NORTHERN EXPOSURE Favorites Survey

Saying goodbye is never easy, so as we bid a fond farewell to the beloved series NORTHERN EXPOSURE, Colorado Public Television would like to thank its fans with a 20-episode Thanksgiving marathon of their all-time favorite episodes.

Don't delay! Voting ends Sunday, November 1 at midnight so choose your five favorites today!

Choose your FIVE favorite NORTHERN EXPOSURE episodes of all time:

Choose your FIVE favorite NORTHERN EXPOSURE episodes of all time: 1.1 One-Hour Pilot

Dr. Joel Flesichman, an inveterate New Yorker, arrives in Alaska with plans to fulfill his medical school financing obligation by practicing in metropolitan Anchorage. However, he is quickly informed that his services are not needed in Anchorage, but in a small, remote village by the name of Cicely.

1.2 Brains, Know-How and Native Intelligence

While Joel is struggling with evergrowing frustration over faulty plumbing in his cabin, he sensitively deals with Ed's uncle Anku, a proud but ill medicine man who is reluctant to embrace modern medicine.

1.3 Soapy Sanderson

After the passing of one of Cicely's most-loved eccentrics, Soapy Sanderson, Joel and Maggie battle over the proper handling of his one hundred acres of land, left to them in his will.

1.4 Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens

Holling gets cold feet and leaves a pregnant Shelly at the altar, while Joel and Maurice try to make a deal with visiting Japanese businessmen to build a resort in Cicely.

1.5 The Russian Flu

A flu epidemic sweeps through Cicely and threatens to ruin Joel's romantic weekend with his visiting fiancee, Elaine.

1.6 Sex, Lies and Ed's Tapes

Holling and Shelly are caught off guard when Shelly's husband Wayne, a nineteen-year-old hockey player, arrives in town asking for a divorce. Meanwhile, Ed struggles to write a Hollywood blockbuster movie.

1.7 A Kodiak Moment

While Maurice ponders life and death after his only brother passes away, Joel and Maggie administer childbirth classes to a group of native Alaskans in a neighboring remote village. Meanwhile, Holling finds out that "Jesse the Bear" has been sighted and vows to take care of him, once and for all.

1.8 The Aurora Borealis (A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups)

Joel learns of the legend of "Adam," a Bigfoot-like creature who walks the woods outside of Cicely. Meanwhile, Chris bonds with a black traveler passing through town, who turns out to be the brother he never knew he had, literally.

2.1 Goodbye to All That

Joel receives a "Dear John" letter from his fiancee Elaine, while Holling's gift to Shelly -- a satellite dish -- turns her into a TV addict.

2.2 The Big Kiss

A wise Indian spirit helps Ed in his search to find his parents, while Chris loses his voice to a mysterious beautiful woman.

2.3 All is Vanity

Maggie tries to win her father's approval by pretending that Joel, a successful doctor, is her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Holling contemplates circumcision to please Shelly.

2.4 What I Did for Love

Joel thinks twice about a scheduled visit to New York when Maggie dreams of a plane crash and the townspeople take exceptionally well to his substitute, a Jewish doctor from New York. However, the similarities between the two end there. Dr. Gingsberg (guest star Leo Geter), a strapping blond man with an engaging smile, charms the residents of Cicely immediately, leaving Joel feeling jealous.

2.5 Spring Break

Temporary madness sweeps through Cicely as the townfolk await the ice meltdown and the arrival of spring. [MC: Running of the Bulls.]

2.6 War and Peace

Passages from War and Peace are woven into the lives of Cicely's residents and visitors, who experience Tolstoyesque nightmares and Dostoyevskian passions, when old friend Nikolai arrives in town. Maurice is the only one who is not happy with his arrival. [This is the epsiode where they "break the fourth wall" out of character, they discuss the script and move on.]

2.7 Slow Dance

The curse of Maggie has struck again and poor Rick is the victim of "death by falling satellite." Ron and Erick arrive and buy the Inn. Holling meets up with an old friend and Shelly feels like a third wheel.

