Adapted from our recent He Said/She Said on TV, eh?
The Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea mini-series were the first Canadian productions to truly excite me as Canadian productions. Books I had loved, had literally read to death (the books’ death, not mine), were onscreen. My Canada was on screen. Not that I’d been to Prince Edward Island — that would come in the 1990s, when I included a pilgrimage to Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery’s grave — but the world of my childhood was onscreen, and my county was named and pictured.
That was before I cared about the state of the Canadian industry or gave a thought to why it was important to have our own stories in the mix along with Hollywood productions. But I knew it was special to see something so personal to me finally appear on my TV. I can thank Anne for many things, first for offering me a kindred spirit in my childhood and finally for opening my eyes to the power of having my own culture reflected back at me.
I should finally make a concerted effort to watch the whole series. Those books were always and only ever about the books for me – but I know so many people who love the series so much. I’ve seen maybe one or two episodes ever.
There’s not many episodes … I think Green Gables was two parts, and Avonlea was just one TV movie? Don’t bother with “the Continuing Story” because it’s not based on the books and is therefore a blasphemy 🙂
There is a long-running series called Road to Avonlea which I didn’t watch much — I was a little old by that point and it was loosely based on LM Montgomery’s non-Anne Avonlea books.
My sister reward the books and our family watched the series. We all loved it.
I didn’t quite realize it wasn’t known in the States until we moved back and no one had ever heard of either the series or the books. I have heard people say over the years there’s nothing like the Little House on the Prairie books and TV shows but I enjoyed Anne more than Laura Ingalls Wilder.
I’ve been hoping Netflix will run the series at some point!