Northern Exposure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Northern Exposure | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Drama/Comedy |
| Creator(s) | Joshua Brand John Falsey |
| Starring | Rob Morrow Barry Corbin Janine Turner John Cullum Darren E. Burrows John Corbett Cynthia Geary |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 110 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | Approx 45 minutes per episode |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | July 12, 1990 – July 26, 1995 |
| Links | |
Northern Exposure was a quirky, surreal, character-driven American dramatic-comedy television series.
It was originally broadcast by CBS between 1990 and 1995, in 110 episodes spread over six seasons. The show was set in a small, remote (and fictional) town called Cicely located in the fictional Borough of Arrowhead County, Alaska; filmed in the real town of Roslyn, Washington. Thematically, the show began as a "fish out of water" motif with a driven Jewish New York City physician coming into conflict with the laid-back and quirky populace of the Alaskan wilderness. As the series progressed, there were a number of sub-plots involving the town residents, with occasional drifts into existential themes.
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[edit] Main characters
Most of the story arcs during Northern Exposure's six year tenure were character-driven, with the plots revolving around the intricacies and eccentricities of the citizens.
[edit] Original cast
- Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow) was the central character, a young, New York Jewish doctor who was contractually bound to practice in the remote Alaskan town of Cicely for four years in order to repay a student loan from the state. The comedy centered originally on the clash between Fleischman's neurotic urban mindset and the easy-going, community-minded people around him. As time went on, the show focus shifted to the quirky characters of the town. Morrow left the series in the middle of the sixth (and final) season with hopes of establishing a motion picture career.
- Maurice Minnifield (Barry Corbin) was a patriotic ex-astronaut and millionaire entrepreneur. He had arranged to bring Dr. Fleischman to the town, which previously had no physician. Determined to make tiny Cicely the next boomtown, "the cusp of the new Alaskan Riviera," Maurice was the owner of the local radio station KBHR and newspaper, as well as fifteen thousand acres of local land.
- Chris Stevens (John Corbett), an ex-felon, was the disc jockey at KBHR, who interspersed the music of his morning show with musings on the nature of life and readings from such writers as Walt Whitman, Leo Tolstoy, Carl Jung and Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are). Chris is also Cicely's only clergyman, ordained through an advertisement in Rolling Stone magazine.
- Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner) was a professional bush pilot and property agent. She was originally a debutante from a wealthy Grosse Pointe, Michigan automotive family. A recurring theme within the series involved Maggie's former boyfriends, who had died in bizarre accidents. She maintained a strong love-hate relationship with Fleischman.
- Shelly Tambo (Cynthia Geary) was a young beauty pageant winner, "Miss Northwest Passage," brought from Saskatchewan to Cicely by Maurice, who hoped to marry her. Shortly after her arrival, she met and fell in love with the much older Holling Vincoeur. Shelly nearly became a bigamist when she almost married Holling, having previously married schoolmate and hockey player Wayne Jones, solely in order to get him to stop proposing.
- Holling Vincoeur (John Cullum) was a sexagenarian ex-hunter and owner of 'The Brick' bar and restaurant, where he lived on the second floor with Shelly. Born in Quebec and later becoming a naturalized US citizen, he had been best friends with Maurice until they fell out over Shelly. His father and grandfather both lived to be over 100 years old, spending most of their lives as widowers despite having married much younger women. Fearing the same bitter fate, Holling forswore love until Shelly appeared. He claimed to be a direct descendant of King Louis XIV of France and attempted to distance himself as much as possible from his despotic forebears. Holling was the mayor of Cicely for 23 years, until being defeated by Edna Hancock.
- Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows) was a mild-mannered, amiably tactless, half-Native Alaskan foundling with a genius IQ who worked odd jobs for Maurice. He also worked sometimes at Ruth-Ann's General store. A film buff and would-be director, Ed learned everything he knew about life and the outside world from movies, especially those of Woody Allen and Federico Fellini. He was a Shaman-in-training and was occasionally visited by his invisible spirit guide, One-Who-Waits, and by his personal demon, Low Self Esteem, who resembled a leprechaun. Ed wrote, directed and produced his own film about Cicely.
