The first season of Northern Exposure was a short season (just 8 episodes) that aired in the summer of 1990. The plot involved a young doctor from New York named Joel Fleischman (played by Rob Morrow) whose medical school loans were underwritten by the state of Alaska. As a result, Joel is under contract to work in Alaska for four years. He expected to work in Anchorage, but when he gets to Alaska he finds out that he will be working in the very remote town of Cicely, full of quirky residents.
What follows is a pretty fun fish-out-of-water dramedy. The show co-starred Janine Turner as Maggie O'Connell a bush pilot and Joel's landlord with whom he has a love-hate relationship, Barry Corbin as Maurice Minnifield, a multi-millionaire businessman, former fighter pilot and astronaut who moved to the area after retiring and owns most everything in the area, John Cullum as Holling Vincoeur who owns the local bar and is Maurice's ex-best friend and current rival due to winning the affection of Shelly Tambo (played by Cynthia Geary) a former Miss Northwest Passage brought to Cicely by Maurice, who had hoped to marry her but chose Holling instead, Darren E. Burrows who plays Ed Chigliak a young Native Amerian teenager who is a movie fanatic, Peg Phillips as Ruth-Anne Miller, who owns the local convenience store, John Corbett who plays Chris Stevens, an ex-con with little direction in life who is the morning DJ at the local radio station owned by Maurice, and Elane Miles as Marilyn Whirlwind, Joel's unwanted assistant at his office.
The 2004 DVD release comes in a case that is covered with a parka, and the episodes are on two double-sided discs. The first two sets I purchased had scratched discs, which is what knocks the set down a star for me. The extras include deleted and extended scenes, which include several minutes worth of deleted scenes from each episode, video documentary footage, that is the footage filmed for the documentary that was made during the third episode, mock movie footage that was filmed for Ed's daydreaming fantasies in the sixth episode, and unexposed footage which is a blooper reel with bloopers from each episode (generally 4-6 minutes of bloopers per episode). So, there is a lot if you like extras.
It is worth noting that this release does include the original music that was used when the show aired on TV. As most fans of the show are aware, the show used a lot of copyrighted music. When the first season was initially released on DVD in the US it was very expensive because of how much Universal had to pay for the rights to the music. Some of the second season sets also had the original music, but from the third season forward, the DVDs used replacement music which was basically canned instrumental music. If you get one of the later US releases some of the songs in the first season are replaced. Given how important the music is to the series, most people want the original songs, so keep that in mind.
Overall, the season is very good. The acting and writing are excellent, but the episodes are much more stand-alone in this season than they are in later seasons. Basically, after you watch the pilot the episodes can be watched in almost any order as there is not a ton of flow from one to another. The show does a fun nod to Twin Peaks, the other popular show of 1990, and the season finale introduces the character Adam, played by Adam Arkin, who is basically the Cicely version of Bigfoot (someone everyone has heard of but has never seen), who would be a major recurring character throughout the series. The first season basically sets up the premise and the characters but is not as good as it would become in the subsequent seasons.
What follows is a pretty fun fish-out-of-water dramedy. The show co-starred Janine Turner as Maggie O'Connell a bush pilot and Joel's landlord with whom he has a love-hate relationship, Barry Corbin as Maurice Minnifield, a multi-millionaire businessman, former fighter pilot and astronaut who moved to the area after retiring and owns most everything in the area, John Cullum as Holling Vincoeur who owns the local bar and is Maurice's ex-best friend and current rival due to winning the affection of Shelly Tambo (played by Cynthia Geary) a former Miss Northwest Passage brought to Cicely by Maurice, who had hoped to marry her but chose Holling instead, Darren E. Burrows who plays Ed Chigliak a young Native Amerian teenager who is a movie fanatic, Peg Phillips as Ruth-Anne Miller, who owns the local convenience store, John Corbett who plays Chris Stevens, an ex-con with little direction in life who is the morning DJ at the local radio station owned by Maurice, and Elane Miles as Marilyn Whirlwind, Joel's unwanted assistant at his office.
The 2004 DVD release comes in a case that is covered with a parka, and the episodes are on two double-sided discs. The first two sets I purchased had scratched discs, which is what knocks the set down a star for me. The extras include deleted and extended scenes, which include several minutes worth of deleted scenes from each episode, video documentary footage, that is the footage filmed for the documentary that was made during the third episode, mock movie footage that was filmed for Ed's daydreaming fantasies in the sixth episode, and unexposed footage which is a blooper reel with bloopers from each episode (generally 4-6 minutes of bloopers per episode). So, there is a lot if you like extras.
It is worth noting that this release does include the original music that was used when the show aired on TV. As most fans of the show are aware, the show used a lot of copyrighted music. When the first season was initially released on DVD in the US it was very expensive because of how much Universal had to pay for the rights to the music. Some of the second season sets also had the original music, but from the third season forward, the DVDs used replacement music which was basically canned instrumental music. If you get one of the later US releases some of the songs in the first season are replaced. Given how important the music is to the series, most people want the original songs, so keep that in mind.
Overall, the season is very good. The acting and writing are excellent, but the episodes are much more stand-alone in this season than they are in later seasons. Basically, after you watch the pilot the episodes can be watched in almost any order as there is not a ton of flow from one to another. The show does a fun nod to Twin Peaks, the other popular show of 1990, and the season finale introduces the character Adam, played by Adam Arkin, who is basically the Cicely version of Bigfoot (someone everyone has heard of but has never seen), who would be a major recurring character throughout the series. The first season basically sets up the premise and the characters but is not as good as it would become in the subsequent seasons.
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