'Flying Wild Alaska,' the end of an Era

Discovery+ has a treasure trove of Alaska-adjacent shows. I have been watching Flying Wild Alaska through free trials the last two weeks.

Flying Wild Alaska follows the Tweto family, Jim, Ferno, Ariel and Ayla (there is a third sister, but she wasn't in the series). There are three seasons, with 31 episodes that aired in 2011 and 2012. Jim was a pilot and COO for Era Alaska, which eventually became Ravn Alaska. He died in a plane crash in June 2023.

Certain reality shows flow a lot smoother, others feel like I'm slogging through. It wasn't hard to finish three seasons of Flying Wild, but simultaneously watching Ice Road Truckers has felt like the opposite. Kind of like slow torture.

There is absolutely dramatization, because of course there is, but I liked watching a little bit more normalcy from the people of Alaska to the world – like how important the radio is in western AK (KSNA shoutout!), delivering the first ATM to Wainwright or Ariel trying to find seagull eggs.

The Twetos operated out of Unalakleet. We witness pilots flying whaling explosives to St. Lawrence Island along Russian airspace, hitting a loon mid-flight and taking a plane full of dogs to Lance Mackey and his kennel.

I did NOT enjoy hearing the e-slur dropped consistently by the narrator throughout the series.

My husband watched Flying Wild when it aired in high school with his parents. His dad is in an aviation club in California, so flying planes is part of their life, but it was Dunk's first introduction to Alaska. He remembers Ferno and Ariel preparing stink flipper – where the paw of a seal is buried in the ground and left for a few months before it's boiled.

That stink flipper will kill white people, Jim says.

Jim takes supplies to Heimo Korth and his wife, Edna, who live in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Korths are also in The Last Alaskans, which is on the watch list.

There's only seven of us with cabin permits here in the refuge, but we're the only ones left that actually live in the refuge. We were here long before it was a refuge, so we were grandfathered into the area, Korth said.

Flying Wild also serves as a heartbreaking reminder that Alaska has the highest numbers of suicide per-capita in the U.S. In the second episode, daughter Ariel gets a call to see if they can transport a casket for a teenager.

There is a death in one of the villages north of us, and the kid's mom just called. They were going to boat the coffin across from Shaktoolik to Koyuk, but the weather is crappy up there and the waves are too big. So they asked if we could fly the coffin.

When the show was airing, Ariel made appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (a handful of times, as in 15). She maintained a friendship with Craig over the years and was a guest on his podcast in 2024.

(total watch time: 1 day, 7 hours)

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From ADN: Alaska is the setting of ‘The Great North,’ a new animated comedy from Fox (2021)

“The Great North,” a new animated series set in Alaska from the writers of “Bob’s Burgers” now showing on Fox, has some big names attached to it, including Nick Offerman, Will Forte, Megan Mullally and Alanis Morrisette.

Alaska has set the scene for plenty of reality television, from “Slednecks” to “Deadliest Catch” and “Ice Road Truckers.” Some feature films have even been filmed in state, like “Big Miracle” and “The Frozen Ground.” While PBS launched the children’s show “Molly of Denali” in early 2020, fictional television set in Alaska — especially animated shows — are a rarity.

Offerman (best known for the role of Ron Swanson in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation”) plays single father Beef Tobin, who lives in Alaska with his sons, Moon and Ham, and daughter Judy (Jenny Slate), who talks to her aurora-borealis-inspired imaginary friend Alanis Morissette (voiced by Alanis Morissette). Also in the house is Beef’s oldest son, Wolf, played by Will Forte, and his fiancee HoneyBee, voiced by Dulcé Sloan.

In the first episode, Beef hosts Judy’s 16th birthday on the family boat but gets distracted beforehand by a moose that unexpectedly enters the house. He ends up falling head over heels for Judy’s new boss, Alyson — played by Offerman’s real-life partner Megan Mullally (”Will & Grace,” “Parks and Recreation”).

The show was created and produced by sisters Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, who have written for “Bob’s Burgers” since 2012, along with Minty Lewis.

“I have been to Alaska a handful of times to visit my husband’s side of the family and we’ve also attended the Iditarod on a few occasions,” Molyneux-Logelin said in an email. “It is a completely different world up there and the experiences one can have are truly unique.”

The family lives in the seemingly rural, fictional town of Lone Moose, which is surrounded by tall peaks and lies near the ocean, where Beef operates his fishing vessel.

Lone Moose is “the sort of community where everybody values their individuality and privacy, but they also value the mid-sized mall and its myriad retail opportunities,” wrote Daniel Fienberg in a Hollywood Reporter review.

The show features some Alaska talent, including actress Ariel Tweto of Unalakleet, whose family was featured in the reality show “Flying Wild Alaska.” She makes an appearance as Judy’s best friend and schoolmate, Kima, who is obsessed with “Judge Judy” and all things cable television.

“I’ve done six episodes so far. One is a musical, that one was scary,” Tweto said.

Tweto says she had done some voiceover work in the past prior to “The Great North.” She has yet to watch the first episode but says working with the Molyneux sisters has been a learning experience.

“What a gift, I’m so excited to be a part of (it) and it’s been so fun to do. I’m learning so much,” Tweto said. “I hope Alaskans are proud of it.”

“The Great North” debuted on Jan. 3, although the official premiere isn’t until Feb. 14. The series has been renewed for two additional seasons on Fox and can be streamed on Hulu.

Thank you so much for reading!