Line #37 Series/NorthernExposure


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/northern_exposure_joel.jpeg]]
2
3	->''"It's like brother [[Creator/FriedrichNietzsche Nietzsche]] said: being human is a complicated gig, so give that dark knight of the soul a hug and howl the eternal yes."''
4	-->-- '''Chris in the Morning'''
5
6	''Northern Exposure'' was an American {{Dramedy}} series co-created by Creator/JoshuaBrand and Creator/JohnFalsey, which aired for five seasons (1990–95) on Creator/{{CBS}}. It's a relatively rare US example of the "Northern" – a more typically Canadian frontier drama akin to TheWestern, but taking place in the sub-Arctic regions of northern UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} and UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}}.
7
8	Joel Fleischman (Creator/RobMorrow) is a young doctor from New York City, fresh out of med school, who is contractually obligated to practice medicine in the small town of Cicely, Alaska (pop. 215) [[StudentDebtPlot as part of a financial aid package from the state.]] As Fleischman dreams of escaping Cicely, the locals all seem to be escaping from the rest of the world.
9
10	The town's [[EccentricTownsfolk quirky residents]] include:
11	* Maurice Minnifield (Creator/BarryCorbin), a millionaire former astronaut who wants to turn his 15,000 acres of nearby land into an attractive vacation spot on the "new Alaskan Riviera."
12	* Maggie O'Connell (Creator/JanineTurner), a bush pilot from a rich family who has a love-hate relationship with Fleischman.
13	* Holling Vincoeur (Creator/JohnCullum), the town barkeep and one of its oldest residents.
14	* Shelly Tambo (Creator/CynthiaGeary), Holling's ditzy, barely-legal lover.
15	* Marilyn Whirlwind (Creator/ElaineMiles), the utterly laconic, native Alaskan receptionist who is the perfect foil to all Fleischman's Creator/WoodyAllen-esque whining.
16	* Chris "in the Morning" Stevens (Creator/JohnCorbett), the philosophic DJ (and former [[{{Delinquents}} JD]]) at the local radio station.
17	* Ed Chigliak (Creator/DarrenEBurrows), a native Alaskan with an affable lack of tact and an EncyclopaedicKnowledge of film.
18	* Ruth-Anne Miller (Creator/PegPhillips), a kindly older woman who runs the town's general store.
19
20	The show holds a similarity to ''Series/TwinPeaks'', with its use of extensive dream imagery, fantasy elements, and symbolism to explore its characters, and was one of the most successful "stealth fantasy" shows (in that most fans of the show would [[ScifiGhetto never admit that it was a fantasy show]]) in network television history. In its sixth and final season, Rob Morrow left the show and his character Joel Fleischman was {{Suspiciously Similar Substitute}}d by Creator/PaulProvenza's character Phil Capra.
21
22	A tie-in novel, ''Literature/LettersFromCicely'', came out between the third and fourth seasons.
23
24	In late 2018, it was announced that a revival of the series was being mounted by CBS, with Morrow returning to star as Fleischman, but the project continues to be hit with various delays and setbacks, including the 2019 death of series co-creator Creator/JohnFalsey.
25
26	----
27	!!This TV show provides examples of:
28
29	[[foldercontrol]]
30	[[folder:A-C]]
31	* AdamAndOrEve: When Dr. Fleischman discovers that Adam's wife is called Eve, he cannot resist taunting them about this. When their first baby is born, he asks them whether or not they called him Cain or Abel.
32	* AddictiveForeignSoapOpera: In the first episode of the second season, Shelly receives a satellite dish from her husband and becomes addicted to a telenovela, which is both Played for Laughs and used to help set up her realization that she has become disconnected from reality and the things she cares about.
33	* AdultAdoptee: Maurice considers adopting Chris, his radio station's DJ, as heir to his business interests.
34	* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: PlayedForLaughs. Ruth-Anne briefly takes up with some bikers who turn out to have normal, mundane lives.
35	* AllergicToLove: The episode "The Big Kiss" had Chris struck dumb by meeting a beautiful woman. This prompted many of the citizens of the town to reflect that they felt sick when they met their partner; the one man that felt happy was dumped by his girlfriend 3 weeks later.
36	* AllGaysLoveTheatre: Referenced in the first episode, when Maurice tells Joel about his love of musicals -- "But I'm no fruit if that's what you're thinkin'".
37	* AlliterativeName: Mike Monroe (Creator/AnthonyEdwards).
38	* AllJustADream: Seems to happen at least OncePerEpisode. Sometimes it's the entire episode. Usually the audience can see it coming and know that it's being PlayedForLaughs, but there's still something interesting about the character(s) having the dream to be gleaned from it.
39	* TheAllegedExpert: In "A Bolt from the Blue," the state police hostage negotiator's tactics consist of extremely terse small talk and asking his adversary to promise not to take anyone who comes inside to talk to him hostage for additional leverage. And he only thinks to worry about giving a potentially unhinged man another hostage during a standoff after Joel points it out.
40	* AlterKocker: Transplant Joel mentions them back in his "old country" of Queens, NY from time to time.
41	** In one episode, he finds the local indians using what he knows as Yiddish words, which turns out to be due to memories of a Jewish explorer. One mentions hearing a television show using "aldakaka, that's one of our words". When Joel confirms it Jewishness, he asks "Does it mean 'wise and venerable one'?" Well... yes".
42	* AlternateRealityEpisode: "Cicely" begins with an aged visitor telling the story of the town's founding in 1909, and the rest of the episode depicts the story with the main actors playing various roles therein.
