Northern Exposure
1990 - 1995
Recent medical school graduate, Joel Fleischman, accidentally accepted a scholarship that requires him to practice in Alaska for a few years, and he finds himself in the small town of Cicely, surrounded by kooky characters, moose, and not much else. This dramcom chronicles Joel's life as he settles into Cicely and makes friends while serving as the only doctor available for hundreds of miles.
- Stars: Rob Morrow, Janine Turner, Barry Corbin, John Cullum, Darren E. Burrows, John Corbett, Cynthia Geary, Elaine Miles, Peg Phillips, Valerie Mahaffey
- Created by: Joshua Brand, John Falsey
- Tags: dramcom
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Episode Tropes
Season 1
- Ashes to Ashes: Episode 3, "Soapy Sanderson" (1990). When Joel and Maggie visit an elderly hermit named Soapy Sanderson and find that he has committed suicide. In his will, Soapy requests that they scatter his ashes over the mountain peaks, so Joel and Maggie fly over the mountains in Maggie's plane, and Joel attempts to dump the ashes out the window, but the wind blows it right back inside the cockpit, and Joel ends up with bits of Soapy in his mouth.
- Limp Willy: Episode 5, "Russian Flu" (1990). Joel's fiance, Elaine, comes to visit right when the whole town is coming down with the flu, and of course, Elaine gets sick too. When Elaine finally feels better, Joel starts to feel sick and can't "perform" on Elaine's last day in town.
- Westward Ho: Episode 6, "Sex, Lies and Ed's Tapes" (1990). Ed people-watching for some movie inspiration, and he imagines Holling, Shelly, and Shelly's estranged husband, Wayne, involved in a love triangle in the old west with Maurice fighting on Holling's side.
Season 2
- Lie for Me: Episode 3, "All is Vanity" (1991). Maggie's father comes to visit, and she confesses to Joel that she told her dad they were dating because he wouldn't have approved of her real boyfriend, Rick, and she asks Joel to play along. Joel is so annoyed by her lies, that he takes his role as her fake boyfriend to the extreme.
- Some Days You Just Can't Get Rid of a Body: Episode 3, "All is Vanity" (1991). An unknown man is found dead in Cicely, and the town has no means of finding out who he was or what killed him. As Joel calls around to neighboring cities for help with an autopsy, the villagers take turns sitting outside with the corpse to prevent it from being devoured by wolves. When Joel announces that a pathologist in Juneau has agreed to do an autopsy on the corpse, the town protests because they've "gotten to know him," and they don't want to send him away.
- Insomnia: Episode 6, "War and Peace" (1991). Holling can't sleep because he keeps having disturbing dreams, and nothing Joel tries is helping. Chris and Nicolai, who's visiting from Russia, tell Holling he needs to do something crazy, so he wanders off into the woods with a shotgun and comes back hours later walking a baby deer on a leash, announcing that his troubles are over.
- Cyrano de Bergerac: Episode 6, "War and Peace" (1991). Ed falls for a girl named Lightfeather, and to impress her, he asks Chris to write a letter to her for him. Chris uses lines from War and Peace in the letter, which he happens to read over the air, and when Lightfeather hears it, she dumps Ed and goes after Chris.
Season 3
- Two Sides of the Story: Episode 2, "Only You" (1991). Holling and Maurice each tell Joel the story of when Shelly came to town. Holling claims she asked him specifically to open a bottle of aspirin for her, but Maurice says he Holling practically ripped the bottle out of his hand. Joel asks Shelly what happened, and she says another guy named Dave was the one who actually helped her open the bottle.
- Limp Willy: Episode 2, "Only You" (1991). Chris meets a woman who's not interested in him, and it drives him crazy. He becomes so obsessed with her that he can't perform with any of the other women who flock to him.
- Election: Episode 15, "Only You" (1992). For the first time since he had the job foisted on him, someone is challenging Holling for the office of mayor: a woman named Edna who has beef with Holling since refused to get her a stop sign. Despite claiming he didn't want the job to begin with, Holling worries he might be unseated, so he goes around town pleading his case and even offers free beer.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Episode 17, "Lost and Found" (1992). Maurice's hero, a Marine Colonel, comes to town, and Maurice tells everyone who will listen about what a hero he is, but when the colonel asks him for money for a development project, Maurice is disappointed in him and starts to question whether he really is as great as he remembers.
