Northern Exposure

Fresh out of New York's Columbia University, cocky young Dr. Joel Fleischman is looking forward to his comfortable position in Alaska's largest city. Upon his arrival, Joel finds himself a fish out of water as he's instead assigned to a tiny Alaskan village where the offbeat locals would love him to stay forever.

Joel receives a "Dear John" letter from Elaine, who has decided to marry an older judge, and a concerned Ed enlists Maggie to help him deal with it. Holling regrets buying a satellite dish for Shelly, who soon develops into an international television junkie.

Maggie is devastated when the unveiling of a statue in Rick's memory uncovers his life and loves away from Cicely. Maurice stumbles in his pursuit of Officer Semanski when she learns he favors tax loopholes. Joel is kidnapped and held prisoner by the reclusive Adam and his hypochondriacal mate Eve.

Maggie must come to grips with her 30th birthday and the ghosts of her dead boyfriends by using an Indian ritual allowing her to lay the past to rest. Marilyn decides it's time to learn to drive and gets Ruth-Anne and Chris to give her lessons. Maurice drives the citizens crazy when he begins to write his memoirs.

Ed wakes up in strange places with no clues about how he got there. Joel contracts "glacier dropsy" which gives him the feeling of pins pricking his nose, a fear of shrimp, a tender groin and other strange symptoms. Shelly loses her singing voice just when she needs it. Leonard treats Joel's patients and Ed's "sleep flying" which maybe and indication of a greater purpose.

Joel takes a spiritual journey to New York City after drinking orange juice that contains some Indian folk medicine and sees how life might have been. There he and his wife Shelly, a corporate lawyer, give a dinner party. Maurice is their doorman and Eugene their elevator operator; Maggie is the au pair for their kids; Bernard is in fashions and Chris is an inarticulate fashion photographer; Ed is a corporate raider; Ruth-Anne runs the internal medical partnership that Joel is trying to join; Holling is a singer who's got agoraphobia (fear of open places). Through the course of the evening, they begin to transform into their Cicelian characters.