43	* AmusingInjuries: In the episode "Old Tree", Joel seems to get spontaneously injured every time Maggie tries to do something nice for him.
44	* AndShowItToYou: Adam threatens to rip Maurice's heart out and show it to him while the two are VolleyingInsults over a disagreement regarding the town's newspaper.
45	* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Holling is decidedly not proud of his ancestry. He once told Shelly that the death of his grandfather is still celebrated as a national holiday in France.
46	* ApocalypseHow: Ed has a dream about the residents of the town suffering from horrible mutations because they weren't environmentally conscious enough to prevent the ozone layer from breaking down.
47	* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: In the episode "It Happened in Juneau". Maggie and Joel, lonely and drunk, agree to Do it; but Maggie passes out. Joel puts her to bed alone. The next day they return to Cicely and Maggie tells Joel, "It was great, I'm glad it happened, but let's pretend it didn't". Some time goes by before Joel succeeds in telling Maggie what really happened, and she is insulted: "Why didn't you? I had consented!" She invites him to try again - but then finds that what she wanted was his expression of committed desire, rather than the fulfillment, and dismissed him.
48	* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
49	** An episode where Chris is on trial for skipping parole and his lawyer, Mike Monroe, knows he has no real case, seems to head straight into this when they try to make the metaphysical argument that Chris is a different person now. [[spoiler:It's subverted when the judge, who has humored their ridiculous argument for several days, still sentences Chris to finishing his prison term, but is lenient enough to stay the sentence for three years, having become someone sympathetic to Chris during her time in Cicely.]]
50	** The "ironclad" contract that requires Joel to practice medicine for four/five years in Cicily, Alaska, or face 15 years in prison would be unenforceable in real life. This would constitute ''involuntary servitude'' under the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In actuality, the doctor could only be subject to civil suit for damages, as well as possible revocation of his medical license. Personal services contracts are also notoriously difficult to enforce.
51	* AsianBabymama: Maurice has one who pays him a visit in "Seoul Mates". Enough time has passed since the Korean War that she's now a baby ''grand-''mama.
52	* AuthorAvatar: In-universe, Ed is working on a screenplay called "The Shaman". It becomes pretty clear that the titular character is based on his own life in the episode "Balls", where Lester Haines agrees to finance the film but [[ExecutiveMeddling wants to change the ending]], because he doesn't find it believable that the main character gets the girl in the end. This happens while Ed is dating Lester's daughter Heather, which Lester implies will never work out in real life.
53	* BackToSchool: Holling in "Learning Curve".
54	* BatteredBouquet: At Adam and Eve's wedding, the bride and groom act so disagreeably that when Eve does the traditional bridal bouquet toss, everybody shies away like she had tossed a dead skunk and the flowers crash to the ground with nobody even attempting to catch them.
55	* BearsAreBadNews: Holling was once mauled by a bear (whom he named Jesse) while hunting. While recovering, he claimed to have a nightmare where he was pursued by all the animals he had hunted in the past. The experience changed Holling: while he had sworn vengeance against Jesse (to the point where Jesse had become his personal Literature/MobyDick), he vowed never to hunt any animal other than Jesse except with a camera.
56	* BelligerentSexualTension: Joel and Maggie actually come to blows once.
57	* BerserkButton: Never, ever insinuate that one of Maurice's heroes might have been a homosexual. Especially when you're broadcasting live on his radio station.
58	* BlackWidow: Maggie O'Connell. She doesn't kill any of them; her boyfriends [[CartwrightCurse just seem to keep dying on her]]. One was hit by a falling satellite.
59	* {{Bookends}}: The final sequence in the series finale shows a moose wandering around town at night, in similar fashion to the show's opening credits.
60	* BoyishShortHair: StrawFeminist Maggie used to keep her hair cut short, but she eventually adopted a TomboyishPonytail in later seasons as she mellowed.
61	* BrainlessBeauty: Shelly, but she's revealed to have HiddenDepths.
62	* BreakingTheFourthWall:
63	** Fleischman ''obliterates'' the fourth wall in "War and Peace". When Maurice and Nikolai are about to duel to the death, Joel steps between them and says, "Look, we play to a very sophisticated television audience. They know Maurice isn't going to kill Nikolai and they definitely know Nikolai isn't going to kill Maurice." Maggie then [[ScoldingTheFourthWallBreaker calls him out for stepping out of character]], Ruth-Anne suggests going to a previous draft of the script, everyone complains that it's too cold, and then Marilyn suggests they just move on to the next scene.
64	** Also happens in the dream sequence in "Russian Flu": after Holling mentions condom use, Joel remarks that they're risking "turning this dream sequence into a public service announcement".
65	* BrokenAesop: In "Learning Curve", Maggie locks horns with a woman with opinions about what women should and shouldn't do that could only be called incredibly sexist (not to mention hypocritical, since she's a former Air Force pilot but believes women shouldn't be pilots because they lack emotional stability). At one point, the other woman calls Maggie out as a StrawFeminist, for assuming all women agree with her point of view. That would have made for a good Aesop, but the episode doesn't leave it there. It goes on to have Maggie see the error of her ways and agree to disagree -- really not a good lesson to teach anyone when you're talking about sexist beliefs that belong on the scrap heap of history.
66	* BrooklynRage: Joel. (He's technically from Queens, but close enough.) This comes out whenever anyone, knowingly or inadvertently, makes his life difficult. In an episode where he starts to worry that he's losing his "New York edge", what ends up curing his homesickness is a heated argument with a repairman who Joel thinks is ripping him off.
