From: sharonc@meaddata.com (Sharon Crichton)
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions List (first draft!)
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 17:17:38 GMT
Reply-To: sharonc@meaddata.com
Distribution: na

Frequently Asked Questions List for "Northern Exposure"
and the Usenet newsgroup alt.tv.northern-exp

Last update: Sept. 14, 1992

This is the first draft of an FAQ for the group. Guarantees cannot be made for
the accuracy of any of the information in this document. I know that I've
probably made a lot of mistakes, and I'm missing a lot of information on the
characters and the actors who play them. If you wish to flame my lack of
knowledge, please do so only if you can also provide me with the correct
information.

I've also not included the news.* groups in this posting, since this is still
so rough. The proper groups will be included in the next edition.

Two companion documents to the FAQ are the Northern Exposure Episode Guide and
the Northern Exposure Music Guide. Both are published by Andy Bates
(bates@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov), usually in rec.arts.tv. Hopefully he will start
posting them as well to alt.tv.northern-exp.


Table of Contents:

I. What is Northern Exposure?

II. Characters and Their Histories
 A. Who played the flying man?

III. Music Used in Northern Exposure

IV. Various Miscellanious Stuff
 A. How did the town of Cicely get its name?
 B. The fling thing
 C. How have the various boyfriend's of Maggie O'Connell met their deaths?
 D. Is the film Local Hero the inspiration for Northern Exposure?
 E. Why are there no children in the show?
 F. What is "Going to Extremes" and why are people posting about it here?

---------------------------------------------------------

I. What is Northern Exposure?

Northern Exposure is a television show that airs on the CBS television network
at 10:00pm EST/ EDT Monday. It was originally a summer replacement show which
developed a large following (summer 1990?), and was eventually picked up as a
regular network show. The show was created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey,
who were also the principle forces (creators?) of "St. Elsewhere."

Northern Exposure is essentially the story of Joel Fleischmann, a New York City 
raised Jewish internist who financed his medical education through a 
scholarship from the state of Alaska. Unfortunately, the terms of this 
scholarship require Joel to repay it by serving as a doctor in Alaska for 
four years. Because there were no openings in Fairbanks, Joel was sent to the 
town of Cicely ("on the cusp of the new Alaskan Riviera") to serve his term. 
The show originally centered around Joel and his reaction to the inhabitants of 
the town, but has branced out in later episodes to concentrate more on the 
other citizens.

II. Characters and Their Histories

Joel Fleischmann (actor: Rob Morrow)

A New York City raised doctor fulfulling the terms of his medical scholarship 
by serving as general practicioner in the town of Cicely, Alaska.

Maggie O'Connel (Janine Turner)

A bush pilot who rents the cabin that Joel lives in, she is constantly at odds 
with Fleischmann (rarely do they call each other by their first names).

Maurice Minifield (Barry Corbin)

Ex-astrounaut with a family fortune to guard and prosper by, Maurice has big 
plans for the town of Cicely. The local radio station, KBHR (K-Bear), is the 
flagship of the Minifield communications network, and is almost solely run 
off the extensive music collection of Maurice (including a fabulous collection 
of show tunes).

Chris ??? (John Corbett)

A free-spirit who can converse on the philosophies of Nietzsche and theoretical 
physics as well as philosophize on any topic that might come to mind, Chris is 
the only DJ at KBHR. He began acquiring his vast wealth of knowledge when he 
spent time in prison in West Virginia, which is why he can no longer vote in 
any U.S. election.

Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows)

Ed is a half-native Alaskan who was raised by one of the local tribes when his 
parents abandoned him. Ed wants to be a film director, and has already started 
pen-pal correspondences with Martin Scorcese and Woody Allen. Ed works for 
Maurice and Ruth-Anne.

Ruth-Anne ??? (Peg Phillips)

The owner of the general store in town, Ruth-Anne left the lower 48 when she 
was 60 (?) years old with an old station wagon, all her household possessions 
she could carry, and her cats to make a new life in Alaska. Regretfully, one 
of her children is an investment banker.

Holling Vincoeur (John Cullum)

The owner of one of the local bars, The Brick, Holling is an ex-trapper and 
hunter who swore off killing. Holling and Maurice and old and dear friends, 
but once were mortal enemies over the love of a woman. Holling is also a 
direct male-line descendant of French aristocracy.

Shelly Tambo (Cynthia Geary)

Shelly is the woman over whom Maurice and Holling almost wanted to kill each 
other. A former Miss Northest-Passage, Shelly was brought to Cicely to be the 
wife of Maurice. But once she met Holling, she left Maurice to be with him.

Marilyn Whirlwind (???)

Joel's receptionist, who raises ostriches at her farm.

Recurring characters:

Adam (Adam Arkin)

The world's worst pathological liar, Adam is a gourmet chef who was originally 
thought to be the Cicely version of bigfoot. He pops up occasionally to cause 
havoc in Joel's life. Soon to be a father.

