If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching “Perry Mason” reruns on Hallmark Movie Channel, it’s that, at Hallmark, it’s all-about the unrelenting cross-network promo campaigns for the 57,898 movies the network seems to churn out every year. Rarely does a commercial break go by when we’re not hearing about “Come Dance at My Wedding” or some other movie with a similarly sappy title.
Well, they must be doing something right vis a vis marketing, since their movies always perform well — including “The Good Witch’s Charm,” which aired on HMC’s sister station, Hallmark Channel, last Saturday night. “Witch’s Charm,” starring Catherine Bell, snared 3 million viewers and was also the network’s second-highest-rated movie of the year (in women 25-54).
More cable numbers . . . Discovery’s “Gold Rush” and its new series, “Jungle Gold,” got off to strong starts last Friday night, with the season premiere of “Gold Rush” pulling in 4.5 million viewers (you’re welcome, Discovery) and posting double-digit increases, across all demos, over last season’s premiere.
“Jungle Gold,” meanwhile, premiered to 2.8 million viewers at 10 p.m.
Somewhere in or around Virginia, Amy Hagovsky smiles knowingly.
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The movie “Note to Self” received a standing ovation when it opened the 2012 Hollywood Black Film Festival last week in LA — with a lot of praise reserved for its 8-year-old co-star, Layla Crawford, who held her own opposite Christian Keyes, Letoya Luckett and Brely Evans. Crawford, making her feature film debut, plays Katrina Whittaker (she’s the daughter of Luckett’s character), and while she’s a novice in films, she’s done quite a lot of work elsewhere. She was a principal in the Nike Voices commercial, featuring WNBA legend Lisa Leslie, which aired during last summer’s Olympic Games, and she’s in the “Best Day” commercial for BMW.
TV viewers may recognize Crawford in the syndicated sitcom “The First Family,” which co-stars Marla Gibbs, Jackee Harry, John Witherspoon and Gladys Knight (it was created by Byron Allen, who also produces). She’ll also appear as Sam Hanna’s (LL Cool J) daughter in an episode of “NCIS: Los Angeles,” airing Nov. 6 (9 p.m./Ch. 2).
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Actor/host/commentator/raconteur Charles Grodin, heard daily on CBS Radio, has a new DVD, “The Perils of Show Business: Proceed at Your Own Risk” (Limelight Editions). In the DVD, Grodin, who studied acting under Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen — classmates included Gene Wilder and Dustin Hoffman — talks about acting schools, agents, auditions and everything else involved in the “business” of show business.
“The point is that my research shows that 3 percent of people who go into show-business make a living,” Grodin told me. “I studied [acting] for eight years and trained with people who were terrific, who you never heard or saw. There’s plenty of rejection . . . the main point of the DVD is that people should know what they’re getting into when they go into acting, writing or directing.”
Grodin, who starred in “The Heartbreak Kid,” “Midnight Run” (opposite Robert De Niro) and the “Beethoven” movie series — and also contributed commentary to the new-defunct “60 Minutes II” — says all proceeds from the DVD will go to his Lend-A-Hand Foundation, which helps people in dire need who are not covered by any other organization.
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Last, but not least:
* Kelli Giddish (“Law & Order: SVU”) will run in The New York City Marathon this Sunday . . . “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” have been renewed through the 2016-16 season. Both shows air on Ch. 7 here in New York . . . Ch. 7’s Bill Ritter and Sherri Shepherd (“The View”) will attend YAI’s “Think! Again, a Night of New Ideas” on Wednesday, Nov. 7 (The Pierre). Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary will perform, with Gristedes/Red Apple CEO John Catsimatidis receiving YAI’s “Humanitarian of the Year Award.”