67	* BubbleBoy: Mike has developed severe allergies to artificial materials (basically, to US civilization). His whole house is encased in a bubble. At one point he borrowed a space suit from Maurice to go among the townsfolk.
68	* ButYouWereThereAndYouAndYou: One of this show's many AllJustADream episodes ends with this. It's a pretty obvious spoof of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', right down to the placement of the characters at the dreamer's bedside and window.
69	* CallBack: These start to pile up as the seasons go by, but the episode "Crime and Punishment" has so many that it's practically a clip show with no clips, as pretty much every major character takes the stand to briefly recap the events of an episode where Chris helped them work their some of their personal issues.
70	* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: Adam and Eve.
71	* CartwrightCurse: "The O'Connell Curse."
72	* CatapultNightmare: In "All Is Vanity," Holling becomes convinced fiancée Shelly prefers circumcised men and schedules an appointment with Dr Fleischman. He soon has [[BodyHorror second thoughts]].
73	* ChummyCommies: Cicely gets its annual visit from Nikoli Applanov, a famous Soviet chess player. He likes to come to Cicely to relax and get away from his adoring fans back home. Everybody loves him except Maurice, who hates him because he's a Communist.
74	* ChurchOfSaintGenericus: The only church depicted, which seems to be attended by just about everyone in Cicely, is some sort of community church presided over by Chris, after a mail-order ordination by "The First Church of Truth and Beauty". It is doubtful whether he even has a coherent theology.
75	* CircumcisionAngst: Holling in the VerySpecialEpisode above.
76	* TheCityVsTheCountry: The basic premise.
77	* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: The first season was released to DVD with all of its music intact, but it wound up retailing for $60 due to the cost of licensing. As a result, Universal chose to replace much of the music in the remaining seasons with generic muzak to keep the costs down.
78	* ComfortingTheWidow: {{Inverted\|Trope}} in "The Three Amigos": Maurice and Holling arrive at their friend's cabin to take his body for burial, and his widow starts hitting on them.
79	* CommutingOnABus: Joel commutes on a boat for about a third of Season 6.
80	* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Chris reacts this way when Joel gives him some blood pressure medication intended to help stave off heart disease. Suddenly he's extremely depressed about not knowing what to do with the rest of his life, because he was planning on checking out at 40.
81	* {{Costumer}}: The third finale was a WholeEpisodeFlashback to the founding of Cicely.
82	* CrazyCulturalComparison:
83	** The Eskimo Indians celebrating Thanksgiving as "The Day of the Dead," where they throw tomatoes at white people.
84	** Inverted in "Rosebud." Leonard looks for white folktales for his work as a healer. The results are disappointing.
85	* CreditsJukebox: The show used a different previously-existing song for the closing credits of each episode. Usually the lyrics had some kind of thematic relevance. This caused major problems with music rights for the home video release.
86	[[/folder]]
87	[[folder:D-F]]
88	* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Ed falls victim to this in a Season 6 episode.
89	* DeadpanSnarker: Joel and Maggie [[BelligerentSexualTension do this with each other]] all the time, but whenever Adam's around, he's skilled enough at it to make anyone else's attempts at snark look like child's play.
90	* DeadPetSketch: When Chris runs over a woman dog in "Nothing's Perfect", he falls for and tries to court her...but ends up killing ''all'' her pets.
91	* DearJohnLetter: Joel gets a letter revealing that Elaine is marrying another man in season 2's premiere "Goodbye to All That".
92	* DeathNotification: In "Slow Dance," Joel has to tell Maggie that [[spoiler:Rick]] has just died and her oblivious comments about her complicated relationship with [[spoiler:Rick]] only make it harder for Joel to spit it out right away. He ends up leading into it with an awkward joke about death notifications.
93	--> '''Joel''': Uh, see, um, this guy goes on a trip, and, uh, he leaves his cat with his friend. Well, he calls his friend and asks how the cat is. Guy says, "The cat is dead." The guy says, "Geez. God, couldn't you break the news to me a little more gently? You know, lead into it-'Your cat crawled up on the roof, there was a loose tile, and he took a little fall.' Like that?" Next month, the guy goes on another trip. Calls his friend and asks how his mom is. Guy says, "Well- She crawled up on the roof and there was a loose tile."
94	--> '''Maggie''' ''(smiling)'': Not bad.
95	--> '''Joel''': ''(sadly and gently)''[[spoiler:Rick]] crawled up on the roof
96	--> ''Maggie's expression crumbles in realization.''
97	* DecemberDecemberRomance: Ruth-Anne and Walt.
98	* TheDentistEpisode: In "Jaws of Life", a traveling dentist makes his routine visit to Cicely, and the townsfolk go out of their way to avoid him as much as possible.
99	* DestinationDefenestration: Maurice does this to Chris within mere minutes of the audience being introduced to the latter.
100	* TheDevilIsALoser: In one episode, the town is visited by Satan, who is a dumpy and unimpressive man more interested in small acts of betrayal than diabolical evil. He ultimately fails to corrupt the citizens of Cicely even slightly.
101	* DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery: The blind repairman who fixes Holling's piano in "Duets".
102	* DiscussedTrope: Ed's collection of films about Germans are always about ThoseWackyNazis, specifically Josef Mengele, and he even asks what it's like to always be the bad guys.
103	* DreamIntro: Used in several episodes. One in particular starts inside Joel's sex dream where he's Music/RobertPalmer singing "Simply Irresistible." There's a SexyDiscretionShot fading to the opening credits when things turn steamy.
