Podcasts definitely appear to be the wave of the future, and it seems like every time I turn around, another one pops up. If you have been paying attention to the podcast buzz, you might recognize the “Deck the Hallmark” Podcast since it seems like they have been featured extensively on various popular sites and shows (including Good Morning, America and Nightline). This past summer/fall, I had the opportunity to interview them (before they were famous), but due to my insanely crazy schedule, I am only now sharing this interview with my readers. (Please note that there are three men involved with this podcast, and if I was unsure of who was speaking, I didn’t indicate the name. And if I inadvertently placed the wrong name with the corresponding statements, I beg these gentlemen’s pardons.)
RH: Today, I want to introduce everyone to the “Deck the Hallmark” Podcast, and since there are three of you, would you please introduce yourselves to my readers?
DTH:
–My name is Brandon Gray, and I live in Greenville, South Carolina. I am married and we have a son named Grizzly who is about ten months old now. I like to hang out with my friends.
–My name is Daniel Pandolph, and they sometimes call me Panda on here. I also live in Greenville, South Carolina. I’m married and have a baby girl named Lily. I enjoy hanging out with my friends, doing the podcast, and I’m a big reader. I run a company on the side with my wife, and she and I have been married about seven years.
–I’m Daniel Thompson. I’m from Greenville, South Carolina. I’m a high school principal. I’ve been in education for about fifteen years. My wife and I have been married for twelve years; we were high school sweethearts. And we are in the middle of an adoption process that I can’t say much more about at present.
You three have known each other for a while, correct?
DTH:
–{Dan} Yes, the school where I am principal–these guys used to work there, and we all used to work together. And these two guys both used to be teachers, if you can believe it. Then both of them had a little change of career, but we stayed in touch. Brandon lives three blocks from me. Brandon’s got a recording studio at his house, so I just drive the three blocks, and I’m here. But we’ve known each other for six or seven years now.
How did this podcast come about?
DTH:
–That’s a good question
–It depends on who you ask.
–{Bran} I love the Hallmark Christmas movies. I’m just an all-around big fan of Christmas. So Hallmark Christmas movies give me all those feels. And I knew about how Daniel Thompson would hate them. I tend to have ideas that are so dumb, but I feel like I can bring them to these guys and they might do this podcast with me. For instance, me and Thompson were driving to Austin, Texas, which is a nineteen-hour drive.
–{Dan} Seventeen, but it’s close.
–{Bran} Whatever. There was this song that we had heard, and it was a really catchy song called “Geronimo” by a band called Sheppard. And I said, “What if we listened to that song on repeat the entire trip and live-streamed the whole thing?” And he said, “Okay.” So we did that, and the guy called in.
–{Dan} Yeah, the whole band got on board. At one point on Facebook, it was trending with about 50,000 people watching it. We basically just live-streamed us listening to the song over and over. We raised money and paid for the whole trip by people just donating money to watch us be miserable. And that’s probably the best description of how our current podcast came to be. I mean, the three of us bring out the best and the worst in each other. We all have really good chemistry and we love each other, but we all end up doing dumb stuff. I mean, we’re all grown men with kids and lives and careers, but when we get together, it’s like all that just goes out the window. We just have a blast. Brandon tends to be the one to throw these ideas at us. And you know, some of them don’t work. We’ve all had a few podcasts where we’ve said that this was fun, but it wasn’t working and wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do. So we kinda had this idea, and Brandon said, “Yeah, let’s watch every Hallmark Christmas movie.” In college, I studied film, and I love movies. Panda and I go to the movies every Thursday night, and we see probably a hundred movies a year. And I said to Brandon’s idea, “Man, that sounds miserable, and I’m not gonna do it if nobody’s listening.” So I fully anticipated that nobody would listen. So we did one, and afterwards, we got more feedback than I was expecting. Then we got to interview Kristoffer Polaha, and the next thing you know, we were hearing from people every day. They love us, they hate us, they love to hate us. So it just became a thing, and the snowball is going down full speed ahead. It’s really taking over at this point.
Well, that is quite a story, and I have certainly heard many things about you guys. So much more so now than when you started. In fact, I remember I was one of the first to call into your hotline, which I thought was a great idea when you started it.
DTH:
–I know we’re not the first to ever do a hotline.
–But in a podcast, it is a little bit different.
Well, I will tell you that the Hallmarkies Podcast told me the idea was great, and that they wish they had thought of that first.
