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Candace Cameron Bure on Move to Great American Family: ‘It’s Representing Faith, Family’

Photo from Candace Cameron Bure’s Instagram

Candace Cameron Bure on Move to Great American Family: ‘It’s Representing Faith, Family’

By Movieguide® Staff

Actress Candace Cameron Bure recently opened up about how she balances her career on TV and her role as a mother.

In recent years, the FULL HOUSE star has started her clothing line, appeared in countless TV shows and movies, and has authored 11 books. Bure even earned the title of Hallmark’s “Queen of Christmas.”

Despite her busy schedule, success and faithful following, Bure has remained grounded.

When asked how she keeps up with the busy pace, Bure said she doesn’t go at it alone.

“Oh, my goodness! A lot of good people behind you,” she told Variety in a recent interview. “That’s the deep secret because no one can do it on their own or by themselves. But you do have to have the drive to start and the motivation to keep it going.”

Bure said that she started a journal with her goals at a young age when she initially began acting.

“I have this huge goal list in journals and I can look back so many years at things that I’ve wanted to do and accomplish and have prayed for for so many years,” she said. “I never felt like there was a time limit on any of those things. So if it happened that year or that moment, great, but some of it’s taken me 25 years to get to and that’s okay, too. I hope I keep doing things when, in another 25, 30 years, I just can’t walk anymore.”

After 193 episodes of FULL HOUSE, Bure took a break from the entertainment world to spend time with her husband, Valeri, and be a mother to their children.

“By my late teens, I knew that I wanted to be in the industry. I truly loved it. Then I met my husband at 18 years old,” she explained. “I got married at 20, and then that took a whole different route, in terms of work. I kind of feel like I had this whole work life before I should have.

“Most people in their lives, they’re just figuring it out at 20 and yet I had this whole entire career before I was 20. From 20 to 30, I actually just rested with family and being a mom. The thought of a career took a backseat to my family, but then I came back with a vengeance,” she added.

Bure filmed 30 movies with Hallmark Media while publishing devotionals about parenting, marriage, and faith.

In April, Bure announced that she would join former Hallmark CEO Bill Abbott’s new family-friendly network, Great American Family.

“The truth is I’ve been under contract with Hallmark for a very, very long time. And those have been absolutely wonderful. It just so happened that my contract was expiring when Great American Family started up,” she said of the transition. “So we did not start having those discussions until we were well into negotiations with Hallmark Channel for renewing. And as every business person knows, you’ve got to do what’s right for contracts. It didn’t work out with Hallmark and so we started talking to Bill.”

Bure worked with Abbott at Hallmark for years and said she was always thankful for receiving another opportunity to act after her hiatus from TV.

“I felt like Bill gave me my first shot coming back into the business and I will always be grateful to him for that. I really grew alongside of him as he built the network,” she said. “Bill has just always been a champion. He’s been a champion for others through his whole career and that’s what has made him an incredible president and CEO of a company — because he knows he’s not doing it himself.

“It takes a team and it takes loyalty and it takes people doing their best,” she continued. “And he acknowledges that always, which makes him a great leader… It’s been an almost 15-year relationship. I trust what Bill has done over the years and that really means a lot to me. That’s also why a move to Great American Family was a good move for me because of the long standing relationship with Bill.”

Not only will Bure lend her acting talents to the new network, but the 46-year-old said that she would also fill an executive role at the company.

“We have to let people know that we’re there and to be aware of it and get the distribution out everywhere. But this is going to be content that is trusted, that’s wholesome, that’s family-friendly,” she said. “It’s really going to push on all of the holiday seasons as well as rom-coms. And so I’m just helping oversee all of that and the directions that they go, as well as providing that content… I know the brand as well as they do. I know what the audience likes and wants. I just want to help.”

Bure said that for the time being, Great American Family would focus on Christian holidays, especially Christmas, this year.

“We’re absolutely focusing on Christmas,” she said. “I’m sure as the channel continues to build content, it will include other holidays, but I think we know the core audience and what they love is exactly how Bill originally built the Hallmark Channel and that was Christmas and those traditional holidays and so that’s what the focus is going to be.”
“I think that’s the biggest thing about Christmas movies in general is that people make fun of them, and yet people love them,” she said. “It’s because they are predictable. You know that someone’s going to fall in love, you know that there’s going to be a kiss at the end. You know it’s just going to be happy and warm and heartfelt. And people run to that, especially at the holidays.”

Bure also said she is excited to join Great American Family because it stands for American values often neglected in media and entertainment today, like family, faith and freedom.

“I love the country that I live in. I’m grateful that I was born in this country,” she said. “I’m married to an immigrant; my husband’s Russian and came here when he was 17. He actually defected, couldn’t go back for a long time until we got to citizenship. Having a perspective, being married to someone who really worked his way up to where he is in this country and understanding the opportunities that this country gave him versus the country that he was born in is an incredible perspective — not only grounding for me, but also eye-opening.”

“There’s so many things that we take for granted as Americans,” she continued, “and so Great American Family—I hope that family just represents all the good and the right in our country and is a family that sticks together.”

While the top streamers and network TV stations often push immoral content, Bure said that she is excited for families to be able to enjoy watching something together without fear of unexpected sex, violence, or foul language.

“It absolutely is representing family,” she said of the network. “It’s representing faith, which is a really big component. They are going to move much more forward in the faith content, and having both — still having lots of movies, rom-coms and Christmas movies that don’t involve faith, but also ones that really do. I think that’s that’s going to be a big difference in Great American Family channel, as well as patriotic content. I love hearing stories about our veterans, about our servicemen and women, those reunions when they come home. We want to showcase all of that — all of the good that’s going on and and we want to tug on those heartstrings.”