104	* DreamSequence: The entire show was made of these.
105	** In "What I Did for Love" Maggie repeatedly dreams she's playing ''{{TabletopGame/Cluedo}}'' with Joel, who, in the dream, will die in a plane crash on his way back to New York.
106	** And VisionQuest for (naturally) Ed.
107	** In "Aurora Borealis," Chris and Bernard have the same dream at the same time.
108	* DropInCharacter: Ed. He doesn't seem to believe in knocking, and will already be in the room before the person he came to visit (frequently Joel) will even notice him.
109	** Joel's house seems to be a magnet for these kinds of characters. Particularly in the middle of the night.
110	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Rick became a victim of "The O'Connell Curse" when he got a ''satellite'' dropped on him.]]
111	* DueToTheDead: The reason for Maurice and Holling's wilderness excursion in "Three Amigos". It doesn't quite go as planned.
112	** Chris also struggles with this when a friend's remains are mailed to him in "Heroes".
113	* DumbBlonde: Shelly seems to exist at the three-way intersection between this trope, ValleyGirl, and Trailer Trash. At other times she demonstrates HiddenDepths.
114	* EasyAmnesia: In the episode after [[spoiler:Joel and Maggie have sex]], Maggie seems to genuinely not remember what happened.
115	* EccentricTownsfolk: One of the chief reasons that Cicily is such a QuirkyTown is all of its eccentric residents.
116	* EndlessDaytime: One episode takes place during the Midnight Sun. People go a little crazy. Er.
117	* EroticDream:
118	** In one episode, the yearly "cracking of the ice" on the nearby river causes general goofiness; in the case of Joel and Maggie, they have erotic dreams about each other.
119	** In another episode, Joel has a dream that starts out as a pitch-perfect remake of the video to Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible" - until the song stops mid-note and the dancing models try hitting on him.
120	** ''The Russian Flu'' inverts the trope as Joel keeps having dreams interacting with various Cicelians who always keep referring to Elaine (then Joel's fiancee) as his ''sister''. The final dream ends with Maggie showing up as his wife.
121	* EveryCarIsAPinto: Some engine problems cause Joel's car to erupt into flames while he's driving it down Main Street. While waiting for the town's fire department to show up, the truck explodes.
122	* ExpensiveGlassOfCrap:
123	** A variation, where Maurice, in one of his {{Jerkass}} moves, donates oxidised fine wine to a local charity auction. It turns around on him when Holling innocently buys the wine and invites Maurice to dinner, forcing him to drink it and pretend it's good. He's called on it by Walter Kupter, a gruff local trapper with an unexpected background as a Wall Street trader.
124	** In another episode, Shelly accidentally breaks a bottle of fine wine Maurice plans to serve the next day. Eve manages to create a replacement using cheap wine and household ingredients, explaining that as the wife of a master chief she has developed a skill in fooling discerning palates.
125	* FakeGuestStar: Creator/MoultriePatten as Walt Kupfer. He appeared in nearly every episode in the last couple seasons.
126	* TheFarmerAndTheViper: In the episode "Gotta Sing", Shelly performs a jazzy version of Al Wilson's "The Snake" while warning Maggie that you cannot and should not expect upleasant, mean people to not be unpleasant and mean.
127	* FishOutOfWater: A central premise of the show is that Joel is a big-city Jew surrounded by small-town eccentrics and Native Americans.
128	* ForeignCussWord: A French chef working for Maurice gets away with "Merde!" when the English equivalent clearly wouldn't have been allowed in an American primetime network show.
129	* FounderOfTheKingdom: The town of Cicely celebrates a Founder's Day in honor of its founders Cicely and Gwendolyn.
130	* FreudianExcuse: Holling has daddy issues with his ''entire paternal lineage''.
131	* FromNewYorkToNowhere
132	[[/folder]]
133	[[folder:G-L]]
134	* GeniusDitz: Ed. He appears to catch on a bit slow, especially in social situations, but the man knows his movies, and can easily relate anything he or another character is going through to a plot element from a favorite vintage film.
135	* GivenNameReveal: Regular guy Holling Vancouer reveals that his family name is actually du Vincouer, and that he's descended from French royalty - but every male in his family is a {{Jerkass}}, so he changed it to try to get away from that, which is also why he's decided not to have any offspring.
136	* GoingNative: Joel in season 6.
137	** An episode in season three where Joel is (much to his own chagrin) adopted by a local tribe foreshadows this.
138	* AGoodNameForARockBand: Happened in real life when Justin Vernon was home sick with mono, and watching the series on DVD. The scene at the end of "First Snow" where everyone wishes each other "Bon hiver!" inspired his stage name, Music/BonIver.
139	* HatesEveryoneEqually: Adam, up to and including his own wife.
140	* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Maurice hits this one pretty hard after selling a home to a pair of men he later realized was a gay couple. He doesn't take kindly to them pointing out that he appreciates several of the same activities as they do (cooking, interior decorating, etc.) When he starts ranting about their "unnatural lifestyle", they think he is just trying to jack the price up.
141	** Chris deals with this in his usual [[NotThatTheresAnythingWrongWithThat open-minded manner]] when he finds himself inexplicably sexually attracted to a man who never speaks. The worst part? It happens in the middle of a spiritual retreat at a monastery, and the man in question is one of the monks. [[spoiler:Subverted when the monk's hood finally comes off and the character is revealed to be a woman.]]
142	* HideYourLesbians: In-universe example -- Maurice tells Joel that, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial whatever he may have heard]], the two women who founded the town were just good friends.
