Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door
Falling in Love With the Girl Next Door is a 2006 made-for-television comedy film recorded primarily on location in Avalon, California. It premiered on Hallmark Channel on February 4, 2006, and pits Shelley Long and Patty Duke as feuding neighbors.
| Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Romantic Comedy |
| Written by | Sally Nemeth |
| Directed by | Armand Mastroianni |
| Starring | Shelley Long Patty Duke Patrick Duffy Bruce Boxleitner |
| Theme music composer | Ron Ramin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producers | Kyle A. Clark James Wilberger |
| Cinematography | Amit Bhattacharya |
| Editor | Thomas A. Krueger |
| Running time | 92 minutes |
| Production company | Larry Levinson Productions |
| Distributor | Hallmark Entertainment |
| Release | |
| Original network | Hallmark Channel |
| Original release |
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Plot
Bridget Connolly (Patty Duke) 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.
Cast
- Shelley Long as Betsy Lucas
- Patty Duke as Bridget Connolly
- Crystal Allen as Theresa Connolly
- Ken Marino as Mark Lucas
- Patrick Duffy as James Connolly
- Bruce Boxleitner as Frank Lucas
Production notes
Bruce Boxleitner and Patrick Duffy bonded while filming, playing golf regularly when they weren't shooting the film.[1]
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:
The four of us would have dinner and then not know what to do once the town basically shut down...So somebody said, ‘Let's play poker.’ So I went to the drug store and bought a deck of cards and chips...It occurred to me, ‘How can a couple of old cowboys like me and Bruce play poker without guns?’ So I bought four cap pistols and rolls of caps.[2]
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."[2]
Shelley Long even got detained at the airport after production ended, because she forgot to remove caps from her luggage.[2]