That remained the case until last year, when I finally broke down and watched Isao Takahata's 1979 animated version. I was so put off by its hokeyness on one hand, its harshness of Marilla Cuthbert on the other, that I never so much as touched the book. Predictably, all the girls loved it, and all the boys were bored by it.
It was shown during 8th Grade English one week.
I was in Junior High School when the Canadian television production of Anne of Green Gables was made.