143	* HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier: Happens and is also discussed. The older Native Americans all speak Tlingit when they don't want the youngsters to understand what they're saying. When Ed talks to Joel about this, Joel mentions a similar thing happening in Queens where Alter Kockers speak in Yiddish in order to keep secrets. Both Tlingit and Yiddish are dying languages; Ed decides to dub ''Film/ThePrisonerOfZenda'' into Tlingit in order to preserve the language.
144	* HijackedByJesus: An interesting variation, where the residents of Cicily combine Christmas traditions with the local tribe's "Raven Festival", based on the story of Raven and the Sun-Holder's Daughter. While this is a traditional Raven story among some tribes and the depiction in the show is fairly accurate, it does make Raven seem like a CrystalDragonJesus. In one of the few points where [[TheSilentBob Marilyn Whirlwind]] spoke more than a few words at a time, she told the story to Joel:
145	-->"A long time ago, the Raven looked down from the sky and saw that the people of the world were living in darkness. The ball of light was kept hidden by a selfish old chief. So the Raven turned itself into a spruce needle and floated on the river where the chief's daughter came for water. She drank the spruce needle. She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy which was the Raven in disguise. The baby cried and cried until the chief gave him the ball of light to play with. As soon as he had the light, the Raven turned back into himself and carried the light into the sky. From then on, we no longer lived in darkness."
146	* HollywoodAtheist: Averted with General Store owner Ruth-Anne Miller, one of the friendliest and most down-to-earth residents of Cicely, who just happens to be an atheist.
147	* HollywoodHeartAttack: Averted when Maurice simply got light-headed and lost his balance. When Joel tells him he had a heart attack, Maurice doesn't believe it and says "I've had indigestion worse than that".
148	* HotLibrarian: Maggie becoming mayor of Cicely has this effect on Chris, who is attracted to her authority.
149	* {{Hypochondria}}: Eve, one of Joel's least favorite patients, has a habit of showing up at his practice claiming she is suffering some terrible self-diagnosed illness. Though she gets a little better after she gets pregnant (the one thing she didn't suspect she had).
150	* ILoveYouBecauseICantControlYou: In the episode "Only You", Chris goes through one of his recurring hormone/pheromone surges, which make him almost irresistible to women. When he discovers that the visiting optometrist is completely immune to his pheromones, and doesn't even find him attractive at his ''baseline'' level, he becomes fixated on her. As a result, he finds himself impotent while in bed with other women, and his body actually ends the surge earlier than usual.
151	* InnocentBlueEyes: Ed, as part of his total PrettyBoy status.
152	* InspectorJavert:
153	** Officer Barbara Semanski. Chris name-checks this trope in reference to her at one point. In that very same episode, she arrests [[spoiler:Joel]] for ''gambling''. While off duty. ''In the middle of a date.''
154	** The young, eager health inspector who threatens to shut down Holling's Bar is also a good example.
155	* InsultToRocks: At one point, Maggie decides that calling Joel a moron would be "an insult to morons."
156	* ItsAlwaysSpring: The show does try to demonstrate that it's Alaska and there are true seasons... but filming in Washington a few months ahead of the intended airdate means that it's going to be sunnier and more colorful on Thanksgiving day that any real Alaskan town would probably be. (Autumn in Alaska typically ends in October.)
157	* KidFromTheFuture: In "Hello, I Love You," Shelly, who is overdue to give birth, meets [[spoiler:three young girls who are actually future versions of the daughter she's about to give birth to.]]
158	* LastNameBasis: Maggie and Joel pretty much always refer to each other as "Fleischman" and "O'Connell". [[spoiler:Even after they've slept together.]]
159	* LastSupperSteal: Chris experiences this in a dream sequence.
160	* LongLostRelative: Pretty much everyone in Cicely has a few of these:
161	** Chris's half-brother Bernard is one of the series' most notable recurring characters.
162	** Maurice has a [[spoiler:half-Korean son]].
163	** Holling has a [[spoiler:daughter who was conceived after he was told he was sterile]].
164	** Ed spends a few episodes looking for his biological father.
165	** Joel has a twin brother. [[spoiler:[[AllJustADream No, he doesn't.]]]]
166	* LotusEaterMachine: In one episode, Joel is back in New York, and everyone from Cicely is there. Ed's a hedge fund Wunderkind, and Maurice is just a bellhop.
167	[[/folder]]
168	[[folder:M-P]]
169	* MagicRealism: The show takes place in the real world, but there's something magical about Cicily. Storylines include dream sequences, a flying man, ghosts and Indian spirits, pheromones, and even a visit from Satan.
170	* MagicalNativeAmerican: A good portion of the MagicalRealism of the series is due to the influence of the local Native American tribe. Ed becomes a shaman in later seasons and puts this out into the forefront.
171	* MayDecemberRomance:
172	** Holling and Shelly. Funnily enough, he worries in one episode that he might outlive her. Men in Holling's family have, without exception, lived to get ''extremely'' old. It's implied Holling thinks of their relationship as a MayflyDecemberRomance.
173	** Chris mentions this trope by name in one episode, citing examples of this type of relationship in Hollywood.
174	** Shelly's own mother shows up in Cicely with a boyfriend who is barely older than Shelly.
175	* MeaningfulName: Holling Vincoeur runs the local bar; his surname is French for wine-heart, although nobody pronounces it very Frenchly.
176	* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Inverted. Ed Chigliak - MagicalNativeAmerican, artist, and {{Bishonen}}, hates computers until he realizes that ones and zeroes are just his people's view that the universe is made up of two things: Nothing, and everything.
