  road to avonlea is a canadian television series first broadcast in canada between january 7, 1990 and march 31, 1996, and in the united states starting on march 5, 1990. it was created by kevin sullivan and produced by sullivan films (later sullivan entertainment) in association with cbc and the disney channel, with additional funding from telefilm canada. the disney channel began airing the series in the united states on march 5, 1990,the disney channel magazine, vol. 8, no. 2, march/april 1990: pp. 22, 27, 31, 36. and continued airing it into january 1997.the disney channel magazine, vol. 14, no. 6, december 1996/january 1997: pp. 28-29, 48. the series was loosely adapted from a number of books by l.m. montgomery, primarily (at least initially) the books the story girl and the golden road, both of which feature the character of sara stanley, as well as the characters of felicity, cicely and felix. however, these books, while set in prince edward island, were not set in the village of avonlea, and a number of the series' episodes and situations were adapted from stories recounted in montgomery's chronicles of avonlea and further chronicles of avonlea. other characters are sourced from other montgomery works. the frequently seen characters of rachel lynde and marilla cuthbert were only briefly mentioned in passing in chronicles of avonlea -- instead, they initially appeared as full-fledged characters in montgomery's debut novel anne of green gables. (these characters had also previously been featured in sullivan's 1985 television adaptation of the novel. they were here played by the same actors, patricia hamilton and colleen dewhurst, who played the characters in the telefilm.) finally, the characters of davy and dora were originally from anne of avonlea, a sequel to anne of green gables. later episodes in particular included many leading characters that had no direct basis in montgomery's written work. as well, montgomery's most famous character, anne shirley (i.e., anne of green
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