Best tv shows like By Way of the Stars
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
By Way of the Stars is an action/adventure television mini-series co-produced in 1992 by Sullivan Entertainment and German Beta-Taurus Kirch Group, that begins in 19th century Prussia, then travels through post-U.S. Civil War Charleston to the ‘Canadas’ and the West. It is a young boy’s version of “Dances with Wolves”.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: Canada, Germany
Duration:
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like By Way of the Stars (1992):
Similar in 87%
The Children of Captain Grant (1996)
Plot Summary:
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IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 47
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: Germany, Russia, USA, Canada, UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
De Stille Kracht (1974)
Plot Summary:
Based on the novel by Louis Couperus, De Stille Kracht is set at the end of the nineteenth century and concerns the cultural gap between East and West, that is between the Netherlands and their colony on Java. The Dutch colonists, who nominally rule Java, realize that the island maintains its own natural order by way of a hidden force, goena goena, a term denoting magic as well as depths of eastern cultures that westerners cannot probe The original novel contemplated the Dutch people's inability to adapt to the culture and environment of their colony in what is now Indonesia. (Wikipedia).
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Without Family (2000)
Plot Summary:
Young Remi, a foundling, lives on the farm run by his impoverished foster parents. When their money runs out, unbeknown to his foster-mother, Rémi is sold by his hard-hearted foster father to an old street performer named Vitalis. Vitalis was once a famous opera singer, but became destitute after a tragic love affair.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 366
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: France, Germany, Czech Republic
Duration: 193 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
All the Rivers Run (1983)
Plot Summary:
Orphaned after a shipwreck off the Victorian coast of Australia, the beautiful and spirited Philadelphia Gordon finds both love and adventure aboard a paddle-steamer on the Murray River.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 702
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 400 min
Plot tags: period drama
Similar in 77%
La nouvelle malle des Indes (1981)
Plot Summary:
A young English navy lieutenant sets out to prove the quickest way to reach India from London is by way of the Mediterranean and Suez rather than the long sea route around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, which takes six months. Together with his friend, the French explorer and natural scientist Martial de Sassenage, Thomas Waghorn leaves London in October of 1829 with the aim of reaching Bombay in India in three month. The owner of a shipping line fears for the future his company should the two adventurers succeed and sends his agents to delay them along the way.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 55
Genere: Adventure
Country: France, West Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy
Duration: 52 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Mathias Sandorf (1979)
Plot Summary:
In 1867, at the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the adventures of the revolutionary count Mathias Sandorf who, having escaped an attack which cost the life of his wife, returns years later to take revenge on his political enemies.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 304
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance
Country: France, West Germany, Hungary, Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Midnight Is a Place (1977)
Plot Summary:
This series is about two children who are the wards of a cantankerously un-loving uncle. That uncle owns a rug factory that has the typically brutal working conditions of the time that both poor adult and child labourers have to survive. Life is hardly perfect, but things take a turn for the worst when the Uncle, maddened by the fear of bill and tax collectors, sets fire to his own home to prevent its seizure and dies in the process. This leaves the children with no home or guardian. Now the two must struggle to survive on the streets of London, where they learn that there difficult ways of making a living and help is where they least expect it.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 39
Genere: Drama, Adventure, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Fuzzbucket (1986)
Plot Summary:
In the vein of "Harvey", an invisible creature befriends a 12 year old boy. Of course, no one else can see him nor believes in him.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 412
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: anthology, touching, offbeat, feel good, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 79%
13 Hours: Race Against Time (2010)
Plot Summary:
Allein gegen die Zeit is a German real-time television series, aired since 2009. Broadcast on KI.KA, structurally, it resembles the series 24.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 177
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: Germany
Duration: 25 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense
Similar in 90%
Anne of Avonlea (1975)
Plot Summary:
Anne of Avonlea is a film made for television 4-part mini-series, developed in United Kingdom. It is based on Anne of Avonlea, the sequel to Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 260
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 350 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
The Phoenix and the Carpet (1997)
Plot Summary:
Four young children hope for anything to happen and, when they become owners of the Phoenix, their adventure begins.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Country: UK
Duration: 28 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
The Adventures of Pollyanna (1982)
Plot Summary:
