Heartland (Canadian TV series)

• Amber Marshall as Amy Fleming

Marshall

The protagonist of the series, Amy, inherited her mother's gift of being able to intuit the needs of horses and of practicing natural horsemanship. When Amy was fifteen years old, she was seriously injured in a car accident that killed her mother, Marion, while she was attempting to save Spartan, an abused horse. Amy is unable to attend her mother's funeral while recuperating at the hospital, but her estranged father Tim returns to attend Marion's funeral. When Amy returns home, she decides to continue her mother's work of healing abused or damaged horses, including Spartan. However, she must readjust not only to her father re-entering her life, but also the return of her older sister Lou, who has been living in New York City. Over time, Amy develops a close relationship with Ty Borden, a young man invited by Marion before her death to work as a ranch hand at Heartland as part of his probation. Ty begins to assist Amy in healing the horses and their friendship gradually turns to love. Though their relationship is rocky and they break up more than once, they manage to make amends and Ty gives Amy a promise ring in season 3. In the last episode of season 5, Ty secretly makes plans to propose to Amy, but after hearing her say how they should never "tie themselves down", he decides against it, not realizing Amy would later find the ring in his pocket. After they discuss the ring and marriage, Ty later finds the perfect moment to propose to Amy, and she accepts. The change in their relationship results in them breaking up briefly, getting back together when they rescue a herd of horses penned by ranchers who believed the horses to be detrimental to the land required for their cattle. Amy and Ty eventually marry in Jack's house, with Amy escorted by both Tim and Jack, and she rides in on Spartan. After getting married, she and Ty reside in the renovated loft at Jack's house. At the end of season 9, Amy reveals she is pregnant, though she goes through her pregnancy without Ty by her side, as he is away in Mongolia to save Gobi bears, a decision in which Amy supported Ty. They regularly communicate through Skype, though she misses having him nearby. At the end of Season 10, Amy gave birth at home to a baby girl, Lyndy Marion.

• Graham Wardle as Tyler "Ty" Borden

Wardle

When Ty was a child, he was abused by his stepfather Wade, whom he attacked for assaulting Ty's mother. The incident resulted in Ty's arrest and being sent to Juvenile hall; to complete his probation, Marion Fleming offered him a job as a ranch hand at Heartland. He soon begins to enjoy his life there and decides to stay after completing his probation, though he leaves for a short period to live with his biological father in Calgary. Jack treats Ty like a son and is very proud of him, especially after he earns his high school diploma and decides to study to become a vet. Ty at first is known as the "new cute guy" by Amy's friends, and Amy quickly falls for him. Ty dated Kit Bailey, a local cowgirl, for a time before he admitted his feelings for Amy. He and Amy have a tumultuous relationship over the subsequent seasons. In the final episode of Season 5, Ty buys a ring with plans to propose to Amy, but rethinks his proposal after hearing Amy say they should never "tie themselves down." When Amy discovers the ring, Ty and Amy agree to wait, and Ty is accepted to vet school and begins assisting Scott at his clinic. While camping, Ty finds the perfect moment to propose to Amy, who accepts, and they later marry. After Amy tells Ty that he is going to become a father, she supports his decision to go to Mongolia to save the last of the Gobi bears with Veterinarians Without Borders. Though he is unable to be by Amy's side throughout her pregnancy, they communicate frequently through Skype. Near the end of the season, Ty contracts a potentially life-threatening illness from a tick bite and returns to Calgary in critical condition. He is immediately taken to the hospital, where they help him to slowly recover. At the end of the season, Caleb breaks Ty out of the hospital (where he was being kept while the doctors ran additional tests to ensure he was cured) so that Ty can participate in Caleb's wedding to Cass as the best man. However, Amy goes into labor as they arrive at the church and they rush home for the birth of their daughter.

