COLUMN: Carillon Flashback October 20, 1993 – Television movie shot at Laingspring Farm

A Clear Springs dairy farm took on all the appearances of “Hollywood North” for a weekend in September, as former Knot’s Landing star Ted Shackelford filmed scenes for a made-for-television movie.

The cast and crew of Harvest for the Heart arrived at Ray and Bertha Laing’s farm Friday, for two days of shooting on what was described as “a multi-generational saga as up-to-date as air-conditioned combines.”

The movie, produced by the Credo Group of Winnipeg, is a Prairies version of the prodigal son story. Shackelford plays free spirit Jake Hansen, who walks out on his wedding day in 1972.

He returns 20 years later, the epitome of California cool in a vintage Mustang, supposedly with thoughts of reclaiming the woman (Rebecca Jenkins) he left at the altar, now married to his brother Dan (Ron White).

Harvest for the Heart is a tale of a farming family and their community, and how they learn to respond to a crisis threatening to destroy their entire way of life.

Movie director Michael Scott, cast and crew were busy Friday afternoon setting up and rehearsing scenes in the Laings’ barn for filming that would be completed just before the snow came in the early hours Sunday.

The movie’s star was back for a single scene Sunday evening, Bertha Laing said, and spent most of the day walking in the pasture, talking to a hired hand and just getting away from the much more torrid pace of life he is used to.

Laing said Shackelford appreciated the relative anonymity he could enjoy here in Steinbach. He found it a peaceful change to be able to go for a meal at The Dutch Connection Thursday, without being recognized and swamped by fans.

During the weekend, the 14-year veteran of Knot’s Landing, where he played the popular Gary Ewing, took time to sign autographs and have his picture taken with members of the Laing family.

Ray Laing even got his first taste of being in the movies, providing the on-screen hands in milking scenes for Ken Pogue, who plays James Hansen, Jake’s father.

The movie company also called on the expertise of a former Steinbacher to add realism to the scenes involving electrical problems besetting the Hansen farm. Stonewall-area Manitoba Hydro supervisor Ray Friesen appears in shots, both at a Stonewall farm set and again at Clear Springs.

On the set Friday, awaiting his turn before the cameras, Friesen was thoroughly enjoying himself watching the flurry of activity. He chuckled when describing the detailed instructions he had been given to get to Laingspring Farm.

“I told them I was from the area and pretty sure I could find it, but they insisted on a list of instructions so detailed they even named the streets on the way through Winnipeg. They finished it up by saying there was a large blue granary on the yard.”

Bertha Laing said, while these movie-makers may not know a silo from a granary, she considered being told their farm was the cleanest of any they had looked at was high praise indeed from city people.

Director Michael Scott bore out the findings of his advance scouts. He said when they came up the drive in August, he was most impressed with the fine old barn on the yard, and once inside, he couldn’t believe how immaculate everything was.

During filming Friday, Scott said the cows in the barn were “almost too clean” for their part in the movie.

No stranger to the area, the director pointed out that his father, now 87, had married into the family of one of the early Clear Springs settlers.