DTH:
–{Dan}Wow, that’s amazing. Any compliment we get from the Hallmarkies Podcast we’ll take. They seem to be the gold standard at the moment of this genre. What we do is obviously a little bit more subversive, but the goal is not to alienate anybody and to get people who don’t watch the movies to come and listen to us. And to get people who love the movies to listen. They can hate me if they want, but hopefully, they’ll still like the podcast. If those ladies are telling us that we did something well, I’ll take that to the bank.
To be honest, I thought the idea was great. I felt very strange calling into the hotline, but I was glad I did it. And I was glad to hear it featured on your podcast. It is a great way to get viewers involved.
DTH:
–{Bran}I think there’s a few things to be said about this hotline. One, the demographic of Hallmark viewers naturally is a little bit older, so there’s a fear that they might be calling a real person. Which it’s not; it’s just a voicemail. We try to emphasize that, but I think some are still a bit skeptical. But the feedback and calls that we get have been really great. Second, our social media handles are @HallmarkPodcast, and I think people think we’re actually Hallmark. So we sometimes get calls saying, “Hey, I love this movie, and I want you to play it tonight.”
–{Dan} Some think it’s a request line! It’s like people think that Hallmark doesn’t have anybody in charge over there. They just wait for requests! {laughs} And then they put on any movie the viewers request! Totally NOT true!
I think that’s a common issue when the name “Hallmark” is in a blog, website, or podcast. People tend to think that those people are employed by Hallmark. But they’re not. And for the record, we know you’re not employed by Hallmark. You are just doing what you can to support the network and its movies. Now, if I remember right, you guys hadn’t planned to actually launch this podcast officially until October when the Christmas movies started. So what caused things to change?
DTH:
–Brandon’s the worst!
–{Bran} So I knew I wanted to do a couple of preview episodes. I wanted to do one with the Hallmark Channel and one with the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel. I knew we needed the chance to figure out the formatting beforehand. I knew we didn’t want to do what so many TV podcasts do where we just walk through the movie. I knew we didn’t want to do that for thirty minutes to an hour. I knew we wanted to do some sort of segment-based thing. So we decided to do a couple of episodes to hash that out, and that was important to us. But the more we thought about it and talked about it, we realized how wise it would be for us to do even more episodes and gain a following-ish before officially launching in late October. To officially launch it with a built-in audience already was the thought process behind it.
–{Dan}I remember before the first recording, we came in and knocked around ideas. I thought it was important that it stayed under forty minutes. For me, I’m tuned out after a while. I’m kind of “ADD.” And then Brandon had an idea for “What the Hallmark” segment. Then we started breaking it down, and we came up with the skeleton and the segments in like ten minutes before the first episode. We recorded it, and it just worked. We have a lot of natural chemistry together. We have spent a lot of time in the car on road trips and hanging out and going to each lunch. It’s amazing how quickly everything came together and lent itself to the forty-minute timeframe. We all jumped on board, and it just seemed to work immediately, which was literally unfortunate for me. Because it gave us more time to watch movies.
–{Panda}Mainly we wanted to make sure that we had our stuff together before these movies officially start, because while we do know that we might have a bit of a built-in audience ahead of time, people continue to spike as the season goes on. And as new followers come along, we want to be able to capture them at first listen. So doing these summer movie episodes was very helpful for us.
Are you guys live tweeting during the premieres of the films at all?
DTH:
–{Dan} No, we tried a little bit, but we don’t watch these movies together. Hallmark has been wonderful about getting us the links ahead of time when they can so we can see these movies. It has worked better for us to watch on our own time. We make it a point to not talk about these movies. We will go out to eat together, and we will refrain from talking about the movies. We want the first time that we hear any of this stuff to be when we record the podcast.
I wanted to be sure to tell you that you did a great job interviewing Kristoffer Polaha. That’s how I found you guys.
DTH:
–He’s such a good sport.
–Such a class act.
–{Dan}If they were all like him, it would be so easy to interview actors. I’m probably the reason that some actors don’t agree to interviews with us. I do believe that I’m like the double-edged sword of the podcast. It’s important that I don’t pull any punches as the guy that doesn’t like the movies, but it might keep us from booking interviews with actors who want their egos stroked a little bit. They hear me say something negative, and that might be a deal breaker.
–{Panda} You’re tough to be friends with.
–{Dan} I get it!
Well, it looks like you’ve survived the crazy Christmas movie season. I wasn’t sure you would. I don’t think you had any idea what you really were in for when you decided to do this. I love the Christmas movies, but it is an intense time of year. I’m not sure doing a single podcast for every single movie is feasible.