• Michelle Morgan as Samantha Louise "Lou" Fleming Morris

Morgan

At the beginning of the series, Lou moves back home from her job in New York City to help run Heartland. She is initially reluctant to stay in Hudson because she has a long-term boyfriend and a lucrative job in New York. Upon discovering Heartland's poor economic situation, she crafts a financial plan with knowledge from her MBA to pull the ranch out of debt and make it successful. However, she is told by a financial adviser at the bank that her presence at the ranch is essential to secure the loan necessary to implement her plan. Once Lou decides to stay, she runs the business end of Heartland, taking care of appointments and setting rates for stabling patient horses. She later sets her mind to starting a new business venture, a corporate retreat center: The Heartland Equestrian Connection. This idea is met with much resistance, especially from Jack. Family members derisively refer to the business as the "Dude Ranch", and the name sticks, though no longer with its negative connotation. Along the way, Lou breaks up with her boyfriend from New York and tries to re-kindle a romance with the local vet, Scott Cardinal. In season two, Lou's relationship with Scott dissolves. She meets her future husband, Peter, thanks to a setup by Jack's girlfriend Lisa, and starts a secret relationship with him due to Peter's job in the oil industry. Lou had previously rallied the local ranchers against Peter's oil company, and expects Jack would not approve of her choice of boyfriend. Later, Lou's relationship with Peter is more public and they marry at the end of season 3. They move to Dubai, but she soon feels very alone in such a foreign country and grows to miss Heartland and her family. When they move back home, Lou finds out she is pregnant. She later gives birth to a girl named Catherine Marion Minnie Fleming-Morris (often referred to as Katie). After several failed attempts to buy a place of their own and even to build a home somewhere on the 600 acre property at Heartland, Lou and Peter buy Mr. Hanley's ranch from Mrs. Bell and they plan to move into it and refurbish it. However, faulty wiring in the structure causes a fire, and the buildings and stables burn, leaving them no choice but to remain at Heartland. Lou has a positive relationship with her sister Amy, providing a listening ear and timely advice when she needs it, and Amy often plays the same role for Lou. Lou is also close with her father, Tim, and she is the first one to reconnect with him after Marion's death. In Season 6, Lou and Peter decide to adopt an orphan named Georgina Crawley, whom Jack had been fostering after discovering her hiding in the loft. In season 8, Lou and Peter start having relationship problems since Peter is constantly in Vancouver for his job. On Amy's advice, Lou goes to Vancouver to talk things over with him, but they decide to separate. Peter returns to Hudson to try to persuade Lou that they can work things out, but she is not interested, since nothing has changed. Lou later tries online dating, and seems to be falling for the new stable hand, Mitch. Peter visits regularly for his daughters, and interferes with Lou and Mitch's budding romance whenever he is at Heartland. In season 7, Lou buys Maggie's after Maggie moves to be with her daughter, Soraya, in London, England. She runs it with Tim, who acts as her supposedly "silent" business partner. Lou eventually works on bringing Maggie's to New York City and spends much of her time flying back and forth, with the rest of her family taking care of Georgie and Katie.

• Shaun Johnston as Jackson "Jack" Bartlett

Shaun Johnston

The family patriarch, Jack is Amy and Lou's grandfather and was Marion's father. He is a former rodeo star and was once a cattle rancher. When Marion took over, Heartland became a horse ranch. After her death, Jack helps Amy and Ty maintain Heartland and its horses and he is the one who fixes broken equipment, fences, and the like. Early in the series, he was very hostile towards ex-son-in-law Tim. The men have maintained a difficult relationship stemming from Tim's troubled past with alcohol and prescription drug abuse, his acrimonious divorce from Marion, and lack of involvement in Amy and Lou's lives. Jack seems to barely tolerate Tim's presence at times, and they've had numerous arguments over the running of the ranch. Jack was initially very judgmental towards Ty, and he warned the young man to keep ten feet away from his granddaughters at all times or risk losing any part of his body that crossed that line. Over time, Jack comes to accept Ty like a son and shows a great deal of concern and paternal affection for him. When Ty seeks permission from Jack to ask for Amy's hand in marriage, Jack gives him his blessing. In terms of personality, Jack is very stubborn and reluctant to accept change of any kind. This trait sometimes causes friction between him and others, most notably his romantic interest, Lisa Stillman, and with his granddaughter Lou. In season 7, Jack finally asks Lisa to marry him, and she says yes. They elope in the season 7 finale. Jack also suffers from heart problems after having a heart attack. When Jack is missing one episode after collapsing in the fields, Tim is the one to find and save him. Jack dotes on his three great-granddaughters, Katie, Georgie and Lyndy

