New Series 'The Baxters' the Show Every Streaming Service Needs
In what is seen as a significant development in faith-based media, The Baxters, a riveting family drama starring Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel) and Ted McGinley (Married with Children) will launch exclusively on the Amazon Prime streaming platform later this week.
Based on the best-selling book series by Karen Kingsbury, The Baxters follows the daily lives of Elizabeth and John Baxter and their five children and delves into many familiar themes that are affecting today’s modern family.
With infidelity the focus of Season One, The Baxters realize that they must come together as a family to overcome this great challenge, one that has ripped apart even the most well-intentioned families in the past. This can only be accomplished by a deep faith, one that calls upon the name of Jesus in these troubling times of distress.
I recently sat down with Downey and Kingsbury to discuss the origins of The Baxters, the power of prayer, and why it is critically important for this program to be shown on Amazon Prime.
Karen, as a writer, you have ideas and concepts floating through your mind for stories all the time. Where did the idea for The Baxters come from?
Karen Kingsbury: I was on a flight from Kansas City, Missouri, back to my hometown, which was Portland, Oregon at the time. It was a three hour flight, and in that one flight I was thinking, you know what? It'd be fun to write a series. It'd be fun to write something about a family. And all of a sudden, I feel like God put this movie in my heart and I could see it. I could see the family, the characters, where they lived, their house. I'm writing on a notepad at that point, just as fast as I could and just wiping tears. And when that plane landed, I had (the basic outline of) The Baxters. I knew fully who they were, and I knew we had five books. It wasn't until a year later that I realized it was actually going to be a whole lot more than five books. But I felt like it's a gift from God. I feel like The Baxters were just a gift.
With that said, if you were trying to convince a friend or family member to sit down and watch an episode or hopefully the entire series for The Baxters what would you say to encourage them? What would your sales pitch be?
Roma Downey: I first fell in love with The Baxters myself through the book series. Karen has 27 books in the series which is unbelievable. So, in success, the TV series is going to run forever and ever. But I fell in love with that first book series. The first book was called Redemption, and it deals with redemptive themes. It moved me, it made me laugh. It was compelling. The characters are interesting. It's dynamic and deals with the family of Elizabeth and John Baxter. They are the mother and father, who have five adult children, all with different needs, different challenges, and different family dynamics. And yet we see the whole thing through a family who believe in God. And we don't often get to see that on television, a church going family, and a family that at times just stops everything, holds hands and prays.
Roma, when I interviewed you at The Chosen premiere you mentioned that a key to the series is that the Baxters are a Christian family and at the end of the day they solve their problems with prayer. Why is it so important to showcase the power of prayer on The Baxters?
Roma Downey: That very first episode, we see that the parents intuitively know there's something going on before they find out about this infidelity. They intuitively know there's something up with their daughter, Kari. And while they're sitting there worried about it, they say, let's pray for her. And on the screen we see this husband and wife, this committed and loving mother and father, holding hands, closing their eyes, and calling in the name of Jesus a prayer for their daughter. And we see that throughout the series and it's so powerful and meaningful to see it show up in a TV drama. You realize how rarely we ever get to see that, and that’s why it makes it extra meaningful. I think that it's going to be there in The Baxters. It's lovely to see The Chosen has done so well.
Karen Kingsbury: Prayer is the most powerful force on earth. It literally puts us into this space with God, the creator of the world, and of the universe who loves you deeply and personally. So, when you pray it's just talking. It's just like talking to a friend. He already knows what you're thinking, so it's just turning to him and reaching out. One of my favorite scenes in The Baxters is when the parents, John and Elizabeth, are sitting on the couch and they're fretting a little bit over Kari, their oldest daughter. They're thinking that she is going through a hard time. They don't know what it is. And so they decide right then, right there, they're going to pray for her. They hold hands, they begin to pray, and we cut away to the actual reality of what is happening to Kari in that moment. She arrives at an apartment complex and finds out that her husband is indeed having an affair. So, I think we've never seen material like that on television and I’m excited about it.
Roma, in addition to being an executive producer on The Baxters, you are also the lead actress. It has been many years since you have appeared on screen in an acting role. What is it about the character Elizabeth Baxter that made you want to return?
In Elizabeth Baxter, I stepped into playing the role myself. So, if you were a fan of Touched by an Angel you might enjoy seeing me back on the screen. I'm certainly happy to be back on the screen. And I fell in love with this character because she is a prayer warrior. She's a mother, she's got a mother's heart. I myself am a mother. I appreciated her kindness and her sensitivity to all of her children's needs and kind of juggling the different personalities of these five kids.
There's powerful storylines. I think what separates it from other TV shows is that when life brings the Baxter to their knees, the Baxters pray. As a person of faith myself, to see a family of faith on the screen is unusual. I think it's well done.
This year is shaping up to be a very significant year for faith-based movies and television shows. Already we have seen the success of season four of The Chosen, the recent Ordinary Angels movie, Unsung Hero is on the near horizon, and now The Baxters will be launching on Amazon Prime. These are all significant developments. Do you see faith-based projects becoming part of the mainstream going forward?
Karen Kingsbury: There's a lot of people in our country who either have a faith in Jesus, they have a faith in God, or they're looking, they're wondering and searching. And I think that we've sometimes portrayed Christians in the media as this plastic sort of perfect group that feels a little bit cheesy. And the biggest problem is, do I get a parking space? That’s not reality. Reality is we deal with some really big and deep things, and this was the first time for a show to come out that has the love and the tenderness of The Waltons, but all of the problems and conflicts of any show you'd find on TV.
Roma Downey: It's lovely to see so many movies this year in faith and entertainment, inspirational movies that seem to have broken through into the mainstream. And I believe the reason that is, is because the Christian audience is mainstream. We're not some group of people. I think they still try to imagine that we are just like some little group of people in some little unknown state. Instead, we are just everybody everywhere and we watch TV like anybody else. But I think that we as a community are ready to see people who share our values, who go to church, and who try to deal with things the way that we meaningfully try to deal with them. I think that's going to be important for a faith audience. I have friends who do not share our faith and who've seen some early episodes (of The Baxters) and they say, ‘Look, we may not share your faith, but we do share family dynamics. We know how families work. We don't always like each other. We don't always approve of each other's choices, but at the end of the day, we always love each other.’
The Baxters launches on Amazon Prime this Thursday.
WATCH A TRAILER FOR THE BAXTERS:
