Romance and Industry on the Road to Avonlea

A co-venture between CBC and Disney Channel, the television series Road to Avonlea (1990 - 1996) is widely accepted as the successful reconciliation of two competing production styles-industrial generic and dstinctively Canadian. The series represents a case from which to theorize condtions for dstinctively Canadian drama able to travel well. Under what conditions was Road to Avonlea lauded as distinctively Canadian within Canada, while becoming a Disney mainstay and gaining access to over 150 export markets? Well known in film theory, mode of address is developed and extended to policy by analysis of production history, as well as textual criticism of the form and process of adapting stories by Canadian author L.M. Montgomery. What is the mode of address resulting from creative, industrial and policy conditions, and what contribution can analyzing mode of address make to policy evaluation of Canadian television drama? Did CBC and Disney's objectives diverge because of their different organizational philosophies, or did they converge? What creative and economic demands pressured the production, and how did these manifest themselves aesthetically and meaningfully? How did adaptation, production context and social history influence interpretation of Montgomery's fiction from page to screen? Did interpretation render the series more or less culturally specific than its sources? Through familiar themes and conventions and a euphemistic construction of 'the island', Road to Avonlea offers a portable mode of address, meeting industrial objectives normally associated with placeless Canadian drama. But the series also participates in Canadian recognition through its PEI setting, Montgomery's stories and other references that locate it, helping CBC fulfil its cultural mandate of a nationally specific mode of address. Contradicting conventional wisdom in industry and policy dscourse, Road to Avonlra demonstrates that 'the local' does not necessarily pose a problem to the export of television drama. Rather, the series' romance with community suggests nostalgia for 'the local' is a sentiment with transnational potential. Mode of address contributes to policy evaluation here, suggesting the need for a new paradigm. The case challenges rigid conceptualizations of place and distinctive Canadian themes in industrial definitions of Cancon.