- Take Good Care of My Baby: Episode 17, "Lost and Found" (1992). A patient of Joel's leaves her baby behind in the office, and nobody knows who she is. At first, Joel is annoyed at having to take care of the baby, but he starts to get attached to her just before her mother come back and took her home.
- Pre-nup: Episode 22, "Our Wedding" (1992). It's Adam and Eve's wedding day, and when she gets to the alter, Eve announces that she can't marry Adam because she's rich and she doesn't want to give him half her money. So Bernard, who is a professional accountant, volunteers to help by writing a pre-nup, but Adam is against it, so their wedding party and guests have to wait around while they negotiate a deal.
Season 4
- Replacement Pet: Episode 3, "Nothing's Perfect" (1992). Chris accidentally runs over a dog, and when he finds the owner, he falls in love with her, and they start dating. When she goes out one day, leaving Chris to feed her pets, her parakeet drops dead seemingly out of the blue. Chris is sure that if she thought he killed two of her pets, it would seriously threaten their relationship, so he buys another parakeet to replace it. She doesn't realize the bird is an imposter, but Chris feels so guilty that he has to confess.
- Near Death Experience: Episode 9, "Do the Right Thing" (1992). Another pilot takes Maggie's flight and is killed in a plane crash. When Maggie realizes it could have been her that died, she decides to change her life by letting go of all of her anger. She goes around smiling at everyone and refuses to argue, even when she receives the wrong food at The Brick. She starts to get on everyone's nerves, even Chris's, and especially Joel's, until she starts getting terrible stomach pains, and Joel diagnoses her with an ulcer.
- Back to School: Episode 15, "Learning Curve" (1993). Hilling decides to finally get his high school diploma to prove he's good enough for Shelly. It seems in 1943, he and a friend dropped out of high school to work on a railroad, and he never went back.
- You Saved My Life: Episode 16, "Ill Wind" (1993). While Maurice and Chris are putting up a satellite on Maurice's roof, a strong wind almost knocks Maurice over, and Chris saves him by grabbing his tool belt. Being rescued by Chris sticks in Maurice's craw because he thinks Chris will hold it over him forever, so to make it up to him, he gives Chris a check for $30,000.
- Decorating Disaster: Episode 20, "Homesick" (1993). Now that Shelly and Holling are married, Shelly feels that she wants their home to reflect her personality, so she decides to re-decorate. The result is a pink, frilly, floral nightmare that could double as Barbie's dream house, and Holling is so uncomfortable that he becomes constipated.
- FOMO: Episode 21, "The Big Feast" (1993). Maurice is throwing a huge party, and everyone in town receives a fancy gold-leafed invitation except Joel. When Maurice asks Joel for some supplies, Joel tells him off, only for Maurice to tell him that he was, in fact, invited, and Maggie was supposed to give him his invitation.
- Dance Contest: Episode 22, "Kaddish, for Uncle Manny" (1993). Marilyn is looking for a new dance partner for the annual dance contest, and she's got her eye on Holling, but seeing Holling dance has made Shelly insecure. When Shelly tells Marilyn she can't dance with Holling, Marilyn reveals that she already fired him and went back to her old partner.
Season 5
- Tax Audit: Episode 5, "A River Doesn't Run Through It" (1993). Ruth Anne is being audited, and the auditor is flustered by problems with her husband and makes a mistake that reduces Ruth Anne's tax bill by over $1,000. Ruth Anne sees the mistake and doesn't say anything, but eventually her guilt gets the best of her, and she tells the auditor and accepts the higher bill.
Character Tropes
- Fish Out of Water: Dr. Joel Fleischman - Played by Rob Morrow
- Mild Mannered Man-child: Ed Chigliak - Played Darren E. Burrows
- Hard-to-please Father: Frank O'Connell - Played by John McCann in season 2, episode 3, "All is Vanity" (1991)
- Bitch on Wheels: Arlen Briscoe - Played by Kevin Conway in season 4, episode 13, "Duets" (1993)
- Temperamental French Chef: Eddie - Played by Dave Hurtubise in season 4, episode 21, "The Big Feast" (1993)