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Northern Exposure is a dramedy series. It was created by Brand-Falsey Productions, which was recognized with a rare pair of consecutive Peabody Awards in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of] the cultural clash between a transplanted New York doctor and the townspeople of fictional Cicely, Alaska" and its stories of how "people of diverse backgrounds and experiences strive to accept their differences and co-exist." Most of Northern Exposure's story arcs are character-driven, with the plots revolving around the intricacies and eccentricities of the citizens.
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Quotations
Joel:
I don't like people committing suicide. All the ethical considerations aside, it's just plain bad for business.
Maggie:
A man, a dead man, puts you in his will, and naturally you would think there's some ulterior motive.
//www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ed_Chigliak>Ed: I don't think you should bug Dr. Fleischman because he's from New York, and they have a thing about paparazzi.
//www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Maurice_Minnifield>Maurice: When I heard we had a crack at a Jew doctor from New York City.. well, I don't have to tell you I jumped. You boys do outstanding work.
//www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Maurice_Minnifield>Maurice: Chris, you play this crap at 6 in the morning and you'll be looking down so many barrels, you'll think you landed in an NRA convention.
Encyclopedia
Northern Exposure is a dramedy series. It was created by Brand-Falsey Productions, which was recognized with a rare pair of consecutive Peabody Awards in 1991–92 for the show's "depict[ion] in a comedic and often poetic way, [of] the cultural clash between a transplanted New York doctor and the townspeople of fictional Cicely, Alaska" and its stories of how "people of diverse backgrounds and experiences strive to accept their differences and co-exist." Most of Northern Exposure's story arcs are character-driven, with the plots revolving around the intricacies and eccentricities of the citizens. Critic John Leonard called Northern Exposure "the best of the best television in the past 10 years."
The show started as an eight-episode summer replacement series on CBS in 1990. It returned for seven more episodes in spring 1991, then became a regular part of the network's schedule in 1991-92, 1992-93, and 1993-94, three seasons in which the show was among the top 20 in the ratings. Its last season, 1994-95, included a gap during May sweeps when CBS broadcast other programming. A total of 110 episodes were produced.
Cast
- Rob Morrow plays Joel Fleischman, the protagonist for most of the series. Joel is a physician from New York City, fresh out of medical school. He arrives in the remote Alaskan town of Cicely, contractually bound to practice for four years to repay a student loan from the state.
- Barry Corbin plays Maurice Minnifield, an ex-astronaut and businessman. Maurice owns the local radio station KBHR and newspaper, and of land he hopes to develop. Determined to make tiny Cicely the next boomtown, Maurice was the one who arranged to bring Joel to the town.
- Janine Turner plays Maggie O'Connell, a professional bush pilot, who quickly develops a love-hate relationship with Joel. The sexual tension between the two is a source of frequent conflict.
- John Cullum plays Holling Vincoeur, the sexagenarian owner of the Brick, a bar and restaurant. He and Maurice were at one time best friends, a relationship strained by a competition over the affections of a much younger woman.
- Cynthia Geary plays Shelly Tambo, the much younger woman for whose affections Maurice and Holling had competed. Shelly is a waitress at the Brick, where she lives with Holling. She had been brought to Cicely by Maurice, who had hoped to marry her.
- John Corbett plays Chris Stevens, an ex-felon who works as the disc jockey at KBHR. In between songs Chris offers comments about events in Cicely and on more philosophical subjects.
- Darren E. Burrows plays Ed Chigliak, a mild-mannered, half-Native Alaskan foundling raised by local Tlingits. Ed does odd jobs for Maurice and works part-time at the local general store. A film buff and would-be director, Ed learned everything he knew about life and the outside world from movies.
- Peg Phillips plays Ruth-Anne Miller, the level-headed owner of the general store, who moved to Cicely thirty years ago. A widow, Ruth-Anne lives alone until late in the series, when she becomes involved with Walt Kupfer, a fur-trapper and retired stockbroker.
- Elaine Miles plays Marilyn Whirlwind, Joel's receptionist, a stoic Native American. Marilyn barely ever speaks, in contrast to her talkative boss.
In the show's last season, two new characters were introduced:
- Paul Provenza plays Phil Capra, recruited as town physician after Joel takes to the wilderness.
- Teri Polo plays Michelle Schowdowski Capra, Phil's wife. She also works as a reporter on a newspaper owned by Maurice.
End
Under the increasingly dark production hand of David Chase and due to CBS moving the show into various time slots (as part of the network's future move towards more youth-oriented programming), the show spiraled downwards in 1994-95. Unexplained character trait changes, the loss of clashes that had marked Fleischman's tenure, and the departure of Morrow, resulted in a precipitous drop in the show's ratings.
In its original conception, Northern Exposure was intended to be a show about Joel Fleischman, with storylines revolving around his fish-out-of-water difficulties with adjusting to Alaska, and his hot-and-cold romantic involvements with Maggie O'Connell. In keeping with this original vision, Morrow was top-billed in the credits as the "star" of the series.
