Road to Avonlea

Canadian television series (1990-1996) created by the director of the Anne of Green Gables movies. The series can be considered as a sequel to the movies. Set in Avonlea after Anne's departure, it tells the stories of Sara Stanley, daughter of a disgraced industrialist sent to live with her relatives in order to escape the public humiliation; the King family, the aforementioned relatives; and the rest of the colourful population of Avonlea. The show carried over many of the characters from Anne of Green Gables, including Marilla Cuthbert and Rachael Lynde.

The stories are loosely based on L. M. Montgomery's novels The Story Girl and The Golden Road (Sara is the eponymous Story Girl), with sideplots culled from Montgomery's massive short story collections, most of which had nothing to do with the Anne of Green Gables series.

The later seasons focused more on Sara's cousins Felicity and Felix.

It was aired on the Disney Channel as Avonlea.


 * Broken Treasure: Janet receives an heirloom haircomb from one of her husband's relatives. It's hideous, but she doesn't want to say so, so her husband and in-laws are insulted when she won't wear it. Her kids lose it somehow, and when she finally agrees to wear it, she can't find it. She ends up spending a lot of money to have a replica made, and after taking a good look at it, her in-laws realize how ugly it is and don't blame her for not wanting to wear it.
 * Butt Monkey: Although it's not as extreme as other examples, Cecily King probably qualifies. The shy and sweet girl is often ignored in favour of her more demanding siblings and cousins. She's not often allowed to go on adventures with, constantly being told to stay behind (to the point that "I know, stay here" has sometimes been said to be her catchphrase). She eventually catches Tuberculosis and is sent to a sanitorium but most of the episode's drama revolves around how her family deals with it. There she gets her one love interest of the series but he dies at the end of the episode. She then returns home where she's ignored for the rest of the series.
 * The Character Died With Her: Colleen Dewhurst playing Marilla Cuthbert
 * Christmas Special: Following in the example of British Christmas episodes, the plot can be summed up as: World War I happened, then It Got Worse.
 * Demoted to Extra: The main character Sara Stanley began as an artistic sweet girl with a strict aunt (Hetty) that stifled her creativity. When said aunt started writing romance novels there wasn't much to do with Sara. She was eventually Put on a Bus to study in Paris and the main character officially became Felicity.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: After Gus is blinded, he lets Felicity think he is dead rather than to have her pity him.
 * The Edwardian Era: The rural Canadian version
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Again Gus Pike, he managed to be a naive optimist with a Dark and Troubled Past. His accent (what accent was it anyway? --possibly an obscure Newfoundland brogue), good looks and ability to play the fiddle helped a great deal as well.
 * First Kiss: Felicity spends an entire episode trying to get hers from a handsome cricket player. Gus Pike (her future husband) ends up stealing it.
 * Friendly Tickle Torture: Felicity makes a scathing remark about Sara's father to her face, instigating a fight between them. The boys tickle them to break it up.
 * Hey, Let's Put on a Show
 * Imaginary Friend: Marilla invents a boyfriend (by Line-of-Sight Name method) to stop her friends from teasing has for being a spinster, unfortunately, a man with exactly the same name and physical description just happen to arrive in town the next day.
 * Impoverished Patrician
 * It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"
 * The Other Darrin: Poor Cecily was mostly in the background until she contacted tuberculosis, she returns from the sanatorium with a different actress. The new Cecily was not well received by fandom.
 * Pretty in Mink: In winter, people would wear some furs, mostly collars, hats, and muffs.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot (the storyline about death of Marilla Cuthbert was triggered by the death of the portraying actress)
 * One of the reason's Sara Stanley left was because her actor, Sarah Polley, hated the show and desperately wanted out of her contract. She now sees it as Old Shame and even called it "horrible" in an interview.
 * Romantic Runner-Up: Stuart Mc Rae. Felicity to wanted to marry him, and then dumped him after it turned out that Gus was still alive.
 * Switched At Birth: Felicity and her friend Sally were born on the same day with the same flighty doctor present. When they harass her about not having a mother, Sarah forges a letter from the doctor confessing to switching the babies by accident. Aunt Hetty catches on, but first suggests that they switch the girls back, since the mothers had earlier made a big point of her not being able to understand motherhood, having never given birth.
 * They Do: Muriel and Clive get married.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Last we saw of Gus's mother was that she went on a ship, we find out later that the ship sank with three survivors. Two are accounted for, so was she the third? If so where is she? And is Captain Crane Gus's father?
 * World War I