• Alisha Newton as Georgina "Georgie" Fleming Morris (Crawley)

Newton

Georgie is Lou and Peter's adopted daughter, Jack's adopted great-granddaughter, and Phoenix's owner. She has a best friend named Steven whom she met in the seventh/eighth season. When she first came to Heartland, she was a misbehaving runaway, but because she wanted to stay, she began to improve her behavior. Georgie has a habit of running away from every foster home in which she's been placed. Jack agrees to foster her until Clint was able to find another family to foster her. Not wanting her to leave, Lou and Peter agree to become her long-term foster parents and later adopt her. Georgie adores Katie, her little sister. She also loves Phoenix, a horse who repeatedly ran away from a neglectful home, and through the intervention of the Fleming/Bartlett/Morris family, she found a new home at Heartland. She is a naturally talented show jumper, reminding Ty of Amy on Spartan when Georgie jumps with Phoenix. She met Phoenix when she was escaping from her social worker and rode for the first time, astounding the family. Georgie is a tomboy and shares a lot of Amy's personality; she is fearless, talented, strong-minded, and clever. This makes Mallory very jealous of her when they first meet. In Season 6, she finds an Alsatian dog running wild, whom she is allowed to keep and names Remi. When Georgie was 3, her birth parents were killed in a car accident. She has an older brother named Jeff. Over time, Georgie develops strong bonds with the family. However, she continues to misbehave at times, even running away once. She has a rival named Olivia, with whom she later develops a grudging friendship. In the later seasons, Georgie and Olivia join the Extreme Team, a trick riding group. This replaces show jumping as Georgie's main extracurricular interest. She works hard and is one of the best members of the team, performing stunts such as Roman riding. Georgie has some difficulty balancing schoolwork, life on a ranch, and her interest in trick riding. She struggles in math, to the point that Lou hires a math tutor on the recommendation of Georgie's teacher. While Georgie is very reluctant to have a tutor in math, her grades improve. Georgie later develops romantic feelings for Adam Parker, her tutor. Although he reciprocates her feelings, Adam's father is against their association, feeling that Georgie is a bad influence on his son. Eventually, it all works out and Georgie and Adam date for a few months. They break up over a perceived breach of privacy when Adam sees Georgie's messages exchanged with Clay McMurtry and thinks she has feelings for him. Georgie also develops a strong friendship with Jade Virani, though they were definitely not friends when they met in Season 7.

• Chris Potter as Timothy "Tim" Fleming

Potter

Tim is Amy's and Lou's father who left when they were young (Lou was a teenager, and Amy was five). After a rodeo accident, he struggled with prescription drug (painkiller) abuse and alcoholism. As a result, Jack kicked Tim out and he moved to Fort St. John. After Amy and Lou's mother dies, he comes back into the picture, moving to Big River Ranch (making him "practically a neighbor" to Heartland) and he becomes a regular character. Tim later buys Big River Ranch when its owner, Ray, dies and has a brief relationship with Ray's daughter, who inherited the ranch. He later begins to date a jockey named Janice, and nearly moves to California with her. However, in Season 4 Episode 18 ("Burning Down the House"), it is discovered that Tim has an 11-year-old son named Shane with Miranda Grenier, his ex-girlfriend from Fort St. John. When he reveals this to Janice, she leaves for California without him. At the end of season 5, it is announced that Miranda has feelings for Tim. In seasons 6-8, Tim still thinks he's a big shot. He starts a rodeo school, a horse-selling business, and a new relationship. When he finds out that Miranda is getting married, he tries to crash the wedding, until Jack hides his keys and they have an argument. After he moves on, he has a long-term relationship with Casey McMurtry and later starts his own rodeo school. His star pupils are Jade Virani and Clay McMurtry, who are both teenage bronc riders.

