Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door
Encyclopedia
Falling in Love With the Girl Next Door is a Hallmark Channel
original television movie
filmed primarily on location in Avalon
, Catalina Island
. It premiered on February 4, 2006, and pits Shelley Long
and Patty Duke
as feuding neighbors.
) and Betsy Lucas (Shelley Long
) are two social climbing society women from Catalina Island
who have been continuous rivals for some unknown reason. But when Betsy's son Mark falls in love with the girl next door
--who happens to be Bridget's daughter Theresa—the two women put all of their energy in to planning the wedding, much to the chagrin of their children.
Long, Duke, Duffy, and Boxleitner also had fun off the set together. Almost every night after filming, the four adults would run up and down the hotel hallways and lobby armed with cap pistols and have shoot-outs. Patrick Duffy explains:
Adds Boxleitner: "So every night in Patty's room, on this little coffee table that was so small, Patrick and I were like gangster gamblers and the girls were our gun molls, playing poker and shooting our guns off in the air. It was hysterical."
Shelley Long even got detained at the airport after production ended, because she forgot to remove caps from her luggage.
Hallmark Channel
The Hallmark Channel is a cable television network that broadcasts across the United States. Their programming includes a mix of television movies/miniseries, syndicated series, and lifestyle shows that are appropriate for the whole family...
original television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
filmed primarily on location in Avalon
Avalon, California
Avalon, or Avalon Bay, is the only incorporated city on Santa Catalina Island of the California Channel Islands, and the southernmost city in Los Angeles County. Besides Avalon, the only other center of population on the island is the small unincorporated town of Two Harbors...
, Catalina Island
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
. It premiered on February 4, 2006, and pits Shelley Long
Shelley Long
Shelley Lee Long is an American actress best known for her role as Diane Chambers on the sitcom Cheers, for which she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress...
and Patty Duke
Patty Duke
Anna Marie "Patty" Duke is an American actress of stage, film, and television. First becoming famous as a child star, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16, and later starring in her eponymous sitcom for three years, she progressed to more mature roles upon playing Neely...
as feuding neighbors.
Plot
Bridget Connolly (Patty DukePatty Duke
Anna Marie "Patty" Duke is an American actress of stage, film, and television. First becoming famous as a child star, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16, and later starring in her eponymous sitcom for three years, she progressed to more mature roles upon playing Neely...
) and Betsy Lucas (Shelley Long
Shelley Long
Shelley Lee Long is an American actress best known for her role as Diane Chambers on the sitcom Cheers, for which she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress...
) are two social climbing society women from Catalina Island
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
who have been continuous rivals for some unknown reason. But when Betsy's son Mark falls in love with the girl next door
Girl next door
The cultural and sexual stereotype of the girl next door or the All-American girl is invoked in American contexts to indicate wholesome, unassuming femininity, as opposed to the culture's other female stereotypes such as the tomboy, the valley girl, the femme fatale, girly girl, or the slut. The...
--who happens to be Bridget's daughter Theresa—the two women put all of their energy in to planning the wedding, much to the chagrin of their children.
Cast
- Shelley LongShelley LongShelley Lee Long is an American actress best known for her role as Diane Chambers on the sitcom Cheers, for which she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress and two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress...
as Betsy Lucas - Patty DukePatty DukeAnna Marie "Patty" Duke is an American actress of stage, film, and television. First becoming famous as a child star, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16, and later starring in her eponymous sitcom for three years, she progressed to more mature roles upon playing Neely...
as Bridget Connolly - Crystal AllenCrystal AllenCrystal Allen is an American film and television actress.Allen has appeared in guest star roles, including episodes of such TV series as Sex and the City, Ed, The Sopranos, NCIS, Boston Legal, Star Trek: Enterprise, JAG, Desperate Housewives and others...
as Theresa Connolly - Ken MarinoKen MarinoKenneth Joseph "Ken" Marino is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He was a cast member on MTV's The State and on the Starz comedy Party Down. He currently co-stars on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital.-Early life and career:Marino was born in West Islip, New York to an...
as Mark Lucas - Patrick DuffyPatrick DuffyPatrick George Duffy is an American character actor of stage and film. He is best known for his role on the CBS television drama Dallas, where he played Bobby Ewing from 1978 to 1985 and from 1986 to 1991, Duffy returns to reprise his role as Bobby in a new up-to-date Dallas currently scheduled to...
as James Connolly - Bruce BoxleitnerBruce BoxleitnerBruce William Boxleitner is an American actor, and science fiction and suspense writer. He is known for his leading roles in the television series How the West Was Won, Bring 'Em Back Alive, Scarecrow and Mrs. King , and Babylon 5...
as Frank Lucas
Production notes
Bruce Boxleitner and Patrick Duffy bonded while filming, playing golf regularly when they weren't shooting the film.Long, Duke, Duffy, and Boxleitner also had fun off the set together. Almost every night after filming, the four adults would run up and down the hotel hallways and lobby armed with cap pistols and have shoot-outs. Patrick Duffy explains:
Adds Boxleitner: "So every night in Patty's room, on this little coffee table that was so small, Patrick and I were like gangster gamblers and the girls were our gun molls, playing poker and shooting our guns off in the air. It was hysterical."
Shelley Long even got detained at the airport after production ended, because she forgot to remove caps from her luggage.
External links
- Falling in Love With the Girl Next Door at Hallmark ChannelHallmark ChannelThe Hallmark Channel is a cable television network that broadcasts across the United States. Their programming includes a mix of television movies/miniseries, syndicated series, and lifestyle shows that are appropriate for the whole family...