177	* MisplacedRetribution: On Joel's first Thanksgiving in Cicily, he's shocked when local Native Americans throw tomatoes at him as part of their tradition of pelting local whites for the atrocities of their ancestors. Joel is quick to point out that his Jewish ancestors arrived in America well after colonial expansion and were never in any position to exploit Native Americans. Once word spreads in the Native American community, they exclude him from pelting.
178	* MistakenForGay: This happens to Maurice when he sells a home to a gay couple, due to his of love cooking and showtunes. Leads to a HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday scene.
179	* MoralGuardians: Sort of inverted in the episode "Northern Hospitality". A resident is DrivenToSuicide and leaves a note saying that the song "Pencil-Necked Geek" that Chris broadcast on the radio was what convinced him to do it. Chris immediately takes it upon himself to remove anything that could be remotely construed as angry or depressing from his playlist, which leads many of the townspeople to complain that the station is now quite boring, and that the music shouldn't be blamed for the suicide.
180	* MortalityPhobia: Inverted. Chris's father and grandfather both died by the age of 40, so he figures that he will too -- so he tends to do risky things, like take out loans and not pay them off. But then Joel diagnoses him with high blood pressure and gives him medication, stating that his father & grandfather probably had it too. Now that Chris is given a chance at a long life, he starts toning down his risky behavior.
181	* MountainMan: Recurring character Walt, a trapper in his mid-60s who becomes a love interest for Ruth-Anne.
182	* MusicalEpisode: "Old Tree" is like this, but only for "Shelly". It's apparently a side effect of [[spoiler:her pregnancy]]. Holling joins her for a duet near the end of the episode.
183	* TheNarrator: Chris' radio commentary sometimes serves as this.
184	* NeedAHandOrAHandjob: Inverted in the first episode, where Joel mistakenly believes Maggie to be a prostitute based on her offers to help. She does not react well to this, of course.
185	-->'''Maggie''': I'm not a hooker, you jerk. ''I'm your '''landlord'''.''
186	* TheNightThatNeverEnds: Happens in "Northern Lights", which is sort of the inverse of the EndlessDaytime episode mentioned above. Though the sun is still up for about an hour each day, which is true in many locations just north of the Arctic Circle.
187	* NoControlGroup: The Episode "The Robe" averts this. When the inhabitants of Cicely sign up for a medical trial, there ''is'' a control group, and much of the episode consists of Maurice seeking assurance that ''obviously'' the most important man in town wouldn't be given a placebo, and Joel vainly attempting to explain "randomized" and "double blind" to him.
188	* NoodleIncident: Maggie's first boyfriend was apparently killed by potato salad.
189	* NoPartyLikeADonnerParty: In "A Cup of Joe", Holling and Ruth-Anne discover that their grandfathers were both prospectors back in the gold rush days, and that one had to resort to eating the other's body when they got snowed in one winter.
190	* NotSoImaginaryFriend: Adam, originally.
191	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The health inspector who threatens to shut down Holling's bar. [[AffablyEvil At least he's polite about it.]]
192	* TheOner: a rather memorable one occurs in "Get Real." The scene begins with Joel in his truck; the camera is clamped to the door of the truck looking at Joel through the driver's side window. He offers Enrico Belotti (The Flying Man) a ride into town. When Mr. Belotti declines the offer, Joel drives off, drilling himself in preparation for his internal medicine Board exams as he goes. When he gets to town, there's Mr. Belotti waiting for him by the side of the road, looking like he's been through some vigorous exercise -- and Joel realizes that they don't call Mr. Belotti "The Flying Man" for nothing.
193	* OneSteveLimit: There are two different characters named Amy who are both GoodWithNumbers: Chris's AnimalLover GirlOfTheWeek in Season 4 (a mathematician student out to make new discoveries about pi) and an [=IRS=] agent who audits and befriends Ruth-Anne in Season 5.
194	* OneWordTitle:
195	** ''Pilot''.
196	** ''Roots''.
197	** ''Cicely''.
198	** ''Heroes''.
199	** ''Thanksgiving''.
200	** ''Revelations''.
201	** ''Duets''.
202	** ''Homesick''.
203	** ''Rosebud''.
204	** ''Zarya''.
205	** ''Realpolitik''.
206	** ''Horns''.
207	** ''Balls''.
208	* {{Otaku}}: Ed. More attractive than most, and less socially awkward, but he still gets into film themes.
209	* ParentalSubstitute: Maurice is a bit of a domineering father figure in Ed's life, while Ruth-Anne is the gentler mother figure. This leads to Ed being caught in the middle in Season 4 when Ruth-Anne buys her store from Maurice and [[LikeAnOldMarriedCouple the two get into a terrible argument about it]], both of them trying to manipulate Ed into quitting working for the other.
210	* ParentsForADay: An off-screen woman leaves her child in Joel's waiting room. The townspeople try to take turns caring for the child, with varying results. At the end of the episode, Marilyn hands the baby back to the mother, who has second thoughts about the abandonment.
211	* ThePhilosopher: Chris frequently waxes philosophic over the airwaves, [[ConversationalTroping often name-checking various tropes in the process]].
212	* PokeThePoodle: Satan visits Cicily and reveals that, with all the atrocities going on in the world, humanity already has big-time evil covered, so he's content to convince good people to make small concessions in their morality.
213	* PlayingCyrano: In "War and Peace," Chris ghostwrites Ed's love letters to his crush White Feather.
214	* PlotParallel: Most episodes.
