A blond waitress called Shelly is giving a long, strange monologue about an egg sandwich called One Eyed Jack. She works in a diner in the woods in the Pacific north-west, in a town populated by a host of quirky characters: sensitive young men in leather jackets; strong-and-silent types with hearts of gold; and wise, aphoristic members of the local Indigenous community. An intellectual big-city outsider is transplanted into the scene, resulting in various fish-out-of-water encounters and misunderstandings; a will-they-won\u2019t-they flirtation with a glamorous local brunette ensues.<\/p>\n
Two separate TV shows, both wildly successful in their own ways, fit the above description. Both debuted in 1990, and both were shot about the same time in the mountainous area near Seattle, Washington. One, of course, was Twin Peaks, David Lynch\u2019s era-defining cult series that ran for two series, followed by a 1992 feature film and 2017\u2019s magisterial Twin Peaks: The Return<\/a>. The other show was Northern Exposure, which ran for\u00a0six seasons until 1995, making stars\u00a0of its two leads, Rob Morrow, who\u00a0starred as sardonic Brooklyn doctor Joel Fleischman, furious at having been stationed in rural Alaska, and Janine Turner, the feisty, independent small-plane pilot Maggie O\u2019Connell, whose boyfriends keep dying in tragic accidents.<\/p>\n Originally meant to be a short-term summer series, the show became a word-of-mouth hit thanks to its witty writing, benevolent-but-not-saccharine tone, and the sparky Hepburn-and-Tracy rapport between Fleischman and O\u2019Connell (as they exclusively referred to one another). After two short series, the show was renewed by CBS for an unprecedented 50 episodes, launching a trend for the pixie haircuts popularised by Turner\u2019s character. \u201cWhen I went back home to Texas everyone started following me around,\u201d recalls Turner, over video call from her ranch, talking a mile a minute and exuding enthusiasm. \u201cBecause there were only three stations at the time, it was a collective American experience. Everything now is incredibly diluted, but back then everybody was watching it on Monday night. It became water-cooler talk.\u201d<\/p>\n One minute I\u2019m speaking Russian, the next I\u2019m Amelia Earhart, the next I\u2019m a prehistoric humanoid. It was very creative<\/p>\n It is easy to see why the show was so\u00a0popular: it is inventive and warm-hearted, with trippy dream sequences and flashbacks taking episodes in unexpected directions. There are moments of fourth-wall breaking that give it an element of self-awareness unusual for its time. \u201cEvery script was like a short story,\u201d Turner says. \u201cThat\u2019s why we as actors had so much fun. One minute I\u2019m speaking Russian, the next minute I\u2019m Amelia Earhart, the next I\u2019m a prehistoric humanoid. It was really fun, very creative.\u201d The show wasn\u2019t afraid to stray into intellectualism, with frequent references to Walt Whitman, Russian literature and Buddhist philosophy, and memorable appearances by Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and Franz Kafka.<\/p>\n At the height of the show\u2019s fame, fan Joni Mitchell told the creators she was convinced<\/a> that the character Shelly\u2019s backstory was based on her own; at one point, she contacted the producers to suggest a guest appearance<\/a> in which she had quit showbusiness and ended up in the fictional town of Cicely, where the show was set. An episode containing the phrase \u201cBon hiver\u201d (\u201cGood winter\u201d in French) inspired Justin Vernon<\/a>\u2019s band name, Bon Iver, after he worked through a DVD of the show while sick\u00a0with mononucleosis. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say we are responsible for the music,\u201d says Morrow, usually based in Los Angeles but speaking from the Hamptons, wearing a bright yellow Kubrick T-shirt. \u201cBut that\u2019s a cool thing, to know that it influenced him.\u201d\u00a0The show\u2019s footprints can be\u00a0found in much of the popular culture that followed: the loquaciousness of Gilmore Girls; the sharp but sweet depiction of a small-town community in Schitt\u2019s Creek; the\u00a0cinematic landscapes of shows such as Severance. Across its run, the\u00a0show received seven Emmy awards and two Golden Globes. Regina\u00a0King, Jack Black and Peter Bogdanovich appeared as guest stars.