Tales From Avonlea - The Complete First Season
by Bruce Pittman, Don McBrearty, Harvey Frost, Paul Shapiro, Ren? Bonni?re
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Frances Hyland, Jackie Burroughs, Mag Ruffman, Robert Collins, Sarah PolleyDirector: Bruce Pittman, Don McBrearty, Harvey Frost, Paul Shapiro, Ren? Bonni?re
Writer: Fiona McHugh
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 590 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Tales From Avonlea - The Complete First Season
Movie Review: Count me a huge fan of this critically acclaimed series!
Summary: 5 Stars
Perhaps a few eyebrows will be raised when a middle-aged guy chooses to review a show like "Tales From Avonlea". I make no apologies. For in my opinion, "Tales From Avonlea" is one of the finest television series ever produced. Based on the novels of Lucy Maud Montgomery and filmed entirely in Canada by a Canadian production company "Tales of Avonlea" managed to maintain a consistently high quality for six full seasons, a pretty rare achievement these days. My wife and I began watching "Tales From Avonlea" in the early 1990's when the show first aired in the U.S. on The Disney Channel. Much to my surprise I quickly became a huge fan. It was a refreshing break from the low-brow comedies and violent police dramas that dominated the airwaves in those days. We looked forward to our weekly visit with the fine people of Avonlea, a small community on Prince Edward Island. For us this really was appointment viewing.
"Tales from Avonlea: The Complete First Season" includes all 13 episodes from the inaugural season of this renowned series. We were really quite surprised and pleased to discover that there were 4 or 5 episodes in this set that we had never even seen before!
It is quite possible that we did not discover this show until it was into its second season sometime in the early 1990's. For me what sets "Avonlea" apart from most other TV shows is the tremendous cast of charactors in the series. Everyone has their favorites but I most enjoyed the work of Jackie Burroughs who plays the quirky schoolteacher Aunt Hetty in the series. Meanwhile, it it virtually impossible not to be smitten with series star Sarah Polley who plays the effervescent Sara Stanley. Even as a young child her work is positively compelling! Likewise for young Zachary Bennett who plays the mischievous Felix King. Really, the same could be said for just about all of the children who appear in this series. The kids really do steal the show! And I would be remiss if I failed to mention the fine work of some of the adult actors in this series including Cedric Smith and Lally Cadeau who play Alec and Janet King. Producer Kevin Sullivan is certainly to be commended for putting together an incredibly talented ensemble of largely unknown Canadian actors for this series. As a viewer you really do feel like you have a window into what life was really like on Prince Edward Island at the turn of the 20th century. The fact of the matter is that "Tales from Avonlea" ranks as one of the most popular Canadian television shows of all-time.
"Tales of Avonlea: The Complete First Season" features that rare combination of superb writing, splendid acting, and amazing photography. This is a show that can be enjoyed by viewers of all ages and needless to say is wonderful family viewing. Now I must reveal to you a dirty little secret.....I know several men my age who love this show. They just won't tell you! Very highly recommended!
Summary of Tales From Avonlea - The Complete First Season
Experience all the charm of a homespun saga as TALES FROM AVONLEA takes you on enchanting journeys of unforgettable trials and triumphs. In this soul-stirring collection, Sara Stanley comes of age in an all-new environment filled with family, friends, and foes. Amazing events follow as Sara gets acquainted with her emotionally guarded guardian, Aunt Hetty, and feuds and frolics with her prank-playing cousins, Felix and Felicity. Through the sharing of dreams, disappointments, and life's little everyday disasters, they not only find their way -- but also a very special place in one another's hearts. Full of love, laughs, and lessons, and cherished characters of all ages, TALES FROM AVONLEA imparts time-honored values and ventures that never go out of style.Set in turn-of-the-century Canada, this Emmy-winning children's classic is drawn from four novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery of Anne of Green Gables fame (notably The Story Girl and The Golden Road). Known as Avonlea in the US and Road to Avonlea north of the border, Tales From Avonlea presents the first season of the CBC/Disney Channel co-production. When her widowed father is accused of embezzlement, wealthy, wide-eyed Sara (Sarah Polley, The Sweet Hereafter) is sent to live with working class relatives on Prince Edward Island ("The Journey Begins"). Thus marks the start of seven years in tight-knit Avonlea. Sara's maternal family, the Kings, assume she'll be arriving from Montreal alone, but she's accompanied by the imposing Nanny Banks (Frances Hyland), who immediately starts pushing everyone around, so Sarah's aunts, Hettie (Jackie Burroughs) and Olivia (Mag Ruffman), send her away. Sarah is heartbroken. Plus her cousins Felix (Zachary Bennett) and Felicity (Gema Zamprogna) are most unkind, but cousin Andrew (Joel Blake), who is more mature than the rest, becomes a fast friend (while Felicity gets her comeuppance in "Proof of the Pudding").
Throughout the year Sarah will make other friends, like shy inventor/photographer Jasper Dale (R.H. Thomson). With his help, she'll convince a wealthy businessman to make a sizable donation to the school library fund. "You are unstoppable," Dale tells her in "The Story Girl Earns Her Name." Then there's pious busybody Rachel Lynde (Patricia Hamilton). She and Sarah will bond after a smallpox epidemic brings them together in "The Quarantine at Alexander Abraham's." Other friends include Peg Bowen (Susan E. Cox), "The Witch of Avonlea," and Lynde's housemate, Marilla Cuthbert (Colleen Dewhurst, who previously appeared with Hamilton in 1985's Anne of Green Gables). Avonlea ran for six more seasons and became Canada's longest-running, highest-rated TV series. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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