215	* PrettyBoy: Ed. And Chris in the Morning, a rare scruffy version of this type.
216	* PromotedToOpeningTitles: Elaine Miles (Marilyn) and Peg Phillips (Ruth-Anne) in Season 4. They were mostly {{satellite character}}s in the earlier seasons, but somewhere around Season 3 more of the storylines began to center on them.
217	** Teri Polo and Paul Provenza get this treatment later in Season 6, after being credited as guests for several episodes.
218	* PutOnABus: Mike Monroe, literally.
219	[[/folder]]
220	[[folder:Q-T]]
221	* TheQuietOne: Marilyn. Especially in situations where Joel would find it helpful for her to be more verbose.
222	** Of special note is her testimony at Chris's trial:
223	--> '''Marilyn''': I like him.
224	--> '''Mike Monroe''': Do you have anything to add?
225	--> '''Marilyn''': ''(thinks for a bit)'' No.
226	** Also of note is her reaction to finding Joel in his office, after he's been missing for several days and has his wrists shackled:
227	--> '''Marilyn''': Your sterile sponges arrived.
228	* QuirkyTown: Some are more understated than others, but there is nobody in Cicily that could be considered completely normal. Even "stable" people like Ruth Ann or Holling have their odder moments.
229	* {{Racist Grand\|ma}}pa: Maurice, though he isn't as crotchety about this as many characters who fit the trope. He's reasonably tolerant himself, but his speech often reflects a belief that whites are superior. [[spoiler:This is especially troublesome for him when he learns that he has a half-Korean son.]]
230	* RaisedByNatives: Ed.
231	* RashomonStyle: The first time Holling met Shelly (who was dating his friend Maurice at the time) is retold in three different flashbacks. Holling remembers himself being polite to Shelly but only beginning to fall for her after she smiled at him for helping her open a bottle while Maurice was busy. Maurice remembers Holling leering at Shelly from the start and pushing past Maurice to open the bottle for her. Shelly remembers Dave, the dorky counter man, opening the bottle for her while Holling and Maurice were busy and says she and Holling only fell in love at a later meeting.
232	* ReallyGetsAround:
233	** Rick. After [[spoiler:he dies]], he tells Maggie in a dream sequence that he's slept with ''2,500 women''.
234	** Chris gets his fair share as well. Pheremones might have something to do with it.
235	--->''I'm the teflon kid. Dozens of chicks, nothing sticks.''
236	* RaisedByNatives: Ed is a founding adopted by a native tribe.
237	* RashomonStyle: The first time Holling met Shelly (who was dating his friend Maurice at the time) is retold in three different flashbacks. Holling remembers himself being polite to Shelly but only beginning to fall for her after she smiled at him for helping her open a bottle while Maurice was busy. Maurice remembers Holling leering at Shelly from the start and pushing past Maurice to open the bottle for her. Shelly remembers Dave, the dorky counter man, opening the bottle for her while Holling and Maurice were busy and says she and Holling only fell in love at a later meeting.
238	* TheRemnant:
239	** "The Quest" features a hermit soldier who took part in Japan's conquest of the Aleutian Islands and came back to act like a Japanese holdout in his retirement.
240	** The WholeEpisodeFlashback "Zarya" features Princess Anastasia of Russia, who survived the Revolution in secret and is living in secret in an Alaskan colony with a handful of soldiers, a cabinet minister, a priest, and a few servants, while warily conducting peace negotiations with UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin.
241	* RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear: Often averted when characters are speaking in foreign languages, and characters unfamiliar with the language have to stumble through as best they can, just like the audience does. But played somewhat straight when Marilyn dates a man who only communicates via sign language. It's probably the most dialogue Marilyn has had in any episode up until that point.
242	* ReReleaseSoundtrack: The home release had the soundtrack replaced. Because the show involves a DJ at a radio station playing commercial music appropriate to the situation or character, a lot of the original intent is lost in the home release version.
243	* {{Robinsonade}}: Joel and Maggie get to do this for an episode after Maggie's plane goes down in the vast Alaskan wilderness.
244	* SarcasmBlind: Ed.
245	--> '''Joel''': Just come on in, Ed. Don't bother knocking.
246	--> '''Ed''': Okay.
247	* {{Satan}}: In "The Robe", Satan comes to Cicely as a short, wimply little man played by Creator/CharlesMartinSmith (Toad from ''Film/AmericanGraffiti''). With the world already in shambles due to war and ethnic cleansing, Satan now amuses himself by tempting good people into making very small concessions of morality. He offers Shelly a more glamorous life if she will only burn her husband's favorite sweater, but she refuses.
248	* SceneryPorn: The gorgeous Alaskan mountains, forests, and prairies make for frequent striking background shots.
249	* SecretRelationship: Joel and Maggie finally go to bed together, and after keeping it secret for about forty-five minutes they can't stand the subterfuge anymore and actually announce it to everyone in Roslyn's Cafe. Nobody cares.
250	* SeverelySpecializedStore: In one episode, Shelly is interested in going to the Mall of America; she mentions that they have a whole store that's just socks.
251	* ShareTheMalePain: Chris in the Morning announces over the radio that Holling is considering circumcision. Ed says only, "Ow."
252	* ShoeSizeAngst: One episode had a subplot about Shelly's embarassment over her unusually large feet, brought on by having to buy new shoes. This was apparently inspired by the actor, Cynthia Geary, herself having those feelings.
253	* ShoutOut: Chris' radio monolouges are shot through with literary and philosophical references. In addition:
254	** Ed finds [[LampshadeHanging a ring]] from Creator/FedericoFellini and starts seeing the world in Fellini imagery.
