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Hallmark Mysteries and More (part 1)
306 Plays10 months ago
Eric Rutin from the podcast Hallmark Mysteries and More joins Brook and Sarah to share his expertise on favorite Hallmark mysteries adapted from books. First of a two-part conversation.
Discussed
The Gourmet Detective (1994) Peter King
The Gourmet Detective (2015) Hallmark
Mystery 101 (2019-2021) Hallmark
Flower Shop Mysteries (2016) Hallmark
Darrow and Daroow (2017-2019) Hallmark
Murder She Baked/Hannah Swensen Mysteries (2015-2023) Hallmark
Hannah Swensen mystery series (2001-2023) Joanna Fluke
The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries (2015-2023) Hallmark
Aurora Teagarden mystery series 1990-2017) Charlaine Harris
Curious Caterer Mysteries (2022-2023) Hallmark
Culinary mysteries (1990-2013) Dianne Mott Davidson
Dying for Chocolate (2022) Hallmark
Gilded Newport Mysteries (2024) Hallmark
Murder at the Breakers (2014) Alyssa Maxwell
About Eric Rutin and Hallmark Mysteries and More
Website: https://hallmarkmysteriesandmore.com/
Instagram: @hallmarkmysteriesandmore
For more information
Instagram: @cluedinmystery
Contact us: hello@cluedinmystery.com
Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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Join the Clued in Cartel: https://cluedinmystery.com/clued-in-cartel/
Transcript
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Transcript
Introduction to Clued In Mystery
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Clued In Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi, Brooke.
The Origin of Hallmark Mystery Channel
00:00:21
Speaker
Hi Sarah, today we're going to talk about mystery shows once again, specifically those made by Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, which is now Hallmark Mystery. This American cable and satellite channel is a spinoff from the main Hallmark channel network. It was launched in 2004 and it's estimated that the channel is now available to more than 55 million households.
00:00:45
Speaker
It airs family-oriented feature length and episodic mystery shows, some reruns, some originals.
Guest Eric Rutten Joins the Discussion
00:00:52
Speaker
Eric Rutten is an expert on Hallmark mysteries, so we thought it would be fun to talk with him about this TV network dedicated especially to the mystery genre. Sarah, would you like to introduce Eric to our listeners? Absolutely. Eric has been clinically diagnosed as a Hallmark mysteries addict. The only cure is for him to co-host Hallmark mysteries and more to save his family and friends from his constant chatter about the latest movie or his favorite mystery, The Gourmet Detective.
00:01:21
Speaker
As with many Hallmark mystery addicts, he got his start with Mystery 101, and it quickly grew until his DVR was filled with recordings of all the mystery marathons and spilled over into a subscription to Hallmark Now so he could watch all the old series like Flowershot Mysteries and Darrow and Darrow. As an influencer in the Hallmark community, Eric brings a behind-the-scenes knowledge of Hallmark news as well as expertise in the classic Hallmark mysteries.
Mystery Themed Cocktails
00:01:48
Speaker
Welcome, Eric.
00:01:49
Speaker
Well, hello. Wow. That's like the best introduction I've ever gotten. Thanks for being here. We're so excited. I'm very excited that you invited me. Well, before we get into the technical interview about the channel and about all that you do, I know that you prepared a special treat for us that's like a tradition on your show, Eric.
00:02:12
Speaker
it is. So one of the things when we launched we are Hallmark Mysteries and more and so we try to figure out what that more is and it's kind of the lifestyle and my co-host Sydney who was with me in season one she very much liked making cocktails and so what happened is we started making cocktails dedicated to whatever mystery we were talking about.
00:02:34
Speaker
So for you guys today, I decided to create one that is called the red herring because it's sort of all inclusive of the whole genre. And with this, you're going to take two ounces of Jamison whiskey, an ounce of cream de menthe, an ounce of cream de cocoa, and two ounces of heavy cream. You're going to throw them on the blender, get them all mixed up.