Supporting

• Kerry James as Caleb O'Dell

Caleb is a ranch hand hired by Jack after Ty leaves for 4 months. In the beginning he is rather husky, has feelings for Amy, and develops a strong rivalry with Ty over Amy. He and Amy are a couple for a short period, but Amy soon goes back to Ty. He grows close to and falls in love with Ashley Stanton, eventually getting married. Caleb is a rodeo cowboy, competing in events such as bronc riding. Before his marriage to Ashley, Caleb is severely injured at a rodeo. After a battle with prescription drugs and alcohol, much like Tim's, he comes out okay but much thinner. Caleb and Ashley have a difficult marriage, struggling with financial problems, pressure from Val Stanton (Ashley's mother), and differing life goals. Caleb and Ashley originally elope, but after discovering that their officiator's license had expired, they have a wedding outside Caleb's trailer (where they had been living). They go on honeymoon to Italy and stay with one of Val's friends, but Caleb returns alone. Ashley remains in Italy for a time, then decides she wants to pursue postsecondary education in Vancouver. Caleb moves to be with Ashley there, but they drift apart as she makes new friends and spends more time away from Caleb. They eventually divorce, and Caleb returns to Hudson and resumes working at Heartland as a ranch hand, though he returns to his seasonal occupation at the rodeo. Caleb loves his American Quarter Horse, Shorty, who is his rodeo partner. After Ashley, Caleb pursues Lou's friend Nicole (who had moved from New York to Hudson and works for Lou, running the dude ranch). He eventually winds up in a long-term relationship with Cassandra, who was a vet student a year or two ahead of Ty and works at Scott's clinic. Caleb and Cass have a pregnancy scare, and Caleb finds the pregnancy test. There is quite a bit of dramatic irony during this episode, as the audience knows Cass is the one who might be pregnant, but Caleb and Ty become convinced it is Amy. In the end, this is sorted out. Caleb and Cass almost break up, but he eventually proposes and they are married in a church in Hudson at the end of Season 10. Ty and Amy were to attend, but Amy went into labour just as they arrived, and they had to rush home.

• Gabriel Hogan as Peter Walter Morris

Peter is Lou's ex-husband. He was first introduced as PW, the owner of a small oil company called Bedford Oil, caught doing some drilling on Heartland property. This caused Lou to use her skills to organize a protest against PW's company. In the meantime, one of Lisa's 'horsey' friends finds a 'great catch' for Lou and Lisa gives out Lou's email without her permission. Stage set for a bit of dramatic irony: Lou (using her first name, Sam) and PW (using his first name, Peter) begin a relationship over an instant messaging service. They meet in person not long after, and are shocked to discover each other's full identity. Their relationship is kept secret because both Jack and Tim hate PW for being part of "Big Oil". Peter eventually wins the family's approval and he and Lou are married in the Season 3 Finale because Peter's business is immediately taking them to Dubai. Lou returns from Dubai for a one-week visit that stretches on because she has been living so far from Heartland and her family. Peter begins to commute to and from Dubai because Lou is expecting their first child. Peter ends up bankrupt in Dubai, which cause them to move into Jack's house. Peter ends up back on his feet, but is only home on weekends due to his new job's location in Vancouver. In Season 6, Lou and Peter decide to try to adopt Georgie when Jack isn't approved as her legal guardian, and they are ultimately successful. Peter and his first ex-wife have joint custody of a friendly St. Bernard named Max. Lou and Peter separate because Peter is always away in Vancouver. Peter is discovered to have a girlfriend in Vancouver, which causes Lou to end the relationship. Peter continues to visit Heartland to spend time with his daughters.

• Nathaniel Arcand as Scott Cardinal

A good Native Canadian friend of the Bartlett/Fleming household who is also Heartland's vet. Scott had a troubled background, but Marion helped him to turn his life around, and he was the original "boy in the loft". Scott has a relationship with Lou for part of seasons 1 and 2, and later regrets the fact that he lost her and did not try harder to win her back. In season 2, Ty mentions to Amy that Scott had agreed to let Ty be his apprentice and that Scott would mentor him until he could possibly work with him after veterinary school. Ty is eventually accepted into veterinary school at the University of Calgary, and begins working part-time at Scott's clinic in later seasons. He is also joined by Cassandra, another U of C vet student who is a year or two ahead of Ty. Scott later offers Ty a position as his partner in the clinic.