3.1 The Bumpy Road to Love

Maggie discovers the late Rick was unfaithful and proceeds to distrust all men; Maurice's tax indiscretion could destroy his relationship with Officer Semanski; while Joel is toted off to the woods to play marriage counselor to wildman-chef extraordinaire Adam and his hypochrondiacal wife, Eve.

3.2 Only You

Chris emits a sexual scent which causes all women to lust after him -- all but the visiting optometrist. Perplexed by her lack of attraction, Chris suddenly wants only her. Maurice once again accuses Holling of stealing Shelly from him, leaving only Shelly to set the record straight.

3.3 Oy Wilderness

Joel is a reluctant survival student when he and Maggie become stranded in the wilderness. Shelly's best friend Cyndy comes to Cicely asking Shelly to divorce Wayne, because Cyndy has been married to him for six months.

3.4 Animals R Us

Maggie is confronted with the strange possibility that the late Rick has been reincarnated as a dog; Maurice sees big profits in big eggs when he discovers Marilyn owns an ostrich herd; and Ed seriously considers getting out of show business.

3.5 Jules et Joel

Joel's twin brother, Jules, a charming but conniving rogue, creates a stir when he arrives in quiet Cicely to visit his sibling. [The Halloween episode.]

3.6 The Body in Question

A frozen body discovered in the local river could cause a world-wide historical revolution: was Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo or was he ice fishing near Cicely and fathering a tribe of French-speaking Native Americans? Shelly thinks she is infertile but Holling is afraid of his lineage.

3.7 Roots

Joel grapples with the possibility of a new start with his old love when his ex-fiancee Elaine visits Cicely; Bernard brings Chris his inheritance from their father, giving Chris the opportunity to go to Africa, as his dreams have told him to; and Adam becomes the chef at the Brick. [The Toys Cows in Africa song is in this one.]

3.8 A-Hunting We Will Go

After grousing about the hunting frenzy sweeping Cicely, Joel sees firsthand what it's all about by outfitting himself to join Chris and Holling for the primal ritual in the wilds. Holling, however, prefers the home fires to the campfire, while, back in town, Ed fears that Ruth-Anne is being stalked by the Grim Reaper. [Ed and Ruth-Anne dance on her grave.]

3.9 Get Real

Magic is in the air when the circus comes to Cicely. Marilyn becomes romantically involved with The Flying Man, while Holling fears his passion for Shelly may be waning when he realizes her feet are big.

3.10 Seoul Mates

Maurice, dreading being along for the holidays, gets a big surprise when his gift is an instant family of his own. Meanwhile, Maggie, dreading being with her family, gets a big surprise when her parents opt for a Cariibean Christmas without her.

3.11 Dateline: Cicely

Maurice goes out on a limb to spice up his newspaper's coverage by hiring an unnamed reporter given to clandestine meetings. Maggie talks to trees, but Joel won't listen, and to ease Holling's tax debts, Chris become a partner at the Brick, where he sets about sprucing up the place.

3.12 Our Tribe

Joel reluctantly undergoes a cultural conversion after receiving a goat as a gift from a grateful village elder, who insists on "adopting" him into her tribe, and a mysterious Holling shuts down the Brick, ostensibly to wax the floors.

3.13 Things Become Extinct

A study in self-examination brings on a mid-life crisis for Holling (his Uncle Charlie dies), opens up another door for Ed (he films Ira Wingfeather making duck flutes), and leaves Joel feeling culturally isolated (he has trouble finding other Jews in Alaska).

3.14 Burning Down the House

Maggie receives a double dose of disaster when her mother accidentally burns down her house after announcing she is divorcing Maggie's father. Meanwhile, Chris searches for the "right" cow as part of his new piece of performance art (He flings a piano instead).

3.15 Democracy in America

Mayoral incumbent Holling is stung by the news that he has a formidable opponent, old friend Edna Hancock, who's got a bee in her bonnet over a promise he never kept. The election also finds Shelly testing the aphrodisiac of power, Chris waxing patriotic, Ed anticipating his first time voting, and Joel and Maggie arguing party politics.

