In December 2007, Daytime Emmy winner Genie Francis and Ted McGinley helped give Hallmark Channel its highest-rated original movie of the year. This Saturday at 9 pm/ET, they and the cabler will look to repeat that success with The Note II: Taking a Chance on Love, in which Francis' advice columnist thinks about heading for a wedding and tries to bond with her long-lost daughter, all the while following the emotional mission a brand-new missive sends her on.
Francis spoke with TVGuide.com about the new notes she hopes the follow-up will hit. She also opened up about how her troubled times as a teen phenomenon make her feel for today's super-scrutinized starlets. Plus: Genie's take on soaps' budget-crunching, and her General Hospital future. Read it all, after the jump.
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Hallmark Channel has greenlighted sequels to its original movies The Good Witch and The Note, starring fan faves Catherine Bell and Genie Francis respectively.
Witch's Catherine Bell and Chris Potter will start shooting (thank goodness it's a working title) The Good Witch 2 later this month in Toronto for a 2009 premiere. The sequel will revolve around...
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She's baaack.Genie Francis is returning to General Hospital next month to reprise her role as Laura."This is a short visit," Francis, 46, told the AP. "It's a mother-daughter story. Years ago when I started playing the character as a 14-year-old girl, it was a mother-daughter story, only I was the daughter. So it's kinda cool this is full circle. It's nice to come back for visits. General Hospital is my home."She'll return to a storyline involving Lulu, her daughter with Luke Spencer (played by Tony Geary).Laura was last seen in Port Charles in 2007 in a mental institution, having slipped back into a catatonic state. The return engagement — in which she and Luke renewed their vows — won her the Daytime Emmy for Best Supporting Actress.Luke and Laura's 1981 TV wedding, by the way, still ranks as daytime TV's highest-rated soap opera episode, attracting 30 million viewers.Francis — who lives in Maine and runs a home furnishing shop — said producers assured her Laur...
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Inspired by the message at the heart of The Note, the Hallmark Channel movie she stars in this Saturday at 9 pm/ET, Genie Francis wants to make amends with any General Hospital fans who to this day — decades after the fact — were disappointed to see her quit the sudser at the peak of her popularity. "I know that Laura [Baldwin Spencer] meant a great deal to many people, and still does," says Francis. "I've long regretted not taking the fans into account when making the hasty decision to leave the show."Forgiveness and reconciliation are at the core of The Note, and filming it forced me to look inside myself at certain decisions in my past.... Right now I want to reach out to all of my fans and say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for leaving you so abruptly, for not taking into account the feelings of the people who helped Laura truly take on a life of her own. "It was the decision of a young, impetuous girl," Francis says in closing, "and the woman she has become asks for your...
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Bones creator Hart Hanson has inked a new eight-figure, three-year deal with 20th Century Fox Television to continue as executive producer as well as develop new projects.... Microsoft's Xbox Live service today makes available 50 hi-def Looney Tunes episodes featuring Bugs, Daffy and the gang.... It is now appropriate to ooh and ahh over Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon's twins: the NYPD Blue alumna on Oct. 18 gave birth to two boys, Jax and Jaid, says People.... Tied to the Dec. 8 premiere of Genie Francis' The Note, Hallmark Channel has launched WhatWouldYouWrite.com, where you can reach out to those who have impacted your life.
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