How Melissa Gilbert Landed WHEN CALLS THE HEART Role
By Movieguide® Contributor
WHEN CALLS THE HEART’s Brian Bird is telling all about how he and his co-creator Michael Landon Jr. snagged Melissa Gilbert to star on the show.
“Very exciting for all of us to finally see you know Officer Georgie on screen… [To] have Melissa part of the show was so exciting,” Bird recently told The Official Hearties Aftershow. “The way that all happened is that Michael Landon [Jr.] went to the 50-year anniversary of the LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRE.”
Landon Jr.’s father created and starred in the long-running classic, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRE.
“Michael was signing autographs with the fans and, you know, asking some of them…Do you know our other show? Do you know WHEN CALLS THE HEART? And he said about one in five of the LITTLE HOUSE fans knew about WHEN CALLS THE HEART, and he came away from that fan reunion saying, how can we make it five out of five?”
When they put their heads together, they decided to cross one of the actors from LITTLE HOUSE over to WTCH.
“That’s how it all began,” Bird continued, “and it was so exciting for us. Melissa said yes. She loved her experience in Hope Valley…It was just so amazing to us so anyway, we’re thrilled.”
READ MORE: WHAT’S AHEAD FOR THIS WCTH ROMANCE? STARS TELL ALL
“We’re thrilled for the fans. We’re thrilled for Melissa. We’re thrilled for the LITTLE HOUSE fans who might start watching the show,” he said.
Landon and Gilbert were friends when they were little. They eventually dated in their teen years before remaining lifelong friends.
“It wasn’t quite a romance, though there was plenty of hand-holding and eye-batting,” Gilbert said. “We went to events together, talked excitedly about getting our learner’s permits, and commiserated when our respective orthodontists gave both of us the same sad news that we had to keep wearing our neck gear at night.”
Gilbert made her WCTH debut on Saturday in Episode 6 of Season 12. Fans can expect to see her in another episode this season, too.
Gilbert recently told Entertainment Weekly, “I play Georgie McGill, and she is a forensic accounting investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I am working on a case, and that case brings me to Hope Valley, where I cross paths with Bill Avery, played by Jack Wagner. You find out that we had a history together. We went to school together.”
“It’s revealed gradually over the first episode that I had a pretty intense crush on him, and I assumed he didn’t even know I existed — but the feeling was mutual,” she continued. “The question now is, in this investigation and working together, are we going to fall in love? Are we going to have a romance? It’ll be fun to see how it unfolds.”
READ MORE: MELISSA GILBERT TO GUEST STAR ON WHEN CALLS THE HEART
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