Line #17 Series/RoadToAvonlea


1	[[quoteright:258:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roadtoavonlea_lrg_3479.jpg]]
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3	A Canadian television series that aired for seven seasons (1990–96) on Creator/{{CBC}}, created by the director of the ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' movies. The series can be considered as a sequel to the movies.[[note]]Although, beginning in 1903, it contradicts most of the movies. For example, Matthew should still be alive and Anne about 13, not a married woman.[[/note]] 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.
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5	The stories are loosely based on Creator/LMMontgomery's novels ''Literature/TheStoryGirl'' and ''The Golden Road'' (Sara is the eponymous Story Girl), with side-plots culled from Montgomery's many short story collections, most of which had nothing to do with the Anne of Green Gables series.
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7	The later seasons focused more on Sara's cousins Felicity and Felix.
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9	It was aired on the Creator/DisneyChannel as ''Avonlea''.
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12	!!''Road to Avalonia'' provides examples of:
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14	* BackForTheFinale: Sara returns for Felicity's wedding in the series Finale to Gus.
15	* BrokenTreasure: Janet receives an heirloom hair comb 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.
16	* ButtMonkey: 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 them, 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 sanatorium 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.
17	* TheCharacterDiedWithHer: After actress Creator/ColleenDewhurst passed away, Marilla Cuthbert's sudden death was written into the show, and her housemate Rachel and their wards move out of Green Gables soon after.
18	* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Felix and Izzy eventually develop one of these but it's unsure if it continues after the series ends. Alec and Janet are presumably an example as well since they both grew up in Avonlea and are about the same age.
19	* ChristmasSpecial: Following in the example of British Christmas episodes, the plot can be summed up as: World War I happened, then things got worse.
20	* ConverseWithTheUnconscious: And yes, Felicity, in case you were wondering…
21	--> '''Gus''': “If that was a proposal, the answer is yes.”
22	* CoolOldLady: Great Aunt Eliza.
23	* DemotedToExtra: 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 novel}}s there wasn't much to do with Sara. She was eventually PutOnABus to study in Paris and the main character officially became Felicity.
24	* DontYouDarePityMe: After Gus is blinded, he lets Felicity think he is dead rather than to have her pity him.
25	* DunceCap: While drilling her class for a spelling bee, Aunt Hetty makes Felix wear this for underperforming. Felix was stressed out rather than really a poor speller and this makes him even more intimidated. At home, his father tells him he wore the dunce cap in school more than Felix.
26	* TheEdwardianEra: The rural Canadian version.
27	* EvilTwin: Sara Stanley and Jasper Dale both have them. [[spoiler: Jasper's is his cousin.]]
28	* {{Expy}}: Aunts Olivia and Hetty are somewhat softened versions of Aunts Laura and Elizabeth from the author's ''Literature/EmilyOfNewMoon'' series. Sara's backstory, too, has as much in common with Emily, as with the Sara in ''Literature/TheStoryGirl.''
29	* FirstKiss: Felicity spends an entire episode trying to get hers from a handsome cricket player. Gus Pike (her future husband) ends up stealing it.
30	** Sara and Felix both get theirs over the course of the show as well (though not with each other).
31	* FromNewYorkToNowhere: Sara is sent from Montreal to live with family in rural Prince Edward Island when her father suffers a business scandal.
32	* FriendlyTickleTorture: 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.
33	* FunnyForeigner: Chef Pierre La Pierre.
34	* GetRichQuickScheme: Felix has a tendency to try these.
35	* TheGhost: Although other characters from the ''Anne of Green Gables'' films appear, Anne herself is conspicuous in her absence. This was because of a long-standing dispute between actress Creator/MeganFollows and producer Kevin Sullivan which wouldn't be ironed out until ''Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story'' (but not before the whole thing was satirized in ''Series/MadeInCanada'', in which Megan Follows ''does'' appear as her InUniverse counterpart Mandy "Adele of Beaver Creek" Forward, who is lured back - at quintuple-scale - for the ''Return to Beaver Creek'' movie).
36	* GirlinessUpgrade: When she's introduced, Izzy is a tomboy who has short hair (for the time), hates wearing dresses and is friends with boys like Felix. By the final season, her hair has grown long, she usually wears dresses and is romantically interested in Felix.
37	* YeGoodeOldeDays: A mild example. Negative aspects of life at the time, such as child labor, disenfranchisement of women, TB, or death in childbirth ''are'' shown, but more emphasis is put on the good times that the characters have.
38	* GorgeousPeriodDress: Bordered on CostumePorn, with all the clothes that were made in the show's run.
39	* HappilyMarried: Though they have their rough moments like any couple, Alec and Janet are this.
40	* HeyLetsPutOnAShow
41	* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Felicity's fiancé, Stuart, leaves when Felicity returns with Gus because he knows she truly loves Gus.
42	* ImaginaryFriend: Marilla invents a boyfriend (by LineOfSightName 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.
43	* ImpoverishedPatrician
44	* IntergenerationalFriendship: Hetty King and Gus Pike get along very well.
45	* MrFanservice: Again Gus Pike, he managed to be a naive optimist with a DarkAndTroubledPast. 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.
46	* NoSocialSkills: Poor Jasper Dale.
47	* PimpedOutDress: If there was a fancy event, some [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avonlea_girls_fancy_51.jpg fancy dresses]] would be worn.
48	* PrettyInMink: In winter, people would wear [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avonlea_girls_winter_6909.jpg some furs]], mostly collars, hats, and muffs.
49	* PutOnABus: Andrew King, the ''other'' member of the King family to move to Avonlea in the first episode. Sara, too, although in her case TheBusCameBack.
50	* RealLifeWritesThePlot (the storyline about death of Marilla Cuthbert was triggered by the death of the portraying actress)
51	** One of the reason's Sara Stanley left was because her actor, Creator/SarahPolley, hated the show and desperately wanted out of her contract. She now sees it as OldShame and even called it "horrible" in an interview.
52	* RupturedAppendix: Hetty is stricken with appendicitis [[ABirthdayNotABreak on her 50th birthday]] in the episode "Memento Mori."
53	* RomanticRunnerUp: Stuart Mc Rae. Felicity planned to marry him, and then dumped him after discovering that Gus was still alive.
54	* SpotlightStealingSquad: Davy Keith. Also, any guest star is guaranteed to hijack the plot of any episode.
55	* SwitchedAtBirth: 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.
56	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Last we saw of Gus's mother was that she left 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?

Context Series / RoadToAvonlea