Showrunner Sheryl Anderson reveals what could be next in a possible season 5.
Sweet Serenity, indeed, Magnolia lovers! (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)

Halfway through Sweet Magnolias season four, viewers got what they’d been waiting years for: Helen and Erik finally gave into their intense chemistry and feelings and became a couple.

Of course, the road to coupledom was rocky given that at the beginning of season four, Helen was dating Alex, the contractor for Sullivan and Friends, while Erik was dating Genevieve, who we first met last season. Eventually both couples broke up, but that wasn’t the instigator for Helen and Erik getting together. Instead, it was a natural disaster—and the most epic of rescues—that saw the lawyer and the chef finally admit their feelings to each other and act on them.

By the end of the season, Helen and Erik had gotten engaged—but in many ways, their love story is just beginning. Sweet Magnolias hasn’t been renewed yet for season five, but showrunner and executive producer Sheryl Anderson has already been thinking of what their journey looks like going forward.

Meanwhile, as for Maddie and Cal, they are as solid as they’ve ever been following a tumultuous chain of events (Bill’s death, Bill’s mother coming to town, and Cal’s stressful new job as partner at Sullivan and Friends). But by the end of season four, Maddie had all but accepted an offer to work at a independent publishing house in New York City. Will she and Cal and the family be able to make long-distance work? Will they all move? And is Maddie’s “dream job” really all its cracked up to be?

To that end, Anderson got on Zoom with us to talk about it all—including the Easter eggs you probably missed—and what’s next in a possible season five. Grab a margarita (or a milkshake) and read on.

Glamour: The first episode has so many shockers—thanks in part to the time jump—that my jaw was on the floor. What was the reason behind that decision?

Sheryl Anderson: That reaction right there, to have people realizing, Oh, things have happened, things have changed. Wait, what? They’re still together? Wait, what? They’re not together? Because it’s season four, and we know everybody better, and we hope the audience trusts us more, we wanted to have a little fun with shaking things up.

Cal and Maddie are not only engaged, but they get married by the second episode. Were you worried that fans would be disappointed not to see a Cal and Maddie engagement?

No, because they have been so swoonily in love from the moment they met that we thought that seeing an engagement period was ultimately less enjoyable than, “Surprise, we’re getting married!”

That was definitely a surprise, and it made the Halloween episode so fun. How did you decide on that?

We wanted to do a wedding, but not a classic wedding. Dana Sue and Ronnie’s vow renewal was kind of classic, and we didn’t want to follow that with another church wedding as basically the next episode. So we were like, “How can we shake this up?” People in the writer’s room were like, “It’s a surprise.” And since I had said, “Let’s start [the season] at Halloween and end at Christmas,” and we were going to be filming at that time of year had we not had to stop because of the strikes, we were like, “Let’s take advantage of it.”

We wound up shooting out of season, because of the schedule change, but it’s also a season we haven’t seen yet. It’s not always summer in Serenity. We wanted to show a different time of year in Serenity, and the period from Halloween to Christmas is my favorite. It elevates emotions, because everybody wants everything to be special while you’re celebrating.

In between Halloween and Thanksgiving, Serenity gets hit by a massive hurricane. Given what’s happened in Los Angeles and North Carolina the last several months, I have to imagine episodes like this take on more meaning now.

Post-hurricane in Serenity, we wanted to show the people we love loving their community and being generous and compassionate. Yes, there are moments where the world seems to be falling apart, and that’s why it’s important for us as individuals, and as groups, to stand up for and help the people who need it, regardless of how well we know them, and regardless of what our relationship was with them before. The only way we can move forward, as friends, as community, as a nation, is to love and support each other.

Speaking of the hurricane, it’s also the episode when Erik rescues Helen from her car in the rain. How did that scene come together?

Since that’s the midpoint of the season, we wanted something huge. We knew, emotionally, it needed to be Helen and Erik coming together, so that we could spend the second half of the season with them [as a couple].

Our director, our director of photography, and the whole crew really knocked it out of the park, in terms of staging that night and the aftermath of the hurricane as well. With that said, we wanted Erik to rescue Helen, but for her to also rescue him. In all honesty, we had written it as a smaller scene in the writers room, because we were concerned about staging the scene. And our director and my co-EP were like, “Let’s go for it.” So I pitched what “go for it” sounded like to me, and [the production team] said, “We know how to do that. Fabulous.” It was a long and cold night, but it was a beautiful night.

That kiss was so fantastic. And then, to have Brooke Elliot singing “Stand By Me” as Dana Sue as the music that played over the moment was perfection.

We really love our music moments, and we have so many great singers, including Broadway singers, like Heather Headley (“Helen”), Brooke Elliot (“Dana Sue”), and Chris Medlin (“Isaac”), that we were like, “Let’s take full advantage of it, because a moment like this will need music.” We looked at a moment where everybody’s hunkered down safe and together during the storm and said, “Let’s juxtapose it with a moment where Erik’s out looking for her.” So when he first sees the car, is she in it? Is she alive? What just happened? And then to juxtapose it with [when they come together], we needed a really special song to unify that. So, “Stand By Me” was perfect.

