Why Hallmark's Brendan Penny Was Ready To Say Goodbye To Chesapeake Shores
"Chesapeake Shores" warmed the hearts of Hallmark Channel fans for six seasons before ending with its final episodes in 2022. Premiering in 2016, "Chesapeake Shores" followed various members of the O'Brien family as they experienced the ups and downs of life, starting with Abby O'Brien (Meghan Ory) moving back home and reuniting with her family. As she helps her sister revive her failing inn, Abby reconnects with her four siblings and becomes torn between her old life and the new one she's building in Chesapeake Shores. While the heartfelt message of the show really resonated with viewers, star Brendan Penny was ready to leave the O'Brien family behind.
Penny starred as the oldest son of the O'Brien siblings on "Chesapeake Shores," playing army vet-turned paramedic Kevin O'Brien for all six seasons of the series. For Penny, fitting into the role of Kevin wasn't a hard job, as he told Starry Constellation Magazine in 2017. "I liked the role of Kevin. I hadn't played someone with such a deep connection to the army, and I found that intriguing," he shared then.
Fans became attached to the family that they had watched go through the ups and downs of life and were understandably upset when they learned that the O'Brien family's story was coming to an end after six seasons. However, Penny felt the complete opposite. For him, it was time that their story came to a close.
Penny thought it made sense to end the story at season six
From the first episode, Brendan Penny was an instant fan-favorite after his debut as Kevin O'Brien in "Chesapeake Shores." As the oldest O'Brien son, Kevin had his fair share of struggles on the show but always managed to look for the silver lining. Penny's Hallmark career didn't stop at "Chesapeake," though; he went on to star in many other Hallmark films, such as "Autumn In the Vineyard" and "A Dash of Love." While he enjoyed major success throughout the six seasons of "Chesapeake Shores," Penny believed that the series finale came at the right time for the show.
"There's only so much time that adult children, young adults can live at home and have their problems at home where they [grew up in]," he told Just Jared. "All of them are having kids and having their own lives...So I think that if they hypothetically were going to continue on with 'Chesapeake Shores,' I think perhaps it would've been more following individual characters as opposed to just the big family house and that sort of thing."
Penny also added in an interview with Express that had the show continued, he hoped that his character Kevin and his wife Sarah Mercer (Jessica Sipos) would be raising their family together and would end up happy.
Other Chesapeake actors weren't ready for it to end
"Chesapeake Shores" actor Brendan Penny might have been ready to say goodbye to the O'Brien family, but some of the other actors on the series weren't so eager to let it go. Mariesa Crouse, who played Margaret Keller in season five and six of the series, was not ready for "Chesapeake Shores" to come to a close. In an interview with Parade, Crouse opened up about how hard it was to film the last episodes of the show.
"My heart is breaking slowly. The last days of filming were so sad," she told the outlet. "When we got to the end, it felt like we needed a little more time together before it ended. It was extremely bittersweet filming the last little bit of 'Chesapeake.' We were all crying at the end of it."
Various other cast members commemorated the series finale of the show, including Robert Buckley, who played Evan Kincaid in seasons five and six of "Chesapeake Shores." He posted on Instagram, saying, "Thank you to the entire 'Chesapeake Shores' cast and crew for being such a wonderful group of folks I had the pleasure of spending two years with. You all rock."