SAD lights are plot element of ‘Men in Trees’

In the small town of Elmo, Alaska, winters can be rough, particularly if you’re the police chief. Throw in some problems with your grown son, Patrick, and a tendency toward Seasonal Affective Disorder, and it’s understandable why Chief Celia Bachelor gets a little cranky.

Ah, but she has something to ease the darkness. Sitting on her desk is a SAD light box. When things get a little rough, Bachelor sits in front of the box and basks in its glow.

“Oh, I love my light machine,” she says.

That’s a plot element of Bachelor’s character, played by actress Cynthia Stevenson, on the hit ABC television show “Men In Trees,” shown at 9 p.m. Thursdays on KIMO Channel 13. A new prime-time show that debuted this fall, “Men In Trees” is about Marin Frist, played by Anne Heche, a New York writer and relationship coach who winds up in the fictional Elmo after her engagement ends and she decides she needs to learn more about men.

Alaska Northern Lights sold two SAD light boxes last summer to “Men in Trees” after an art director with a production company in Vancouver, B.C., called to order a set, said Neil Wagner, owner of the Homer-based business.

The show is filmed in Vancouver by Tree Line Films, Perkins Street Productions and NS Pictures Inc., in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Miriam Elizondo took the call while Wagner and his wife Kyra were out of town on a whale research trip in Prince William Sound. Elizondo is a video filmmaker who has worked for production companies in Chicago.

“They were super cool. They were like, hey, we’re doing this TV show,” she said. “We need a couple of light boxes.”

Wagner was reluctant to ship to Canada because of the difficulty working with customs, but Elizondo said she’d take care of the forms.

“We’re going to get your box on TV, dude,” she said she told him.

Alaska’s darkness inspired series creator and writer Jenny Bicks — who also wrote for “Sex and the City” — to come up with the SAD angle for Celia Bachelor. Bicks visited Ketchikan last November as part of her research, and was struck by the lack of sunlight.

“It was fascinating to me that these worlds live in the dark so much of the time,” she said in a phone interview from her office in Los Angeles. “So I just thought, There’s got to be somebody in this town I’m making up who would suffer from it.”

Bicks decided to make the character of Bachelor the one to endure an ailment many northerners experience. She said she’s known people with SAD, and had heard about how the bright lights help.

“I thought, Well, there you go. She just needs a couple more hours of sunlight, so we gave her a SAD light,” Bicks said.

How a Canadian production company found Wagner’s light boxes didn’t surprise him. They found it on the Web by entering “SAD light box” in the Google search engine, he said. Wagner pays Google advertising to have Alaska Northern Lights pop up as one of the first sponsored links on a search for those words. Most of Wagner’s business — almost all of it Outside — comes through Google.

“It’s unbelievable how much you spend there,” he said. “But it works.”

Wagner started Alaska Northern Lights in 1992 after he heard how the bright lights help people affected by the lack of sunlight. The body’s circadian rhythms are affected by changes in sunlight, he said. Some people’s sleep patterns get disrupted and lose energy — even become depressed. Light boxes help readjust the body’s circadian clock. Wagner advises people to sit in front of a light box in the morning for about a half-hour every day.

“Most people notice their energy comes up,” he said.

He did caution that some people won’t be helped by SAD light boxes. He recommends talking to doctors about the effectiveness of SAD lights. Many health insurance plans pay for SAD lights if prescribed by a doctor. Alaska Northern Lights offers a free 30-day trial plan.

Alaska Northern Lights sells one product, the North Star 10,000, for $259 in Homer. Wagner designed the product, and it’s manufactured in New Jersey by Test Rite Instrument Company. He orders the bulbs, ballasts and other parts, and has them shipped to Test Rite. Homer seamstress Amanda Miotke makes an optional carrying bag for the light box.

Wagner estimates he sells from 2,000 to 2,500 boxes a year, with a large market in the Northeastern U.S.

“It’s just a funny little niche thing,” Wagner said. “I get a lot of calls from people who say, ‘If you’re in Alaska, you must know about light.’”

Although many other companies make similar products, Wagner said he thinks his product is successful because it’s brighter. At 10,000 lux, the NorthStar puts out enough light that users don’t have to put their faces right next to it.

“If people want to get their light in the morning, it’s very bright and has a large area of field,” he said.

“Men in Trees” has attracted some Alaska fans — and critics, Bicks said. There’s a group in Ketchikan who gets together to watch it, and e-mails her with criticisms. A notable faux pas was in the pilot, when Marin has to be rescued from a raccoon in her closet. Bicks said she now knows Alaska doesn’t have raccoons.

“I’ve gotten the e-mails,” she said. “That’s what I appreciate about your state.”

Bicks also appreciates how people come here to get away from their problems, like her main character Marin.

“It’s an interesting dichotomy,” Bicks said. “People are both escaping their past and creating a new truth.”

A future episode, “The Darkest Day,” will use Alaska’s darkness as a further plot element, Bicks said. She said the Chief Bachelor character will go through future plot complications, such as giving up the apron springs for her son.

“She’s got a lot to be cranky about,” Bicks said. “That’s OK. She’s going to get a boyfriend. With or without her SAD light, she’s going to be OK.”

For information on Alaska Northern Lights, visit the www.alaskanorthernlights.com or call 235-6953. The “Men in Trees” site is at abc.go.com/primetime/menintrees/about.html.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.