The new Hallmark show The Way Home is being written and produced by the mother-daughter team Heather Conkie and Alexandra Clarke. The pair, who wrote the script for the Disney Channel movie Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, have also collaborated on the award-winning series Heartland.
The Way Home, which will premiere on Hallmark Channel in 2023, is a story of three generations of women who have the ability to travel through time.
“I can’t wait to share the emotional story of the Landry women so beautifully and creatively imagined by Heather Conkie and Alexandra Clarke and that is sure to become appointment TV for our viewers,” said Laurie Ferneau, senior vice president of development for Crown Media Family Networks.
Fan reactions
Fans had mixed reactions to the news of a new series. Some are still upset with the network for canceling Good Witch last year and Chesapeake Shores, which is currently in production for its final season.
“I’m not sure I want to get involved with the new series and have it canceled on me like Chesapeake Shores,” one fan wrote on Hallmark Channel’s Facebook page. “If they even think about canceling WCTH…I would lose it.”
Others said they were put off by the time travel element.
“I am not a time travel fan,” one viewer wrote.
But some Hallmark fans say they are looking forward to a new series. Now that Good Witch, Home and Family, and Chesapeake Shores are canceled, Hallmark has only one other show, When Calls the Heart, left.
“With the success Heather Conkie has had with Heartland, this promises to be a well-written and powerful new series,” another fan said.
New Hallmark show
According to a synopsis released by Hallmark, The Way Home is a family drama following the lives of three generations of women within the Landry family: Del, Kat, and 15-year-old Alice. Because of a rift that occurred before Alice was born, the teenager has never met her grandmother.
“When the three generations come together under one roof for the first time in more than two decades, a surprising discovery unexpectedly sets the trio on a path toward healing and helps them find their way back to each other,” the synopsis reads.
The series is the first new show Hallmark Channel has debuted in more than six years.
Mother-daughter team
Heather Conkie and Alexandra Clarke first worked together on Disney’s 2010 adaptation of the middle-grade novel Harriet the Spy. It was the perfect project for the pair, as Conkie bought Clarke the book and read it aloud to her when she was a child.
“I think every little girl reads the book and thinks the same thing — I’m going to be a writer,” Clarke said in an interview with the Globe and Mail.
Conkie and Clarke say they have complementary writing styles.
“The great thing about working with mom is we really do know each other’s strengths well — my mom is amazing at structure and I excel in dialogue,” Clarke said in an interview with the Globe and Mail.
“I’ve had other writing partners from time to time, but it’s really fun to find you have a good writing partner in your own kids,” Conkie said.
Filming will begin this summer on The Way Home. Hallmark has not yet released a premiere date.