Here are some lists - it looks like there are many of each set away from the coast but I don’t recognize many of the titles.
I haven’t seen most of those either, but (maybe it’s just chance) all those I have were set on the coast.
I call BS on Under the Dome as it is never said to be Maine, and it was filmed in North Carolina which does not look at all like Maine–as I say, I would know because I grew up living in NC and spent a lot of time at our cabin in Maine.
Maine has two parts. The Gold Coast which is the coast line and then perhaps inwards 5-10 miles but no more. Then the rest of the interior of the state.
The Gold Coast is where all the elites see Maine. They come for the coast line, the small picturesque harbor villages , beaches, sailing, eat lobster and clam chowdar. It is where all the money is also. The coast is littered with very expensive 2nd homes.
The interior is mostly a blue collar playground. Hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, and the like.
So the elites who go on to produce movies, write novels, etc will portray what they know. The coast. A few exceptions to that, but not many.
Good point, David. There are blue collar areas of the country that get portrayed in fiction, but often very stereotypically/shallowly, so maybe it’s just as well.
The same could be said for California. When was the last time there was a movie or TV show located in Riverside?
But they do from time to time show the California desert, mountains, etc.
It does have some diversity, but usually the trip to the mountains and the desert will start in LA. Similarly there’s a lot to France that occasionally gets shown in a movie, but apparently you can’t get there without stopping in Paris to see the Eiffel Tower first. There’s no place in Egypt you can get to without passing by the Pyramids, or in England the road to every location passes by Big Ben.
Inland Maine is very similar to the South. Poor, agricultural, working class, failing economies, country music (in the day). It’s probably preferable to set your movie in the South for that.
It’s also not sexy like the West coast for wilderness. The Bears are bigger, and the mountains are taller there, and its close to Hollywood. Then there’s Alaska.
I forgot, besides coast and pine trees, Maine has moose. You can’t go anywhere inland without seeing a moose.
ETA: I also forgot about Welcome to Mooseport. I don’t remember much about the movie (I wonder why?) but I do recall a lot of pine trees and a moose.
Why is Maine always portrayed on movies and TV as nothing but coast?
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Maine has a lot of coast. Gobsmackingly long coastline.
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Maine’s coast is something else. Outstandingly impressive (and NOT even remotely like other states’ coasts – sorry, Slacker).
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The rest of Maine is dull by comparison.
So how do you explain my family driving a couple thousand miles round trip from Chapel Hill to Greenville every year, sometimes twice a year, on most occasions not even spending a single day or hour at the coast? We were just the stupidest vacationers of all time, or what? It sure seemed like there were lots of other nonresidents there:tourists, as well as people with second homes.
And why did they have resorts and steam ships on Moosehead Lake in Thoreau’s time if it was so dull? He even wrote a book about it.
P.S. Can you be more specific about what is so impressive about Mane’s coast? I admittedly did not spend much time there, but other than Acadia National Park (which is not where all these fictional settings show), the coast did seem similar to me to Long Island or Massachusetts. Docks and fishing boats and buoys, big whoop.
Someone once described Maine to me as being just like Arkansas, except with Yankee accents.
I was forcefully reminded of this when I lived in the States many years ago, when returning to Massachusetts from a visit to Canada, and I stopped to make a long and leisurely examination of a covered bridge, which is one of the things Maine is famous for.
I had been standing for a couple of minutes at the end of the bridge, taking pictures, and turned round to find myself practically nose to nose with a dungaree-clad gentleman cradling a long barreled rifle, with a hunting dog of some description at this side. When he spoke, he revealed a serious aversion to basic (and advanced) dental care.
Scenes from “Deliverance” kept flashing through my mind, but he actually turned out to be very friendly, although I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. Nonetheless when I turned around to walk back to my car, I was still apprehensive that Cletus might change his mind and demonstrate his marksmanship skills.
Needless to say, that did not happen.
Sigh.
Family vacation dull and movie storytelling dull are not comparable.
Try being from Kansas where it looks like everyone lives on a farm.
I haven’t seen a moose in years, but yeah they’re lurking about in the shadows…
Elites? Damn, my savings account has dust on it, but I vacation there annually. 
(In the wintah, it’s off to the blue collar playground, so you know.)
Maine is famous for its rocky coast. Of its 3,478 miles of shoreline (longer than California’s), probably two of those miles are sand beach. 
I’m surprised this wasn’t evident at Acadia.
Maine is portrayed in a clichéd way in movies and TV because everything is portrayed in a cliché manner in movies and TV. By everything I don’t just mean places. I mean people, professions, human emotions, human institutions, etc. Most movies and TV shows are big clumps of clichés. I looked to see if TV Tropes has a webpage on Maine clichés. They don’t, but they have a page on New England clichés:
As for movies, Kujo and MSW were both filmed in Mendocino, CA. For the latter, it’s the opening, if not the actual show.
American Graffiti, Grapes of Wrath, The Big Valley. Not Riverside, but not the coast.
But…but…the OCEAN would be on the WRONG SIDE!