From Dr. Quinn to Elizabeth Thornton

Of course different people enjoy different types of television shows. When I was young I liked Little House on the Prairie and I still enjoy watching the reruns today. Then when I was in my twenties I fell in love with Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. If you are like me and you also loved Dr. Quinn, which started airing in 1993 on CBS, I think you will also like When Calls the Heart on the Hallmark Channel. Dr. Quinn ran for six seasons with the final episode airing in May 1998. When Calls the Heart started as a movie before becoming a series in January 2014. I just started watching When Calls the Heart in 2019 but I have been watching the seasons I missed on DVD. Michael Landon, Jr., is an executive producer of When Calls the Heart. Many people will recognize his name because he is the son of the late Michael Landon, who starred on Little House on the Prairie. All three shows that I have just mentioned are very wholesome and involve life during a much simpler time. Life is so complicated today and watching When Calls the Heart is like a breath of fresh air.

There are many similarities between Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and When Calls the Heart. Both shows are westerns that include as their main characters strong-willed women from wealthy families who move to rural areas to help other people. The time period for Dr. Quinn was post-Civil War America and When Calls the Heart is set in 1910 in Canada. Dr. Quinn was a doctor of course and Elizabeth Thornton was a teacher. Both women also fall in love in their new home towns. Dr. Quinn in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Elizabeth Thornton in the fictional town of Hope Valley in Canada. One difference in the women’s situations is that Elizabeth Thornton’s true love was a Canadian Mountie who was killed and in the last two seasons she is involved in a love triangle with two men competing for her attention. Dr. Quinn’s love interest was the very rugged, sexy mountain man Sully, who lived through so many dangerous situations but always survived. Both women came from very wealthy families. The shows gave us glimpses into their family homes, which were very fancy and neither family was very happy when these women moved. They tried every chance they got to get them to reconsider their “silly” decisions and move back home.

In the case of Dr. Quinn her story began with her taking care of three orphaned children and as the series continued she got married and had a baby with Sully. Elizabeth Thornton also had a baby and there was a shocking twist in the storyline but I’m not going say in case you decide to watch the show. The bottom line is that both characters also share the similarity of being new mothers. Both shows also include an ensemble of supporting, mostly loveable group of “townspeople”. Some of them are supportive from the get go while others take some time to come around. This was especially true in Dr. Quinn’s case because there were very few women doctors at that time. Everyone had a very hard time accepting her, especially the men. Many of the storylines highlight the struggles women faced and how they dealt with them. For example, on the February 28, 2021, episode of When Calls the Heart, Fiona, one of the women characters was opening up a barbershop. Someone asked her why a barbershop and not a beauty shop? She said because the towns former barber had a large customer base and cutting men’s hair is a lot quicker than cutting women’s hair. That was a good point but all the men that came near her newly opened business were running in the opposite direction. As you can see this show has some comedic moments which makes it fun to watch. Dr. Quinn also had some funny moments but she faced a lot more pushback from the townspeople because she faced the hurdle of getting people to accept a woman doctor whereas women as teachers were much more acceptable.

I would recommend that you watch Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman if this series is “before your time” or if you never had the chance to watch it when it was on television. When Calls the Heart’s eighth season just started in February and I think you can start watching now without first watching prior seasons or episodes. Then when you have the time you can watch all the prior seasons and the 2021 episodes you missed. Both these television series are suitable for your whole family and that is a definite advantage. I hope if you decide to watch one or both of these shows that you really enjoy them.