TV Talk: Pittsburgh-set Hallmark movie features local Alzheimer's march and mentions local landmarks

Natalie (Ashley Williams) moves to Pittsburgh in the Hallmark Channel's series “Falling Together” (Saturday, 8 p.m., World Alzheimer's Day). There, Natalie falls in love with the distant caretaker (Paul Campbell, “Battlestar Galactica”) of her apartment building and volunteers at the annual Walk to End Alzheimer's.

One of the film's executive producers, Neal Dodson, pushed for archival footage of the skyline and references to Pittsburgh to be scattered throughout the film, from Natalie's job at Carnegie Mellon University (Dodson graduated from CMU with a degree in acting in 2000) to a nod to the Warhol Museum to a nod to Mister Rogers and a restaurant based on a former Squirrel Hill landmark.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Dodson, who is married to Williams, said the two came up with the idea for the film when they moved into a New York City apartment and Ashley invited the whole building to a chili party – she had posted flyers in the elevator and lobby – and no one showed up. That scene also plays out with Natalie after she moves into the Steeltown Lofts in Pittsburgh in “Falling Together.”

“Ashely started crying, I called the two people in the building that we knew and asked them to come and prevent this disaster, and we ended up eating chili for months,” Dodson recalled.

Williams and Dodson told a Hallmark executive about the experience, who liked the idea of ​​inviting the neighbors over for chili and creating a fall-themed movie.

“But that's just one scene,” Dodson said. “Then we had to figure out what the movie was.”

Working with friend and writer Adam Kulbersh, the trio developed the film's plot, including the Walk to End Alzheimer's, which was inspired by Williams' death of her mother from the disease in 2016. (A photo of Ashley's mother, Linda Payne Williams, hangs on the wall in the film's Alzheimer's office, which was decorated to resemble the Pittsburgh chapter's offices.)

Although they knew the film would likely be shot in Vancouver due to exchange rates and financial incentives (which it did in April and May), the trio chose Pittsburgh as the setting to differentiate it from the small-town settings common in Hallmark.

Pittsburgh references include Natalie's CMU shirt and hat (“It required seven levels of approval (from CMU),” Dodson said) and an arts and crafts market filled with booths named after local neighborhoods (Point Breeze Candles, Brookline Vintage Furniture, Squirrel Hill Previously Enjoyed Books).

Dodson had Pittsburgh's Cork Factory in mind when he designed Natalie's home, Steeltown Lofts (chimneys were added in post-production to give the building a Cork Factory feel).

Dodson, a York native, filmed the Starz film competition series “The Chair” in Pittsburgh in 2014. That show was produced by Before the Door, the company Dodson founded with actor Zachary Quinto and fellow CMU graduate Corey Moosa. The three remain friends but went their separate ways professionally about nine years ago, with Quinto directing a new version of Before the Door.

The Falling Together creative team in Vancouver did research in Pittsburgh, and to every location scout, Dodson said, “This looks like Pittsburgh, this doesn’t.”

Kulbersh invented a diner famous for its pies, which reminded Dodson of the closed Gullifty's in Squirrel Hill. As a student at CMU, he always encouraged his parents to take him and his friends there for dinner.

“There was this huge rotating glass dessert case with all these cakes in it,” Dodson recalled.

Dodson acknowledged that the exterior of the diner in Falling Together is more similar to Ritter's (the movie was actually shot in the same diner setting used for The CW's Riverdale), but he was determined to get permission to use the name Gullifty. The restaurant's name comes from X the Owl from Mister Roger's Neighborhood, who often said “Nifty galifty” (Rogers' spelling).

“People ask what a producer does and I have to do these weird detective hunts and spend 12 hours trying to figure out what happened to Gullifty's and who owns the rights to the name now,” Dodson said.

Dodson called the remaining Gullifty's in Bryn Mawr and got permission to use the name. In the film's best Pittsburgh accuracy, artisans recreated the sign, “Gullifty's: a unique eatery,” in the same font that adorned the restaurant at 1922 Murray Ave. Dodson's only disappointment: They couldn't find room in the eatery for the rotating pie display.

Lynzy Groves, director of the Pittsburgh Walk to End Alzheimer's, said the local group is excited to see the Pittsburgh Walk on screen. She hopes it will encourage local residents to participate in the upcoming walk at Highmark Stadium, Station Square on Oct. 19. (To register, visit act.alz.org/pittsburgh.)

Dodson said that “Falling Together” was originally called “Autumn's Gift” and the main character was named Autumn, but when another Hallmark movie used “Autumn” in that way, the producers of “Falling Together” changed the main character to Natalie and held an on-set contest to come up with a new title, with the winner getting a gift certificate for dinner. Submissions ranged from the intentionally absurd (“Autumn Leaves and Then Comes Back”) to the ultimate winner, suggested by actor Jake Guy, who plays an allergy-plagued resident of Steeltown Lofts.

“He won and said, 'Whatever you spend on dinner, donate it to (Walk to End) Alzheimer's,'” Dodson recalled. “Ashley burst into tears and everyone was excited. That's the kind of movie it was.”

Dodson and Williams continue to work with Hallmark. She is currently filming the dating show “Small Town Setup” for Hallmark+ and they have 15 possible future Hallmark movies in the pipeline.

Dodson also works outside of Hallmark, including producing big-budget action-adventure films for director JC Chandor, such as 2019's Triple Frontier for Netflix, starring Ben Affleck.

Dodson and Chandor are working on a film for Amazon called “The Robber,” which is set in Pittsburgh and is based on the German film of the same name about a bank robber who runs a marathon. Dodson hopes to shoot the film in Pittsburgh.

“Eighty percent of the film takes place in Pittsburgh,” Dodson said. “We hope to shoot it next year.”

The 50th season of “SNL” begins

Jean Smart hosts the season premiere of NBC's “Saturday Night Live” on Sept. 28 (11:30 p.m., WPXI-TV) with musical guest Jelly Roll.

Nate Bargatze hosts with Coldplay on October 5. Ariana Grande hosts with Stevie Nicks on October 12.

Pittsburgh native Michael Keaton will host for the fourth time with Billie Eilish on October 19, and John Mulaney will host with Chappell Roan on November 2.

“SNL” celebrates its 50th anniversary on February 16 with a live primetime special.