In two unforeseen developments, Northern Exposure became a ratings hit, and minor characters such as Chris, Ed, Holling and Shelly, and Ruth-Anne (along with newly-created characters as Adam and Eve, Barbara Semanski and Bernard) became part of a strong ensemble cast, undermining Morrow's status as the "star" of the show, just as its popularity rose to unexpected heights.
Morrow and his representatives spent much of Seasons 4 and 5 lobbying for an improved contract, and intermittently threatened to leave the show. The producers responded by reducing Fleischman's role in the storylines, and introducing characters such as Mike Monroe (season 4) and Dr. Phil Capra (season 6) to partially compensate for the absence of Morrow. With Morrow's reduced presence in (but not departure from) the show, several ongoing storylines involving Fleischman were unable to be logically resolved.
Production
The town of Cicely is widely thought to be patterned after the real town of Talkeetna, Alaska. The main street of Cicely and the filming location was actually that of Roslyn, Washington. Because of this, the bar features a number of signs from Pacific Northwest microbreweries, which in 1990 were still fairly small and only known outside of the area by beer enthusiasts.
An annual gathering of Northern Exposure fans, called Moosefest, is held each year in Roslyn during the last weekend of July. Previous Moosefests have featured some former cast members. The next Moosefest is scheduled for July 24-26, 2009.
Prior to producing Northern Exposure, Joshua Brand and John Falsey created the popular television program St. Elsewhere. Series producer and writer David Chase went on to produce, amongst other things, The Sopranos.
According to The Northern Exposure Book, the moose in the opening titles was named Mort and provided by Washington State University, where he was part of a captive herd. Mort was an orphan from Alaska and had been bottle-raised. To film the opening sequence, the crew fenced off Roslyn, set him loose, and lured him around with bananas and willow leaves. $5,000 was paid for Mort's work because "he's the only working moose in the business."
Alaskan inaccuracies
The town of Cicely is sometimes said to be within Arrowhead County, although Alaska has no counties. The state is divided into boroughs (and one large Unorganized Borough), so some episodes refer to "the borough of Arrowhead County".
When being given directions out of town, a visitor is told to follow Main Street down to the Interstate, though Alaska has no signed Interstate highways (while some Alaska roads have Interstate designations for funding reasons, they are unsigned by ADOT&PF). Few highways in Alaska have more than two lanes.
There was also an episode in which Ed talks about Alaskan snakes. There are no snakes native to Alaska.
Episodes
Awards
Over the course of Northern Exposure's run, the series was nominated for over fifty Emmy Awards and multiple Golden Globe awards. In addition, Joshua Brand and John Falsey received two Peabody Awards, in 1991 and 1992, sharing the latter award with CBS and Finnegan-Pinchuk Company. During one of their thank you speeches, Brand and Falsey said that they appreciated the drama awards, "but it's a comedy."
The show's other awards include:
- Emmy Award (1992), Joshua Brand and John Falsey, Outstanding Drama Series.
- Emmy Award (1992), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Valerie Mahaffey.
- Emmy Award (1992), Andrew Schneider and Diane Frolov for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Drama Series for "Seoul Mates."
- Golden Globe (1993), Best Drama series.
- Golden Globe (1994), Best Drama series.
- Directors Guild Award (1993), Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Shows, "Cicely"
DVD releases
The DVD sets, which were released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, have caused controversy among the show's fans, both for their high prices and for the changes to the soundtrack introduced in order to lower their costs. The release of season 1 contained the original music, but retailed for $60 due to the cost of music licensing. Subsequent seasons replaced some of the music resulting in a lower cost release. The first and second seasons were also re-released together in packaging that matches the third through sixth seasons.
| Title | Region 1 | Region 2 |
|---|
| The Complete First Season | May 25, 2004 | May 21 2001 | | The Complete Second Season | November 30, 2004 | May 9, 2005 | | The Complete Third Season | June 14, 2005 | January 30, 2006 | | The Complete Fourth Season | March 28, 2006 | July 31, 2006 | | The Complete Fifth Season | November 13, 2006 | January 22, 2007 | | The Complete Sixth Season | March 6, 2007 | June 25, 2007 | The Complete First &
Second Seasons | May 9, 2006 | N/A | | Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 | N/A | November 20, 2006 | The Complete Series
(Seasons 1 - 6) | November 13, 2007 | October 8, 2007 |
- Note: See the DVD region code article.
See also
- St. Elsewhere, a similar premise medical drama created also by Joshua Brand and John Falsey.
- Due South, a drama-comedy series which in many ways attempted to reverse the central Northern Exposure dynamic.
- Everwood, a drama from the WB with a fish out of water doctor moving from New York City to a mountain community full of quirky characters.
- Men in Trees, a more recent series with similarities to Northern Exposure.
- , a 1992 single-season series by Joshua Brand about medical students on a tropical island
External links
- at Universal Studios
- with full episode guides
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