June 2007 Archives

Originally posted on North

When people find out I'm from Alaska, there are some expected questions that I can readily speak to -- Is it really light/dark all the time? Have you seen the northern lights? How cold does it get? -- but there's one question that has come up regularly for which I haven't had an answer: Is Alaska like the TV show "Northern Exposure?"

After watching the first few episodes of season one on DVD, I'm beginning to formulate an answer.

The Premise

The first task was to take on the show's premise. Joel Fleischman is a Jewish doctor from New York who agrees to work in Alaska because the state will repay his school loans.

Joel: I mean do you have any idea what it costs to go through medical school? I mean, a lot! I know what you're thinking, scholarship, right? Let's face it, Jewish doctors are not exactly an endangered species. ... So, seventy five scholarship applications later, seventy four turn-downs, only one comes through. Alaska... [T]he state agreed to finance my medical education to the tune of one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, and in return? I agreed to be their indentured slave for the next four years.

Joel has signed a contract to practice medicine in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city. The state does have a student loan repayment program for medical personnel, but it looks like it is currently limited to students participating in the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (WWAMI) medical education program. The Alaska legislature considered a bill to establish loan repayment programs for a wider range of students, but it looks as though it died in committee.[1]

The National Health Service Corps, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has a loan repayment program for medical personnel who agree to work in under-served (mostly rural) communities. They have many opportunities in Alaska, but the few in Anchorage are scored low, meaning the loan repayment is less.[2]

Verdict: The show's writers appear to be ahead of their time. As of the show's air date, Alaska did not have a loan repayment program for med students outside the WWAMI program, but the state appears to be considering one. There is a federal program, which I assume existed as of the air date, so it's plausible that Joel's service in Alaska is tied to a med school loan repayment program.

Where is Cicely?

Now that it's been established that Joel's motive for going to Alaska is at least plausible, let's examine where he might be. Cicely, Alaska, is fictional, but through clues given throughout the show, we can try to locate where in the Last Frontier it may be located.

Our first clue is that it's a "bus ride from Anchorage." This may not seem very helpful for people outside Alaska, but since most of the state is inaccessible by road, it's actually very helpful.

When Joel gets off the bus, the road is paved, which is also helpful, as it eliminates pretty much everything north of Fairbanks as a possibility.

Later in the first episode, we get another important clue. Maurice mentions that folks traveled from Ninilchik, "300 miles away as the crow flies." Though Maurice is a former Astronaut who is presumably accustomed to precision measurements, I'm guessing this statement is a casual estimation, so we'll give him a 25-mile margin of error on either side. If the actual distance were beyond that, I think he would have rounded to 250 or 350 miles. This helps narrow it down, but not as much as one would think.

This region includes all of Highway 1 from Fairbanks to Tok, the northern half of the Richardson Highway as well as a good chunk of Highway 3 near Fairbanks. We're going to need a little more information.

The fictional town is located in Arrowhead County, which would be helpful in any other state but Alaska: There are no counties in Alaska. The state is divided into regions called "boroughs," and none of them are named "Arrowhead."[3] Not to mention about half of the land is outside any of the 16 boroughs.

In the DVD menu, Cicely's welcome sign places the elevation at 6,572 feet -- or about 1.25 miles. Unfortunately, in our range of possible locations, the highest elevation accessible by road is about 1,200 meters, or about 4,000 feet. So we'll ignore this criteria.

Other clues that might help pinpoint the possible location of Cicely have been scarce. I haven't watched beyond the sixth episode, though, so perhaps I'll run across some more clues. For now, I'm inclined to believe Cicely is somewhere between Tok and Delta Junction. Depending on how much credit you're willing to give the writers, this ambiguity may be intentional. If it were easy to pinpoint exactly where the town was, it would be easy to say there should/shouldn't be a mountain/river/lake/road/etc. Since we don't know exactly where the town is, it's a little easier to take those details on faith and focus on the story instead of the details.

Other items

Weather: In the first episode, Joel says "The median temperature [of Anchorage] is only five degrees lower than French Lick, Indiana." I'm not sure which almanac he was using, but he should consider buying a new one. The chart below shows the range between the average low and average high temperatures throughout the year for French Lick, Indiana, and Anchorage, Alaska. Even if you use the Celcius scale, Anchorage's temps are colder by more than five degrees.

Daylight: In episode two, Dr. Fleischman visits Maggie to give her some pain medication. It's 11 p.m., according to the dialogue, but the sky is pitch black. This doesn't track. If they are as far south as Tok, sunset in July is around 11 p.m. -- if they are closer to Delta Junction, sunset in July is 20-30 minutes later -- according to this sunrise/sunset calculator. (Note: We don't for sure that it's July, but we do know that it's summer. The days are a bit shorter in August, but longer in June, so I picked the middle.)

On the more accurate side, Joel is seen drinking an Alaskan Amber in the bar. Though most self-respecting bars would have it on draft, it's nice to see a local product included in the program.

Conclusion

Despite some inaccuracies and ambiguities, the overall feel of the show is right on. Northern Exposure is one of the best representations of Alaska life available in a fictional TV show or movie (that I've seen). We'll see if there are any changes as I watch more episodes.

[1] This summary of SB 32 says the bill would "establish a loan reimbursement program for registered nurses and doctors who are trained outside the WWAMI program." I take that to mean there is currently no state-sponsored reimbursement program for students outside the WWAMI program. Status of SB 32.

[2] Thanks, Fiona, for the NHSC links.

[3] This is a common factual error in movies and TV shows set in Alaska.