3.16 Three Amigos

The death of a rugged hunting companion sends Holling and Maurice into the wilderness to make good on a promise to bury him miles from civilization at a paradise called No-Name Point. Chris reads from Call of the Wild and it reflects Holling and Maurice's adventure.

3.17 Lost and Found

Joel discovers his cabin is haunted, Eve is worried that she is suffering from an exotic illness, and Maurice is disappointed when his old friend from Korea turns out to be less than perfect.

3.18 My Mother, My Sister

Shelly's mother drops in unexpectedly with her new twenty-four-year old husband, a baby abandoned in Joel's waiting room is temporarily adopted by the townspeople, and Adam undergoes the same changes as his pregnant wife.

3.19 Wake Up Call

The coming of spring brings love to Maggie, a new skin to Shelly and a reminder to Joel of the importance of blending compassion with his scientific knowledge.

3.20 The Final Frontier

Much to Holling's dismay Ed discovers that Jesse the bear has died; Japanese tourists infiltrate Cicely; a package that has traveled the world arrives in Cicely addressed to an unknown person.

3.21 It Happened in Juneau

Things heat up between Joel and Maggie when they are forced to share a hotel room; Chris and his brother Bernard for the first time are not in perfect synch with each other.

3.22 Our Wedding

Adam and Eve decide to wed for the baby's sake; Maggie avoids Joel like the plague, still believing that they slept together in Juneau; Officer Semanski serves Maurice with an official complaint.

3.23 Cicely

Joel stumbles upon an elderly sage who tells him the story of Cicely's creation.

4.1 Northwest Passages

To celebrate her thirtieth birthday, Maggie spends the weekend camping alone to reflect on her life and cleanse her soul. Marilyn asks Chris to help her learn how to drive. Maurice rambles endlessly into a recorder about his past in an attempt to write his memoirs.

4.2 Midnight Sun

Joel is "light loony" and, with his enormous amount of excess energy, coaches the Cicely Quarks in their annual basketball game against Sleetmute. An old friend (Gillis Toomy) drops in to visit Ruth-Anne and outfits the town from his collection of fashionable ensembles.

4.3 Nothing's Perfect

Chris kills a dog with his truck and quickly falls in love with its owner (Amy, the Pi Lady). Maurice buys an extremely expensive Augsburg clock and with its delivery comes a highly trained specialist to install it.

4.4 Heroes

Chris must decide what to do with his deceased friend's remains (Tooley). A heavy-metal rock star (Guest star Adam Ant) mistakenly arrives in Cicely instead of Sicily.

4.5 Blowing Bubbles

A mysterious new resident (Mike Monroe) quarantines himself in Cicely, arousing Maggie's interest and Joel's disbelief. Ruth-Anne must also cope with a new addition to the community - her materialistic son, Matthew, who gives up his career as an investment banker in Atlanta in search of a simpler life.

4.6 On Your Own

The Flying Man returns to Cicely to woo Marilyn; Ed finds a ring that once belonged to Federico Fellini; Maurice has Mike rewrite his will to include his recently discovered Korean son, Duk Won.

4.7 The Bad Seed

Everyone is shocked when Holling's unknown illegitimate daughter arrives in town - especially Holling who believed he was sterile. Maggie assists Marilyn in her search for her dream house. Ed is excited about his annual visit from Princess, a crane he took under his wing when she was abandoned as a baby.

4.8 Thanksgiving

Cicely readies itself for the annual Day of the Dead parade and Thanksgiving Day feast; Joel discovers he owes the state of Alaska a fifth year of service.

4.9 Do The Right Thing

An ex-member of the KGB visits Cicely to sell Maurice his official Russian dossier; a health inspector surveys The Brick for the first time in more then thirty years; Maggie makes a vow to herself to live each day as if it was her last.

4.10 Crime and Punishment

Chris' past finally catches up with him and he is apprehended and tried for breaking parole in the state of West Virginia many years earlier.

