Plus: Ashley Tisdale, Bridgit Mendler and Brent Morin tells TheWrap about the Quinn family and their very peculiar holiday traditions
Netflix is stealing Thanksgiving’s thunder this week by filling you with the Christmas spirit a little early with Thursday’s debut of the new Dennis Quaid-led holiday series, “Merry Happy Whatever.” Yes, you read that right, a Christmas TV series.
While the streaming service has moved into the holiday movie genre over the last few years with its “A Christmas Prince” franchise and films like “The Knight Before Christmas” “Holiday in the Wild,” they’ve never done a scripted holiday-themed show before. (Competition series like “Nailed It! Holiday” and “The Great British Baking Show: Holidays” don’t count here.)
So why did creator Tucker Cawley decide to write a Christmas series and not add to the growing list of Christmas films Netflix has to offer?
“Once you see it, you’re gonna be like, ‘Oh, how have we not covered that ground on the holidays?’” Bridgit Mendler, who plays Emmy Quinn, told TheWrap in a recent interview, which you can view in the video above. “Like, there’s so much that happens during the holiday season. So I think to be able to unpack that through a series is awesome and very bingeable.”
“Yeah, and very unique,” Ashley Tisdale, who plays Emmy’s sister Kay, added. “It hasn’t really been done. I mean, obviously in a comedy, there’s always the holiday episode. But like Bridgit said, being able to have that episode go through the whole series… Especially with the Quinn family traditions, each episode is a day leading up to New Year’s.”
“So you get to see them get their tree and the Christmas caroling episode. It’s really fun,” she continued. “It’s obviously more about the relationships and what the characters are going through and the holidays are really like the background. But I love it. It gets you so excited for the holidays.”
Set during the happy but hectic days before and after Christmas, “Merry Happy Whatever” follows Don Quinn (Quaid), “a strong-willed patriarch from Philadelphia doing his best to balance the stress of the holidays with the demands of his close-knit but eclectic family — and his family doing their best to manage him,” according to Netflix’s official description. “But when youngest daughter Emmy (Mendler) arrives home from L.A. with a new boyfriend, struggling musician Matt (Brent Morin), Don’s belief that ‘there’s the Quinn way… and the wrong way’ is put to the test.”
Quaid told us that “what’s so unique” about “Merry Happy Whatever” is the fact that, “Every series has its Christmas show, but we take, like, 10 days of Christmas that people come home and really just focus on that.”
Brent Morin (who plays Matt) added, “In a series you can explore more of the characters and get really into it and if it was a movie… you’d have to condense a lot more things that are happening.”
“I think, as we all know, the holidays are much longer than we think they are,” he joked.
Watch the full interview above to learn about the “Quinn way” from the cast.
“Merry Happy Whatever” premieres on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, on Netflix.
2019 Holiday TV Specials: 28 Programs Sure to Make Your Days Merry and Bright (Photos)
With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, you are now officially allowed to start listening to “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (if you haven’t been since Nov. 1, that is), baking cookies, shopping for presents and — most importantly — tuning into those holiday TV specials you look forward to throughout the less festive times of the year. TheWrap has rounded up 28 new ones (and just a couple fan-favorite rebroadcasts) you can’t miss this season. Click through our gallery to check out the list of 2019’s holiday-themed TV givings.
Netflix
Program: “The Great British Baking Show: Holidays” Season 2 Net: Netflix Date: Nov. 8
Netflix
Program: “Nailed It! Holiday!” Season 2 Net: Netflix Date: Nov. 22
Netflix
Program: “Wrap Battle”* Net: Freeform Date: Premieres Nov. 25 Time: 9 p.m. & 10 p.m.
*New episodes air Dec. 2 & Dec. 9
Freeform
Program: “Dolly Parton: 50 Years at the Opry” Net: NBC Date: Nov. 26 Time: 9 p.m.
NBC
Program: “Ellen’s Game of Games” holiday edition Net: NBC Date: Nov. 27 Time: 8 p.m.