- Ruth-Anne Miller (Peg Phillips) was the septuagenarian owner of the general store. A widow, Ruth-Anne lived alone until late in the series, when she became involved with retired stockbroker and bear-trapper, Walt Kupfer.
- Marilyn Whirlwind (Elaine Miles) was Fleischman's placid, Native American receptionist. A comic study in contrast with her boss, Marilyn rarely spoke while Fleischman rarely stopped talking.
[edit] Sixth season additions
Shortly before the permanent departure of Morrow from the series, two additional characters were introduced:
- Phil Capra (Paul Provenza) was Fleischman's replacement as town physician after his predecessor took to the wilderness. A refugee from the urban hustle of Los Angeles, Capra was more gracious than Fleischman in a small town setting, but was even more hapless. Provenza was originally hired to take over the role of Dr. Joel Fleischman. The difference in their appearance was to be attributed to a new haircut, with Maggie O'Connell commenting "It suits you." This idea was rejected to avoid alienating Morrow's fans.
- Michelle Schowdowski Capra (Teri Polo) was Phil's wife. She worked as a reporter on a newspaper owned by Minnifield. When he started applying editorial pressure, she decided she preferred waitressing at The Brick and had visions of Fleischman's rabbi, Schulman.
The show wound down in its final season. The lack of genuine clashes that had marked Fleischman's tenure and the departure of Morrow resulted in a precipitous drop in the ratings.[1]
[edit] Guest stars
- Adam Ant, a British pop star, guest starred as Brad Bonner. Brad, the lead singer of a heavy metal band, arrived in Cicely, Alaska, instead of his intended destination of Sicily, Italy, in the fourth season episode "Heroes".
- Adam Arkin (son of Alan Arkin) was Adam, an abrasive, misanthropic gourmet chef who may or may not have worked for the CIA in the past, which explains how he has so much information about everyone. Adam seemed to have a chip on his shoulder and had an offensive rebuttal for anyone who complimented him. Valerie Mahaffey won an Emmy Award in 1992 for portraying Adam's hypochondriac wife Eve, an heiress to a tungsten fortune. Eve and Adam spent part of each year as jet-setters and part as near-hermits in a cabin near Cicely.
- Elya Baskin was Nikolai in "War and Peace," a second season episode.
- Jack Black was Kevin Wilkins, 1/3 of the senior graduating class of Cicely High School.
- Richard Cummings Jr. was Bernard Stevens, Chris' "half-brother and spiritual doppelgänger." Their relationship extended beyond being merely half-brothers, as they also shared dreams, emotions, and thoughts. They had the same birthday and birth year, making them "twins," despite having different mothers, one white and the other black. Their father was a "travellin' man," whose double life was exposed only after his death.
- Diane Delano was Sergeant Barbara Semanski, an Alaskan state trooper and love interest of Maurice Minnifield.
- Anthony Edwards was, for a brief time, the hyper-allergic lawyer Mike Monroe, who came to Alaska to escape the pollution that gave him multiple chemical sensitivity. Maggie O'Connell, attracted by his strength of character, encouraged him to come out of his airtight house more often, and they briefly became a couple. In an apparent inversion of "Maggie's Curse," Mike's symptoms suddenly vanished, whereupon he left to join a Greenpeace ship at Murmansk.
- Grant Goodeve was Rick, Maggie O'Connell's first season boyfriend, who died at the end of the second season when an errant satellite fell on him during a camping trip.
- Graham Greene was Leonard Quinhagak, the native medicine man and Ed's mentor.
- Mickey Jones was Tooley in "Heroes," a season four episode.
- Moultrie Patten was Walter "Walt" Kupfer, a salty trapper and love interest of Ruth Anne Miller.
- Floyd Westerman was One-Who-Waits, Ed Chigliak's spirit guide, the ghost of a long-dead chief.
