AllMovie

An offbeat comedy drama series, which gained a loyal cult following and enthusiastic press during its five-season run, Northern Exposure concerned Dr. Joel Fleishman (Rob Morrow), a recent medical school graduate who attended Columbia University on a scholarship that stipulated that after graduation, he had to spend four years working as a general practitioner in the small town of Cicely, AK, where he is to be paid the princely sum of 465 dollars a month. As Fleishman bides his time in Cicely, he gets to know many of the local residents, including Maurice Minnifield (Barry Corbin), a multi-millionaire former astronaut who is the city's largest property owner; Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner), a bush pilot (and the town's mayor) who has an on-again, off-again romance with Fleishman; Chris Stevens (John Corbett), the philosophical DJ at the local radio station; Holling Vincoeur (John Cullum), the owner of a local watering hole who has married Shelly Marie (Cynthia Geary), a young woman who was once in love with Maurice; Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burrows), a genius-IQ teenager who wants to become a filmmaker; and Marilyn Whirlwind (Elaine Miles), a soft-spoken Native American who serves as Fleishman's receptionist.