Northern Exposure

Our local ABC affiliate has been playing old episodes of Northern Exposure the past couple of months. I really enjoyed the series when it was on, and seeing the repeats has been great. For those that haven't seen it, a brief synopsis of the show is a New York doctor's education is sponsored by the state of Alaska. Instead of in Anchorage, he repays the debt (unwillingly) by serving as the doctor for the small town of Cicley for five years.

The strength of the show is the great cast and writing. Each character has his or her own quirks and take turns as the main subject of episodes. The exterior Alaska town shots were filmed in the mountain town of Roslyn, Washington which we used to travel through every year on our way to our yearly camping trip.

Below is an clip from an episode from season five. Ed Chigliak is hit by lightning early in the episode while walking in the woods with Chris, and he begins to wonder "why me". He poses the question to both Chris (the new agey DJ) and his Leonard his shaman trainer, but isn't satisfied with their answers. While at the laundramat with Marilyn, he poses his question to her. Marilyn is a very quiet Indian character in the show. She says very little, and often doesn't answer questions directly, but what she does say seems to help both the introspective Ed or her neurotic boss Joel Fleischman.




Here is a great fan site. Another quote from the episode is from Joel referring to Adam (played by Adam Arkin) "I know Adam is a walking pathology, but the guy's never hurt anybody, not that I know of. I mean, threats of imminent danger are just his way of saying 'good morning'"