Northern Exposure (season 1)
| Northern Exposure (season 1) | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | July 12, 1990 – August 30, 1990 |
| Home video release | |
|
DVD release | |
| Region 1 | May 25, 2004 |
The first season of Northern Exposure originally aired Thursdays at 10:00-11:00 pm (EST) on CBS from July 12 to August 30, 1990.
Episodes
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Pilot" | Joshua Brand | Joshua Brand & John Falsey | July 12, 1990 |
| Dr. Joel Fleischman arrives in Alaska and is informed that instead of working in a modern hospital in Anchorage, he will be the sole doctor in remote "village" Cicely on the "Alaskan Rivière". He is greatly displeased by this unexpected development and tries frantically to get out of it. Many of the main cast are introduced. | |||||
| 2 | 2 | "Brains, Know-How and Native Intelligence" | Peter O'Fallon | Stuart Stevens | July 19, 1990 |
| Ed gets Dr. Fleischman to talk to his medicine man uncle (Frank Salsedo). The man is seriously ill, but refuses to seek conventional medical treatment out of a fear of losing face with his patients. Maggie berates Joel for not being able to fix his toilet, calling him helpless. Joel decides to try to fix his shower when the hot water stops working. Maggie hurts her knee and visits Dr. Fleischman, but he gives her a hard time for "being helpless". Chris is fired from (and beaten up by Maurice at) the radio station after speaking of poet Walt Whitman's homosexuality on air. Joel makes a house call to Maggie (and makes up with her) after having a talk with Uncle Anku. | |||||
| 3 | 3 | "Soapy Sanderson" | Steve Cragg | Teleplay: Karen Hall Story: Karen Hall and Jerry Stahl | July 26, 1990 |
| An old hermit dies, leaving his land jointly to Maggie and Joel, who have radically different ideas about what to do with it. She wants to create a nature preserve, while he has been approached by rich natives who want to buy it to use as a tax shelter. | |||||
| 4 | 4 | "Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens" | Dan Lerner | Sean Clark | August 2, 1990 |
| Shelly becomes pregnant and a wedding is arranged, but Holling has a deep-rooted fear - both his father and grandfather lived over a century, while their wives died young, leaving them alone and grieving for over sixty years each. Holling vowed to avoid their fate. Meanwhile, Maurice and Fleischman entertain a Japanese investor interested in building a resort (with a golf course) in Cicely. | |||||
| 5 | 5 | "The Russian Flu" | David Carson | David Assael | August 9, 1990 |
| Dr. Joel Fleischman's fiancee, Elaine (Jessica Lundy) arrives for a visit, only to have the entire town come down with the flu, ruining their time together. In their delirium, the townspeople blame the Russians and eventually the helpless doctor. Marilyn takes it upon herself to prescribe a foul-smelling native remedy that cures everyone, but won't tell Fleischman what's in it. In the second of two dream sequences, tribute is paid to Twin Peaks famous waterfall opening scene and other recurring characters and catchphrases of the series. | |||||
| 6 | 6 | "Sex, Lies and Ed’s Tapes" | Sandy Smolan | Joshua Brand & John Falsey | August 16, 1990 |
| Shelly turns out not to be pregnant; it was all in her mind. To further complicate her relationship with Holling, her twenty-year-old hockey player husband, Wayne (Brandon Douglas) shows up, looking for a divorce so he can marry her best friend. As they get reacquainted, they begin having second thoughts. When Rick (Grant Goodeve) visit Fleischman for a physical, Fleischman finds a growth on Rick's chest. Mindful of the weird, untimely deaths of all Maggie's other boyfriends, he becomes worried. It turns out to be a false alarm, but Maggie resents Rick's belief in the "O'Connell Curse". Ed has trouble picking a subject for his screenplay. He imagines the other residents in scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Midnight Cowboy before finally taking Dr. Fleischman's advice and writing about what he knows - the inhabitants of Cicely. The episode's title is a takeoff of the Steven Soderbergh film Sex, Lies, and Videotape. | |||||
| 7 | 7 | "A Kodiak Moment" | Max Tash | Steve Wasserman & Jessica Klein | August 23, 1990 |
| Maurice receives word that his brother Malcolm has died, leaving him the last of the Minnifields. He persuades Chris to become his heir and tries to mold him in his own image. Ed informs Holling that Jessie, the bear that nearly killed him, has returned. Holling, Ed, and Shelly try to track it down, but get sidetracked. Fleischman has to teach a childbearing class in another community. He charters Maggie's plane to take him there; in the time they spend together in the air and in class, they begin to bond. The episode's title is a takeoff on the Eastman Kodak company slogan "a Kodak moment". | |||||
| 8 | 8 | "Aurora Borealis: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups" | Peter O'Fallon | Charles Rosin | August 30, 1990 |
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The Northern Lights and the moon induced by them cause dreaming to intensify among the residents. Dr. Fleischman hears about "Adam" (Adam Arkin), the local version of the Bigfoot monster. When his truck breaks down one night on a lonely road after a house call, he encounters the mysterious creature, who turns out to be an odd, hostile hermit living deep in the woods. However, nobody in Cicely believes him. Bernard (Richard Cummings Jr.) shows up. He sold his condo in Portland, bought a motorcycle and rode north without quite knowing why. He and Chris find themselves strangely in tune, even sharing the same dream. They finally learn that they share the same father and the same birthday. Satisfied, Bernard returns to Portland. Joel takes Ed and Maggie into the woods to prove that Adam is real. Note: In 1997, TV Guide ranked this episode number 65 on 'its 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time' list.[1] | |||||