Northern Exposure

Northern Exposure
Format	Comedy-drama
Created by	Joshua Brand and John Falsey
Starring	Rob Morrow, Barry Corbin, Janine Turner, John Cullum,Darren E. Burrows, John Corbett, Cynthia Geary, Elaine Miles
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	110 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	1990-1993: Joshua Brand and John Falsey 1994-1995: David Chase, Diane Frolov, and Andrew Schneider
Running time	Approx 45 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	July 12, 1990 – July 26, 1995

Northern Exposure is an American television series that ran on CBS from 1990 to 1995, with a total of 110 episodes. The series was given a 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"^[1] and its stories of "people of different backgrounds and experiences" clashing but ultimately "strive to accept their differences and co-exist."^[1]

It received a total of 57 award nominations during its five-year run and won 27, including the 1992 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, two additional Primetime Emmy Awards, four Creative Arts Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globes.^[2]

The series was created by Brand-Falsey Productions. Critic John Leonard called Northern Exposure "the best of the best television in the past 10 years."^[3]

History

The show started as an eight-episode summer replacement series on CBS in 1990.^[3][4][5] It returned for seven more episodes in spring 1991, then became a regular part of the network's schedule in 1991-92, where it was among the top 10 among 18 to 49-year-olds^[6], as well as in 1992-93, and 1993-94. Its last season, 1994-95, included a gap during May sweeps when CBS broadcast other programming.

Under the "increasingly dark production hand"^{[citation needed]} of David Chase and due to CBS moving the show into various time slots, 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.^{[citation needed]}

In its original conception^{[citation needed]}, 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. As Northern Exposure became a ratings hit, minor characters such as Chris, Ed, Holling and Shelly, Maurice, and Ruth-Anne (along with recurring characters such as Adam and Eve, Barbara Semanski and Bernard) became part of an ensemble cast, undermining Morrow's status as the "star" of the show.^{[citation needed]}

Morrow and his representatives spent much of Seasons 4 and 5 lobbying for an improved contract^{[citation needed]}, 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^[specify] involving Fleischman were unable to be logically resolved.

Cast

Cynthia Geary, Rob Morrow, and Janine Turner at the 1993 Emmy Awards

Peg Phillips and Barry Corbin at the 1993 Emmy Awards

• Rob Morrow as Joel Fleischman, the protagonist for most of the series. Joel is a Jewish physician and the proverbial fish out of water from New York City^[5], 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 of Alaska.
• Barry Corbin as Maurice Minnifield, a successful businessman and former astronaut. Maurice owns the local radio station KBHR 570 AM and newspaper, and 15,000 acres (61 km²) of land he hopes to develop. Determined to make tiny Cicely the next boomtown, Maurice arranged to bring Joel to the town.
• Janine Turner as Maggie O'Connell, a professional bush pilot, who develops a love-hate relationship with Joel. The sexual tension between the two is a source of frequent conflict.
• John Cullum as 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 their competition for the attentions of the much younger Shelly Tambo.
• Cynthia Geary as Shelly Tambo. Shelly is a waitress at the Brick, where she lives with Holling. She was brought to Cicely by Maurice, who had hoped to marry her. The role of Shelly was originally slated to be of Native American descent until Geary auditioned for the role, after which they changed it.^[7]
• John Corbett as Chris Stevens, an ex-felon who works as the disc jockey at KBHR 570 AM. In between songs, Chris offers comments about events in Cicely and on more philosophical subjects.
• Darren E. Burrows as 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 as Ruth-Anne Miller, the level-headed owner of the general store. She 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 as Marilyn Whirlwind, Joel's receptionist, a Native American. Marilyn observes all of the goings on very clearly, but speaks rarely.

In the show's last season, two new characters were introduced:

• Paul Provenza as Phil Capra, recruited as town physician after Joel takes to the wilderness.
• Teri Polo as Michelle Schowdowski Capra, Phil's wife. She also works as a reporter on a newspaper owned by Maurice.

Major recurring characters include Adam Arkin as Adam and Valerie Mahaffey as Eve; Mahaffey was the only actor from the series to win a Emmy Award.^[2]

Production

Although the town of Cicely is widely thought to be patterned after the real town of Talkeetna, Alaska,^[8][9] the main street of Cicely and the filming location was actually that of Roslyn, Washington.

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. To film the opening sequence, the crew fenced off Roslyn, set him loose, and lured him around with food.^[10]

Episodes

Notable episodes in the series include the pilot (nominated for an Emmy for "Outstanding Writing"^[2]), the third season's last episode "Cicely" (which was recognized with a Peabody Award^[1], three Creative Arts Emmy Awards, and a Directors Guild of America Award), and the fifth season episode "I Feel the Earth Move" which featured the first same-sex marriage story arc on U.S. prime-time television.^[5]

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."^{[citation needed]}

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.^[11] 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.

Alaskan inaccuracies

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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.

The first episode mentions driving from Cicely to Juneau, which is not accessible by road.

Related television shows

Brand and Falsey also created St. Elsewhere and I'll Fly Away, the latter of which shared in one of the Peabody Awards given to Northern Exposure^[1]; Brand created Going to Extremes, a 1992 series—about medical students on a tropical island—lasting a single season.

Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, head writers of Northern Exposure, are the creators, executive producers, and writers of the CW's comedy-drama Easy Money, which premiered on October 5, 2008. The series has a similar fish out of water feel.

Television series with premises similar to Northern Exposure include

• 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 2006-2008 series also set in Alaska, with a lead character also transplanted there from New York

Popular culture influences

The musician Bon Iver derives his stage name, a deliberate misspelling of the greeting "Bon Hiver," from the 5th season episode of Northern Exposure, First Snow.^[12]

The show was referenced in The Simpsons episode New Kids on the Block, where a moose goes through Homers Garbage accompanied by Northern Exposures theme music.

References and footnotes

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Northern Exposure

• Northern Exposure DVDs at Universal Studios
• Moosechick Notes, a fansite with full episode guides
• All about Northern Exposure in Spanish
• Northern Exposure at Allmovie
• Northern Exposure at the Internet Movie Database
• Northern Exposure at TV.com