Lori Loughlin back to making family flicks after prison release

It’s not quite a Hallmark moment. 

Lori Loughlin, 58, the disgraced former “Full House” star turned not-so-wholesome queen of the Hallmark Channel, is making her big return to movies following her stint in prison. She’ll star in the TV movie “Fall Into Winter” for the network Great American Family.

According to the network’s press release, the plot of the movie is as follows: “Keely (Loughlin) is aghast when her brother sells his half of their family-owned, upscale candy shop to his best friend from high school (and her nemesis, Brooks) forcing a sudden urgency to find connection and common ground. Keely has been hurt before; change is her new nemesis. Brooks’ past is a mirror of Keely’s. He, too, has a fortress around his heart. Fate brings the pair together. Might it also offer new beginnings?” 

Great American Family, founded in 2021, has holiday movies and rom coms that focus on “faith, family and country.” CEO Bill Abbott formerly helmed Hallmark Media, for which Loughlin starred in dozens of movies and series, until her 2019 arrest for her culpability in the college admissions scandal. She served two months in prison and was released in December of 2020. She immediately showed her remorse by dropping $13 million on a lavish vacation home. 

Abbott recently told Variety: “She’s America’s sweetheart, regardless of whatever happened. At the end of the day, she represents all that is positive about entertainment, and has had a stellar career — not only on-screen, but also the way she’s conducted herself personally, in terms of being someone who has a track record of doing the right thing in the world at large, aside from whatever happened. I don’t know the details.”

The college admissions scandal has been widely reported on and is even the subject of a Netflix movie. The Hallmark Channel terminated its relationship with Loughlin in 2019.

But lucky for her, Abbott now helms Great American Family. In a press release announcing the film project, he said, “Lori is a genre-defining star that I have had the honor to call a close friend and collaborator for more than 15 years… I look forward to welcoming her back to Great American Family to anchor our 2023 winter programming slate.”

The film “Fall Into Winter” will premiere in January 2023.