What does it take to write a good Christmas movie? Mark Valenti thinks a little tartness helps balance the sweet.
Of course, sweet wins out in "The Christmas Pageant," which Valenti — who lives in Des Peres — wrote for the Hallmark Channel. But first, an abrasive Broadway director gets a tart reality check about life outside Manhattan when she takes the only job she can get: directing a community Christmas pageant.
In the movie, airing Sunday, Melissa Gilbert returns to TV after an almost five-year absence to star as Vera Parks, whom viewers meet as she gets fired, again, for unleashing her temper.
Just to sum Vera up: She's the kind of person who'd refuse a Snickerdoodle offered by a kindly grandfather. We learn that when she arrives in Ashton Falls, a snowy, Stars Hollow-ish town in upstate New York, only to attempt to turn tail and run back to the big city.
"What is this — Perky McHappyville?" she sneers when people greet her warmly on the street.
Offering the Snickerdoodle is Edward Herrmann (who spent a little time in the original Stars Hollow on "Gilmore Girls"), playing the good-hearted owner of the inn where Vera takes up temporary residence. Also in the cast are Kate Flannery (Meredith on "The Office") as Beverly, a local obsessed with keeping Christmas traditional, and Robert Mailhouse as Jack, who turns out to be Vera's lost love. Lennon Wynn ("FlashForward") plays Jack's beyond-adorable daughter.
Valenti, who grew up in Florissant and graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas (now Trinity Catholic High School) in 1976, moved home to St. Louis in 1998 after 10 years working behind and in front of the camera in Los Angeles. He and his wife, Kristen, wanted to be closer to family and give their kids (sons Zachary, now 16, and Noah, 14) a chance to grow up grounded in the Midwest.
Since then, Valenti has stayed busy writing mostly for children's TV, notably the series "LazyTown," an international co-production mixing live action, puppetry and CGI animation. The series, produced in Iceland, had been on hiatus, but "LazyTown" was acquired by Turner this fall, so Valenti is again making regular Icelandic treks.
He always had the idea of writing a Christmas movie, though. Make that "another Christmas movie": In 1998, he scripted the minor classic "Like Father, Like Santa" for what was then the Fox (now ABC) Family Channel.
"Part of Christmas to me is remembering how you felt when you saw one of your favorites on TV," Valenti says. "How you felt when you saw 'The Perry Como Show' Christmas special" or a movie you loved.
The Hallmark Channel says it produces "more true holiday-themed programming than any other network," according to a Christmas release and, for Valenti, that meant opportunities to pitch movie ideas.
The catch: "There are so many movies, it's hard to find one that hasn't been done," Valenti says. "I had this idea about a theater director, and I turned it into a Christmas story."
The result, he hopes, is homespun without being insulting, 'sincere without treacle." A love story and a happy ending? After all, "This is Hallmark."
Speaking of which, Valenti is thrilled with his experience working with Hallmark and Barbara Fisher, the network's senior vice president for original programming.
"I loved it," he says. "I could happily spend the rest of my career writing for Hallmark."
Valenti hasn't seen the finished product, but he'll be watching Sunday night with a group including brother John Valenti and sister Micky Trost and their families.
They'll all gather at the Trosts' house in Ballwin because, at home in Des Peres, Valenti has AT&T's U-verse service, which doesn't carry the Hallmark Channel.
"The Christmas Pageant"
When 7 p.m. Sunday • Where Hallmark • More info hallmarkchannel.com/thechristmaspageant