4.11 Survival of the Species

Ed becomes environmentally conscious; Maggie discovers ancient Indian relics in her backyard; Chris befriends a young delinquent and teaches him about life on the road.

4.12 Revelations

Chris takes his vacation at a monastery; Ruth-Anne pays Maurice the remaining amount owed on her store; Joel becomes incredibly antsy when he has no patients.

4.13 Duets

Ed's spiritual guide leads him to his natural father; Maggie and Mike share their first kiss; traveling piano tuner visits the Brick to adjust its ancient upright.

4.14 Grosse Pointe, 48230

Maggie bribes Joel into accompanying her to her grandmother's birthday party in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

4.15 Learning Curve

Much to Joel's distress, Marilyn goes on vacation by herself; Holling attempts to earn his high school diploma; the regional teacher spends two weeks in Cicely and almost becomes a role model for Maggie.

4.16 Ill Wind

Drastic tension between Maggie and Joel; Maurice is unhappy when Chris saves his life; Ed is intrigued by death.

4.17 Love's Labour Mislaid

Maggie forgets having sex with Joel; Ed faces an arranged marriage; a rare bird is seen (a Siberian Tit) and Holling and Ruth-Anne go out to see it.

4.18 Northern Lights

Maurice befriends Cicely's first homeless man; Joel goes on strike when his vacation is denied; Ruth-Anne, Chris, and Holling perform their various winter rituals.

4.19 Family Feud

When a totem pole is carved for the Whirlwind family, a family feud originating from an incident in 1934 is resurrected, dividing the Native Americans in Cicely. Shelly sees hallucinations of dancers.

4.20 Homesick

When Mike (guest star Anthony Edwards) gets test results showing he is completely healthy, he feels obligated to leave Cicely and Maggie behind to continue his environmental crusade.

4.21 The Big Feast

To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Minnifield Communications, Maurice plans an extremely elaborate party; Adam and Eve (guest stars Adam Arkin and Valerie Mahaffey) return to Cicely with their new baby.

4.22 Kaddish for Uncle Manny

When Joel's uncle dies, he discovers that the important bonds in times of trouble are not necessarily from a common religion, but rather a sense of community.

4.23 Mud and Blood

At the coming of spring, Maggie and Holling find affirmation of life in Shelly's pregnancy.

4.24 Sleeping With the Enemy

Duk Won seeks approval of his bethrothed; Ed makes a movie in Tlinget; Holling wants more sex.

4.25 Old Tree

When an old tree considered to be a Cicely historical landmark appears to by dying, Joel dons a tree doctor's hat and gives his prognosis. Joel hurts himself everytime Maggie is nice to him. Shelly starts singing instead of talking.

5.1 Three Doctors

The whole town pitches in when Joel is stricken by "Glacier Dropsy"; Ed is confused when he is called to be a shaman; much to her disappointment, Shelly finally stops singing.

5.2 The Mystery of the Old Curio Shop

When the world reminds Maurice of his age, he frets himself into having a heart attack; Maggie relives childhood fantasies of being Nancy Drew, detective extraordinaire; Joel is thrilled to find traces of Yiddish in Cicely's language and history.

5.3 Jaws of Life

Maurice is tormented by a wax replica of himself; Chris discovers that he may live long enough to see forty; the dental mobile comes to Cicely.

5.4 Altered Egos

Chris is disturbed that Bernard's girlfriend, who is also Chris' ex-lover, cannot tell them apart in bed; Joel is obsessed that he is losing his New York edge; Marilyn snoops through Dr. Fleischman's medical files to pick a healthy man.

5.5 A River Doesn't Run Through It

Maggie is Homecoming Queen; Maurice reluctantly admits a business defeat; Ruth-Anne is audited.

5.6 Birds of a Feather

When Joel's parents trek to Cicely, it ends up being a soul-searching time for all three; Holling shocks everyone when he reveals that he is bored by sports.

5.7 Rosebud

Maurice enlists Ed's expertise to organize a film festival in Cicely; Joel is pressured to join Cicely's volunteer fire department.

