Neal (pictured at top with Gournet Detective co-star Brooke Burns) tells me it was during those three years on Cedar Cove years that his career expanded -- and what makes the behind the scenes experience so special for him is it’s a family affair. “My wife Becky Southwell and I had sold other pilots together as writers and producers so we were able to introduce ourselves as, ‘I'm not just an actor’, there's another side to me,” he said. “[Hallmark] has been great for the last three years with the selling and producing. I've done four movies for them now and they keep working with us and we all have a good time.
“Writing is definitely the hardest,” he continued. “Generally speaking, it also [pays] the least. So it's a double-edged sword. Producing is fun and I enjoy selling and pitching; development can be hard and pre-production is fun. I love when anything is possible; it can be from locations to cast to production design. I love all of that. Shooting is generally fun, post-production is also kind of fun with the editing and sound, but it takes a village.”
Neal attributes his happy working relationship with Hallmark to a variety of things and refers to his network bosses as “family.”