TV REVIEW : These People Live Real ‘Northern Exposure’

Where do you sign up?

No traffic. No housing tracts. No phones. No politicians. No Dodgers. No nothing . . . except exquisite vistas and solitude.

That, essentially, is the life of a “few staunch pioneers” who have abandoned mainstream civilization for the rugged rewards of the Alaskan wilderness. Living in the sparsest areas of a sparse land--and apparently thriving--several of these hearty, back-to-basics families are profiled in “Braving Alaska,” the season-ending “National Geographic” special airing at 8 tonight on KCET Channel 28 and KPBS Channel 15, and at 7 on KVCR Channel 24.

Martin Sheen is the narrator, Mark Stouffer the producer-director of this appealing, spectacularly filmed hour.

The Korths--Heimo is from Wisconsin, Edna is an Alaskan Eskimo--live in a one-room cabin 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, connected to the outside world only by a battery-operated radio and visits several times a year from a bush plane bearing mail and a “correspondence teacher” for their 5-year-old daughter.

Fifty miles away are the Haydens, whose 15-year-old daughter is a skilled trapper, setting off with only her sled dogs to check her traps for as far as 100 miles.

Meanwhile, former urbanites Errol and Rebecca Wilson are relative softies, using a generator to run a vacuum, VCR, radio and sewing machine in their cabin near the Yukon River, where they’ve lived since 1975. And Randy and Karen Brown and their two young sons appear to be flourishing in their isolated log cabin just south of the Arctic Circle.

Surrounded by magnificent terrain, these families seem to have achieved an almost spiritual oneness with nature while enduring physical hardships and virtually living off of the land. The camera captures the many benefits of immersion in such a pristine environment.

Among the things the families must battle, however, is monotony. New Jerseyite Karen Brown lists some of the meals she regularly prepares for her family: Moose quiche. Moose enchiladas. Sourdough moose crepes. Moose pizzas. Moose steaks. Mooseburgers. Moose meatloaf. And, for a change of pace, moose and rice.

This menu recitation is a hint that all is not totally satisfactory with the Browns, who, despite loving their lifestyle, have reluctantly decided to come back from the outback so that their sons can have a first-class education. It’s not a happy time, and you empathize, feeling sad for them as they abandon the cabin they build themselves and depart by dog sled for Fairbanks.

Minus actors and Hollywood scripts, a program about the real “Northern Exposure.”