• Jessica Steen as Elizabeth "Lisa" Stillman Bartlett

Steen

Lisa is the charismatic owner of Fairfield Stables, and a well-known horse breeder. She is introduced when she comes to Amy for help with a horse in the first few episodes of the series. Jack and Lisa seem to have chemistry in that episode, and begin a romantic relationship a few episodes later. Lisa is often in the south of France seasonally for work, and her jet-setting lifestyle becomes a difficulty in her relationship with Jack. He visits France with her several seasons into their relationship, but does not enjoy himself, feeling out of place in the fancy places they visit. After a lengthy break, Lisa returns to Heartland and reunites with Jack. At the end of season 7, they elope but decide to continue living separately, as they are most comfortable this way. Lisa is also the godmother to Lou and Peter's daughter, Katie.

• Julia Maren Baker as Katie Fleming Morris

Catherine "Katie" Marion Minnie Fleming Morris is Lou and Peter's only biological daughter, born in episode 67, "Passages". As an infant, the family took a large amount of time getting her to sleep through the night, and an episode featured this difficulty. Mallory is often brought in to babysit, since she's often at Heartland anyway, and interested in earning extra cash. In Season 7, Katie often cries at night for Lou, who is in the Atlantic provinces on a tour for her book, Mom's the Word. Katie also starts bed-wetting, presumably for the same reason. As a result, Peter and Katie eventually join Lou on her book tour. Later in the series, Lou worries that Katie is not progressing as she should, taking her to see a pediatrician to check for abnormalities. This causes friction between Lou and Peter, as he believes that Katie is fine, which turns out to be the case. As of Season 10, Katie is a young, energetic girl who enjoys spending time with her family, especially her adoptive older sister Georgie and her great-grandfather. She has a favorite stuffed toy pony, called "Pogy". As a baby, Katie was played by twin sisters Keira and Jordan.

Heartland Cast in 2015

Much of the series is filmed on location in and around High River, Alberta, with additional filming in studio and on location in nearby Calgary. A June 2013 flood in High River[2] swamped the standing set for Maggie's Diner.[3][4][5] The main Heartland sets escaped damage,[6] and seventh season scripts were rewritten to move shooting locations for the fictional town of Hudson to Inglewood, a historic neighborhood in downtown Calgary.[7] A month after the flood, the show's Calgary studios offered behind-the-scenes tours to paying fans for a one-day "Heartlanders for High River" fundraiser,[8] providing $80,000 to help the town recover.[9]

Heartland filmed some of its interiors at an abandoned military base, Currie Barracks,[10][11] scheduled for redevelopment.[12]

Entertainment One has released the first seven seasons of Heartland on DVD in Region 1 (Canada only). The standalone TV movie A Heartland Christmas was released on DVD in Canada on November 1, 2011[13] and in the USA on October 29, 2013.[14] Season 8 was released in Canada on October 6, 2015.[15]

In Region 2, 4Digital Media has released the first 6 seasons on DVD in the UK.

In Region 4, Season 1 and Season 2 Parts 1 and 2 have been released by Roadshow Home Video.

In its series premiere, Heartland beat out Global's comedy Da Kink in My Hair with 513,000 viewers in a battle of two new series.[31] After four episodes, Heartland had an average viewership of 464,000.[32] In its first-season finale, Heartland attracted 625,000 viewers.[33] The third-season premiere brought in over 1 million viewers, a new record for the show.[34] The 100th episode "After All We've Been Through" was watched by 945,000 viewers.[35]

A 6-part spin-off web series titled Hudson with Jade Verani as the protagonist was released on CBC Gem on March 31, 2019. It won the Best Web Series award at the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers's 2nd annual Stinger Awards.[36][37]

• Official website
• Heartland on IMDb
• Heartland at UP TV Network
• Heartland at TV.com
• Heartland at epguides.com