Northern Exposure vs. Men in Trees

Full disclosure: I posted this as a reply in a SatelliteGuys thread, but felt like including it here...

Ok, I knew when Men in Trees started that in many ways it was a copy of Northern Exposure; transplanted New Yorker (woman this time instead of the very young Rob Morrow, with way too much hair); eccentric characters; focus each day on the radio station; but after watching the first week and half of UHDs airing of Northern Exposure, the comparisons are even stronger...

for example, Maurice "adopts" Chris; whereas Patrick in Trees is the son of the black bush pilot Buzz. Chris in NE is the radio guy; Patrick in Trees is the radio guy

Its kind of like reading Terry Brook's Shannara series (the original trilogy) as a kid, AND ONLY LATER discovering the magic of Lord of the Rings, and realizing how much Brooks drew from Tolkien. It doesn't make the Sword of Shannara any less magical for me; if anything it pays respect to the master (Tolkien, not Sauron).

Along the same lines, I still like the new Men in Trees, even though Ann Heche certainly is not Janine Turner. If it draws from the best of Northern Exposure, all the better. Heck, its been 11 years since Northern Exposure went off the air.