SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
Holiday rom-coms have become a staple for many families this time of year. They tend to be safe to watch with multiple generations in the room. They're also a big business for cable and streaming services. The Hallmark Channel has turned Christmas movies into a mega industry, adding 32 new holiday features this year, including one for Hanukkah.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HANUKKAH ON THE ROCKS")
LAUREN COCHRANE: (As Lottie) So we need someone to cover Cabo Cara's (ph) shift - got any plans tonight?
DAREN KAGASOFF: (As Jay) You can't just hire some random person off the street.
DAN DE JAEGER: (As Anthony) Hey, go back to Florida.
COCHRANE: (As Lottie) Yeah, the chutzpah on this guy.
MARC SUMMERS: (As Sam) That's how you say it.
COCHRANE: (As Lottie) Thank you.
MCCAMMON: Julie Sherman Wolfe has written about two dozen Hallmark movies. Her latest features are "Hanukkah On The Rocks" and "Holiday Touchdown," which had a Thanksgiving week debut that Nielsen ranked as the year's most watched cable movie.
JULIE SHERMAN WOLFE: If I only had to write Christmas movies, I would. I love doing them. And Hanukkah, by the way. I've just always been a huge fan of the comfort and warmth that you get during the Christmas season, especially when you're watching all these movies with your family. So I'm just happy to sort of contribute to that genre a little bit in my way.
MCCAMMON: I think people love the fact that Hallmark movies, especially Christmas movies, they are kind of warm and cozy and fun and light. They're also, you know, arguably predictable in a certain way. I think you kind of know what you're signing up for when you watch one of these films. But how do you lend your own creativity to this process? And how do you think about building new storylines?
SHERMAN WOLFE: So our job is to, you know, tell a Christmas story - and, of course, we know how it's going to end, because that's why people come to Hallmark, to watch these movies and have a happy ending. I try my best to keep people guessing throughout the entire movie of, you know, not that they're going to get together, but how? Can I trick, surprise anybody at the end of how it's going to end, instead of it being predictable? I mean, there's literal bingo games of people where they check off boxes of stuff that, you know, they think's going to happen. You know, There's hot chocolate, whipped cream on the nose, and there's a falling down, ice skating. Those kind of tropes, which I've tried to flip those sometimes - in the "Holiday Touchdown" movie...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOLIDAY TOUCHDOWN")
CHRISTINE EBERSOLE: (As Norma) OK, here's what we got to do...
SHERMAN WOLFE: The mom and the grandma basically try to get Hunter King's character to put something on her face so that Tyler Hynes' character can gently wipe it away in a romantic comedy moment.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HOLIDAY TOUCHDOWN")
EBERSOLE: (As Norma) It's in all the Christmas movies. It never fails.
MEGYN PRICE: (As Leah) I love it.
MCCAMMON: You know, as a Kansas City native, I have to ask you about "Holiday Touchdown," the new one out this year. How did you come up with this one?
SHERMAN WOLFE: Well, you know, I'm actually a huge 49er fan. So the great irony of doing this movie was that they called me probably three days after the Super Bowl and said, OK, I need you to take off your '9er hat for a second and put your writer hat back on. The good news is, I had an idea already kind of noodling around in my head, because we are such a huge sports family. And we have so many silly superstitions around the 49ers and, you know, this certain jacket has to be buttoned a certain way, and this hat has to be worn if it's this game, and all these things. That's kind of where that story took off from.
MCCAMMON: You mentioned the Chiefs. How much was this movie inspired by the relationship between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, who, of course, is a tight end for the Chiefs?
SHERMAN WOLFE: Well, I would say that the movie itself, the story and the plot is not inspired by that relationship, but what was inspired by them was just when this romance was blooming last year, you know, nobody was talking about romance and football in the same sentence. And all of a sudden, football became romantic. You know, Kansas City is the headquarters for Hallmark, the company, and, obviously, the Chiefs. It just seemed like a natural fit, especially because love was in the air.
MCCAMMON: Hanukkah is underway. It started on Christmas night. Your portfolio includes a couple of Hanukkah-themed movies as well.
SHERMAN WOLFE: It does.
MCCAMMON: How do you think about writing those stories for largely non Jewish audiences, I'm assuming?
SHERMAN WOLFE: To me, it's an honor because I'm Jewish, and I did marry somebody who is Jewish, and we raised our kid Jewish, but we all, as a family, really, really enjoy Christmas and Hanukkah. We enjoy Christmas and, sort of, the secular Santa Claus - you know, the Hallmark way, kind of. But that being said, you know, Hanukkah is our primary holiday. And I have never wanted to write a movie that had to explain Hanukkah to anybody, just in the same way that you don't explain Christmas in a Christmas movie.
I was very lucky in the first one I wrote was "Hanukkah On Rye, " that it was just solidly Hanukkah. We didn't have to do, you know, half Christmas, half Hanukkah or anything like that. It was just about this Jewish deli and these two families. For me, it was just easy because I'm just channeling my entire family, the way they talk and the way we are together, and it just has a Jewish vibe. It's just kind of, you know, a little snappier, a little funnier. I've just wanted to show people who may not know anybody who's Jewish or they don't know anyone who does celebrate Hanukkah that, you know, this is a warm, loving, beautiful holiday, just like Christmas is, and it brings families together in a similar way.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHITE CHRISTMAS")
BING CROSBY: (Singing) I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know...
MCCAMMON: As we said, you've written also a dozen or so Christmas movies. And I'm thinking about the long tradition of Jewish composers and lyricists writing classic Christmas carols - you know, "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin...
SHERMAN WOLFE: Yes. Yep.
MCCAMMON: ..."Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" by Johnny Marks and many, many others.
SHERMAN WOLFE: Yes.
MCCAMMON: Do you, in any way, sort of think of yourself as in keeping with that tradition?
SHERMAN WOLFE: I actually do. It's funny that you said that. I just said that to somebody the other day who asked me, you know, how can you write these, you know, if you're Jewish? And I gave them a list, like you just gave me. I think that the lesson there is that we want to contribute to this happiness, to this joy that people feel at the holidays. It doesn't matter, you know, if you happen to be Jewish and write a Christmas movie, or vice versa, because if you can put yourself into that world and tell a good story, anybody can write those movies. I'm very happy to do both of them, really, and I do like being part of that legacy.
MCCAMMON: You know, today, many Americans are part of multi-faith families. I am included in that. I have a menorah and a Christmas tree in my living room right now. How do you think about writing holiday-themed scripts in general, you know, for what is really an increasingly diverse country where I think more and more people are sharing a wide variety of traditions?
SHERMAN WOLFE: I mean, I think it's just it opens up the world for people to have more fun during the holidays, because I have a Hanukkah party every year. People love to come and just have that food and that experience. And then, conversely, I will go to our friend's house down the street for Christmas Eve and enjoy all of that. And I think, you know, watching these movies and kind of being immersed in that world, it doesn't become a foreign thing to people anymore. It just becomes part of that fabric that we're trying to build.
MCCAMMON: Well, Julie, I hope you have a happy Hanukkah.
SHERMAN WOLFE: Thank you.
MCCAMMON: Julie Sherman Wolfe is a screenwriter behind many Hallmark holiday films, including "Holiday Touchdown," which is new this year. Julie, thanks for being here.
SHERMAN WOLFE: Thank you so much for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HANUKKAH BLESSINGS")
BARENAKED LADIES: (Singing) We light the candles for Hanukkah... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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