Pollyanna comes to stay with her aunt, Polly Harrington, the most powerful woman in the town of Harrington. Aunt Polly wants her to concentrate on her studies but Pollyanna would rather make friends with the orphan kids. One day, a woman named Widow Jenn comes to town and Pollyanna, along with other citizens, try to spy on her because of a rumor going around.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 35
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: anthology
Similar in 89%
Skippy (1968)
Plot Summary:
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo is an Australian television series created by John McCallum, produced from 1966–1968, telling the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo, and the various visitors to the fictional Waratah National Park in Duffys Forest, near Sydney, New South Wales. Ninety-one 30-minute episodes were made over the three seasons of production. At the time of first screening, Australian television was still in black and white, however, the show was filmed in colour on 16 mm film to increase its international marketability, especially in the United States and Canada, where it aired in syndication between 1969 and 1972. The Nine Network readily repeated the series several times after Australian television switched to colour transmission in 1975. The series was dubbed into Spanish in Mexico, where it is known as Skippy el canguro, and has been distributed to most Spanish-speaking countries, including Cuba and Spain, where it became very popular. The series crossed the Iron Curtain and was aired in Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, and is still being broadcast in Iran.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: Australia
Duration: 25 min
Plot tags: sitcom, children's program, offbeat, feel good, semi serious
Similar in 76%
For the Term of His Natural Life (1983)
Plot Summary:
In 1830's England, a young man from a good but troubled family is unjustly convicted of stealing a watch. He's transported to Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) where he suffers under the enmity of Lt. Frere while falling in love with Sylvia, the Warden's daughter. Meanwhile, back in England, an imposter lays claim to the young man's inheritance.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 227
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 520 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
Hetty Feather (2015)
Plot Summary:
In Victorian London, feisty heroine Hetty Feather is trapped in the Foundling Hospital, the strict institution ruled over by the formidable Matron Bottomley. Aided by friends and thwarted by enemies, Hetty battles to win her freedom and finally find her real mother. Based on the book by Jacqueline Wilson.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 282
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, entertaining, disturbing, period drama
Similar in 80%
Little Women (1970)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama, Family, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 225 min
Plot tags: period piece, costume drama
Similar in 82%
Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971)
Plot Summary:
Tom Brown's Schooldays is a 1971 television serial adaptation of the Thomas Hughes novel of the same name. It was originally shown on the BBC1 Sunday tea time slot, which often showed adaptations of classic novels aimed at a family audience. It may have been more freely adapted than most of these Sunday adaptations, e.g. including Flashman's father who was not in the novel, and like some other adaptations of Hughes' novel it expanded Flashman and Dr. Arnold's roles. However it was regarded as well-acted, particularly by Murphy, Morant and Cuthbertson, and was later shown on Masterpiece Theater in the USA. Both the programme and Murphy's performance won Emmy Awards. It did include a couple of corporal punishment scenes which were rather strong stuff for family viewing.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 225 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
The Kids of Degrassi Street (1979)
Plot Summary:
The Kids of Degrassi Street is a Canadian children's TV show that aired from 1979 to 1986, and is the first in the Degrassi series, about the lives of a group of children living on Degrassi Street in Toronto, Canada. It grew out of four short films: Ida Makes a Movie, Cookie Goes to the Hospital, Irene Moves In and Noel Buys a Suit, which originally aired as after-school specials on CBC Television in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982, respectively. The show was acclaimed for its realistic depiction of every day children's lives and tribulations, and remains memorable to many Canadians because of this. Kids of Degrassi Street featured many of the same actors who would later appear on Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, including Stacie Mistysyn, Neil Hope, Anais Granofsky, Sarah Charlesworth and others. However, their character names and families were different, so this series cannot technically be seen as an immediate precursor to the later shows.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 414
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1995)
Plot Summary:
An American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the cold and unsentimental lord who oversees the trust.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 198
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 360 min
Plot tags: costume drama, uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, period drama
Similar in 87%
Anne of Green Gables (1972)
Plot Summary:
Anne of Green Gables is a made-for-television British mini-series directed by Joan Craft based upon the novel, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 126
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 280 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Emily of New Moon (1998)
Plot Summary:
