On Saturday, August 21 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, soap alums Jen Lilley (“Days of our Lives,” “General Hospital”), Ryan Paevey (“GH”) and Linda Dano (“Another World,” “One Life to Live,” et al) join together for a behind-the-scenes look at what happens when the cameras stop rolling in the Hallmark Channel original movie “A Little Daytime Drama” about life on the set of a soap opera.
In the TV movie, Maggie (Lilley) is the head writer on a daytime soap drama whose declining ratings leave it in danger of being canceled. Alice (Dano), the creator and producer of the show, wants to retire and hopes to pass the baton to Maggie. Wanting to boost ratings and save the show, Alice plans to bring back fan-favorite actor Darin (Paevey)…who also happens to be Maggie’s ex-boyfriend. When Darin exited the show to star in an ill-fated play, their relationship ended on a sour note, so Maggie wrote out his character. Now, she must convince Darin to return. Will they be able to set aside their old, hurt feelings and work together to save the show, and their careers, in the process? You’ll just have to tune in to find out.
In a behind-the-scenes video posted on Instagram, Lilley loved the idea of a soap opera story taking place in a Hallmark movie, to which Paevey says was strange to him. “I just walked onto the soap set for the first time and it was a really weird, I don’t know, moment from my past to step on set, so it’s been kind of interesting to play a little bit of art imitating life,” commented Paevey, referring to when he portrayed Nathan West on “GH” from 2013-2018 — the character was killed off on the ABC drama series and was given a heroes send-off.
“My dynamic with Jen is great because we worked together before,” Paevey says of their previous Hallmark experience together. “‘Harvest Love’ was super fun [and] this one’s been super fun as well. Dynamic’s a little different on this one but to be on a film set that’s set on soaps is again, it’s so crazy for me because there’s so many parallels. It really does bring back kind of like a level of nostalgia. There are seedlings of following your dreams in this one here, regardless of what happens in the universe out there, you do it for yourself.”
“It’s really fun to kind of get your gears going and think about what do people on the other side of the camera experience and how does that affect their perspective?” notes Lilley about the movie’s plot. “It’s so brilliant. There’s romance. There’s drama. Of course, there’s comedy and there’s me and Ryan Paevey. What’s not to love?” laughs Lilley.