One of the really fun things about DVD’s and DVD rental stores is that you can find all sorts of interesting stuff to watch. I love poking through the aisles with old television series, and scoring something that I watched a long time ago. It’s even better if the series proves to have held up over the years, if it’s as good as I remember it being.
One of my more recent scores was Northern Exposure. I really enjoyed this show when it originally aired, but Mr. C. had never watched it. We loaded it up, made some popcorn and watched. It holds up really well, and is every bit as good as the first time I saw it. I still think the conflict between Maggie and Joel is overwrought, and I still think that Joel could be a more sympathetic character from the outset, but there’s so much good stuff going on here that such things can be overlooked.
Part of what I love about this series is that it’s an ensemble piece, in which every character has his or her own story or journey. It’s a kind of worldbuilding to populate the stage (or screen) with such rounded characters, and a technique that I find appealing. The world is dimensional, because of those characters and their concerns, and the interactions between characters. Even when there’s a strong focal character – as there is here – the others provide a resonance or an emphasis to the core issue of each episode.
The other thing I like about this series is that a lot of the writing is clever. The scripts are good. My favourite episode – and perhaps my favourite piece of writing for television – is the Christmas episode in season three. It’s called “Seoul Mates” and features several storylines, which interweave and culminate simultaneously. It’s brilliant writing.
It turns out that Mr. C. knows a great deal about moose while I know virtually nothing about them. (They’re big. They live in the muskeg. That’s it from my databank – at least before Mr. C. began to enlighten me with moose facts.) I suspect, actually that his favourite character is the moose, wandering around town in the opening credits. Mine is Ed, the daydreaming, slightly psychic, aspiring movie director.
Did you ever watch Northern Exposure? Did you like it? Who was your favourite character?
Deborah Cooke: Author 
5 responses to “An Old Television Series”
I loved Northern Exposure, although as I remember it, I never got to watch it regularly. Can’t remember why – shift work, maybe.
Great memories and yes, a show I’d love to watch from DVD now. Thanks for reminding me.
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Northern Exposure was one of the great ensemble casts most of the time with actors we’d never seen before that had honed their craft on the show and even turned out to be future stars (one of my favorite parts of rewatching shows from the past). The writing was clever and made me stay involved. Down here in Wyoming, we have a cable station that is dedicated to us Boomers… I watch “St. Elsewhere”, “Hill Street Blues”, “LA Law” on a regular basis. All of which have great ensemble casts with a few future stars thrown in for fun.
Haven’t been able to find “Magnum P.I.” regularly though….
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I loved Northern Exposure. I loved Ed, too, and Joel’s Secretary (mind blank on her name at the moment) but there were many characters I really enjoyed, more than the two main characters.
I’ve been watching re-runs of Batman, old Star trek, Underdog, Classic Battlestar Galactica, Witchblade and Mary Tyler Moore (eclectic? What’s that?)
I’d also love to have a complete set of Carol Burnett Show DVDs.
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Isn’t she Marilyn?
I love her too. That smile is priceless.
d
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I absolutely loved and still love Northern Exposure! It is one of the rare shows that actually make a person think while they are watching it! What really drew me to the show was that I liked the philosophical element it always produced! So much to ponder when the show ended. As for a favourite character… I can’t pick one, because like you said there were no one dimensional people, each character enhanced the show in his or her own very unique way and gaps were felt when a character wasn’t in an episode – for example the void that was never fully filled (in my opinion) when Rob Morrow aka Fleischman left. Thanks for the trip down memory lane and another item to go on my wish list!
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