The Alaskans

Always remember seeing this series when I was very young. Remember it as being very entertaining and probably informative. It was my first memory of Roger Moore whom I loved and Dorothy Provine. If the subject of old t.v. shows comes up in conversation I always mention this one, yet no one is familiar with it. I wish someone would bring it back in syndication so I can enjoy it, hopefully, as an adult. I recall finding it very different and exciting because it had such an unusual location.Feel certain it took place in the early days of Alaskan history.

Today, when a friend told me he was going to visit Alaska this summer, the memory of viewing a promotional clip for a TV show, featuring a blonde female singer singing "It's a Hot Night in Alaska," came to me. I told him I thought the singer was Dorothy Provine, and guessed it came from her show The Roaring Twenties.

After reading her wikipedia biography, and seeing that she starred in this TV show as a singer, it makes more sense that what I saw was a promotional clip for this show. Can anyone tell me if I'm right?

When I saw the obit for Dorothy Provine in my local paper I immediately thought of "The Alaskans", Dorothy with fur collars, and that theme song. The lengthy obit had no mention of it! So, I go to IMDb to verify my memories. I would have been ten years old and it certainly made an impression on me. It really "stood out" from all the cowboy and Indian shows and family sitcoms of that era. Funny how I didn't remember Roger Moore in it...his careen certainly eclipsed Dorothy Provine's. I read that she was married for 42 years and that, in it's self, is a triumph for Hollywood. Now, I have a renewed interest a half century later and will attempt to rent some of her movies.

"The Alaskans" was sort of a less successful companion piece to "Hawaii Five O," Alaska being admitted to the Union in 1959 and Hawaii in 1960. I wish "The Alaskans" had survived for years and years and not "Five O"! I loved the theme song (and can still sing it, only not in public). Dorothy Provine was just so... gorgeous and perky and HOT. (Every thing I wanted to be at age 11 and was NOT!) Roger Moore was even hotter. I learned many useful and interesting things from the show. Things like... dynamite can freeze if it gets cold enough, but alcohol will freeze first so you need to take a bottle of whiskey with you on your dog sled if you are hauling dynamite!

"The Alaskans" was one of the Warner Bros. series that flooded TV in the late '50s, such as Maverick, Cheyenne, Bronco Lane, Sugarfoot, Lawman. Except for the earlier poster, I have never come across anyone who has seen this series. The chemistry amongst Dorothy Provine, Roger Moore and Jeff York was excellant. For unknown reasons, Jeff York (most famous as Mike Fink, king of the river, in Davy Crockett episodes) disappeared from the show about halfway through its first and only year. It was never as good thereafter. I saw it in New York at 10 pm on Sunday nights.