Northern Exposure fans?

Was it in this episode or the one with Chris's friend in the coffin that they played Whiter Shade of Pale? I loved this particular episode for the silence and then the sound the piano makes hitting the ground. Heck what am I saying - I loved every episode - I just remember some of them better.

 

I have a big place in my tv viewing heart for Northern Exposure. My ex-wife's mother lived in a very small northern BC town called Atlin. Among the reprobate Canadians it was stuffed full of misfits and Americans escaping America for various reasons (of which my ex wife and her mother were two - three if you include the ex wife's first husband) along with those creating an artistic life for themselves. They were all interesting people that I met. Mostly artists, the odd drug runner, a Soviet era ex-CIA possibly, American business people and several of those people small towns in BC collect. These are people who can't fit anywhere else in life. Whenever I watched Northern Exposure I was certain the creators had been to Atlin and simply memorised the places and landscape and feel of this town. The characters in the show, though not exactly similar to anyone I met, had the personalities and mannerisms I encountered.
I could have sworn I once ate woolly Mammoth hamburgers up there in Atlin one night.

 

I liked it a lot at the time, but hasn't held up so well, IMO. Janine Turner's very public political blatherings - NOT talking about her positions, just how she came across on the cable news outlets - makes it hard to step back in time and see her as that character. But, aside from that, just seems like another of those shows that everybody watched at the time but now inspires a collective "eh". Like Moonlighting, LA Law, NYPD Blue, etc.

 

The episode that featured Whiter Shade of Pale was the one with Chris's friend's coffin (the one with the piano featured Strauss's Blue Danube).

 

Thanks for the reminder. Blue Danube - classy.

 

I have wondered what he meant by NY is a state of mind, is he saying that what he missed about it really doesn't exist when you go back? That you can't go back? I want more insight to that from Joel's perspective. Yes it should have been the last episode.

 

I loved the show while it was on. I have never watched any DVDs of it, but have read that the DVDs do not have the music that Chris was playing on his radio show, which to me was such an important part of the show. I read that it would have been very costly to obtain the rights to all of the music for DVD release, so they left the music off. As I think that the music was integrated into the show really well, and was important to the show's appeal, that would be a shame if true.

Has anyone seen the DVDs and can they comment on this?

 

Going off of recollections I had from the first 3 seasons, which I sold ages ago. Some episodes kept original music used in episodes of it was critical in some way to the plot like sineads you do something to me or a Benny goodman song used at the end of another. But music playing under a scene in the bar or some of Chris on air is generic. I know the third man theme that surprised me in an old rerun was gone from the DVDs. It was annoying, the generic music is obvious but didn't keep me from enjoying watching it again.

 

Loved the show back in the day! Stopped at a garage sale last summer and bought all six seasons on DVD for $10. Rewatched them from beginning to end.

 

I was a devoted fan for the first few seasons....then the show started jumping sharks every other week and I finally bailed. When Dr. Fleischman left I knew it was over.

 

I started watching Northern Exposure somewhere in the second season because several of my professors in college had mentioned it, so I became curious. I think I watched it regularly somewhere into the fourth season and then got sidetracked by life in my early 20s (first apartment, first full time job, etc). I do remember catching it occasionally after that, and watched the last episode with Joel (which I agree should have ended the series) as well as a few after and the series finale. In reruns I started from the beginning and went all the way through the fourth season again, recording quite a few episodes. Wish I'd kept those tapes now!

It's the classic fish out of water structure, isn't it? Joel is our yardstick for all the strange people and occurrences in the town, the "normal" lens through which we see this world, kind of like our tour guide. Once he was removed, that structure fell apart, and the tension that made the show so interesting evaporated.

I bought the first season DVD and haven't watched any episodes in maybe ten years, but this thread has me wanting to revisit the show. I was very disappointed with the replaced music cues. I do hope that this isn't like Moonlighting, which I loved when it aired and didn't care for in reruns.

I have fond memories of most of the characters, and the other day I used the term "compensatory facade" in conversation and flashed back to Adam using that term in explaining Joel's behavior to Maggie. Little things like that have stuck with me.

And carrick doone has me wanting to visit Atlin, BC now...

addendum: Darren E. Burrows (Ed) wrote a memoir and did video interviews with all the surviving cast members for a book/DVD package published in 2013. Doesn't seem like it's available anymore, but here's the amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/06...&tag=northexposarc-20&linkId=R6EI2P657BWPWHQB

 

I was a big fan of Northern Exposure, and that "final" Joel episode aired while I was stuck in the hospital with asthma/pneumonia, all alone at night and feeling very sad to begin with....so when "Our Town" started up showing the town, I lost it. And I almost NEVER cry at movies/TV/etc

 

Good info on the dvd music here
http://www.moosechick.com/DVD_music.html

 

I still remember that guy who used to antagonize Joel saying (in the farewell episode) "What do you want me to do Fleishman, clap my hands and bark like a seal?"
I howled.

 

I always felt a close connection to the first few seasons of this show.

For some reason, I caught the first episode the summer night it aired. It was before my senior year of high school, and I was instantly hooked.

When I left Oklahoma and went off to college, I discovered one of the show's two creators was an alumnus and that the show was stuffed with in-jokes about the college.

I was a radio DJ with long hair and a (probably annoying) philosophical bent, so of course people compared me to Chris far more than I cared for. Since Maurice was also from Oklahoma, I fielded a lot of questions about the state.

Now, my wife and I are considering moving near our current home, and Rosyln is a candidate. We visited this past weekend, and I was stunned how many sets and exteriors still exist prominently in the town...

(Still, the settlement is awfully small for my taste...)

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

I am bummed out that all of the original music could not be used in the DVDs. I understand why, but to me one of the great charms of the show was the very eclectic song selections which Chris played on his radio show. To me, the show was special because the first track of Stan Getz's great "Anniversary" album was the background music in the bar in one episode, because they always had Chris' radio show on in the background. I would think as I watched the show, "wow! what a great song choice!" That is just one example among many, many. For me, something is really lost without every piece of original music.

 

Yeah, when I visited I thought if only I could earn a living here, I'd just stay.

 

I like it.

 

I saw Iris DeMent in concert not too long after I watched the episode - I lost it too.

 

Mostly watched it for Janine Turner. Lovely woman.