Customer Reviews

Northern Exposure - The First Episode [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was the first of 110 hour long shows about a town in Alaska called Cicely and the wide range of personalities that inhabited it. Northern Exposure was an hour of magic each week, a way to dream about far off places and amazing occurences that just don't seem to happen in the lower 48. Whether it be a snobby, narrow minded doctor from New York, a female bush pilot who can't seem to keep a boyfriend alive, an Ex-con with a penchant for philosophy and art, a Native American destined to be a Shaman, a former Astronaut with deep pockets and a power complex, Queen of the Northwest Passage, a Bartender who's the voice of reason and numerous guest stars (Adam Arkin as "Adam" is my favorite). With spectacular scenery, outrageous storylines and loveable characters this was a reason to watch tv. Now it doesn't seem like there is much quality tv on the air and so syndicated reruns of Northern Exposure are perfect for an hour of lazing around and broadening your horizons and your outlook on life. But it takes a special breed of human to enjoy this show, anyone with an imagination and dreams should take right to it. Those who've forgotten how to be a child and who deny any magic in their lives need not apply.

Northern Exposure has to be the most wonderfully directed, acted, and produced television series' I have ever seen. Especially the pilot episode. The scenary and the music in every episode make you feel as if you are a part of it all. Every episode has a very emotional ending, and leaves you with this warm, satisfying feeling inside. After watching Northern Exposure, I wanted to move to Alaska for the longest time. From Chris in the Morning to Dr. Fleischman, every character is dynamic, and you can never once tell that they are acting. It is just a very wonderfully natural show. I tried to get some of my friends to watch it, but they don't get the worth and moral value from it that I do. I hope that TV stations keep playing the re-runs on A & E or other networks. Rob Morrow, aka Dr. Joel Fleischman, is one of the best, and now one of my personal favorite, actors. The way each episode goes into detail about the smallest things, just shows you how thought-out, well-written, and well-planned the makers are. Its a shame there aren't more series like Northern Exposure today. The makers also did an A+ job in casting the characters. I don't really have a favorite, since they are all just great, but I especially like Chris, Ed, and Fleischman. Chris has this intellectual way about him. He's sort of a rehabilitated philosopher so to speak. He and his radio show are one of the key moral points of the series. He usually sums up the moral value of each episode. I just can't say enough about this show!

This TV show won all those Emmy Awards for a very good reason. It was simply the most entertaining, artistic, challenging, captivating program on the box in years. Nothing has topped it yet in pure escapist value. Inventive magic! The dynamics between all the characters makes the viewer yearn to belong to a Utopian Cicely of their own. Even though you can see the actors in their new roles trying to get their bearings, feeling out who they are going to be, this pilot episode features a smooth ensemble cast. They seemed to sense they'd be together for quite awhile. 5 years in fact! Joel provides constant City Mouse/Country Mouse contrast. This is the thinking person's TV.

I used to live in Alaska and this is the most entertaining and accurate series ever, filled with laughter, love, saddness and joy of life through the eyes of the people of Cicely, Alaska. Brand/Falsey, the producers, were ground-breakers of quality on-location television. Something for everyone! Highly recommend that you will see a part of yourself in this friendly little fictional town amidst the beautiful scenery of Alaska(actually filmed in Roselyn and Redmond, Washington). I wish I could go live in Cicely! The people who live in Alaska come from all over the country to live there because they WANT to, except the neurotic, whining Joel Fleisman. Eventually he falls in love with the townfolk and way of life in the beautiful state of Alaska!

Northern Exposure is the most celebrated television show in the last fifteen years. Ten years after its preimere, it still has a fan festival, more than 50 active websites, and a legion of devoted fans. This is where it all began--Joel Fleishman's introduction to the wild, wonderful Cicely, Alaska. Sparks fly between bush pilot Maggie O'Connell and the gevelte fish out of water. A must-see.

