Hallmark is known for its romantic and holiday (and romantic holiday) movies. However, when the channel announced that Scott Wolf and Lacey Chabert, who played orphaned Salinger siblings Bailey and Claudia on critically acclaimed series Party of Five, were announced as co-stars in the upcoming film A Merry Scottish Christmas, inquiring minds wanted to know what their on-screen relationship would be!
Fear not. Just as they did on the long-running Fox drama, Wolf and Chabert are playing siblings. (Whew!) TV Insider caught up with Wolf at the “Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas Holiday Celebration” at the Grove in Los Angeles this week to chat about the film, working with Chabert again, his time as Nancy Drew’s dad, and The Nine, an ABC drama that may have been ahead of its time.
Your movie is called A Merry Scottish Christmas but it really, really needs to be in the title that there’s no romance between your and Lacey’s characters.
We knew from the beginning that there wasn’t a chance that this would be a romantic thing [on-screen]. We’re brother and sister through and through. We let them know in ways that we could when we shot the poster for the movie. It’d be a little on the nose to put it in the title.
Oh, yes, I was kidding! But I think the concern about if you’d be playing an on-screen romance speaks to just how invested viewers were with the Salinger family.
[Smiles] That’s right.
Michael Lavine/Columbia Pictures Television/Courtesy: Everett Collection
Your characters – Brad and Lindsay – are reunited by their mom, Jo (Fiona Bell), in this story?
Yes. We have a living mom this time! She’s spectacular – the whole cast is. The movie is wonderful. We’re really proud of this sibling story. Most of these movies are about a romance. When we begin, [Brad and Lindsay] have this relationship that’s troubled. They’ve drifted apart from each other. Their mom has invited them to join her for the holidays in the hopes of rekindling their relationship. I was proud to see this kind of relationship [on-screen]. It’s merry. It’s funny. It’s holiday. There is romance [with other characters]. At the center of it is this complicated sibling relationship.
What’s their journey?
The audience watches them work their way through [their issues] like they did on our original show. With this movie, Hallmark is expanding its scope. There’s a different kind of complexity.
What was your experience on Nancy Drew like as Nancy’s dad, Carson Drew?
I had a blast. I loved all four years on it. Kennedy McMann, who plays Nancy, is fantastic. The producers, writers and crew – everyone associated with the show is wonderful. I’m real proud of the work we did. I wish we’d kept going.
I was a big fan of The Nine, which ran on ABC from 2006 to 2007. Nine characters were held captive in a bank during a robbery in the first episode. The rest of the season revealed most of what had happened during their ordeal. I think had it debuted in the era of streaming, it would have been perceived differently.
I think so, too.
There were a few unresolved storylines. It’s too bad it didn’t get a second season.
I’m still friends with Hank Steinberg [executive producer/creator]. I’m in touch with many people from that show. For everyone who was involved in it…I have to say, it still stings.
Maybe a reunion series could wrap it all up?
[Smiling] I’m here.
A Merry Scottish Christmas, Movie Premiere, Saturday, November 18, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel
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