Yahoo Lifestyle Sweet Magnolias’ JoAnna Garcia Swisher Was ‘Actually Afraid’ of That Season 4 Premiere Twist: ‘I Felt Guilty!’
Now that’s how you do a premiere.
Sweet Magnolias returned to Netflix on Thursday, kicking off Season 4 with a seemingly intimate Halloween party that revealed itself to be a surprise wedding for Maddie and Cal.
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JoAnna Garcia Swisher knew that her character tying the knot was “inevitable,” especially after she caught the bouquet at Dana Sue and Ronnie’s vow renewal ceremony at the end of Season 3, but a Halloween-themed wedding exactly wasn’t what she had in mind, let alone one that she kept secret from fellow Magnolias Helen (Heather Headley) and Dana Sue (Brooke Elliott).
“I was actually afraid of what Brooke and Heather were going to say to me when they read it,” she tells TVLine. “I felt guilty … on Maddie’s behalf. I thought they let me off the hook easier than they should have, because I would have been so mad if I were Dana Sue or Helen that I didn’t get to be in the mix on all of that.”
Headley agrees, adding that Maddie’s secret nuptials actually became a “point of contention” for her on set.
“They’re best friends, they do life together,” Headley reminds us. “These are women who have been through everything with each other, and I’m sure that Helen and Dana Sue are just sitting in the wings waiting to plan this wedding with her. I wouldn’t even doubt that they had dresses picked out. And then they get blindsided at Halloween with this wedding?! I think they’d be a little upset.”
Elliott, on the other hand, is “not surprised” that the whole thing blew over quickly, since Helen and Dan Sue “ultimately just want Maddie’s happiness. … It should have blown over quickly. If that got carried out any longer, it would have been a little off.”
So, where did this idea for a quickie Halloween wedding even come from? Showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson went into Season 4 looking for a way to make Maddie and Cal’s big day both different and memorable. And with Serenity celebrating the holidays for the first time this season, the perfect opportunity presented itself.
“TV weddings usually have this big buildup, so we thought, what if this one didn’t?” Anderson says. “Maddie and Cal have been together long enough that we thought they were ready, so why not surprise the entire town and our entire audience? We hope to be on for seasons and seasons to come, which probably means weddings and weddings to come. This makes sure that everybody will remember Cal and Maddie’s as distinct from anybody else’s.”
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As for the secrecy of it all, Anderson explains that the Magnolias were quick to forgive Maddie “because she was willing to lay out the reasons why they did it that way. Maddie also seemed genuinely remorseful that they took it the way they took it.”
Besides, why spend so much time dwelling on this when there are “many more surprises to come” this season?
OK, let’s talk: Did you enjoy Maddie and Cal’s surprise Halloween wedding? Can you believe she kept it a secret from the Magnolias, and that they managed to get over it so quickly? Grade the Season 4 premiere below, then drop a comment with your thoughts on these out-of-nowhere nuptials.
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