All Movie Guide

The opening episode of Northern Exposure's fifth season is even more surrealistic than usual, which is saying quite a lot considering the quirky goings on in the Alaskan village of Cicely. Said opener is "Three Doctors, in which the town's New York-bred doctor, Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow), aspiring Native American filmmaker Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows), and newlywed Shelly Tambo-Vincoeur (Cynthia Geary) find themselves enmeshed in a cosmic game of hide and seek. Other memorable season five episodes include "Jaws of Life, in which everyone's nerves are on edge in anticipation of the annual visit by the dentist (Jay O. Sanders); "A River Doesn't Run Through It, wherein sexy 31-year-old mail pilot Maggie O'Donnell (Janine Turner) is asked to be the local high school's homecoming queen (and as a bonus, one of the students is played by Jack Black!); "Rosebud, featuring director Peter Bogdanovich in a story built around Cicely's first film festival; and "A Cup of Joe, in which Shelly's husband, Holling (John Cullum), and storekeeper Ruth-Anne (Peg Phillips) discover that one of their grandparents ate the other one during the "Blizzard of '97." And there's more! The town's resident gay couple, Ron (Doug Ballard) and Erick (Don R. McManus) decide to get married; Shelly gives birth to a daughter named Miranda, who is promptly designated Cicely's 844th citizen; the whole town conspires to cure the redoubtable Walt Kupfer (Moultrie Patten) of his galloping depression; and in the season finale, "Lovers and Madmen, eternal outsider Joel finally resigns himself to the fact that he is a true Son of Cicely. Hal Erickson

All Movie Guide

The sixth and final season of Northern Exposure opens with the typically self-reflective "Dinner at Seven-Thirsty," in which Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow), New York-born doctor of the Alaskan village of Cicely, envisions what life might have been like had he never left home. In a similar inward-looking vein, "The Letter" allows local mail pilot Maggie O'Donnell (Janine Turner) to contrast the dreams and desires that she'd had at age 15 with the realities of her early thirties. And just when you think that things can't get any funkier, Satan himself shows up in the guise of a whirlpool salesman (Charles Martin Smith) in the episode "The Robe," and "Zarya" finds the regular cast members assuming the roles of certain people living Russia at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution. Of special importance is the fact that, after six years of verbal sparring, Joel and Maggie have finally realized that they love each other. In fact, they briefly move in together, but when Maggie registers a protest about Joel's obsessive-compulsive traits, the temperamental doctor leaves Cicely and is assimilated into a nearby Eskimo tribe. At this point, Rob Morrow is no longer a series regular, and Cicely's premier entrepreneur, Maurice Minnifield (Barry Corbin), is compelled to send for a New town doctor, Dr. Philip Capra (Paul Provenza), who sets up camp in town in the company of his journalist wife, Michelle (Teri Polo). Joel Fleischman makes his final appearance in yet another "cosmic" episode, in which he and Maggie take a journey of the mind to the strange land of Keewaa Anni (which looks curiously familiar to both Joel and the audience!). As the series approaches its finale, Maggie is elected mayor of Cicely, and Maurice finally pops the question to his female counterpart, tough-talking Officer Barbara Semanski (Diane Delano). Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 025192666421
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 18:15:00
• Sales Rank: 9,289

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• Northern Exposure: Mr. Sandman

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