Product Details

• Actors: Rob Morrow, Janine Turner, Barry Corbin, John Cullum, Darren E. Burrows
• Writers: Jeff Melvoin, John Falsey, Jordan Budde, Joshua Brand
• Producers: Henry Bromell
• Format: PAL
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 2
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (241 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000BK6S0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,430 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Northern Exposure" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Whether it's a snowy nude sprint down Main Street, the mysterious appearance of a long-lost relative, or the improbable death of yet another of Maggie's boyfriends, life's never dull in the remote hamlet of Cicely, Alaska. Colorful characters and quirky plots propelled Northern Exposure into the hearts of millions of viewers, earning the CBS "dramedy" series seven Emmy awards between its 1990 debut and its demise six seasons later.

In season 1, we meet Dr. Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow), an urban New York yuppie who consents to four years of rural servitude after Alaska pays his medical-school tuition. Joel's fish-out-of-water adventures drive the show, but it's the quirky ensemble of characters--Chris, the DJ/philosopher (John Corbett), Holling, the bartender (John Cullum), Maurice, the town patriarch (Barry Corbin), Ed, the filmmaker (Darren E. Burrows), and Maggie, the bush pilot (Janine Turner), among others–-that keeps the series consistently entertaining. The town develops its own offbeat personality as well, a Mayberry-meets-Twin-Peaks blend of Native mysticism, Aurora Borealis-induced dreams, unlikely tales of long-lost family members, and rumors of a Bigfoot-like creature known simply as "Adam."

Northern Exposure provides a utopian escape--a place where life is interesting but never dangerous, everyone's insightful, the mystical becomes real, and nobody's burdened with a mundane 9-to-6 desk job. Cicely is a delightful place to visit, even if it's only for an hour at a time.

A mid-season replacement, season 1 consists of just eight episodes on two DVDs. Each episode includes 5-10 minutes of outtakes and deleted scenes. --Shane Burnett

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

135 of 148 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yay! Finally!, February 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Northern Exposure - The Complete First Season (DVD)

With the glut of completely forgettable TV shows and movies flooding onto DVD, it's nice to see a series of great quality, superior writing, memorable characters, and consistent imagination make it finally to DVD! "Northern Exposure" is a true classic! It'll be great to have it available legally in Region 1 NTSC (there have been bootleg Region 2 PAL versions floating around for a couple years already on eBay, but with extremely poor sound/video synchronization).
The first season only has 8 episodes (since it premiered during the summer of 1990. It might have been better to combine the 1st season with the 7 episodes of season 2 (which ran in April/May 1991, for a 15 episode set, but comprehending the mind of marketing 'geniuses' is bound to lead nowehere.) The first 'regular' seasons with 22-24 episodes only began in September 1991.
Let's hope this release signals that after season 1, the next 5 seasons will also soon see the light of day.

Some of the extras promised for this release:

Deleted Scenes
Video Documentary Footage
Mock Movie Footage
"Unexposed" Footage

(and special limited edition "Parka" packaging!)

88 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MAY 25TH!!!, February 17, 2004

By 

M. Sullivan (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Northern Exposure - The Complete First Season (DVD)

From TVShowsOnDVD.com:

Fans have been eagerly awaiting this news since the July '03 report from USA Today that it was in-the-works. Today, TVShowsOnDVD is pleased to tell you that Northern Exposure - The Complete 1st Season will arrive on DVD this May 25th.

The series premiered with a short 8-episode run in the Summer of 1990, an hour long "dramedy" about a Jewish doctor (played by Rob Morrow) who's deal to get paid up for medical school meant he had to go where he was assigned...in Alaska, since the state was the source of the money. Dr. Joel Fleischman is assigned in the end to Cicely, Alaska, a town full of strange but lovable characters including former astronaut Maurice J. Minnifield (Barry Corbin), a radio D.J. ("Chris in the Morning", played by John Corbett) with a strange outlook on life, Ed Chigliak (Darren Burrows )...and Maggie O'Connell, of course, played by co-star Janine Turner.

Universal Home Video announced the DVD release of the debut season this morning, on a 2-disc (double-sided "DVD-14") set running at 384 minutes. List price is $59.98 for this set, which comes in a special limited-edition "Parka" packaging that is sure to be a collectible item. 4x3 video and English Dolby Surround Sound represent the original over-the-air presentation of this show, and on the DVD you also get French and Spanish subtitles to choose from. The discs are closed captioned for the hearing impaired, too.

With such a short season, Universal didn't want to disappoint the fans with too short a DVD release, so they are adding some nice bonus material to this box set. Look for these extras:

Deleted Scenes
Video Documentary Footage
Mock Movie Footage
"Unexposed" Footage

This is a long-awaited, highly-anticipated release that fans have been clamoring for. Universal has delivered with a set that is sure to please everyone. Stay tuned, because we'll be back soon with pictures of the "Parka packaging" cover art.

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor Form, June 15, 2004

By 

Joshua Etarbelak (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Northern Exposure - The Complete First Season (DVD)

Let me first apologize to all the furious Northern Exposure fans for the single star rating. I know that's going to burn some people. But Amazon asks for a review of the DVD, and this a honest rating of this DVD set.

The show itself deserves five stars, of course. But you already knew that. There are few people out there who are going to buy this set having never seen the show.

So, to be blunt, this DVD set is really a piece of garbage. It appears that absolutely no thought was put into making it. Well, perhaps they thought about how cheaply they could make it. But that's about it. The weak points:

1. You only get eight episodes. While I know the first season only has eight episodes, it is deceptive to market like other seasons that contain 20 or more epsiodes. Why not combine the first two seasons on one set? Better to rip off the fans, of course.

2. There are only two double-sided discs in the set. This is inexcusably cheap. It is also unecessary, since they could easily fit four episodes on one side of a disc. (Especially since they lack any substantial bonus materials.)

3. Here is my biggest gripe. There are mandatory previews to watch at the beginning of the DVD!!! When I say mandatory, I mean your remote control is locked out, and you have to sit and watch the previews EVERY TIME you put in the disc. Now, before anyone contradicts me, I acknowledge that you can fast forward. But you cannot chapter-skip ahead or jump straight to the main menu. What this does is essentially reduce the DVD medium into an glorified VHS tape. With all the unlimited possibilities of DVDs, this studio gives us almost no bonus materials and decides instead to force us to watch their crappy previews. What's next, Pepsi commercials?

You would think with piracy alledgedly being such a problem for these studios, they would make more of an effort to make a product people would be happy to pay for.

Instead they give us what amounts to a VHS tape on a disc, poorly designed, and cheaply made. Fans who supported this show deserve better. And consumers buying this set deserve better.