5.8 Heal Thyself

Ed is taunted by the Green Man; Holling shocks Shelly when he is disruptive during birth class; Maggie misses the weekly laundromat gossip-fest when she buys her own washer and dryer.

5.9 A Cup of Joe

Holling and Ruth-Anne discover that their grandfathers knew each other - and one ate the other; Chris attempts to become a licensed pilot; Joel discovers that Marilyn is a supersleuth.

5.10 First Snow

Joel is traumatized by the natural death of an older patient and friend; Maurice is devastated when Shelly lies about ever loving him; Maggie has a nagging sense that something is missing when she spruces up her house for winter hibernation.

5.11 Baby Blues

Shelly is nervous about childbirth; Ed discovers cutthroat showbiz; Maggie and Joel dislike kids.

5.12 Mister Sandman

When the Aurora Borealis goes haywire, everyone in Cicely is swapping dreams; Holling develops a severe psychosomatic aversion to food; Maurice deals with his fetish for women's footwear.

5.13 Mite Makes Right

Maggie becomes obsessed with dust mites; Maurice gets more than he bargained for when he invests in a rare violin; Chris reaches an artistic impasse on a sculpture.

5.14 A Bolt From the Blue

Maurice and Adam (guest star Adam Arkin) clash over the hired help for a fireworks display; Joel tutors a patient on the art of conversation; Ed is struck by lightning.

5.15 Hello, I Love You

Shelly finally gives birth; Ruth-Anne and Walt (guest star Moultrie Patten) are stranded overnight; Maggie and Joel become less competitive.

5.16 Northern Hospitality

Maggie teaches Joel a lesson in social etiquette; Chris is shaken when a KBHR listener blames him in his suicide note; Shelly takes Randi to Canada to see her roots.

5.17 Una Volta in L'Inverno

Joel and Maggie are forced to take refuge in an airfield shack during a snowstorm; Ruth-Anne studies Italian with Shelly as her unlikely tutor; Walt (guest star Moultrie Patten) become addicted to a special light visor to help his depression.

5.18 Fish Story

Joel has an otherworldly experience when Maggie wants to prepare a Passover dinner for him; Ruth-Anne abandons the store for the open road; Holling takes up paint-by-numbers.

5.19 The Gift of the Maggie

Maurice learns about the give-and-take of friendship; Joel is depressed when he has no one to to "talk shop" with; Chris learns a life lesson from a benevolent deer.

5.20 A Wing and A Prayer

Ed spreads gossip about Ruth-Anne's love life; Maggie builds a home-kit airplane; Holling and Shelly baptize Randi.

5.21 I Feel the Earth Move

Ron and Erick (guest stars Doug Ballard and Don R. McManus) tie the knot after eight years; Maggie develops a severe nausea that she thinks is caused by Joel.

5.22 Gran Prix

Maurice brings the world-renowned sport of wheelchair racing to Cicely; Ed battles External Validation (guest star Ben Reed) to help a patient; Ted (guest star Tim Sampson) learns of the loneliness of wealth.

5.23 Blood Ties

Maggie's childhood male friend from Grosse Points arrives in Cicely; Joel loses his confidence during the annual blood drive; Ed thinks he's finally found his mother.

5.24 Lovers and Madmen

Joel discovers a perfectly-preserved woolly mammoth; Maurice breaks a concert violinist out of an asylum for a private performance; Chris gets a rude awakening when his high-school crush visits.

6.1 Dinner at Seven-Thirty

Joel encounters an alternate reality in Manhattan after accidentally drinking one of Ed 's healing creations.

6.2 Eye of the Beholder

Ed exposes an insurance scam, involving Hayden Keyes, while Maggie donates a priceless family heirloom for a charity auction.

6.3 Shofar, So Good

Joel discovers a kinder and gentler way on Yom Kippur; Holling learns to forgive himself for not being there for his first daughter; Maurice holds the annual foxhunt without a fox.

