Jane Seymour and Joe Lando Get Back in the Saddle for Lifetime's "A Christmas Spark"

"That makes two of us," Lando added. "That's the truth. I went over to Jane's house, and she had a million projects she was discussing with me and said, 'Oh, by the way, I have this really good Lifetime script, would you like to read it?' I said sure, not knowing I was going to [do it], but I got a little jealous because I was thinking whoever does this is going to have a lot of fun. It proved to be a lot of fun.

"Actually, before I read it Jane said, 'Oh, maybe you could play Father Christmas [Santa]," he continued. "I didn't quite understand that [reference] and thought, 'Oh, okay.' But when I read the script, there was a certain amount of singing and dancing that I was very worried about. I wasn't sure if they would take some of it out as I was possibly going out on a limb of embarrassment. But I took a shot at it because Jane was going to be there and they adapted the script to take care of those little problems I had, except for a couple of scenes. Two things I don't have in common with my character are Hank is singing, and I can't dance. But you give it a shot." Given the movie's theme centers on stepping out of one's comfort zone and taking a risk, his decision was almost life imitating art.

As Molly, a mother steeped in tradition and reluctant to move on with her life, Seymour hopes the story resonates with others in the same predicament. "What was interesting with this project is I'm playing a woman of a certain age, which I am," she shared. "She had a wonderful marriage, but her husband passed away and she spent many years looking after him and doing everything she could. "[Now] she just thinks life is all about tradition and everything is always going to be the same. Really, the hope is that change is not something to be afraid of -- that change can bring a Christmas spark and bring something magical to your life when you least expect it, and it's never too late to begin again.

"It's never too late to have a whole other life and other experiences," she continued. "It doesn't mean you have to discard or let go of a true love that you had for a long time with your partner, but there's space for both loves in your heart. I think that's a really important message for anyone at Christmas. Maybe they're no longer with the person they loved, [either] through a loss or a divorce, but you can hang onto the real love that you had at the time, and you can carry that with you for the rest of your life."

While on the subject of real love; the love and mutual respect Seymour and Lando share are readily apparent and undeniable. As is their on-screen chemistry, three decades after Dr. Quinn. "I didn't feel any weight doing this because it was different than other Christmas scripts I've read," Lando explained. "It had a lot of humor, and I knew that they were going to let us kind of just be ourselves -- and that's what I loved about it. We used some of our own chemistry, and chemistry is something you can't manufacture. It happens, and it happened with Jane and me. It's happened just a couple times with other people in my career, and I think that's why we keep going back to that well of chemistry between the two of us."

"It's pretty unique," agreed Seymour. "I remember the first day I worked on Dr. Quinn, I had just come through a terrible circumstance and marriage, and I'm looking at him and just going like, 'No, that'll never happen.' Nearly 32 years later, we are reasonably inseparable. Joe and his family are always at my house. We have entwined families, the kids, his wife Kirsten and I, all get along really well. There is chemistry, but we're also best friends and there's an excitement [when] you can act without a safety net because you know that you can throw something out and he'll catch it, or I'll catch it, or we'll play with it.

"I know everyone always talks about bringing back Dr. Quinn," she added. "I'd only do it if was going to be as good, if not better, than the original. I mean, it's got to be something really special, and I'm not quite sure how that happens. At the moment we haven't found anyone that actually wants it. I think here with this movie, bringing forward Molly and Hank, I'm not going back. I'm going forward. It's a celebration of a unique chemistry that we have, and it was so much fun."

"I would love to do it again," concurred Lando. "But we won't lower the bar and sully the reputation of Dr. Quinn. It was a fabulous show, and I don't want to do anything less than what we did before. Sadly, the town where we shot burned to the ground a couple years ago. It would be like starting new. Hopefully, that will come together soon because time is a ticking bomb here with Jane and I."

"What?" laughed the eternally youthful Seymour in closing. "I've just begun!"

A Christmas Spark will be telecast Sunday, November 27 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime as part of the network's It's a Wonderful Lifetime programming event.

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