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After more than two decades of absence, the magical nineties series "Exposure to the North" returns to Israeli screens today (Tuesday).
Its plot follows Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow, "Billions"), a grumpy young doctor from New York who was forced to move to Alaska because the northern state funded his medical studies.
He is horrified to discover that instead of arriving as planned in the big city of Anchorage, he is sent to a small town at the end of the book, Sisley, to act as the local doctor.
There he encounters its various and strange inhabitants, which include, among others, the beautiful and fearlessly made Maggie O'Connell (Janine Turner), who serves as his landlady, and whose fights and sexual tension between her and him are an essential element of the series;
And also the young movie-loving Native American Ed Chigliak (Darren E. Burroughs), the local patron Maurice Minifield (Barry Corbin, "Trust Sol"), the local bar owners, the couple Shelley Tambo (Cynthia Geary) and Holling Winkor (John Callum, "A Good Place in the Middle", "Mad Men"), whose age difference is decades, the local radio broadcaster Chris (John Corbett, Aiden from "Sex and the City" in his breakout role) and many others.
"Northern Exposure" originally aired between 1990 and 1995 on the CBS network.
It was created by Joshua Brand and John Polsey, who in the 1980s were behind one of the most important and ground-breaking series on television - the medical drama "St. Elsewhere".
It began its journey without much expectation - the network ordered only eight episodes from it and placed them in the cucumber season, July 1990, when there were not many viewers in front of the screen to begin with.
Nevertheless, it immediately became a great success, ranked among the ten most watched series among advertisers aged 18-49, and was nominated for three Emmy Awards, including the best drama series and the best script for the pilot episode.
The second season was also short and not part of the regular season - seven episodes aired in April-May 1991, but in September of that year it was already back in full swing for the fall season with 22 episodes.
At the subsequent Emmy Awards, "North Exposure" was nominated for 16 statuettes, of which it won six, including for best drama series and best script in a drama.
They didn't believe her at first.
"Exposure to the North"/Universal
Brand and Polsey left the series after its fourth season, and the reins were taken by David Chase, who a few years later would create the series that would change the medium from end to end - "The Sopranos".
Over the years, he did not hesitate to express his distaste for "exposure to the North", and admitted that he agreed to take the position only for the money.
What still worked for him was the team of writers at his disposal - many of them were in "Exposure to the North" from the very beginning, and the two married couples who continued with him to "The Sopranos": Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider (who are currently serving as showrunners of "Chicago Med") and Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess (creators of the series "Blood Cops").
Even in Israel, the captains of the Broadcasting Authority did not recognize the value of "exposure to the north" and placed it in the cemetery of Fridays at 4:30 PM, as part of the Arabic broadcasts.
Only after the third season swept the awards ceremonies - including two Golden Globe Awards and two Peabody Awards - "North Exposure" was displaced to a slightly more prestigious slot on Channel One, late weekday prime time.
As can be expected, it moved through several more slots throughout its three remaining seasons, so that its first probable broadcast in Israel occurred when Hot acquired the series in its entirety four years after its end, and in May 1999 began broadcasting it as it does now, on weekdays in the late evening.
Since Hot's rights expired in 2002, the only legal way to encounter the series was to purchase its DVD box set, but for fans of the series it had a major drawback: most of the music used in the series was replaced with generic alternatives due to lack of copyright.
In the event that the music was not replaced, which was actually only valid for the first season, the package amount was extremely high to finance the rights.
"Exposure to the North" used a lot of hits in its key moments, among other things in the radio show presented by Chris, and in order for the series to be able to live again in the new media channels - DVD, Blu-ray and then also streaming - Universal Studios, which holds the rights to the series, had to re-arrange all the music rights.
This is the reason why the series has since been almost completely absent from the various screens not only in Israel but also in its homeland and the rest of the world.
More on the same topic
"Exposure to the North": the series that was not like it on television
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This has changed in the last year.
In March 2023, Janine Turner updated on her Facebook page that the series is in the middle of a long process to bring it to the streaming services.
"At the end of 2019/early 2020, I called a wonderful manager at Universal Studios and asked why 'North Exposure' was not available on streaming services. This led to a three-year collaboration! I worked diligently with the Universal team to relaunch 'North Exposure' in the syndication and streaming market (many times with Monthly calls!)! And now, it's happening!".
She added and updated that the series premiered in Spain and that she expects that in the future it will also reach other places.
At the beginning of last month it finally happened in the United States as well - "Exposure to the North" landed as a surprise on Amazon Prime Video.
Universal's work included re-licensing the original music, which was successful in most cases (fans of the series estimate that 80-90 percent of it returned), and of course also transferring it to HD quality suitable for today's televisions.
Unlike other cases where the frame is warped to fit a wide 16:9 resolution (we're looking at you, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), in this case the original 4:3 aspect ratio is preserved.
In Israel, as mentioned, she comes again to the same place that redeemed her two and a half decades ago - Hot.
All six of its seasons are airing this morning on Hot and Udi and Next TV, and starting next Sunday (11/2) they will also be broadcast every Sunday-Thursday night on Hot 3 - the ideal time for them, before bed, so that afterwards you can go to sleep with a smile.
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Exposure to the north