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Season 12 Coming in 2025
From the Production Journal of Michael Landon Jr. and Brian Bird, Executive Producers and Creators of "When Calls the Heart"

"This morning, we began filming Episode 10, Scene 2, in our Coal Valley saloon set between Erin Krakow and Charlotte Hegele, the fine actress playing Elizabeth's younger sister, Julie, and something extraordinary occurred to me. Actually, it struck me like a bolt of lightning. In our script, Julie is being coy with Elizabeth because a man she is falling for has just kissed her and she doesn't realize he is a notorious outlaw. And Julie is asking Elizabeth if Jack has kissed her yet. Elizabeth reacts with total surprise: 'Julie, a kiss is something that happens after a courtship.' Boom, there's the lightning. When was the last time any of us heard any character on any television show say, 'A kiss is something that happens after a courtship?' That act of purity and chaste romance on the part of a character is completely missing in action on modern TV.

Instead of a PDA (public display of affection), it's a PDI (a public display of innocence), and I felt a sense of pride that a show like 'When Calls the Heart' would be brave enough to risk a line of dialogue like that. It is a radical idea in a 'whatever-feels-good-do-it' society. And you're a not prude or a rube if you believe that a little encouragement toward chastity, responsibility and self-control in the love department might do culture some good. And then something even more powerful occurred to me. What if 'When Calls the Heart' is medicine for our society? Aren't we as a people a little anemic from all the media junk food we've been consuming (some of it actually toxic to our soul)?

Perhaps this series is like booster shots of timeless great virtues we all know are good for us, but that somehow we don't get enough of anymore. It's an absolute thrill and honor for my partner and pal, Michael Landon Jr., and I to work with the Hallmark Channel to bring this series to television. And now that the early episodes are starting to air, and we're seeing the comments and buzz starting to bubble up on social media, I have this sense that something remarkable is happening. Like a powerful cultural, groundswell building across America. And if that's true, I think it's just what the doctor ordered. " -- Brian Bird, Day 3, Episode 10

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