I blame having dated Alec Baldwin- it would probably turn anyone Republican.
The satellite episode is one of the very, very few challengers to the Chuckles The Clown’s Funeral episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show for the funniest TV show EVER.
As I recall, looking at Ms. Turner, she had no rolls, flat or otherwise.
The funniest scene to me was the way the congregation tried to hold themselves together and then fell apart when Maggie ran out crying.
Or when the old coot proposes to her saying she’d be worth getting killed for.
There was a later dream sequence episode where her dead boyfriends came to dinner with her, including a couple of guys she’d dated she didn’t even know were dead.
The episode where Shelly breaks the fancy bottle of wine and has to fool Adam with Eve’s help.
The episode where Joel sits shiva for his uncle with the help of the town.
The episode where pregnant Shelly can only sing and can’t talk.
The episode where they hold an election and Chris can’t vote.
The episode where people share the same dreams.
The episode where they tell the story of the founding of Cicely.
The first four seasons of the show were some of the best storytelling ever put on television.
Unfortunately the show fell apart completely after that but it had serious moments of brilliance before then.
My favorite part of that episode was the dream sequence of the Jewish posse coming into town wearing Star of David shaped badges (this was after Maurice’s “calling all Jews” broadcast to find enough for a funeral prayer), or the drifter who Joe doesn’t believe is Jewish until it turns out he’s practically a Talmud scholar.
I thought the ending of that episode was super sweet without being too. For actors with a 40 year age difference they had an amazing chemistry.
well, it wouldn’t be Northern Exposure much any more, would it? Though I loved Maurice and his Amazonian Barbara, I think focussing on those two would be a ton of fun. Maurice’s Korean grandson would also be a very interesting addition. But I would miss sweet adorable Ed :(, has he done anything since NE? … I think it would be interesting to get an update on the characters if they did revive it. What happened with all of them? Did Joel go on to be a Park Avenue internist? Did Ed become a film maker? What happened with Holling, Shelley, and the Brick - are they still there, do they have more kids? Did Chris move on as well (I always had a feeling he was lingering a while, but really just passing through). Did he marry Maggie? What happened with Marilyn?..Also it would be interesting to see what Alaska is like NOW, with global warming affecting the vegetation and the glaciers. Maybe Chris n’ Maggie would be involved in that, working for for environmental causes. Sarah Palin shooting at them from a helicopter!..
There are two episodes I think are really special and touch me in a way I really can’t explain. One is a Christmas episode, there is a Christmas Pageant telling about a legend, the Raven and the Sun, and Marilyn is dancing in full regalia with the greatest dignity. The other is Joel sitting shiva for his uncle, Maurice rounding up stray Jews :), and the ending …just brings me to tears. (I’m not Jewish, I don’t think I know any Jews, and yet the words spoken in front of the people of Cicely gathered there…)
I just loved the way they handled native American culture on that show. Marilyn was fabulous, understated and elegant.
And, as a Jew, I also loved the way they handled the Jewish aspect of Fleishman’s culture and religion. It was both respectful and insightful.
Here’s another episode I really liked: the one where Joel has a fascinating medical case and no one to talk about it with. Maggie realizes this and sets him up with the chance to talk shop with another doctor.
Another notable appearence as Anthony Edwards who later played whatisface on ER as a guy with multiple chemical sensitivities. My husband and I mockingly called him the Bubble Jerk. I date the slide of show when his character showed up.
IIRC, the actress accompanied her mother on an audition because they wanted the receptionist to be old. They loved Marilyn so much in the waiting room they insisted she audition and cast her as a semi-regular.
I’m so glad I am not the only one who loved that show.
Don’t have it MEMORIZED or anything, but yep, loved it, need to watch it through again.
And for some reason I had a crush on…Ed. :eek: Even then, he was too young for me, wth…
I loved the piano fling episode.
“It’s not what you fling – It’s the fling itself.”
you had a crush on Ed “for some reason”? You need a REASON? My God, just look at Ed (Darren Burrows on the show), he is the essence of adorableness! And nice, too!
Did you all know Darren Burrows IRL has blond hair, which was of course dyed for NE? Maybe that explains the dark reddish tint when he was filmed in the sunlight.
Anyhow, I will conclude this meeting of the Ed Chigliak fan club with this updated picture, looks like he’s matured very nicely.3.bp.blogspot.com/_PTbSwbQyWGY/SGAjLluk9cl/AAAAAAAAAUE/zscc5avrhBo/s400/Darren+Burrpws.jpg
sorry, that link ain’t workin’, I gotta go, but if you want to see a more current pic of Darren Burrow now, you can google it.
Darren Burrow’s father, who imo Darren looks a lot like, is character actor Billy Drago, probably best known for playing the hitman tossed off the roof in The Untouchables.
More trivia: In a case of either life imitating art or vice versa (because I’m not sure which happened first), during the season when the character of Maurice learned he had an illegitimate son and grandson from a youthful liaison in Korea, actor Barry Corbin (who played Maurice) learned he had an illegitimate daughter and grandchildren from an affair when he was in college. (Corbin and his daughter became very close in real life.)
Ok whew…I thought maybe I was weird for not thinking ‘Chris! what a hunk!’ like 99 percent of the rest of the female <and some male> population was doing at the time. 
And…holy sh^*! He’s actually two months older than I am; I somehow always felt like a lecherous perv. 
Haven’t been there for at least 5 years. It is an easy drive - you can have a beer and burger at the Brick and probably walk the streets and see lots of familiar buildings.
Nuthin’ else though, don’t recall seeing anyplace to stay - perhaps in Cle Elum.
How are the burgers?
I was really too young to watch/appreciate Northern Exposure when it was on, although my mother loved it, and I occasionally watched bits of it when I wandered through the den while it was on. I did watch the finale with her, and one thing that really resonated with me years down the road is when Joel and the girl who loves him are trying to cross a bridge, along with another stranger, and the bridge guard won’t let them go until they can answer the question, “how do you keep the one you love?” The stranger responds, “flowers? candy?” and is turned away. But our heroes tell him, “You don’t. If you love them, you let them leave.” Years later, I actually thought of that during a difficult time in a relationship, and it informed the decision I made. I think it’s the only example of my taking serious advice from a TV show.
I’m watching Sunday’s episode (‘Only You’). I was thinking, ‘Gee, that optometrist is cute.’ Turns out it’s Caitlin Clarke.