The giddiness between the two of them was so fun to watch, as well as when they were sneaking around before anyone found out.

We talked a lot about that in the writers room, such as when they would share it and this [notion] of, “Let it just be our moment for a little bit longer.” It’s perfect that just the two of them know, even though they know people are going to be happy.

_{Dion Johnstone as Erik Whitley and Heather Headley as Helen Decatur in episode 408.}

 © 2025 Netflix, Inc.

When Helen eventually tells Dana Sue and Maddie, it’s the most incredible scene. The way Heather Headley delivers that monologue, it felt like we all went to church. [Laughs]

Amen. Amen. She’s held this in. She’s so anxious to tell them, she can’t find the moment, and then they kind of give her the moment. We were like, “Seize the moment. Tell them the story in a way they will never forget.” And Heather Headley did Heather Headley magic. I remember weeping during the first take because I was laughing so hard. I was trying to be quiet, and when Heather came off set, she looked at me, [saw my reaction], and said, “Good.” And then she went back in and did it again! I was like, “Yeah, it was perfection.” But also, the way the other two played off her. It was great, because we all know those moments where you’ve got news and you have to share it with the most important people in your life. They’re making it even better, because they’re so into it.

_{JoAnna Garcia Swisher as Maddie Townsend and Brooke Elliott as Dana Sue Sullivan in episode 406.}

 © 2025 Netflix, Inc.
It was so good. And then, we get Danger Sue and Rowdy Rowdy, followed by the community theater cooking class! It was so much fun to watch.

It was about having the six of them have fun together and come together in an unexpected way. And just like Helen says, the whole point was to show Dana Sue she can handle anybody if she can handle the five of them. So they just pushed it. We had a lot of fun settling in on the characters.

_{Brooke Elliott as “Danger Sue” Sullivan and Brandon Quinn as “Rowdy” Ronnie Sullivan in episode 407.}

 © 2025 Netflix, Inc.

In episode 10, Helen and Erik get engaged, and it’s beautiful and romantic. They admit it’s fast, and that’s why they plan on a long engagement. They also talk about children of the heart, which could mean various things. So, if we get a season five, what can you say about their storyline going forward?

[We’re] exploring all those options, and not just the children piece of it, but how slow or fast they want to take it and how smooth the road is. If we get a season five, I think that’ll be a major point of discussion. Falling in love later in life doesn’t mean it’s issue free. It’s just different issues. And frankly, people working out their issues, singularly and in a relationship, is a big part of what our show’s about. Because as you’re working through things that you think are impossible, to know how loved you are makes such a big difference. That’s a big part of Serenity—that you are never alone. There’s always somebody to talk to, somebody to lift you up, somebody who needs you to lift them up.

A thousand percent, which is why I loved how supportive Cal was of Maddie’s job offer with the publishing house in New York. But could you really see taking that character to New York? Is that something you’ve even thought about?

I have thought about it in that I daydream about what we’d do in season five if we got it. I’m a Navy kid, and my dad was gone a lot. And as a TV writer/producer, I was away from my kids a lot. So, I sort of have a desire to look at what that does to a family and how a wonderful family, like the Townsend-Maddox family, would grapple with that. But only God and Netflix know if [season five is] going to happen.

_{Brooke Elliott as Dana Sue Sullivan, Heather Headley as Helen Decatur and JoAnna Garcia Swisher as Maddie Townsend in episode 410.}

 © 2025 Netflix, Inc.

Well, hopefully it’s a renewal. Meanwhile, there are some fun Easter eggs in the finale. For one, JoAnna Garcia Swisher’s kids appear in the last episode at the Winter Festival and in the reading group. Her husband, Nick, was in season two, so it was nice to see her daughters this season. And then executive producer Dan Paulson makes another appearance this season, serving up latkes at the festival.

Yes! Dan is our good luck charm. He makes a cameo in the season finale every season. Because it was the Winter Festival, I said, “How about we have you serving latkes?” He was game.

Once again, the way you incorporate all religions or holidays into the show is what makes it so special.

That’s what we’re going for. We want people to embrace the possibility of a community like Serenity, rather than dismiss it as something that’s impossible. Because it’s not impossible. We have to put in the work and love our neighbors.

Finally, I can’t let you go without asking about Paula’s boyfriend, Jimmy. He and his three businessmen pledge to save Serenity from financial issues. Is this guy for real?

[There’s the fact] that the millionaire Playboy from Charleston could just be Santa Claus, but I guess we’d have to get a season five to fully explain what he’s up to.

_{Jon Briddell as Jimmy Sinclair, Brooke Elliott as Dana Sue Sullivan, Brandon Quinn as Ronnie Sullivan and Caroline Lagerfelt as Paula Vreeland in episode 410.}

 © 2025 Netflix, Inc.a