Alaska Is A State Of Mind (Northern Exposure, The)

Member Name: beckstrous

Product:	Northern Exposure, The
Date:	15/10/02 (911 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Characters, Originality, Setting

Disadvantages: They haven't released it all on DVD

"Hey, it's Dr Greene! In a bubble! What's Dr Greene doing in a bubble?"

I suppose it's understandable: my friend is a fan of ER, her favourite character is Dr Greene, and she's just walked in to find me watching a video, the actor Anthony Edwards in glorious technicolour inside what appears to be some sort of plastic bubble.

"Is this, erm, heaven or somewhere? I thought he was dead?"

Not heaven, but Cicely, Alaska - and not ER, not Dr Greene - but Mike Monroe, aka The Bubble Man from Northern Exposure.

Northern Exposure: my favourite televsion programme ever. Before ER, before Ally McBeal - before all the American exports that helped to make Channel 4 a mainstream channel - came Northern Exposure, which first appeared in the US over twelve years ago on 12 July 1990. Anthony Edwards was a sometime guest in the fourth of six seasons of the show, and to me he'll always be the Bubble Man, not Dr Greene.

I like television, but I don't watch a great deal of it. When there's something I really enjoy, however, I love nothing better than to take the phone off the hook, grab myself a drink and immerse myself. Wednesday evenings used to be sacred when Northern Exposure was first on air, and never before or since have I quite felt the same enthusiasm about anything on the small screen. The show captured the entire family's imagination, and my dad had the foresight to tape every episode - not something he usually does (in fact, I think this is the only time he's ever done it), but this was something special.

Northern Exposure was created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey, who were also responsible for St Elsewhere and I'll Fly Away. It's set in the fictional town of Cicely (prounounced Sicily) in Alaska, which is where the reluctant Joel Fleischman - a 27-year-old Jewish doctor from New York - is forced to serve for four years in order to repay the state of Alask
a, which financed his education. Anticipating Anchorage, Joel is disappointed when he arrives in picturesque, middle-of-knowhere Cicely, declaring: "I will under no condition, NO condition, spend the best years of my life in the worst place on Earth!"

Joel isn't the central character, though - this is very much an ensemble drama; each week, a different character is in focus. And the characters are fantastic - original, quirky, endearing and at times quite hilarious. There are too many to mention them all - including several inspired guest creations like chef and pathological liar Adam and his hypochondriac wife Eve - and, of course, the aforementioned Bubble Man. Anyway, but here are some of the main characters:

Maggie O' Connell
Maggie is a bush pilot and Joel's landlord. They are almost always bickering with one another and address each other by surname only. The sexual tension between Maggie and Joel is great fun and at one point in the show, they declare themselves "mutually desirous incompatibles". Maggie is also the mayor of Cicely and has five dead boyfriends.

Marylin Whirlwind
Joel's taciturn Native American assistant, she notices everything and comments on very little, and her sporadic pearls of unconventional wisdom never fail to astound him. Marilyn only becomes Joel's assistant after spending hour upon hour in the surgery, refusing to leave and ignoring his protestations that "there is no job!". Actress Elaine Miles actually got the part after accompanying her mother to the audition - but the programme makers decided they preferred her instead.

Ed Chigliak
Ed is a part-Native aspiring young film-maker and trainee shaman with an IQ of 180. He was raised by a local tribe after his parents abandoned him, and he does odd jobs for Ruth-Anne and Maurice as well as keeping up a penpal correspondence with Woody Allen and Steven Speilberg.

Chris Stevens AKA
"Chris In The Morning"
After being released from prison for grand theft auto, Chris became a self-styled philospher-DJ on the breakfast show of Cicely's local station KBHR. He is also the town's minister, and was ordained in the Worldwide Church of Truth and Beauty after answering an ad on the back of Rolling Stone. Chris flung a piano into the sky with a giant catapult and once read "War and Peace" over the airwaves. Later on in the series, he also flung his dead friend Tooley into the sky after Tooley had sent him his corpse to take care of. Chris also claims to have forgotten the whole of his 22nd year.

Holling Vincoeur
An old friend of Maurice Minnifield, Holling used to be a trapper but now only photographs wildlife. He runs the Brick Tavern and is married to Shelly, who is several years his junior - but this doesn't matter, since she is very much in love with him and extreme longevity runs in his family.

Shelly Vincoeur
Shelly is Canadian, and originally came to Cicely to marry Maurice, who had a serious fight with Holling over her (they actually wanted to kill one another). She works in The Brick, and was once addicted to television.

Ruth-Anne Miller
Ruth is the wise, kindly matricarch who employs Ed in the local store. She can ride a Harley, has danced on her own grave and fell in love all over again at 75.

Maurice Minnifield
Maurice is a former astronaut and owns half of Cicely, including the radio station KBHR. He is Chris's boss and has sacked, reinstated and then adopted Chris as his son.

Those are just a few of my favourites. They all have their own little stories and they're all beautifully played out on screen by an accomplished, appropriate cast. The town in which they live is a character in itself - founded by two lesbians named Cicely and Roslyn (Northern Exposure is filmed in Roslyn, which is in Washington State). The landscape is beautiful, c
ompletely and utterly cut off from city life - and the rest of the world - altogether. This is part of what gives the show its charm, and part of the reason why, twelve years later, it's still great to watch. Unusual storylines and themes often meant I was left speechless after the Northern Exposure had finished as it could be both moving and extremely funny in one all-too-short hour. I'm so glad I rediscovered it, thanks in part to the excellent film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which stars John Corbett (who played Chris Stevens).

After Northern Exposure came ER, and by this time Channel 4's audience was considerably larger. ER was good, is good - but it will never be a patch on Northern Exposure, which remains the most original, witty, quirky and uplifting show I have ever seen.

Notes
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Northern Exposure reruns are currently being shown on ITV2 every Saturday at 4:05pm. You can buy series 1 on DVD at HMV (nowhere else sells the DVD - it's an HMV exclusive), but to date nothing else has been released. If you're a fan like I am, then you might want to sign the online petition to get the rest of the 110 episodes released on DVD, and you can find that here:
http://actsofvolition.com/index.cfm?section=bo ard&id=558
To find out more about Northern Exposure, have a look at http://www.nx-misc.net/

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