scripted dramas. When I read that, I thought to myself that the 40k moms would probably praise any scripted show made by the Hallmark Channel. They probably won't make shows that feature gay characters and of course 40 k moms will love that. 40 k moms loathes ABC Family because one of their shows has lesbian characters.

I went to the world premiere of Remember the Titans that Disney put on at the Rose Bowl. They filled that stadium with 60k people and had both the stars and the real people they played. I can't understand Disney editing one of their own movies. It was something neat to be part of.

[snarktastic]

This is probably a stupid question but are they anything to do with Hallmark cards?

[PennySycamore]

This is probably a stupid question but are they anything to do with Hallmark cards?

Yes, they do. The same company owns them both. Hallmark used to produce some really high quality stuff for TV. The Hallmark Hall of Fame was legendary in the 50s and 60s, maybe into the 70s and 80s. They rarely do those anymore apparently preferring to make terrible, syrupy TV movies. I know I'm not going to buy any Hallmark cards this holiday season.

[GeoBQn]

I used to get my fill of snark by watching the 7th Heaven reruns. Hallmark was somehow more conservative than Brenda "Cookies" Hampton. They edited out "hell", even when it was part of a discussion about the difference between saying it as a swear word and saying it as a place. Sometimes, their stringent standards backfired. There was an episode where Mary was mad at Simon because he called her "big butt" while playing basketball. Hallmark edited out "butt" and replaced it with nothing, which made the whole thing sound SO much worse. What was Simon calling his sister? Big Labia?

[Sobeknofret]

Yes, they do. The same company owns them both. Hallmark used to produce some really high quality stuff for TV. The Hallmark Hall of Fame was legendary in the 50s and 60s, maybe into the 70s and 80s. They rarely do those anymore apparently preferring to make terrible, syrupy TV movies. I know I'm not going to buy any Hallmark cards this holiday season.

FYI, Crayola is also owned now by Hallmark.

[lilwriter85]

Yes, they do. The same company owns them both. Hallmark used to produce some really high quality stuff for TV. The Hallmark Hall of Fame was legendary in the 50s and 60s, maybe into the 70s and 80s. They rarely do those anymore apparently preferring to make terrible, syrupy TV movies. I know I'm not going to buy any Hallmark cards this holiday season.

One recent Hallmark Hall of Fame movie that I really liked was the on about Irena Sendler.

[PennySycamore]

FYI, Crayola is also owned now by Hallmark.

Ugh!!

[PennySycamore]

FYI, Crayola is also owned now by Hallmark.

Ugh!!

[Anxious Girl]

So glad I don't buy Hallmark cards... Claire's stationary, on the other hand, is to die for! * is only girly for Claire's *

[Minerva]

Ugh!!

Ugh, really? I guess I know where I'm not buying gifts this year (not that I can afford the Hallmark store anyway).

[lilwriter85]

I used to get my fill of snark by watching the 7th Heaven reruns. Hallmark was somehow more conservative than Brenda "Cookies" Hampton. They edited out "hell", even when it was part of a discussion about the difference between saying it as a swear word and saying it as a place. Sometimes, their stringent standards backfired. There was an episode where Mary was mad at Simon because he called her "big butt" while playing basketball. Hallmark edited out "butt" and replaced it with nothing, which made the whole thing sound SO much worse. What was Simon calling his sister? Big Labia?

I also watch 7th Heaven reruns for snark once in awhile, I also noticed the edits. I have watched a few 7th Heaven reruns on GMC,but haven't noticed any edits so far. It's pretty safe to say that Hallmark will never rerun Brenda Hampton's The Secret Life of the American Teenager years from now.

[snarktastic]

Penny - Thanks for the info re Hallmark, guess I'll be making more of my own cards!