00:02:57
Speaker
And then while you're doing that, you're going to take a glass, melt some chocolate, dip the, like a martini glass, dip it in there. Then some little mini chocolate chips. Dip that there. So you get a nice, cool chocolate rimmed. Then pour your little concoction in there. Have a drink while you read your favorite mystery novel, which is hopefully one of the ones we're going to talk about today that have been turned into a Hallmark movie.
00:03:24
Speaker
I love it. That sounds so great. Yeah, it sounds great. And we do have a beautiful graphic that you've made. So we'll share that. Um, we'll share that on our website. So thank you. No problem.
Eric's Journey into Hallmark Mysteries
00:03:37
Speaker
So tell us Eric, about how you and Sydney started your podcast and what it is all about.
00:03:43
Speaker
Well, going back, like a lot of Hallmark people probably, I first got into the rom-coms and was all into those. And then just happened chance stumbled upon the mysteries. And I've always enjoyed mysteries. So I started watching them. And then I just, before you know it, got hooked. And I really, really enjoyed them. So I started looking for it and then discovered, hey, there's the whole channel that's dedicated to these and started spending more and more time over on the mystery channel.
00:04:13
Speaker
So because I just like talking about it and as you said a little earlier that I just would talk to my family about it who had no interest. My daughter has a little.
00:04:25
Speaker
But she's since moved out and she's not in the house. My wife has very little. So I started going through the whole Instagram community and developing some online friends who would talk about mysteries there. And then I said, you know what? No one has a podcast that's really dedicated just to the mysteries.
00:04:46
Speaker
Why don't I do that? And so then I reached out to some of the people I'd been talking about. And so that's where I got in touch with Sydney, which just quick question. Did you guys know each other? Because you have a great distance between you two, right? Did you know each other before you started podcasting? Similar. We connected through Instagram.
00:05:05
Speaker
just had a mutual love for the medium. That's where Sydney and I came together and we started podcasting, just talking about our favorite Hallmark mysteries. Before you know it, because there was such a void in the space, we started also connecting with actual Hallmark people and started getting actors like Brennan Elliott.
00:05:28
Speaker
uh, Benjamin Ayers, you know, coming on, on our show and it was like, wow. And then started getting some of the, the, the, um, main writers and directors. And one of our big things we did last year was as any Hallmark mystery, um, fan knows one of the big things out there was mystery one-on-one
The Mystery 101 Cliffhanger Controversy
00:05:48
Speaker
being cancelled on a cliffhanger and mystery 101 has the most fanatical loyal fans of any mystery and then ending on a cliffhanger was just you know blew up the whole hallmarks luther universe and
00:06:07
Speaker
What they accidentally happened was Hallmark on a just random post about Mystery 101 accidentally revealed that the show was canceled because it was sort of in this limbo where no one knew, is it going to be another one? Is it not going to be another one? So some social media manager by accident just completely let the cat out of the bag that is officially canceled and then all chaos broke out.
00:06:33
Speaker
And so what happened in that time is we had talked to John Christian Plummer, the author of the Mystery 101 series, and he'd been really nice to us. And I said, hey, would you come on and tell us what would have happened if there was the other episode? And lo and behold, he said yes, which kind of blew my mind. And I was surprised.
00:06:56
Speaker
bigger media out there didn't do this because this was a really big and, you know, Hallmark has this universe, but then every now and then there are certain stories that get bigger than just Hallmark. And this was one of those. And he said, sure, but I actually have to go through Hallmark, which we had never had to go through and get corporate approval before. And it turned into a whole like little negotiation type thing. And what can we do? What can't we do? Fortunately, Hallmark is as an organization.
00:07:26
Speaker
Surprisingly transparent, surprisingly supportive of little channels like us, and like, okay, go for it. You can do what you want to do. I'm sure he had a little coaching behind the scenes on what he could and couldn't say, but lo and behold, he came on.
00:07:42
Speaker
And shared what would have been episode eight and we are the only place that ever aired it. So that was absolutely fantastic. So that was our big, like putting us over the tipping thing of being this little tiny, nichey one, where then we started getting a bigger audience. And, um, that still to this day, we have all sorts of people who still listen to that particular episode and DM us and complain because a lot of people get confused and think we're actually the network.