Northern Exp. is gr8,
the video is okay,
but,
GIVE US DVDs!!!
of ALL the SEARIES!!!
we cannt wait
please.........................................

i can get "Britney Spears" concerts on DVD, but not the all-time best TV series EVER??

wHEN ARE WE GONNA GET THE dvd'S ON THIS SERIES???

aLL NEW SEARIES ARE RELEASED ALMOST UPON THE ORIGINAL RELEASE.

nORTHERN eXPOSURE IS ONE OF THE BEST SERIES i KNOW AND i CAN JUST REALLY HOPE THAT SOME GUYS "UP THERE" WILL REALIZE THERE WOULD BE MANY OF US WHO'D LOVE TO OWN THIS ON dvd. sO... i CAN'T WAIT!!!

:)

THERE IS A LISTING IN 'Z-SHOPS' ON AMAZON FOR THE ENTIRE 110 EPISODE SERIES ON VHS!! NOW THERE'S A MUST-HAVE ITEM.

The "Fish Out of Water" story (a.k.a. the "Stranger in a Strange Land" story) is a narrative staple given all the different types of fish and all the myriad bodies of water available. "Northern Exposure" was about a young Jewish doctor from New York City, Dr. Joel Fleischman (Rob Murrow), who had his medical education paid for by the state of Alaska and consequently owes them several years of medical servitude. Fleischman expects to end up in a large hospital in the state's largest city, but instead ends up in the town of Cicely, a small logging village in the middle of nowhere where he gets to be the only doctor in town. To Fleischman, operating a free clinic in bombed out Beirut suddenly looks better.

Created by Joshua Brand & John Falsey, the same pair who gave us "St. Elsewhere," and if Joel Fleischman was a walking cliché, at least the rest of the quirky characters in Cicely were offbeat enough that the ocean was a lot more interesting than the fish, who seriously needed to relax and eventually would (a little). But that was rather difficult given the shock and anger he had to work through in the pilot episode (first aired July 12, 1990). Fleischman arrives all ready to fulfill his obligation in repayment of the $125,000 the start anted up for medical school, but the hospital in Anchorage does not need him and his services have been bought, so to speak, by Maurice Minnifield (Barry Corbin), a former astronaut not developing his small part of the Alaska wilderness as a money making opportunity for tourism (and anything else he can think up).

"Northern Exposure" is actually established as two shows in one. First the pilot shows Dr. Fleischman being introduced to the interesting characters in town, most notably Holling Vincoeur (John Cullum), Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows) and Marily Whirlwind (Elaine Miles) in the pilot (One of the surprising things about the pilot is that John Corbett's Chris Stevens, who becomes the voice of Cicely on KBHR, has no dialogue in the first episode). One of the best sources of humor on the show is Fleischman's sense of outraged civilization beating impotently against the ways of the Native Americans. Ed and Marilyn listen to Dr. Fleischman, but they certainly do not obey.

Second, there is the constant battling and bickering between Fleischman and Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner), the bush pilot who flies him to Cicely. Whereas everybody else in town takes Fleischman's outbursts in stride, Maggie insists on getting in his face and outbursting right back. Of course these two are going to end up in the sack together (actually it would be a literal role in the hay), and it is a question of whether we will be witnessing another romantic disaster a'la Dave and Maddie on "Moonlighting" (okay, not that bad, but it was not pretty). The two parts of the show did not exactly mesh, but in most episodes you were usually going to like most of the entwined plotlines.

"Northern Exposure" would win the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series in 1992, which was interesting since it was obviously a comedy. But the rule of thumb was always a half-hour show was a comedy and an hour-long show was a drama, which was before "M*A*S*H" became the first dramedy and then "Moonlighting" was nominated for both Best Drama and Best Comedy by the Directors Guild of America. The next thing we knew there was "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd," "Hooperman," "The 'Slap' Maxwell Story," and "Northern Exposure." This pilot episode explains why the last one on that list lasted the longest.