- William J. White was Dave, the Native American cook at the Brick.
[edit] Thematic and technical details
Northern Exposure's flavor came from a combination of various influences. The show’s creators, Joshua Brand and John Falsey, were members of the Esalen Institute in California where an eclectically "spiritual" worldview was presented, best exemplified in the writings of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and American anthropologist/mythologist Joseph Campbell (whose works are frequently referenced in the series). There are also fantasy elements inherited from the works of Carlos Castaneda and the magical realism novels and stories of Latin American author Gabriel García Márquez. Both creators were also conversant with classical Russian Literature. This characteristic is evident in the satirical elements from the show that are hallmarks of the Russian literary grotesque style of such authors as Gogol and Dostoevsky.
The show made frequent use of dream and fantasy sequences and other dense imagery. There were many similarities with the television program Twin Peaks. In episode 5 of the first season, there are multiple references to key elements of Twin Peaks, such as cherry pie, coffee and the Log Lady character. The scenes were shot using music similar to Twin Peaks and the same slow, ethereal direction and self-consciously obtuse dialogue popularized by David Lynch.
The main street of Cicely and the filming location was actually that of Roslyn, Washington. The Roslyn vicinity is currently being developed as the large, master-planned resort of Suncadia. Moosefest was, until recent years, the annual gathering of Northern Exposure fans traditionally held the last weekend of July in the town of Roslyn.[2]
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.
In 2006 the new television series called Men in Trees is in many ways similar to "Northern Exposure", this time being set in Squamish, BC while pretending to be Alaska.
[edit] Episodes
See List of Northern Exposure episodes
[edit] DVD releases
The DVD sets, which were released by Universal Home Video, have caused controversy among the show's fans. The original releases of seasons 1 and 2 contained the original music, but retailed for $60 each due to the high cost of music licensing. Many fans were outraged over the expense. Subsequent seasons replaced some of the music resulting in a lower cost release. Likewise, many fans were outraged over the musical replacement. So far, no release is available to satisfy everyone.
| Season(s) | Cover Art | Region 1 | Region 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete First Season |  |
May 25, 2004 | May 21, 2001 (R2 has different cover art) |
| The Complete Second Season |  |
November 30, 2004 | May 9, 2005 (R2 has different cover art) |
| The Complete Third Season |  |
June 14, 2005 | January 30, 2006 (R2 has different cover art) |
| The Complete Fourth Season |  |
March 28, 2006 | July 31, 2006 (R2 has different cover art) |
| The Complete Fifth Season |  |
November 13, 2006 | January 22, 2007 (R2 has different cover art) |
| The Complete Sixth Season |  |
March 6, 2007 | June 18, 2007 (R2 has different cover art) |
| The Complete First & Second Seasons |  |
May 9, 2006 (only available in R1) |
N/A |
| Seasons One, Two, Three & Four |  |
N/A | November 20, 2006 (only available in R2) |
[edit] Awards
Over the course of Northern Exposure's run, the series was nominated for over fifty Emmy Awards and multiple Golden Globe awards ([3]). In addition, Joshua Brand and John Falsey received the Peabody Award in 1992 for their contributions to television quality and the industry.
Some of the more notable awards:
- 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"
[edit] External links
- Official Site for Northern Exposure DVD at Universal Studios
- Northern Exposure at the Internet Movie Database
- Kimiye Tipton's Guide to Northern Exposure
- Moosechick's Northern Exposure Archives including episode guide
- RetroWeb Classic Television on Northern Exposure
- Northern Exposure as Therapy
- The Northern Exposure music guide
- Moosefest fan festival
| Northern Exposure |
|---|
| Characters |
| Joel Fleischman | Maggie O'Connell | Maurice Minnifield | Chris Stevens Shelly Tambo | Holling Vincoeur | Ed Chigliak | Ruth-Anne Miller | Marilyn Whirlwind Phil Capra | Michelle Capra |
| Episodes |