00:08:10
Speaker
and everything. It's kind of crazy some of the things that happen in our DMs, but you say, so we grew and along those lines.
Changes in Podcast Co-Hosting
00:08:17
Speaker
Sydney went and got pregnant and she, unfortunately, well, fortunately for her, unfortunately for me, for season two is like, you know what? I got to focus on being a mom. She's due pretty much any day now. And so Andrea, who I've been friends with for a while as well, she stepped in and so she's become my host, co-host for season two. And it's kind of funny because Andrea and I seem to agree
00:08:46
Speaker
on most things, but when we disagree, Oh boy, we are so polar opposites. You'd think we were like kind of like be in the middle or whatever, like, Oh, I'm only in the middle, but you liked it or vice versa. But no, it's like polar opposites. So this season has been a lot of fun. It's our second season. I know you guys have been doing this for a little while. So the other thing I've learned
00:09:10
Speaker
with podcasting is there's a whole lot more work that goes into hosting a podcast than I thought. I thought I'd just get on, ramble for a few minutes and then boom, upload it. But no, it's a whole lot of work. So your listeners should be so appreciative of not only the content you share, but the effort you guys put in to make the show happen on a consistent basis. So there, I'm giving you guys a little bit of love.
00:09:40
Speaker
Thanks, Eric. Thank you. So I know, Eric, you recently had Brooke on your show to talk about mystery books that the two of you thought would make some great Hallmark TV series. Now, as someone who is an expert on network productions, can you tell us a little bit about some of the mystery book series that have already been adapted for Hallmark mysteries?
Gourmet Detective: Book vs. Show
00:10:07
Speaker
I'd love to. So there's a few of them and most notably, I just have a little list. I'm going to start with, you said in the beginning that the Gourmet Detective was my favorite homework mystery. I honestly had no idea that there was a Gourmet Detective book series.
00:10:29
Speaker
about two weeks ago, actually, surprisingly, after you guys had invited me to be on here, I found out that it was a book series by one of our followers on our podcast. They sent a DM saying, hey, have you read the books? I'm like, what do you mean? What books? There's no books. And sure enough, there are. They're by Peter King. And one of the things about them, which I think goes through a lot of the Hallmark mysteries,
00:11:00
Speaker
is when you read the book and then you compare it to the Hallmark mystery, some of them are completely, completely different. And then some of them you can see just sort of took the bones from the mystery and then went on. But also a lot of them, and I know you guys have touched on this before in your
00:11:24
Speaker
podcast, they just have not aged well. What they wrote about, this was written, I want to say it's late 80s, early 90s, and he is so misogynistic. When you read the book, every woman who comes in, either their breasts or their butt,
00:11:45
Speaker
come into their description, right? Or their lips. It's just very interesting. And then when you see the series on Hallmark, it is nothing like that. The Henry character in the series played by Dylan Neal, he's just wonderfully likable, perfectly contemporary, and fits within the time. But when you read the book, you're just like, this guy is a dog. And one of the lines that really stuck out that sums up
00:12:13
Speaker
the character, I think, is he's talking to one of his cohorts and they said, Oh, I didn't think that woman was your, um, was, was your, your style. And, uh,
00:12:29
Speaker
His response was, oh, all women are mine. Right. So it's just like that's the kind of guy he was. Right. And in 1989, 1990, guys not once saying right or wrong, but that's kind of in a mystery type thing. That's how guys were. And I know you guys had recently just did your your cozy mystery podcast where you guys talked about the golden age of
00:12:56
Speaker
the Cozy mystery being, I think it was the 70s, right? I think when you said it came back, 70s, 80s or somewhere around that. Kind of a resurgence, yeah. Right. And from the original, you go back to the Agatha Christie's and all those ones, which once again, that's the whole debate of where that and the Cozy is.
