Director Kevin Sullivan adapted the 1908 novel into his own screenplay together with Joe Wiesenfeld, combining many of Montgomery's separate episodes into a single film narrative rather than following the book strictly.

The script also borrowed ideas from the earlier 1934 film version of Anne of Green Gables.

During an open casting call held across Canada to find an actress for Anne Shirley, Katharine Hepburn recommended her great-niece Schuyler Grant for the role.

Director Kevin Sullivan wanted to cast Schuyler Grant as Anne, but broadcast executives resisted casting an American actress as a Canadian icon, so Grant was instead cast as Anne's best friend Diana Barry.

Megan Follows was dismissed after her first audition for Anne Shirley, but after a turbulent, frantic morning before her second audition, she made a much stronger impression and won the role.

The film was shot over a consecutive ten-week schedule at locations including Prince Edward Island, Stouffville and Jacksons Point in Ontario, and Westfield Heritage Village near Rockton, with several different locations combined to represent the single Green Gables farm property.

Both parts of the two-part CBC miniseries, aired December 1–2, 1985, were among the highest-rated programs of any genre ever broadcast on Canadian television, and it later achieved high ratings in the UK when it aired on New Year's Day 1987.

The production swept the 1986 Gemini Awards, winning Best Dramatic Miniseries among numerous other categories, and also won a 1986 Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program plus a Peabody Award for Kevin Sullivan.