The Top 50 TV Shows of All-Time: #10
#10- "NORTHERN EXPOSURE" CBS 1990-1995--------------------------------------------------
Hard to believe, considering the fever of the current political debate, but there was a scripted gay wedding on television already 15 years ago. Ron and Erick, proprietors of the Sourdough Inn in remote Cicely, Alaska tied the knot before family and friends in a ceremony presided over by the town disc jockey, who had been ordained as a minister by answering an ad in the back of Rolling Stone. There was no public controversy to speak of over these "Northern Exposure" nuptials. No protests. No Newsweek covers. No accompanying CBS news magazine specials promoting the controversy. The event was done so simply and so matter-of-factly that it often appears to have still gone unnoticed as one of the many gay "firsts" in television history. It must have made sense to "Northern Exposure" viewers at the time to see an "opposite marriage," as Miss America calls it. Cicely had been founded by a lesbian couple, after all, and Ron and Erick's union had a firmer foundation beneath it than the one between the misanthropic Adam, a compulsive liar, and his long-time girlfriend Eve, "the Mozart of hypochondriacs," who had been married on the show the previous season. Other TV series count Emmys, "Northern Exposure" counted Peabodys. (Remarkably, the show earned one in both 1992 and 1993.) The writing and the characters were so enlightened, so innately intelligent, and above all, so civil, that it would have been hard for the demagogues to raise up a good posse against the program. Characters agreed, or they agreed to disagree. The rare insult was volleyed back with a smile. Transgressions were routinely forgiven. "Northern Exposure" was never a top 10 show in the ratings, but it came close a couple times, and it left an indelible mark. A similar mix of comedy and drama, with its whimsy, mysticism, and its ambitious literacy, has never been duplicated. In reruns and on DVD, the show remains as unspoiled today as its rustic Alaskan setting.
posted by CM @ 9:00 PM
2 Comments:
Northern Exposure was like the Van Morrison of TV. It really was about the most beautiful, most life affirming show that was ever on, so mystical and other-worldly. I might say other shows are better but there's no show that makes me feel better when I watch it. It was the most generous show, and so smart without being effete.
It was on about the same time as Touched by an Angel, a show the media always played for its "spirituality", which I thought was hilarious, since Northern Exposure just blows it away in every way imaginable. And it's the only show that makes me feel patriotic.
I still can't believe it was on network TV.
I slept with Janine Turner.
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