00:13:17
Speaker
is probably a lively one. But you look at these ones who a lot of these Hallmark ones are based off of is that sort of resurgence period in 80s, 90s seem to be when they were mostly at least started. And Gourmet Detective is one of those. And so reading it, this is one where I only read the first book, but it does parallel the movie. And you can see Dylan Nill not only stars in it, but he also is the
00:13:47
Speaker
The writer with his wife you can see where they did take the bones of the mystery and they follow the characters and they're certain things that they Said okay We like this or we can take a bunch of these and consolidate them all because that's one of the challenges is when you take a book You can go so in-depth you can explain it for a whole chapter But in a movie you gotta knock it out really quickly so you can see though in this particular series where they did take a
00:14:15
Speaker
the bones of the mystery that were, that were part of the book and turned it into the series. And like I say, it's, it's absolutely fantastic for your readers. The mystery is fun and most of these cozies are fun. You just have to make sure you aren't going to get offended by some of the things that take place because like I say, they're not 2024. They're not 2020. Heck they're not 2010, right? But
00:14:44
Speaker
There are 2000, or excuse me, 1989. If you lived back then, that was just what life was. So you can't really look at it through the current lens. But that was a fantastic mystery. Another one is Hannah Swenson, which that's by Joanna Fluke. They're still making those ones. And it was murder she baked for a while.
00:15:08
Speaker
And now they're Hannah Swenson because of some, this has to do with the rights where the company that had the rights before for the Murder She Baked no longer is associated with Hallmark. And so that's why it's Hannah Swenson. They've brought in some different writers to do the actual screenwriting. But these are ones too, where it's interesting. Some of them,
00:15:33
Speaker
I want to say I think there's like seven, seven of them that have been made. Some of them are tying to the book. You can see, okay, that makes sense. Um, I get where you're going. Some of them just have the name in it and there's literally nothing carrot cake murder was a recent one. And the only thing that is anything close to the book is that
00:15:59
Speaker
There's a carrot cake in it. Other than that, the mystery is 100 percent different. The characters, they pull in a couple of the characters, but totally change their whole role for what they're doing. So it's really, really different. They one of the interesting things and
Hannah Swenson Series Adaptation
00:16:21
Speaker
a lot of people are complaining about, though, is the Hannah character.
00:16:26
Speaker
A lot of people get upset because she's in a love triangle and they're just like, Oh, make her pick. She should be here. She should be this and all that. But when you read the books and for, for, um, Hannah Swenson, I've actually read several of those. I want to say, I think there's like 18 or 19. I have not read all 18 or 19, but I've read probably eight of them. And one of the things about it is Hannah Swenson,
00:16:52
Speaker
really is that wishy washy in her relationships. And so they actually are being reflective of the books. And yet people in the Hallmark universe get upset and they're like, no, that shouldn't be that shouldn't, why are they doing this? This is stupid. I don't like that. But it all that is, is actually being true to the character of the books. So that's kind of one of the interesting, interesting things there.
00:17:19
Speaker
So I have a quick question. Do either of you, well, no, Brookie, you do watch Hallmark Mysteries, but are you guys, would you say you're like Hallmark fans at all in that, or is this kind of like, you're like, I don't know what you're talking about? No, and that's actually one of the questions that I have for you because I haven't watched any Hallmark Mysteries. Okay. And so I don't know where you would recommend that someone like me start.
00:17:48
Speaker
Oh, easy, easy. All right. I'm going to go through two quick ones and then we'll get back. There's Aurora Tea Garden. That one has had like 18 Hallmark movies as well. And then, um,
Aurora Teagarden Series Critique
00:18:01
Speaker
There's a zillion books as well. And one of the interesting things here is with the book, Charlene Harris has, um, written those. Have either of you read her by chance? Yeah, I did Eric after, um, after I was on your show, cause we talked a lot about that series. And, um, and we talked about, it's a little bit like what you were saying with a gourmet detective, pretty antiquated, uh, stories.
00:18:29
Speaker
but undertones of racism too, I think. Did you find that? So that's, once again, the interesting thing about this book is it's just when you read the book, I had to stop reading it because I just was not comfortable with the
00:18:49
Speaker
the writing style and yes I understood like once again you have to look at it through that lens then but once again that there's this undertones of some racism are just a little bit too much for me but Aurora Tea Garden has been a really popular series and this is one that does follow once again not probably the racist aspects but they do follow the book
00:19:13
Speaker
fairly close, once again, following the bones. And then the last one I'm going to talk about is Curious Cater.
