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Hollywood has had a string of hits basing movies and TV shows on literary works; just look at “Game of Thrones,” “The Hunger Games,” and “Harry Potter.” But mainstream studios aren’t the only ones to get inspiration from between a novel’s pages. A number of Hallmark Channel’s feel-good movies and TV shows were books first.
Hallmark is particularly well-known for its selection of holiday-themed movies — Hallmark has a number of underrated Christmas movies you should add to your must-watch list. Each year, Hallmark can make upward of three dozen movies, just for the holidays, but they release movies year-round too. With all of that content, the writers have to get inspiration from somewhere, and that includes from already published works. For example, the movie “Much About Love” was based on William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” Other films can inspire the Hallmark screenwriters as well; Hallmark’s popular “Three Wise Men and a Baby” is loosely modeled after the 1980s movie “Three Men and a Baby,” which in turn was based off of a French film.
These five Hallmark movies and TV shows are all filled with romance, drama, and some laughs, and they were all based on books. So if you have already watched all of them, it might be time to read the books or vice versa.
The beloved When Calls the Heart TV show expands on a book series by Janette Oke
Hallmark’s “When Calls the Heart” has a loyal fanbase who call themselves “Hearties.” They have tracked the adventures and romantic ups and downs of Elizabeth Thatcher, played by Erin Krakow, as she left her home to be a teacher in the plains of the Canadian West in the early 1900s. The story of a woman finding love, friendship, and herself out on the frontier is based on a book series by Janette Oke. Younger generations can be forgiven if they don’t know that this popular series is based on Oke’s books; after all, the first book came out in 1983, and the first season of the show came out in 2014.
Oke grew up in the area where the book is set, though some decades later. While there are some differences between her books and the show — for instance, the latter doesn’t just focus on Thatcher’s perspectives — she still seems to appreciate the Hallmark take on her story.
In an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” in 2024, Oke was asked about the Hallmark series, and she talked about the show as well as the community that has built up around it. “There’s lots of places in our world, even in our busy cities and whatnot, where you don’t know if you’re accepted,” Oke said. “You don’t have a place to really fit … and I think that’s why this show has touched so many hearts. We were made to belong to one another, support one another.”
The Hannah Swensen Mysteries are based on Joanne Fluke’s series of books
Alison Sweeney has been in a number of Hallmark movies, including playing Hannah Swensen, a small town baker and an amateur sleuth helping to solve crimes. The series on Hallmark is based on the “Hannah Swensen Mysteries” books by Joanne Fluke. “Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder” was the first book in the series, and it came out 2000. There are 30 books in the series as of writing, so there’s a lot for Hallmark writers to pull from for these made-for-TV movies.
The titles of the Fluke-based movies on Hallmark started with “Murder She Baked” as the title with a dessert-themed subtitle, and then pivoted to put the dessert puns at the forefront with the subtitle “A Hannah Swensen Mystery.” There are currently 14 movies following the antics and detective work of Swensen. Sweeney not only stars in the movies, she’s an executive producer. Alison Sweeney even got to flex her screenwriting skills on “One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery.”
While some authors don’t necessarily like how a movie treats their work, Fluke is a fan. “It’s been wonderful to actually see Hannah on the screen, she said, per Hallmark Mystery. Though there had been some doubts at the beginning. As Fluke explained: “At first, the Hannah fans were anxious about the differences between the characters in the books and the movie characters, but after the first movie, ‘Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery,’ aired on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries channel, fans emailed to say that they thought it was just as wonderful as I did.”
The Mistletoe books by Richard Paul Evans were made into three Hallmark movies
“The Mistletoe Promise” by Richard Paul Evans was the first book of his “Mistletoe” trilogy. It was adapted into a Hallmark movie that came out in 2016, starring Jaime King as Elise. Elise meets a fellow Christmas-hater in Nick, played by Luke Macfarlane, who is in a number of Hallmark Christmas movies. The two of them pretend to be a couple during the holiday season, yet true love wins out.
“It’s about two people that really have terrible memories of the holidays and Christmas,” King told People. “I think that so many people experience that and not everybody has a ‘Holly Jolly Christmas.’ [So] it’s really important to tell stories from that point of view.”
The second and third books in the series — “The Mistletoe Inn” and “The Mistletoe Secret” — were also made into Hallmark movies. But not all the book fans loved the movies. Evans posted about the Hallmark adaptation of “The Mistletoe Secret” on Facebook in 2019, saying he hadn’t watched the movie yet, and commenters had thoughts. One person replied: “LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the book. The movie not so much. Would have been better if they would have followed the book more.”
Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove was brought to the small screen starring Andie MacDowell
Hallmark Channel’s first-ever scripted drama was “Cedar Cove” back in 2013. It starred Andie MacDowell as Olivia Lockhart, a family court judge in the small town of Cedar Cove, Washington. The series ran for three seasons, and it was based on the “Cedar Cove” books by celebrated author Debbie Macomber.
Macomber was able to visit the set while they were filming, and she recounted a touching moment that she had with a crew member while she was there. She wrote about it on her blog on the Hallmark Mystery website: ” … he turned and saw me and said, ‘I understand you’re the author.'” She confirmed that she was and told him, “‘This is magical for me. To see my words come to life on film.’ His eyes grew warm and sincere and he said, ‘I want to thank you. It’s because of your imagination that I have a job.'”
MacDowell was a fan of the character that she was able to play in the Macomber-inspired series. “One of the reasons I love Olivia is I am also a really strong woman,” MacDowell told Guideposts, “and I think it’s important for other young girls to be able to see that a woman is the strongest person in the community.”
The Chesapeake Shores TV show started as books by Sherryl Woods
Sherryl Woods has written more than 100 books, and 14 of them are in the “Chesapeake Shores” series that follows the lives of the multiple generations of the O’Brien family. The “Chesapeake Shores” Hallmark series debuted in 2016. Two years earlier when development was announced, Michelle Vicary, a Hallmark executive, told The Hollywood Reporter, “Woods’ ‘Chesapeake Shores’ series of books truly embodies the emotions of life’s lessons, family and community, that we know will captivate our viewers.” Woods was thrilled for the adaptation. As she said to USA Today in 2014, ” … I recognize a marriage made in heaven when I see one. That’s what I see with Chesapeake Shores and Hallmark.”
The show’s focus is primarily on Abby O’Brien, played by Meghan Ory, and her return to her Maryland hometown, filled with family drama and romance. It ran for six seasons, and Meghan Ory was pregnant while filming the final season. While it has a lot of the same emotion and characters as the books, fans of the books should know that the Hallmark version doesn’t follow all the original plot lines. So if you’ve watched the show and want a deeper dive on the O’Brien family, head to the library.
