The 20th Anniversary of the Hallmark Channel

This year the Hallmark Channel celebrates its 20th anniversary, but there is a lot more history to the network than just the past 20 years of movies, scripted shows, weekday morning programming and repeats of popular comedy series.

The very first Hallmark Hall of Fame movie aired in 1951 on NBC. That franchise remained at that network for 30 years before it moved to PBS and then to ABC. It eventually landed on CBS in the mid-1990s, staying there for 16 years until that network dropped the franchise in May of 2011. The last movie from that franchise aired on CBS in April of that year.

On August 5, 2001, the little known TV channel Odyssey Network rebranded itself as the Hallmark Channel, with its first broadcast being the mini-series The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells.

Among some of the other early airings on the new channel were Sherlock Holmes, which starred Matt Frewer in the lead role; Snow White: The Fairest of Them All, starring Kristin Kreuk (who went on to star in Smallville and Burden of Truth) in the title role; The Wedding Dress, starring Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser and Dr. Horrible) and Tyne Daly and A Town Without Christmas with Patricia Heaton and Peter Falk.

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NOTE: Hallmark Channel’s sister channel Hallmark Movie Channel – now known as Hallmark Movies & Mysteries – launched in January 2004.

Over the years, the quantity of movies that aired on the Hallmark Channel grew, especially the network’s holiday films with the first Countdown to Christmas event taking place in 2009, starting with The National Tree that starred Andrew McCarthy.

While the network continued to grow its original made-for-TV movies, it also moved into the world of original scripted dramas in 2013 with its first series Cedar Cove, starring Andie MacDowell and Dylan Nash, which was quickly followed by the new drama When Calls the Heart [which is actually going into its 9th season sometime next year.]

In 2014, the Hallmark Hall of Fame took up its permanent home on the network, starting with One Christmas Eve that starred Anne Heche. It was also that same year that the network partnered with Hallmark Cards to produce the movie Northpole that starred Tiffani Thiessen (Saved by the Bell and White Collar) and Bailee Madison (who later went on to star in the Hallmark Channel’s long-running franchise series Good Witch).

Continuing with the growth of the network, the first Countdown to Valentine’s Day event took place in 2015 and that was followed by the event movies under the banners of Fall Harvest, Five Nights of Thanksgiving, Winterfest, Spring Fling (aka Spring Fever), Summer Nights (aka June Weddings) and then Countdown to Summer.

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Among the well-known faces to appear on the network are Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert, Kellie Martin, Catherine Bell, Erin Krakow, Danica McKellar, Jen Lilley, Alison Sweeney, Jill Wagner, Autumn Reeser and Rachel Boston along with Steve Bacic, Cameron Mathison, James Denton, Jack Wagner, Brennan Elliott, Victor Webster, Brendan Penny, Luke MacFarlane, Andrew Walker, Ryan Paevey and Kristoffer Polaha.

The Hallmark Channel has become synonymous with family friendly programming, moving from being a cable channel to becoming a cable destination, ending last year as the most watched entertainment cable network among adult women for the 7th straight year in a row.

Happy 20th Anniversary to the Hallmark Channel.