Emily of New Moon is a Canadian television series, which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2000. The series originally aired in the United States on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV and it is currently seen in Canada on the Viva, Bravo! and Vision TV cable channels. The series, produced by Salter Street Films, was based on the Emily of New Moon series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The series consisted of three seasons of thirteen episodes and one season of seven episodes, for a total of forty-six. The executive producers were Micheline Charest, Michael Donovan, and Ronald Weinberg. The series starred Martha MacIsaac as the titular orphan Emily Starr. Susan Clark and Sheila McCarthy played Emily's aunts Elizabeth and Laura, who had taken on the responsibility of raising Emily following her father's death, and Stephen McHattie played her cousin Jimmy. Susan Clark left the series after the first season when her character, Elizabeth, was killed off. Recurring cast included Chip Ciupka as Mr. Carpenter, Peter Donaldson as Ian Bowles, Richard Donat as Dr. Burnley, Kris Lemche as Perry Miller, John Neville as Uncle Malcolm, Jessica Pellerin as Ilse Burnley, Shawn Roberts as Teddy Kent, and Linda Thorson as Cousin Isabel.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, period drama
Similar in 83%
David Copperfield (1974)
Plot Summary:
Adaptation of the Dickens novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 300 min
Plot tags: historical drama, period drama
Similar in 79%
Huckleberry Finn and His Friends (1979)
Plot Summary:
Huckleberry Finn and His Friends was a 1979 television series documenting the exploits of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, based on the novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by American writer Mark Twain. The series was made up of 26 episodes and was a Canadian/German coproduction. Huckleberry Finn is played by Ian Tracey who is also the narrator. Tom Sawyer is played by Sammy Snyders. Directed by Jack B. Hively and Ken Jubenvill, this mini-series was broadcast in many countries such as Germany, UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Venezuela and many other Latin American nations. The series was re-shown many times during the 1980s to early 1990s and has grown somewhat of a cult following. Even though Mark Twain originally wrote the books The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as separate units, this mini-series conjures up both literary works as only one story. Therefore, it places greater importance on Huckleberry's character without putting aside Tom Sawyer's. In 2007, the complete series was released as a 4 DVD box set by Fabulous Films in the UK. It contains many extras including a 12 page color booklet and a 30 minute 'making of' documentary featuring interviews with many stars of the series including Sammy Snyders, Ian Tracey, and Blu Mankuma.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 542
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Canada, West Germany
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: exciting, sincere, uplifting, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 83%
The Secret Garden (1975)
Plot Summary:
TV miniseries adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 345
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 210 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
Heartland (2007)
Plot Summary:
Life is hard on the Flemings' ranch in the Alberta foothills where abused or neglected horses find refuge with a kind, hard-working family. Debts abound and the bank is about to foreclose. Can they keep the ranch running?.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, sentimental, sincere, medical drama, realistic
Similar in 80%
Moby Dick (2011)
Plot Summary:
The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 184 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, psychological, serious, captivating, nautical, fairy tale, stylized, period drama
Similar in 87%
Avonlea (1990)
Plot Summary:
After her father is accused of embezzlement, wealthy Sara Stanley is sent to live with her deceased mother's relatives on Prince Edward Island. While there, she must adjust to life in the small rural town of Avonlea, learn to cope with her infamous aunts, Hetty and Olivia, and learn to get along with her jealous cousins who become victims and cohorts in Sara’s antics and misadventures. Everything comes to a head when the adults are called away and her older cousin, Felicity, is left in charge – not knowing what troubles will ensue. Soon Sara must make a heart wrenching decision: whether to stay in Avonlea or return to her father. Through the combination of the episodes “The Journey Begins” and “Proof of the Pudding” this digitally-mastered movie was created as an introduction to the award-winning “Road to Avonlea” series.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, Mystery, Romance
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, semi serious, soap opera, realistic, saga, period drama, vintage
Similar in 80%
Oliver Twist (1997)
Plot Summary:
Charles Dickens' classical story about the young orphan boy in 1837 England is again re-filmed in grand fashion. Richard Dreyfuss portrays Fagin, the unscrupulous leader of the young pick-pockets Oliver (Alex Trench) initially falls in with after escaping from a sweat shop and going to London to find his relatives. Written by John Sacksteder.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 90%
The Luminaries (2020)
Plot Summary:
The 19th-century tale of love, murder and revenge as men and women travel across the world to make their fortunes on the wild West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK, New Zealand
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, disturbing, suspense, ironic, costume drama, historical drama, neo western, period drama, beautiful
Similar in 77%
Anne with an E (2017)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age story about an outsider who, against all odds and numerous challenges, fights for love and acceptance and for her place in the world. The series centers on a young orphaned girl in the late 1890’s, who, after an abusive childhood spent in orphanages and the homes of strangers, is mistakenly sent to live with an elderly woman and her aging brother. Over time, 13-year-old Anne will transform their lives and eventually the small town in which they live with her unique spirit, fierce intellect and brilliant imagination.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 63000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: compassionate, sincere, touching, realistic, emotional, costume drama, period piece, sad, historical drama, period drama