Trivia / Anne of Green Gables (1985)

• Actor-Shared Background: Colleen Dewhurst grew up on Prince Edward Island, just like her character Marilla.
• Channel Hop: The 1985 film originally aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation before switching over to the Disney Channel for The Sequel, then back to CBC for The Continuing Story and finally CTV for A New Beginning. PBS also broadcast the series as part of its anthology series ''WonderWorks''.
• Fake Nationality: Schuyler Grant is American, playing the Prince Edward Island native Diana.
• Late Export for You: This series first reached Japan in 1989 via a 50-minute Compilation Movie, first released theatrically and later on home video. In 1994, Fuji TV - which had also broadcast the 1979 anime - commissioned a new dub for TV broadcast, this time adapting the entire series.
• The Other Darrin: Between the two (theatrical and TV) Japanese dubs, Miyoko Aso as Marilla was the only one to reprise her role. Anne was dubbed by Hiromi Tsuru in the theatrical dub and Miki Fujitani (Kaoru in Rurouni Kenshin) in the TV dub.
• Real-Life Relative: The orphanage director is played by Megan Follows (Anne)'s mother.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Katharine Hepburn was offered the role of Marilla, but she turned it down. As mentioned above, she wanted the part of Anne for the 1934 film, but the part was given to someone else.
  • After turning down the role of Marilla, she suggested her grand-niece Schuyler Grant for Anne, but Kevin Sullivan gave her the role of Diana instead since he wanted a Canadian actress for Anne.
  • Megan Follows, for her part, was initially rejected for the role of Anne by Kevin Sullivan; only to win the part following a stronger audition.

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