6.4 The Letter

Maggie does some soul searching after she opens a letter she wrote to herself as a teen; Joel starts to smell life's flowers when he has a close call with cancer; Shelly learns that her destiny can't be shaped by a chain letter; Cicely has a new barber.

6.5 The Robe

Joel relishes the opportunity to prove Johns Hopkins School of Medicine wrong for refusing him admission; Shelly struggles with the devil's offer to fulfill her wildest dream; and Chris uses a ventriloquist dummy to offer straightforward opinions.

6.6 Zarya

Ed employs storytelling techniques of an old tale about Russian treaty negotiations between Princess Anastasia (guest star Tushka Bergen) and Lenin (guest star Christopher Neame) in Cicely to cure Marilyn's pain in her leg.

6.7 Full Upright Position

Joel and Maggie are off to Russia for a week of adventure, or not; Maurice tries to mold his young cousin into an heir apparent; Chris tries to get inside electricity.

6.8 Up River

Joel settles at a native village after paddling up the river for a house call; Chris gets a life lesson when he remodels his trailer; Ruth-Anne struggles with her realization that she is madly in love with Walt.

6.9 Sons of the Tundra

Cicely welcomes a new doctor and his wife to their quirky way of life; Holling wants desperately to join the Sons of the Tundra men's club; Ed sees the future after eating a magical trout; and Joel briefly appears in search of a new hunting knife.

6.10 Realpolitik

Maggie is elected Mayor of Cicely and Chris wilts at her new image; Phil plays a metaphysical round of golf with Joel; Marilyn's attempt at dog breeding is a pop.

6.11 The Great Mushroom

Maggie goes to Manonash to save Joel 's life on his birthday; the Capras have enlightening house guest; and Ed discovers and then loses the cure for shingles.

6.12 Mi Casa, Su Casa

Marilyn travels to Manonash for a potlatch and questions Joel's conception of himself; Maurice leaves Ed in charge while he's off on a hunting trip, and Shelly and Holling contemplate purchasing their first home.

6.13 Horns

The newly bottled Cicely Water causes some unusual role reversal behavior; Joel learns that he's free to leave Alaska and Cal Ingraham is depressed without an audience.

6.14 The Mommy's Curse

Walt tries working for Ruth-Anne but ends up moving in with her; When her mother's boyfriend dies, Maggie's convinced there's a family curse; and Holling's new friendship with Phil has Maurice seething with jealousy.

6.15 The Quest

Joel and Maggie embark on a search for the mythical Jeweled City of the North; Chris sues Dr. Capra for medical malpractice; and Michelle writes a review of the Brick.

6.16 Lucky People

Phil and Michelle have the horrible realization that they are stuck in a place they hate; Maggie and Chris restore Roslyn and Cicely's Model T for the Founder's day parade; Maurice goes on a buying spree to work his way into Holling's family.

6.17 The Graduate

Maggie learns the harsh realities of running a business; Chris gets his Masters degree in Comparative Literature; Holling's dark secret is revealed (he's been sending money to Patrick Dulac and his mother).

6.18 Little Italy

Phil discovers Cicely has an Italian neighborhood and gets caught in a war between two families; Maggie plays marriage counselor for Holling and Shelly; Ruth-Anne is on NPR's "All Things Considered."

6.19 Balls

Phil and Michelle have marriage problems; Cicely has a bowling team; Lester Haines offers to finance Ed's film, if Ed no longer sees Heather.

6.20 Buss Stop

Michelle directs the townsfolk in "Bus Stop" and almost has a nervous breakdown.

6.21 Ursa Minor

Ed becomes a surrogate parent to a bear cub; Chris uses lucid dreaming to explore his growing love for Maggie; Maurice is concerned the population is dwindling.

6.22 Let's Dance

As Officer Semanski and Maurice take Cal back to the hospital, Barbara starts to fall for Cal; Marilyn teaches cotillion; Phil's manners are not good so he attends.

6.23 Tranquility Base

Cicely's couples converge on Maurice's summer lodge - Tranquility Base.