Surprised By Love prepares the Twinkie hijinks on Hallmark Channel!

When in the history of ever have ridonkulous plans to con your in-laws into liking you ever worked? Luckily for the romantic comedy business, the answer is never, and the antics have fueled a bajillion movies. Surprised By Love features a successful guy that the in-laws don’t like, setting his girlfriend up with a “loser” so he’ll look better, except the loser might just be a winner. How much agency does the girlfriend have in this situation? Because she’s described as no-nonsense yet she’s putting up with this nonsense.

Whatever the reasons, expect a bunch of madcap misunderstandings and antics that are straight out of a Frasier episode.

Josie Mayfield, a no-nonsense businesswoman working at her father’s successful cookware company, thinks her boyfriend Richard is the perfect man – handsome, successful and driven. The problem is that Josie’s parents, Joseph and Claire, do not agree. When Josie meets up with Gridley, an underachieving, old high school flame (who still has a crush on Josie), Richard dreams up a plan to make himself look good to Josie’s parents: Gridley will be Josie’s date at Joseph and Claire’s upcoming anniversary party. When Joseph and Claire see Josie with a “loser,” they’ll give anything to have Richard back in the picture. At least, that’s the plan.

Over the anniversary party weekend, the plan goes awry in every way, and Josie must decide which direction her life – romantic and otherwise – is going to take.

Surprised by Love is directed by Robert Iscove (who helmed the immortal films From Justin to Kelly and Whiskey Business) It’s written by the husband and wife team that brought us A Royal Christmas, Neal Dobrofsky and Tippi Dobrofsky.

Surprised By Love stars Hilarie Burton (White Collar) as Josie, Paul Campbell (Billy from Battlestar Galactica) as Gridley, Malcolm Stewart (Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore) as Joseph, Wanda Cannon (Heartland) as Claire, Leanne Lapp (Snowmageddon) as Mindy, Aaron Craven (Independence Daysaster) as Richard, and Tim Conway (What’s a Tim Conway?) as Grandad.

Surprised By Love premieres Saturday, January 3rd on Hallmark Channel!

Photo via Hallmark/Eike Schroter