50 best television shows set across the United States

Alaska: Northern Exposure

The premise: Again, a big shot New York doctor moves to a small Alaska town, and has a really hard time adjusting. Unlike Hart of Dixie, Joel, said fancy doctor, resists acclimating to the town and maintains his “fish out of water” status longer than everyone likes.

The setting: Cicely, Alaska, is remote, even for Alaska’s standards. Like so many characters in shows about small towns, they are weird and completely unaware or self-conscious about how they live. Cicely has its own customs and traditions, and it’s just so charming that it begins to grow on Joel. He’s especially drawn to the pretty female pilot, Maggie, who suffers none of his snobbish antics and attitudes.

The most Alaska thing about it: Aside from moose wandering the towns and the sheer weight of their collective outerwear, Cicely feels like it could be another planet, at least according to Joel. There is one particular episode in which he has to adjust to the full night Alaska enjoys and he even wears a visor of sorts to help simulate sunlight. People get a little nutty with so much darkness, and the town’s quirkiness is ratcheted up as they trudge through the days with no natural light. Joel actually left the show through a storyline in which he “goes native” and fully succumbs to the wilderness lifestyle.