The year 1990 was a turning point in television: a group of young heartthrobs were turned into late night sensations with a little show called. 90210a game-changing police drama Law and Order was its first season, and a strange murder mystery about the death of a young woman named Laura Palmer was blurring the lines between television and film Twin Peaks. Yet while all of these cultural touchstones may capture the zeitgeist in their own unique way, there is one Emmy-winning song that few critics still speak of with equal reverence.
Northern Exposurewith a cast of relative unknowns and seemingly little unpopularity before its release, it could be one of the most successful mainstream television could ever hope to achieve. Featuring a classic “Patient of the Week” style approach to its storytelling, combined with a surreal quality that was uncommon in shows of its ilk, the unique comedy-drama would quickly capture the hearts and minds of viewers at a time when network television was still playing relatively safe.
It’s a classic escape: A young doctor from New York, Joel Fleischman, finds himself heading north of the border for four years to pay his tuition, only to find himself trapped in the middle of the rural town of Cicely, dubbed the “Alaskan Riviera”.
Played by Numbers star Rob Morrow, Dr. Fleischman fills the reluctant role of the town’s lone doctor, with the kind of emotional New York energy that Woody Allen first made famous, and then George Costanza turned into art. And joining dozens of fictional small screen locations like Star Hollow, Schitt’s Creek and the aforementioned Twin Peaks, the town of Cicely offers a colorful assortment of gentle people who are the perfect foil for our strong character.
There’s wide-eyed movie star and wannabe movie director Ed (Darren E. Burrows), whom Fleischman befriends at the time, newsagent owner and local businessman Maurice (Barry Corbin), and eccentric pilot Maggie (Janine Turner), Dr. romance during the series.
They are joined by local disc jockey Chris (played by Sex and the City‘s John Corbett), brilliant architect and unelected town mayor Holling (John Cullum), and general store owner Ruth-Anne (Peg Phillips), the closest to a rational center in Cicely’s chaotic society.
It’s a formula we’ve seen replicated with great success in shows like this one Gilmore Girlswhere this colorful collage of side characters becomes the fabric of the story, as we the audience begin to warm to their early mistakes. It wasn’t long before their personal struggles became intertwined with Dr. Fleischman, which proves that there is just as much narrative to their journey as that of our protagonist.
The location of the show can also be seen as the character itself, where the Pacific Northwest stands as a filming location for remote Alaska, which is notable for the fact that the series was shot in almost the same corner of Washington state. Twin PeaksDavid Lynch’s game-changing series, which aired a few months earlier Northern Exposure for the first time.
The stunning lakes and vistas lend Northern Exposure the kind of escapist quality that represents all the best fantasy cities, the way it’s shown today as Hart of Dixie again Virgin River it still does to this day – taking viewers away from big city life and into the kind of sophisticated rural communities we can only see on our screens or in travel brochures.
But Northern ExposureThe most unique quality remains the surreal, which manifests itself in the most surprising ways during the six seasons of the show. Dream sequences, fourth wall breaking moments and narrative diversions recall everything from Fleabag to Atlanta. Whether it’s Chris’ character seeing visions of long-dead friends singing musical numbers, or Ed recreating scenes from famous Hollywood movies in his head, it’s no surprise that the actor Simon Pegg has been identified unique show planes of luxury as the main influence when creating British cult comics It is spaced.
And despite being made at a time when representation on the small screen was far from showing the American public, the game’s portrayal of its Native American characters is incredibly sensitive, done as it was many decades before the emergence of true native storytellers that led to the current crop of respected series like. Booking Dogs again Dark Spirits.
Above all, a real joy to watch Northern Exposure that reminds us not only what episode television used to stand for, but also what debt the current broadcast landscape owes to these early ’90s pioneers. While it may not hold the same place in the cultural lexicon as some of its loudest contemporaries, watching it 35 years later, what’s most surprising is how fresh this game still feels.
Northern Exposure it’s still the definition of comfort food television, the perfect antidote to the ever-present algorithm and escape from the fast-paced world we live in – where as Dr. Fleischman, we are forced to slow down, let go of our preconceived notions, and experience what true Alaskan hospitality looks like.
Northern Exposure now airing on SBS On Demand.
