Having already been a greeting card icon, a doll, and a cartoon character, Holly Hobbie is coming to life thanks to a new live-action TV series on Hulu. You probably have a lot of questions, such as whether or not she will be wearing her signature bonnet. Unlike another Hulu series set in a future where bonnets are all the rage, Holly Hobbie will not be sporting the headwear when she makes her live-action debut. Here is everything else you need to know.
The new Holly Hobbie series will feature a modern-day update of the character. Set in the present day, where oversized bonnets have gone out of fashion, Holly Hobbie also has a new storyline, as she will be a 13-year-old aspiring singer/songwriter. While Holly has big dreams about one day saving the world in some fashion, she's just fine keeping it low-key in her small town for the time being. The series is helmed by Sarah Glinski, who is no stranger to teen-led series, having executive produced the beloved series Degrassi: Next Class and Degrassi: The Next Generation.
Cameras will begin rolling on the Holly Hobbie TV series in May 2018, but there is no casting news available yet. So the actress who will play the first live incarnation of Holly has yet to be announced, but we do know how many episodes potential viewers can expect to see her in. The first season of the single-camera series is slated to comprise ten episodes.
Holly Hobbie will stream on Hulu in the U.S., and on Family Channel in Canada. If you cannot watch it on either of those, there is good news. NBCUniversal's cable network for kids, Universal Kids, has the linear rights to air the series once it has streamed on Hulu.
The iconic illustration of Holly Hobbie was introduced to the world by the greeting card company American Greetings, just over fifty years ago in 1967. The image was created by Holly Hobbie, who obviously gave the character her name after her popularity called for it. The early rendering of the pastoral character was of a young girl wearing an oversized blue-bonnet, floral dress, and patchwork apron. She began as a nameless painting, only to evolve into the greeting card sensation "Blue Girl," and since then, she has sprung up in countless forms of media, including as a character in books and toy lines.
On paper, the new series' take on the Holly Hobbie character sounds a bit like the early days of Taylor Swift's career as a rising country star. And like Swift couldn't have known how explosive her career would get, Holly Hobbie's creator may not have imagined how far her namesake illustration would go. Her journey from an animation to a live-action TV show has spanned 50 years, and will hopefully have been worth the wait.
The live-action Holly Hobbie TV series will premiere in the U.S. sometime this fall on Hulu. To find out what else is coming out on Hulu as well as the countless other channels out there, check out our guides to TV's midseason and summer premieres.