Curious Caterer: Book to Screen Changes
00:19:19
Speaker
And this is by Diane Mott Davidson. And this is interesting because this is one that's a fairly new mystery that they've they've started. Has big, big cast with Nikki Delosche and Andrew Walker, two of the biggest Hallmark stars. And in this one, they
00:19:40
Speaker
kind of sort of almost like pick a scene from the book, but that's about it. But then they also really have done some major character changes because if you read the book,
00:19:56
Speaker
you would be like, how is this turning into a Hallmark mystery? Because in the book, Goldie is the main character and her ex-husband is abusive, not just emotionally, but physically. He actually assaults her. He's, um, I think he like broke her finger in a way that's so her finger can never straighten in one of the, um,
00:20:19
Speaker
in one of the books, Dying for Chocolate, he's actually going like crashing through a window and trying to pull her through the kitchen window where she's cutting her arm, ending up in the hospital. And her son in the movies, she has a daughter, but in the book, she has a son who is basically
00:20:41
Speaker
telling her like, oh, you know, you don't really love me. You'd be back together with dad. He's like supporting his dad despite the abuse and things like that. And so you just wonder like, how did this end up in a hallmark?
00:20:55
Speaker
mystery. But you see that what they do is they just took some bones. They say, oh, she's a, you know, she's a caterer. We think that's wonderful. And you can turn it into that Hallmark story and they transfer it through. But if you read the book, the books, I want to say kind of dark. And it's interesting because when I listened to your podcast the other day about the cozy mysteries, I was just thinking about this because I was like trying to figure out, you know, you had your rules that a cozy has to follow.
00:21:23
Speaker
And I guess it kind of does, but I don't know. There's some ones on this one that may make definitely go into that gray area of what the definition of a cozy is. And is it, is it one or isn't it? And I know I said that's the last one. I will say they just recently did also a gilded Newport mystery, which was taken from the book. And in that one, we'll see if there's going to be more.
00:21:50
Speaker
that goes back to 1895. Alyssa Maxwell is the author and they did keep sort of pretty true to the story, but they had to consolidate things. So we'll see how that one, that one goes, but it was fun going back in time to 1895 for that.
00:22:04
Speaker
So that in a nutshell is a couple of the big ones. I know that's probably a way longer answer than you wanted, but that sort of in a nutshell, if you want to read a cozy book and see, you know, some movies that have a few of them so you can, you can do, that's probably a really good, you know, group of them that, that have both book and mystery, your movie.
00:22:29
Speaker
I have to brag a little bit. I have met Diane Mott Davidson at a conference a long time ago, so that inspired me to read several of those books. I was reading those, oh goodness, it was probably in the early 2000s. I think that your point is right,
Cutesy Mysteries vs. Dark Themes
00:22:52
Speaker
Eric. Some of those 80s, 90s,
00:22:55
Speaker
quote unquote, cozies are still a lot more, um, I don't know, traditional mystery or maybe with a little noir considering, you know, some of them, the masculine, uh, attitudes. I think that we've developed them over the years to get more and more and more cozy or cutesy as we're hearing now. Um, but yeah, you could definitely see a lot of those darker themes in the eighties and nineties.
00:23:26
Speaker
I did like that. I never heard it before the cutesy mystery until I listened to your podcast. And I do think Hallmark movies definitely fall in that cutesy category. Whereas the book probably does not for several of these. Yeah, we hadn't heard that term either. That was a new one to us, but I think it's helpful because it is such a spectrum of different kinds of stories.
00:23:53
Speaker
Brooke and I had such a great conversation with Eric, but we're going to pause the conversation here, come back next week and hear where he recommends people who are new to Hallmark Mysteries start. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next week for the continuation. Until then, I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery.
00:24:18
Speaker
Clued In Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app.
Closing Remarks and Call to Action
00:24:31
Speaker
Visit our website at cluedinmystery.com to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued In Chronicle, or to join our paid membership, The Clued In Cartel. We're on social media at Clued In Mystery.