Northern Exposure

The series was created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey, who also created the award-winning shows St. Elsewhere and I'll Fly Away. It started as a mid-season replacement summer series on CBS in 1990 with 8 episodes.[2][3] It returned for seven more episodes in spring 1991, then became a regular part of the network's schedule in 1991–92. It ranked among the top 10 viewed by 18- to 49-year-olds,[4] and was part of the network's 1992–93 and 1993–94 schedules.

In 1994, writer Sandy Veith won a jury trial against Universal, alleging that the series was based on his idea yet he received no credit or compensation. Veith won $10 million in damages and legal fees on appeal three years later.[5] His suit was against the studio, not Brand and Falsey. The Los Angeles Times reported that jurors seemed to believe the studio came to Brand and Falsey with the basic concept for the show rather than that the latter knowingly stole his idea. Some Universal executives had worked with Veith and Brand and Falsey. Veith's script was about an Italian-American doctor who moves to a small town in the South.[6] In 1994, the same year that the lawsuit was filed, Brand and Falsey resigned. David Chase was brought in to serve as executive producer. He later went on to say that he took the job purely for the money, stating that he disliked the premise of the show; Brand cited Chase as having run the show into the ground.[7]

In January 1995 the show moved from Monday to Wednesday, and in May 1995 there was a gap during sweeps when CBS broadcast other programming. At one point, Barry Corbin wrote an open letter to TV critics that called the show "an understandably weakened show". On May 24, 1995, CBS announced the cancelation of the show, which had its final episode shown on July 26. [8] "The show had a lot of life in it, and the move (Wednesday at 10pm) killed it," said executive producer Andrew Schneider. "This piddling out is sad."[9][10]

Morrow and his representatives spent much of seasons 4 and 5 lobbying for an improved contract,[11] 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, whose last appearance came midway through the show's final season.

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

• Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow) is a neurotic young Jewish physician from New York City. Fresh out of family medicine residency, he is legally contracted to practice medicine for four years in Alaska according to the terms of a student loan underwritten by the state. Expecting to work in a relatively large, modern hospital in Anchorage, he is unexpectedly reassigned to be a general practitioner in the small town of Cicely, where he is a proverbial fish out of water. His struggles to adjust to the very unfamiliar environment drive the plot of many episodes, especially in the early seasons. Morrow left the show midway through its final season due to a contract dispute. His character's departure was handled by having him "go native", abandoning Cicely for a remote fishing village and embracing the wilderness in a search for spiritual enlightenment.[12]
• Maurice Minnifield (Barry Corbin) is a multi-millionaire businessman, former fighter pilot and astronaut who moved to the area after retiring from the military in the 1970s. Maurice owns Cicely's newspaper and radio station (KBHR 570 AM) along with over 15,000 acres (61 km²) of land which he hopes to develop into the "Alaskan Riviera". It is Maurice who arranged to bring Joel to the town, which previously did not have a physician. Beneath a thin veneer of gentility, he is pompous, overbearing, and bigoted, leading to conflicts with other residents, such as the gay couple Ron and Eric. Despite his habitual demeanor, Maurice can be generous, and he aids almost every other major character in some way during the show's run. Before the timeline of the series, he had brought the much younger Shelly Tambo to Cicely with the intention of marrying her, but his best friend Holling Vincoeur won her heart and hand in marriage.

