When I was growing up, my family had a cabin there, but it was on Moosehead Lake, 100 miles from the ocean. We spent the whole summer there for many years, plus some Christmas vacations (my parents were college professors), so probably close to a thousand days in the state altogether. I bet the number of them we spent within sight of the ocean could be counted on one hand.
And it seems unlikely that my experience is some huge outlier, and the vast majority of the population is hugging the coast, given that I-95 (Maine’s only interstate highway) runs from the New Hampshire border to the Canadian border–and for the vast majority of that distance it is thirty miles or even more away from the shoreline.
I wouldn’t complain if fictional representations were 80% coastal, even; but I can’t recall ever seeing any depiction of a town in Maine that didn’t include lobster boats and all that sort of thing.
I can’t come up with names off the top of my head but I know I’ve seen some things set in the Maine woods. I mean, if nothing else there is always the Lake Placid series.
Many of Stephen King’s most famous works are set near Derry which is a fictional place that he meant to be a stand in for Bangor. So all of those books, miniseries and movies were not set on the coast.
Chesters Mill from Under the Dome was based on Bridgton, which is not on the coast. It’s in the western lakes/ mountains region ~50 miles from the coast.
Maine doesn’t get much media exposure, on the coast OR the interior. Stephen King is about the only person who writes about Maine, and his stories are far more likely to take place in big, scary woods than on the beach.
That said, the one thing Maine is famous for is lobster, and their biggest city is Portland. So, it’s probably true that outsiders think of the sea when they think of Maine.
Same as the reason that everyone in Connecticut belongs to a country club. Writers know what readers (or viewers) expect, and are almost always willing to use shortcuts. If they want to set a story in a depressed urban wasteland they will use Detroit and not Bridgeport. Takes less exposition, saves room for story.
Did The Beans of Egypt, Maine have lobster boats? I don’t remember any. Also, I’m not sure it was ever revealed in the film where On Golden Pond was supposed to be located, but I always placed it on a lake in interior Maine.
Sure… but 2/3 of Colorado is more or less mountains, and the 1/3 that’s not is forbidding bleak grassland just like western Kansas.
As to the OP’s question, it looks like the vast majority of the Maine population is within 30-40 miles of the coast. So if you’re going to have a show with something unique about Maine that’s set somewhere populated, then by default, it kind of has to be near the coast, otherwise, like others have said, it’s just pine trees and mountains that could be found anywhere.
Wow, I just think nearly the exact opposite. To me, it’s the coast of Maine that is pretty generic. I mean, to listen to you guys, one would think that Massachusetts or Long Island didn’t have similar stuff to offer. Whereas those places don’t have the kinds of rugged mountains, lakes, and woods that Maine has in abundance.
NH has seaside towns as well. And when you cross the border to Quebec, it looks much different: the population density is suddenly much higher and there are far fewer trees, more towns and roads, etc. That’s an awesome place to visit, though: growing up we took many a drive to Quebec City. We just didn’t go east, except when it was time to go back home (to NC) at summer’s end.
If my family had vacationed in Colorado for a thousand days in my childhood and spent only five of those in the mountains, I would see that as having missed out (to say the least–it would be bizarre). But I think the people who only go to those coastal towns are the ones missing out. In Thoreau’s time, the resorts on Moosehead Lake were where it was at, even though the coast was obviously more easily accessible. This is my (and Thoreau’s) Maine: http://www.mainetrailfinder.com/images/trails/trail-system/mtkineo_1054-large.jpg
But over time, the tourism pattern has changed, and I don’t think these pop culture representations help any.
I see plenty of pop culture depicting areas that are not the most heavily populated. (in fact, your two points contradict each other: most of Colorado’s population is not in the mountains). And even what we do see of Maine is rarely Portland; it’s usually small fishing villages. But even still: out of that strip of 30 or 40 miles you’re talking about, how much of that has ocean and lobster boats and so on actually within view? I doubt it’s more than 10%.
BTW, it was Olive Kitteridge on HBO that was the proximate cause of this complaint (although I do like the show so far other than this annoyance); but it was the proverbial straw.
At least unless you’re talking 