NBC
Program: “Merry Happy Whatever” Season 1 Net: Netflix Date: Nov. 28
In this dark comedy miniseries, “a struggling LA musician tries to win over his new girlfriend’s gruff dad and quirky, tight-knit siblings on a 10-day Christmas visit to Philadelphia.” It stars Dennis Quaid, Bridgit Mendler, Brent Morin, Ashley Tisdale, Hayes MacArthur, Adam Rose, and Siobhan Murphy.
Netflix
Program: “The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration” Net: ABC Date: Nov. 28 Time: 8 p.m.
ABC
Program: “Outrageous Holiday Houses” hosted by Lance Bass Net: HGTV Date: Nov. 28 Time: 11 p.m.
The special follows the NSYNC star on a cross-country tour of spectacular holiday displays.
Getty
Program: “The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show” Net: Amazon Prime Video Date: Nov. 29
Amazon Prime Video
Program: “Sugar Rush Christmas” Net: Netflix Date: Nov. 29
Netfilx
Program: “The Great Christmas Light Fight” Net: ABC Date: Premieres Dec. 2* Time: 8 p.m.
*Weekly series
ABC
Program: “Making It” Net: NBC Date: Premieres Dec. 2* Time: 10 p.m.
*Weekly series
NBC
Program: “CMA Country Christmas” Net: ABC Date: Dec. 3 Time: 9 p.m.
Program: “The Moodys” Net: Fox Date: Premieres Dec. 4* Time: 9 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.
*New episodes air Dec. 9 at 9 p.m. & 9:30 p.m., Dec. 10 at 9 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.
Fox
Program: “87th Annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center” Net: NBC
Date: Dec. 4 Time: 8 p.m.NBC
Program: “Same Time, Next Christmas”* Net: ABC Date: Dec. 5 Time: 9 p.m.
*TV movie
ABC
Program: “Beat Shazam” holiday edition Net: Fox Date: Dec. 9 Time: 8 p.m.
Fox
Program: “Ellen’s Greatest Night of Giveaways” Net: NBC Date: Premieres 10* Time: 8 p.m.
*New episodes air Dec. 11 & Dec. 12.
NBC
Program: “The Masked Singer” holiday edition Net: Fox Date: Dec. 11 Time: 8 p.m.
Fox
Program: “A Legendary Christmas with John and Chrissy”* Net: NBC Date: Dec. 12 Time: 10 p.m.
*Rebroadcast
NBC
Program: “The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition” Net: ABC Date: Premieres Dec. 12* Time: 9 p.m.
*Weekly series
ABC
Program: “Disney Channel Holiday Party @ Walt Disney World” Net: Disney Channel Date: Dec. 13 Time: 8 p.m.
Getty
Program: “Holidays with the Houghs” Net: NBC Date: Dec. 16 Time: 10 p.m.
NBC
Program: “Good Trouble” holiday special Net: Freeform Date: Dec. 16 Time: 9 p.m.
Freeform
Program: “A Home for the Holidays With Idina Menzel” Net: CBS Date: Dec. 22 Time: 9 p.m.
Getty
Program: “Kids Say the Darndest Things” holiday edition Net: ABC Date: Dec. 22 Time: 8 p.m.
ABC
Program: “A Christmas Story Live!”* Net: Fox Date: Dec. 24 Time: 8 p.m.
*Rebroadcast
Fox
Program: “Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade” Net: ABC Date: Dec. 25 Time: 10 a.m.
ABC
There’s something for everyone (naughty and nice) on this list — and yes, we checked it twice
With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, you are now officially allowed to start listening to “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (if you haven’t been since Nov. 1, that is), baking cookies, shopping for presents and — most importantly — tuning into those holiday TV specials you look forward to throughout the less festive times of the year. TheWrap has rounded up 28 new ones (and just a couple fan-favorite rebroadcasts) you can’t miss this season. Click through our gallery to check out the list of 2019’s holiday-themed TV givings.
Source: Read Full Article
