I’m watching an episode of Northern Exposure that I recorded earlier today. It’s the one where Maggie’s boyfriend gets hit by a satellite, and Maurice sells his house to the gay couple and is upset when they think he’s gay.
A good one.
Whenever I think of Northern Exposure that’s the episode I first think of.
Joel: I had poison blades in the toes, just like Rosa Klebb. Nobody messed with me.
Yes, I loved Maurice in that episode.
I’ve always wondered what the name of the episode is where Joel has a dream in which he gets pregnant…
I don’t remember that one, but there’s one called ‘My Mother, My Sister’ where Eve is pregnant and Adam experiences pains.
I was watching Barry Corbin in No Country for the umpteenth time the other day and thinking about his range. I put he and Rip Torn in a class by themselves.
It’s called Three Doctors. Season 5, Episode 1, I think.
Northern Exposure may be my all time favorite TV show ever, I hope there are lots of posts on the subject.
I loved the election episode, especially the candidates debate, when the backwoods fellow asks, “I was wondering if the candidates saw the stop sign as a Jeffersonian or a Hamiltonian expression of democracy?” and debate moderator Ruth-Anne says, “What kind of stupid question is that? SIT!”
I love Maurice’s music collection in that one: bootleg Judy Garlands and Ethel Mermans. His love of showtunes was in several episodes.
In a later one there’s a disastrous community theater production of OKLAHOMA that features one of the gay guys. It’s revealed that Maurice owns a bonnet worn by Shirley Jones in the film version. (In the dream episodes it’s revealed he has a shoe fetish- Jackie Kennedy’s especially.)
I always think of the one with the Japanese tourists who pick up and leave Maurice’s lecture to attempt to conceive a kid under the Northern Lights.
That and Joel’s whiny way of saying “O’Connell”. 
One of my all-time favorite series.
Hard to pick a favorite episode, but one that stands out is the one where the old-timer tells them the story of Roslyn and Cicely (which helps explain the references to “Roslyn” in town…Roslyn, Washington being where the exterior shots for the show were filmed).
The old-timer was telling the story in Joel’s house. At one point, Shelly has gone off to Joel’s kitchen to make food for the crew. She returns, handing out sandwiches. “PBJ?”, she offers. I can’t remember who accepted, but he took a bite, and said, “what kind of jelly is in here?” “Mint…it was the only kind Dr. Fleischmann had.”
(Parenthetically, a friend of mine is currently on vacation in Washington State…he just posted pictures from Roslyn on his Facebook account. He had lunch at The Brick yesterday!)
I really should do that. Roslyn is – what? 80 miles? – east of Seattle, and I’m 100 miles north of there. It would make for a fun weekend-getaway. I wonder if they have an HI hostel there?
Loved, loved, loved, that show. Plus I had a huge crush on Janine Turner.
I’ve probably said it before, but it’s one of the few shows that I think could be revived. I wouldn’t even try to get Morrow and Janine Turner re-involved, and Ruth Anne and a couple of the extras have passed on, and Chris and Ed I could live with or live without so long as you had Holling/Shelley and kids, Maurice (hopefully with Barbara Semanski and their kids) and the local scenery and other recurring characters. The fish out of water thing is always a great way to introduce a series, but this time I wouldn’t make it a big city doctor (which was their mistake when they brought in Paul Provenza and wife to replace Joel) but perhaps a character whose background is released in bits and pieces and a new doctor who is nothing at all like Joel (a black woman from Cuba or Maurice’s Korean grandson perhaps).
I know a girl who found herself sharing a health-club locker room with Janine Turner at one point during the show’s run. Got to see her naked. Says she looked real good–No surprise there.
I also used to work with a woman of Mexican descent who had worked as an extra on the show, since her look was believable as a Native. One day Elaine Miles (who played Marilyn, Joel’s receptionist) showed up to take my friend to lunch, trying to get some tips on playing Hispanic roles, figuring turnabout was fair play.
Another vote - I loved this show. Started watching for Janine Turner, continued watching in spite of her. Not that she was a bad actress, her roll was just flat and unfunny.
I saw her at Six Flags Over Texas about 3 or 4 years ago. She was with her young kid and believe me, she looked Spectacular! That woman’s not lost one step on the stairway to heavenly.
Two pieces of trivia about her:
-
She was engaged to Alec Baldwin but broke the engagement shortly before her audition for Exposure due to Baldwin’s infidelity. On the day she learned she had gotten the role of Maggie she was down to her last few dollars (literally, something like $8 in cash) and was pondering whether it would be unethical to hock the engagement ring she’d never returned to Baldwin.
-
She had enough money saved and invested to live comfortably and planned to retire from show business some years ago when she had her daughter (who was a surprise; I don’t know if she’s ever revealed the father’s identity but he’s not much in the picture). She took the role on Strong Medicine so that she could bank a nest egg for her child’s education and other expenses.
I loved the Maggie character. Cute girl who’s a pilot? Of course I liked her!
Janine Turner? I can’t get past her politicical views. (Emphasis mine.)