Eve (Valerie Mahaffey, winner of a Best Supporting Actress Emmy for her role)

Adam's wife, also the heiress to a tungsten fortune, she is expecting their 
first child. She is also the world's champion hypochondriac and once chained 
Joel to her cabin so that she could have a doctor in-house round-the-clock.

Bernard (???)

Chris' African-American half-brother. Bernard and Chris are psychically 
connected - they discovered each other when they both had the same vision of 
a sculpture about ther Aurora Borealis. They often share the same dreams and 
thoughts. Their mutual father was a travellin' man who just happened to have 
two families.

Barbara (???)

A state trooper who shares the mutual hots for Maurice, but who cannot sustain 
a relationship with him because of his disregard for the law (tax law, that is).


A. Who played the flying man in the episode involving the circus coming to Cicely?

The flying man was played by Bill Irwin, who has appeared with the Pickle 
Family Circus. He was also in the movie "Popeye," starring Robin Williams 
and Shelly Duvall.

III. Music Used in Northern Exposure

Andy Bates has a music guide for the show - hopefully he can be prevailed upon 
to post the guide to this group.

There is also a Northern Exposure CD due in the store Sept. 15.


IV. Various Miscellaneous Stuff

A. How did the town of Cicely get its name?

Cicely was founded but nameless (and lawless) until two women, Cicely and 
Roslyn, came to town and formed an arts society. For more details, see the 
episode named "Cicely" which tells the history of the two women and the 
society. For those people who haven't seen the show, the town is named after 
Cicely due to her selfish death to protect Roslyn from being shot.


B. What was that thing that Chris used in the cow flinging episode? Didn't I 
see any article about it Car & Driver?

That thing is called a trebuchet. For more information, I quote a post by 
hank@waffle.sns.com  (hankdtank):

"Car & Driver" did a whole article on the 'trebuchet.'  It was called "Seige 
the Day."  Two guys in England built a replica and fling toilets filled with 
gasoline and small cars and people.  They thought that they might sell a few 
of these, but at the time of the article, they had only sold one-- to NX.  
If you want one, they only cost $18,000.00.


C. How have the various boyfriend's of Maggie O'Connell met their deaths?

This is known as the curse of Maggie O'Connell - every serious boyfriend she 
has ever had has died in some gruesome accident. The latest was Rick Pederson, 
who was played by Grant Goodeve in the first season (until his untimely demise).
Until her house burned down, Maggie had small shrines to each boyfriend on 
her mantel.

	Harry ---- potato salad at a picnic

	Bruce ---- victim of a terrible fishing accident

	Glenn ---- took a wrong turn in his Volvo onto a missile test site

	Dave ---- fell asleep on a glacier and froze to death

	Rick ---- hit by a satellite



This is from the eulogy given at Rick's funeral by Chris in the episode "Slow 
Dance"


D.Is the film "Local Hero" the inspiration for Northern Exposure?

Dan Goldstein (dang@cicero.uchicago.edu or goldstei@cs.wisc.edu) wrote:

People:

Northern Exposure IS Local Hero.                 

Local Hero is a film by Scottish director Forsythe, made
a few years back.  Rent it at the video store and see for yourself.

In Local Hero an upwardly-mobile young professional (here an oilman there a 
doctor) goes to a remote part of the world (here northern Scotland there 
northern North America) where he is initially annoyed by the lack of modern 
conveniences but eventually enchanted with the local culture.  The main 
character, Mac, looks and talks almost exactly as Dr. Fleishman.

At one point a old Russian town friend stumbles into the scene (as happened 
on N. exp) and the main character deals with a kind, elderly store-keeper 
woman (c.f Ruth-Anne).

Of course, this is an excellent movie, as Northern Exposure, its offspring, is 
the finest show on television.


E. Why are there no children in the show?

Well, a lot of people who subscribe to this newsgroup are pretty glad there 
aren't any main characters who are under 20 years of age. Others believe that 
children are missing and should be included. There have been children in 
certain episodes; there were children in Ed's film "Cicely," there were 
children around during the visit by the circus, and there were children at 
the wedding. But if you think about the lack of children, consider that all 
of the main characters are single and highly independent, so the inclusion of 
any children would be against the characters as drawn so far in the show.


F. What is "Going to Extremes" and why are people posting about it here?

"Going to Extremes" is another Brand/Falsey creation. It has been described
as "St. Elsewhere" on the sand with characters from "Northern Exposure"
thrown in. Comparisons to Northern Exposure are natural - doctors thrown into
a foreign culture with lots of colorful local characters.


Copyright (c) 1992 by Sharon Crichton. That's all.

-- 
Sharon Crichton         *****************   Mead Data Central
sharonc@meaddata.com    **HAPPY! HAPPY!**   P.O. Box 933
uunet!meaddata!sharonc  **  JOY! JOY!  **   Dayton, OH 45401
                        *****************   FAX: (513) 865-1655
Newsgroups: alt.tv.northern-exp