Peg Phillips and Barry Corbin at the 1993 Emmy Awards

• Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner) is a tomboyish Grosse Pointe, Michigan-born debutante turned Alaska bush pilot. Maggie and Joel quickly develop a love-hate relationship, with their opposing views on most subjects coupled with unacknowledged attraction resulting in sexual tension in the early seasons. They become romantically involved later in the show's run, and it is their breakup that is the impetus for Joel to leave Cicely during the last season. A running theme through the series is that all of Maggie's previous romantic partners die bizarre deaths, leading others to wonder if she suffers from an "O'Connell curse".
• Holling Vincoeur (John Cullum) is the Canadian-born sexagenarian owner and operator of The Brick, a popular local bar and restaurant, and mayor at the beginning of the show. He and Maurice are old friends, though their relationship was strained at one time by their mutual romantic interest in Shelly Tambo, whom Holling married. Though at least 40 years older than Shelly, he fears that he will outlive her, since the men in his family tend to live well past 100 and spend their final years as heartbroken widowers.
• Shelly Tambo (Cynthia Geary) is another Canadian expatriate and former Miss Northwest Passage, originally from Saskatoon. She was brought to Cicely by Maurice, who had hoped to marry her. Instead, she chose Holling and became a waitress at The Brick. Though seemingly naive and flighty, she regularly shows flashes of unexpected wisdom. It was planned for the character to be a Native American until Geary was cast.[13]
• Chris Stevens (John Corbett) is a philosophical free spirit and ex-convict who works as the disc jockey at KBHR 570 AM. Between songs, Chris offers comments on events in Cicely and on more intellectual and controversial subjects, often leading to conflict with Maurice, who fires and rehires him several times. The first of these conflicts comes when Chris reads Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass over the air and Maurice storms the studio, decks Chris and fires him, not over the reading, but for suggesting that Whitman was homosexual. Chris is also a nondenominational clergyman and occasionally officiates at weddings.
• Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows) is 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. He is a film buff and would-be movie director.
• Ruth-Anne Miller (Peg Phillips) is the elderly, level-headed owner of the local general store and a 30-year resident of Cicely. A widow, Ruth-Anne lives alone until late in the series, when she becomes involved with Walt Kupfer (Moultrie Patten), a fur trapper and retired stockbroker. She too is a film buff and, along with Holling, a keen birder. She has two adult sons, one of whom is a stockbroker. He comes to see her in one episode.
• Marilyn Whirlwind (Elaine Miles) is Joel's Alaska Native receptionist. Her few words and exceptionally calm demeanor are a strong contrast to her employer's loquaciousness and high-strung temperament.

In the show's last season, two new characters were introduced to fill the void left by Morrow's departure:

• Phil Capra (Paul Provenza), a doctor from Los Angeles who is recruited as Joel's replacement after Joel takes to the wilderness.
• Michelle Schowdowski Capra (Teri Polo), Phil's wife. She also works as a reporter for a newspaper owned by Maurice.

Major recurring characters include:

• Lester Haines (Apesanahkwat), a native millionaire
• Mike Monroe (Anthony Edwards), an environmental activist with multiple chemical sensitivity
• Bernard Stevens (Richard Cummings Jr.), Chris's African American half-brother and "spiritual doppelgänger"
• Leonard (Graham Greene), a local shaman
• Officer Barbara Semanski (Diane Delano), Maurice's love interest
• Erick Reese Hillman (Don McManus) and Ronald Arthur Bantz (Doug Ballard), a gay couple who settle in Cicely and eventually marry
• Adam (Adam Arkin), a mysterious, obnoxious master chef
• Eve (Valerie Mahaffey), Adam's hypochondriac and very wealthy wife. Mahaffey was the only actor from the series to win a Primetime Emmy Award.[1]

Although Cicely is widely thought to be based on Talkeetna, Alaska,[14][15] its main street and the filming location was that of Roslyn, Washington. "Northern Exposure II" (the main production facility) was in Redmond, Washington, in what is now the headquarters of Genie Industries, behind a business park.

According to The Northern Exposure Book, the moose in the opening titles was named Mort and was provided by Washington State University, where he was part of a captive herd. To film the opening sequence, the crew fenced off Roslyn, set Mort loose, and lured him around with food.[16]

Notable episodes in the series include the pilot (nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing[1]), the third season's last episode, "Cicely" (which won a Peabody Award,[17] 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 second same-sex marriage story arc on U.S. prime-time television.[18] (Fox's Roc aired the first U.S. prime-time television episode depicting a same-sex marriage, "Can't Help Loving That Man", on October 20, 1991.)

On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season of Northern Exposure has a score of 100% based on six reviews, with an average rating of 7.0/10.[19] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted score, the first season is rated 80 based on seven reviews,[20] indicating "generally favorable reviews," while the second season has an 83 based on nine,[21] indicating "universal acclaim".

Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker gave the first episode a B+, writing that the show “may well prove to be summer television’s most likably eccentric series”.[22]

Northern Exposure: Music from the Television Series (USA, original soundtrack, 1992)
MCA Records, Inc. MCAD-10685[24]

1. "Theme from Northern Exposure" – David Schwartz (Pilot, Kodiak)
2. "Jolie Louise" – Daniel Lanois (Pilot, The Body in Question, Old Tree)
3. "Hip Hug-Her" – Booker T. and the MG's (Animals R Us; My Mother, My Sister)
4. "At Last" – Etta James [Slow Dance]
5. "Everybody Be Yoself" – Chic Street Man (Spring Break)
6. "Alaskan Nights" – David Schwartz (It Happened in Juneau, Our Tribe)
7. "Don Quichotte" – Magazine 60 (Jules et Joel)
8. "When I Grow Too Old to Dream" – Nat 'King' Cole and His Trio (The Big Kiss)
9. "Emabhaceni" – Miriam Makeba (Roots)
10. "Gimme Three Steps" – Lynyrd Skynyrd (My Mother, My Sister)
11. "Baïlèro" from Chants d'Auvergne – Frederica von Stade, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Antonio de Almeida, conductor (Wake-Up Call)
12. David Schwartz Medley:

"A Funeral in My Brain" (Things Become Extinct, Our Tribe, Ill Wind,...)

"Woody the Indian" (Sex, Lies, and Ed's Tape)

"The Tellakutans" (Seoul Mates, The Body in Question)

More Music from Northern Exposure (USA, 1994)
MCA Records, Inc. MCAD-11077

1. Ojibway Square Dance (Love Song) – Georgia Wettlin-Larsen
2. Theme from Northern Exposure – David Schwartz
3. Stir It Up – Johnny Nash
4. Mambo Baby – Ruth Brown
5. Someone Loves You – Simon Bonney
6. The Ladder – David Schwartz
7. If You Take Me Back – Big Joe & His Washboard Band
8. Un Marriage Casse (A Broken Marriage) – Basin Brothers
9. There I Go Again – Vinx
10. Lay My Love – Brian Eno/John Cale
11. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (and Dream Your Troubles Away) – Les Paul & Mary Ford
12. Mooseburger Stomp – David Schwartz
13. I May Want a Man – Joanne Shenandoah
14. Our Town—played during the closing scene of the last episode (July 26, 1995) – Iris Dement

Ausgerechnet Alaska (German covers, 1992),[24]
Distributed by IDEAL Vertrieb, Wichmannstr. 4, 2000 Hamburg 52 (Out of Print)

1. The Moose – Northern Exposure Theme-Mix
2. The Kingsmen – Louie Louie
3. Little Milton – Stand by Me
4. Lee Dorsey – Ya Ya
5. Billy Stewart – Summertime
6. Little Richard – Good Golly Miss Molly
7. Coasters – Little Egypt
8. The Drifters – On Broadway
9. Dolly Parton – It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
10. Guy Mitchell – Singing The Blues
11. Patsy Cline – Crazy
12. Paul Anka – My Way
13. The Marcels – Blue Moon
14. Showaddywaddy – Who Put The Bomp
15. Trini Lopez – This Is Your Land
16. Jerry Butler – Moon River
17. Andy Williams – Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

In 2016, Darren Burrows and his production company, Film Farms, held a crowdfunding campaign to fund a development project with the goal of creating more episodes. The working title for this project is "Northern Exposure: Home Again".[27] Despite not meeting the original $100,000 goal, Burrows decided to continue with the project.[28]

On June 17, 2016, Film Farms announced that writer David Assael had been hired to write for the project. He previously wrote several episodes, including "Russian Flu," "Spring Break," and "It Happened in Juneau," among others. The revival was originally envisioned as a two-hour "visit to Cicely," but a ten-episode series was reportedly being pitched to various network, cable, and streaming venues.[29]

On November 20, 2018, it was reported that a revival series was in the early stages of development at CBS, with Brand, Falsey, and Morrow executive producing and Morrow again playing Fleischman. Corbett was named as producer but his appearance as a performer was not confirmed.[30][31] Falsey died in January 2019, and on May 19, 2019, Josef Adalian, an editor for the New York City-based magazine Vulture, tweeted that CBS had cancelled development work on the series.[32] Adalian subsequently tweeted that the rights holder, Universal Studios, could pitch the revival elsewhere, but it was unclear whether Universal was planning to move the project to another outlet. Morrow, who was busy with other commitments, found out about Falsey's death on Twitter. On November 15, 2019, Morrow revealed in an interview on radio station WGN 720AM in Chicago that he and Brand were continuing revival efforts despite Falsey's death and CBS's decision.

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