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After filming Heartland for 18 seasons, it’s probably safe to assume that the producers, cast and crew have endured just about everything that Mother Nature could throw at them in rural Alberta. But the production faced a unique challenge this summer.
One of the main plot trajectories for Season 18 is that the Bartlett ranch, which has been at the heart of the series since its 2007 launch, will face devastating drought conditions. It is a story arc based on the real-life challenges faced by ranchers and farmers in Alberta. Writers for Season 18, debuts Sept. 29 on the CBC, began planning this thread not long after the province went through a particularly dry period in 2023.
But when cameras started to roll in May, Mother Nature decided not to co-operate.
“We were shooting a drought in one of the wettest seasons we’ve ever felt,” says Amber Marshall, who plays protagonist Amy Fleming in the series. “It was quite a challenge showing characters out there talking about how if we don’t have rain, we’re not going to make it, in this lush green pasture. It’s one of those things where you write scripts so many months in advance and the previous summer had been so hot and dry, so that’s what they were basing it off of. Last year, everything was crispy and dry and hot and then this summer it’s beautiful and raining and lush green and we’re talking about this big drought that’s impacting the area.”
So the crew, already adept at negotiating Alberta’s mercurial climes, occasionally had to shoot around the flourishing green fields to capture the hardship. It all plays into a “save-the-ranch” vibe that will be a part of Season 18. Drought is not the only challenge this season facing the clan, which still includes Amy, older sister Lou (Michelle Morgan), father Tim (Chris Potter) and grandfather Jack Bartlett (Shaun Johnston). The operations are also facing increased competition by Pryce Beef, a neighbouring ranch whose practices are adversely impacting the Bartlett business.
“They are selling beef to a lot of the same venues that we would be,” Marshall says. “It’s head-to-head rivalry with your next-door neighbour and that’s why Lou steps up and tries to use her business background to make a go of the profitable side of the ranch.”
While the writers have decided to put more focus on the day-to-day struggles of a working ranch in Alberta, Heartland would not be Heartland if these challenges didn’t intersect with the characters’ personal lives and loves.
Since 2007, the Canadian public has had the rare opportunity to watch a family evolve for nearly two decades as the Bartlett-Fleming clan became the expanded Bartlett-Fleming-Morris-Borden clan. When Lou and Amy arrived at the ranch, the latter was only 15. That means she was a year younger than Lou’s oldest daughter Katie (Baye McPherson) will be in Season 18.
Longtime viewers watched Amy arrive at the ranch as a young teen grieving the death of her mother and grow into a young adult, wife, mother and – at the beginning of Season 14 – devastated widow forced to deal with single motherhood after the untimely death of longtime character Ty (Graham Wardle).
After mourning the death of her young husband, Amy eventually began seeing other men as time passed. In Season 17, that included Nathan Pryce Jr. (played by Spencer Lord). In a Romeo-and-Juliet twist, he just happens to be part of the family that owns the competing ranch. Further complications arise with the return of Ty’s best friend Caleb (Kerry James), who wants his relationship with Amy to be more than just friends.
“Amy is becoming very close with Nathan, who is the neighbour they are in direct competition with,” Marshall says. “So, of course, that doesn’t sit well with Amy’s family and it causes some ups and downs in the relationship with him and the family and she is stuck in the middle of it.”
As always, these soap-opera entanglements will be balanced with Heartland’s usual helping of horses and other animals as Amy continues to work with troubled equines. Marshall is now a producer on the series and one of her main tasks is dealing with the horses that are brought onto the show. She has been a devoted equestrian since before she was cast as Amy and it remains an integral part of both the series and her life.
“At the beginning of the year, we talk about the arcs and we look at the horse storyline(s),” she says. “Does this make sense? Can we bring in new horse characters? Can we bring in new horse breeds? How is this going to work with the fundamentals of what goes on behind the scenes, like the wranglers finding these horses? Can the horses do the discipline we’re asking them to do? Are they going to be comfortable on the set? So a lot of my time and energy goes into the animal actors and the horse storylines.”
It all fits into a solid formula that has been winning Heartland fans around the world. Last week, CBC announced it would be expanding its streaming portfolio with a separate channel dedicated to Heartland that will feature the first 17 seasons of the series.
Despite the drought, competition and heartache, the Heartland ranch still needs to be the sort of romantically rustic and aspirational setting where families and teens want to spend time.
Mark Haroun became showrunner of the series in 2016 but has been with Heartland since the beginning. He landed an entry-level script supervisor job on the series in its debut season. The key seems to be mixing new elements – the series has a habit of bringing in new pre-teen or teen characters every few seasons, for instance, to keep that demographic appeased – with the traditional aspects. While Haroun could have never predicted the show’s longevity, he said he did recognize early on that it was something special.
“I certainly knew that there was lightning in a bottle with Heartland,” says Haroun, who picked up the Showrunner Award this year at the Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Awards. “It’s that combination of the cast and the kinds of stories we were telling. That sort of family drama didn’t exist on television. That audience hadn’t been tapped into. It did feel like there was something really special from Day 1.”
While the series is still going strong after 18 seasons, there are inevitable questions that come with such longevity. When will it end? How will it end? Are the cast, crew and writers prepared for it to end?
Of course, the decision will ultimately be made by the Mother Corporation. But Haroun says the hope is that the series would get enough of a runway before cancellation that the writers could create an ending that is satisfying for them, the actors, the characters and the audience. Whatever the case, Heartland is a long way from being exhausted, he says.
“Nothing is guaranteed, but I feel like we have so many more stories to tell,” Haroun says. “I’ve never gone into the room at the beginning of the season and struggled to come up with stories because there are such rich, dynamic characters and it feels like we have so many places to go with stories. I feel like we could just keep going.”
Heartland airs on Sundays on CBC.