DTH:
–You’d be surprised what we’re capable of.
–{Dan} We definitely gave it a shot and succeeded. There ended up being thirty-eight films to review. I can’t promise they are all good, but we did them! Some of them may just have me snoring. {laughter}
–{Panda} And I can be like, “I liked it.” {laughter}
What are your plans for the future?
–{Bran} In all honesty, it’s going to be interesting to take stock and see what our podcast looks like by January 1st. It looks like our following has increased. We’ve been featured all over. And people seem to want to hear more from us. Obviously, we all have things that we do during the day that aren’t about watching Hallmark movies. For me, the best version of this, the pinnacle of this experience would be for us to do something live {which they just did!}. I think that would be super neat for us to do something locally, maybe even a screening of a film in a little venue and that people could come out and we could record the podcast live. I think this podcast lends itself to a live audience. And I think it would be great to interact with people that love the movies. I think that would be the pinnacle for me. I don’t have any plans, but we’ll see if it works out.
–{Dan} I like that idea. You’ve never mentioned it to me.
–{Bran} Yes, I have. You’re not a good listener.
–{Dan} You’re right; I’m not.
Are you guys planning on watching When Calls the Heart?
DTH:
–{Dan} This has sparked a lot of debate.
–{Bran} There is a big debate over it because Dan’s like, “That’s a TV show, and we’re not doing it.” And I’m saying, “It’s the highest-rated one.”
–{Dan} I told you what I’d watch, and When Calls the Heart is not part of that. Brandon has tried to tell me that this is the biggest one, the crown jewel. But for me, it’s a TV show. So we’ll see what happens. But obviously, I ended up doing it. It’s part of the thirty-eight movies. But it does bother me that there’s a long-running TV show on Hallmark like this.
–{Bran} There’s When Calls the Heart, Chesapeake Shores…
And there’s also Good Witch, which is also very good. I do hope you guys become serious Hearties because Brian Bird loves it when men watch the show. It’s not a show just for women. But the Hearties are a force to be reckoned with, just to warn you. And the Christmas movie is a great place to enter since they are starting a new chapter with season six. Because of the show, I am now regarded as a member of the press. They have welcomed me into their annual convention called the Hearties Family Reunion as a member of the press.
DTH:
–{Dan} Speaking of the press, we have a true story about that.
–{Bran} The Republican National Convention was coming into town.
–{Dan} No, the debates. It was the primaries with Jeb and Trump and all of those.
–{Bran} I sent a request, and they said, “Okay.”
–{Dan} And so we got press badges. Brandon and I went down there.
–{Bran} I went in there as a photographer with my little Canon with two lenses, and we saw the press from like USA Today and all that.
–{Dan} I was on the front row like taking selfies with Jeb Bush and everybody during the commercials. Then we were in the spin room. And I was in between ABC World News and MSNBC, and I interrupted both of them to ask Donald Trump a question!
–{Bran} So we just acted like the press for an evening.
–{Dan} It was something we really did, I promise.
Oh, that’s a really cool story! You guys are on a different level than I am.
–{Bran} I will tell you this. This is an exclusive. We were five feet away from our current president. Seeing Donald Trump in person was quite the moment. Trust me, it is a moment we’ll never forget.
Thank you all for your time tonight. I’m glad it’s been a great season of Hallmark Christmas movies for you, and we look forward to seeing what’s coming your way into the new year.
DTH:
–Thank you, Ruth. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Now, first of all, this particular podcast may not be for the “faint of heart.” When you realize that these three men all have their own unique perspectives, it can be quite entertaining to listen to them but also rather jarring at the same time. Some viewers will be turned off, but I typically find myself siding with Brandon (I mean, what Hallmarkie wouldn’t?). And as for even attempting to change Dan’s mind, I wouldn’t even attempt that insurmountable feat. However, these three have proven that anyone can shoot for the stars and attain their goals and dreams. I cannot say I’ve ever been interviewed by and featured on a big-name, legitimate show, but they can–and by more than one. Kristoffer Polaha has continued to lead the charge in supporting these three men, and it will be quite interesting to see where their journey goes from here. I would invite everyone to visit their links below if you are so inclined and perhaps even follow them if interested. I leave it up to each individual as to whether you check them out since their viewpoint is decidedly unique and regularly quirky. But regardless, it is certainly true that having three men watch and review Hallmark movies is quite an anomaly. And at the end of the day, if they can bring more “sheep into the Hallmark fold,” I would call that a good day!
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