<\/p>\n No ifs no butts \u2026 Morrow\u2019s character Fleischman meets a moose. Photograph: United Archives GmbH\/Alamy<\/p>\n And yet, for much of the world \u2013 especially younger viewers \u2013 it remains unfamiliar. For decades, the show was available only on DVD in difficult-to-find formats, languishing on the shelf largely due to music-rights issues. Several reboots were discussed, but went nowhere. After extensive discussions with Universal Studios, Turner managed to persuade them to make Northern Exposure available to stream in 2024. All six series are now on Prime Video, which has introduced the show to new viewers all around the world. \u201cA lot of people who had watched it in the 90s are watching it with their kids,\u201d says Morrow. \u201cThat\u2019s such a fascinating phenomenon: the idea of a show sticking around for so long it becomes something you pass on to the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n Inspired by the renewed interest, Turner and Morrow started a podcast, Northern Disclosure<\/a>, launched in May\u00a0this year, in which they rewatch and commentate on episodes one at a time. So far, guests have included the show\u2019s co-creator Joshua Brand and cast members Elaine\u00a0Miles and John Corbett (perhaps better known as Aidan from Sex and the City), with the latter telling a funny story about a moose head. They are hoping Joni Mitchell and Justin Vernon will agree to be guests on later episodes.<\/p>\n It was paramount that, if we were going to place this town in that area, that Native Americans would be a great part of it<\/p>\n In many ways, Northern Exposure was ahead of its time. Cicely and Roslyn, the founders of the town, were a lesbian couple; in season five, the show featured one of the first gay weddings on television, which some CBS affiliates refused to air. In another standout episode titled Aurora Borealis, Corbett\u2019s character, ex-con DJ Chris Stevens, turns out to have a long-lost half-brother who is African American; throughout, the depiction of Native American characters is nuanced and celebratory, informed by consultants and cast members such as Miles, who\u00a0is Native American. \u201cIt was paramount that, if we were going to place this fictional town in that area, that Native Americans would be a great part of it,\u201d says Turner. \u201cAnd it was wonderful. It brought a richness of culture, a richness of American history.\u201d (Turner is now working on a musical about Belva Lockwood, who in 1906 successfully represented the Cherokee Nation v the United States in the supreme court.)<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m proud of the fact the show dealt with these things,\u201d adds Morrow. \u201cIt didn\u2019t do it in a didactic way. It did it in a way that explored the spectrum of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n Inevitably, some elements have aged better than others (Shelly is worryingly young given her relationship history with certain members of the community). But overall, the show made a strong case for acceptance, forgiveness and peaceful coexistence. \u201cIt shows how we can come together despite our differences,\u201d says Morrow. \u201cJoel is ironically a Republican; I\u2019m a Democrat. Janine is a Republican, playing a Democrat. So our political values are very different. But everyone seems to find acceptance and still get along. The community of the people on the show was really what it was about, everyone making decisions together.\u201d<\/p>\n Now 63 and 62, respectively, Morrow and Turner look back on Northern Exposure with great fondness; with 110 episodes to work through on the podcast, they\u2019re in it\u00a0for the long run. The show launched their careers: Morrow went on to work with Robert Redford on Quiz Show and hosted Saturday Night Live, while\u00a0Turner worked with Robert Altman<\/a>, Sylvester Stallone and Anthony Hopkins<\/a>. Both have worked extensively in TV and directed short films; in 2000, Morrow directed a\u00a0feature film, Maze. But mostly, they\u00a0are proud that Northern Exposure has stood the test of time. \u201cWhat\u2019s moving to me is how deeply the show affected people,\u201d says Morrow. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many people have told me it saved their life. That they were in a hospital or their mother was dying and they didn\u2019t know how they were gonna get through it; that they decided to move somewhere because of the show, or that they became a doctor because of Joel Fleischman.\u201d<\/p>\n You wait ages for a charming, offbeat show about small-town America that will still be talked about in glowing terms decades later, and two come along at once. How did the similarities to Twin Peaks come about? \u201cI think because we were shooting in the same area, and the shows came on the air at the same time, there was probably a media-born competition,\u201d says Morrow. \u201cBut the interesting thing is that Twin Peaks might be a more complicated, interesting show, more sophisticated. But Northern Exposure is the one that won the day. Twin Peaks only lasted two seasons. Northern lasted six.\u201d<\/p>\n Not that it\u2019s a competition. \u201cDavid Lynch was such a master artist,\u201d Morrow adds. \u201cAny comparisons \u2013 I\u2019ll take them.\u201d<\/p>\n Northern Exposure is streaming<\/a> on Prime Video. New episodes of the podcast Northern Disclosure<\/a> are released on Tuesdays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A blond waitress called Shelly is giving a long, strange monologue about an egg sandwich called One Eyed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-157340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}