255	** "The Russian Flu" ends with Holling, Joel, and Elaine doing an extended ''Series/TwinPeaks'' riff.
256	** Joel's reaction to the DearJohnLetter from his fiancee Elaine is straight out of ''Film/TheGraduate.''
257	** In "Kaddish For Uncle Manny", the townsfolk are trying to find other Jews in Alaska. Joel has a dream that these Jews approach him on horseback, like in an old Western. Two of them are named [[Creator/TheCoenBrothers Joel and Ethan Coen]].
258	** "War and Peace" borrows the singing Russian visitor subplot from ''Film/LocalHero.''
259	*** On a more general level, Cicely, Alaska bears [[SpiritualSuccessor a certain resemblance]] to Furness, Scotland.
260	** "Joel et Jules" ends with an homage to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz.''
261	** One of Cicely's lesbian founders is named Rosalyn -- after the town in Washington state where the show's exterior scenes were filmed.
262	* ShownTheirWork: One of the few shows to put consistent effort into a realistic portrayal of Native Americans, specifically Tlingits.
263	* SiegeEngines: Chris builds a trebuchet, called the Fling, for an art project. He initially plans to fling a cow; when Ed tells him that Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail already did it, he instead flings Maggie's fire-damaged piano.
264	* TheSilentBob: Marilyn.
265	** Enrico Belotti, "The Flying Man" who arrives in Cicely with the circus. Communicating only in sign language, he makes Marilyn (who happens to be the object of his affection) seem rather talkative in comparison. [[spoiler:He does actually speak to Marilyn in his second appearance, though he still prefers not to do it unless he has something extremely important to say.]] Oh, and yes, he really can fly.
266	* SlapSlapKiss: You can probably see this coming from a mile away in the episode that begins with Maggie punching Joel in the nose. Despite being dared to hit her back, Joel retaliates in the form of legal action... [[EscalatingWar and it just gets worse from there]] until [[spoiler:a fight at the climax of the episode turns into a literal roll in the hay]].
267	* SliceOfLife: A defining trait of the series. Most plots arise from the mundane minutiae of life in Cicely than those that are based on obviously massive, life-changing events.
268	* SmallNameBigEgo: Maurice. The man went into space once and now he believes himself to be an American institution. It doesn't help that he seems to own most of the town.
269	* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: Maurice tries to pull this on Bernard when he takes offense at being told, "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace You don't sound black.]]" Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work too well.
270	* SpaghettiAndGondolas: The show attempts to explore Dr. Capra's Italian heritage when he discovers that Cicely has a "Little Italy". He quickly gets swept into a family feud based on a rather trivial offense from years past.
271	* SpiritAdvisor: One Who Waits
272	* SpiritualSuccessor: to ''Film/LocalHero,'' another FishOutOfWater story with {{magical realis\|m}}t elements where an urban professional played by a Jewish actor is sent to a rural QuirkyTown full of EccentricTownsfolk.
273	* TheStoic: Marilyn never betrays emotion.
274	* StrawFeminist: Maggie started out as a strong, independent woman, but she degenerated in later seasons into a caricature.
275	** All of the women in the town become this for a day when Maggie decides to defiantly give the boot to Maurice and the men he's hired to dig up some Indian artifacts that were discovered in her front yard.
276	* StudentDebtPlot: The protagonist Fleischer is forced to work in Alaska for four years due to his student debt to the state, who paid his way through med school. This results in him getting assigned to Cicely, which he initially despises, and the series is born.
277	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute:
278	** To be fair, Dr. Capra was a very different character and the focus of the show had already widened to the point that no one character was integral to the series.
279	** Interestingly, in Phil's second episode, he and Joel play a round of golf together, which serves to illustrate how much Joel has changed since the beginning of the series while Phil now takes on the FishOutOfWater role occupied by Joel earlier in the series.
280	** Later in Season 6, [[spoiler:Chris seems to get set up as one of these in the shipping department, since Joel's departure has left Maggie without a love interest and Dr. Capra is, well, married.]]
281	** A minor example happens in Season 5, when Dave, a recurring character who works at Holling's bar, gets replaced by Eugene [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome without explanation]].
282	* TelevisionGeography: Cicely is a little like many places in Alaska, but nowhere in Alaska is like Cicely. Judging by [[http://home.comcast.net/~mcnotes/AltFAQ.html#2f the clues]], the town seems to be located just up the Alcan Highway from [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Springfield]].
283	** It was inspired by the real town of Talkeetna, Alaska though, about two hours north of Anchorage. Sadly, the town is now a tourist trap.
284	** A pretty big clue that they were being intentionally cagey with the geography is the repeated references to the nearest town being Sleetmute, which is apparently over 200 miles away by road. In real life, Sleetmute is completely off the road system.
285	* TerraDeforming: Maurice Minnifield sees Alaska as just a huge opportunity for business.
286	* TerrifiedOfGerms: Mike Monroe, introduced in season 4, is so hyper-sensitive to compound chemicals that he can sense them in the atmosphere from hundreds of miles away. When we first meet the character, he lives in a hermetically sealed geodesic dome and never ventures outside. Maggie gradually coaxes him into venturing out a bit more.
287	* TimeShiftedActor: Creator/TaraSubkoff plays 15-year-old version of Maggie in "The Letter".
288	* TitleByNumber: ''Grosse Point, 48230'' and ''Three Doctors''.
289	* TookALevelInBadass: Joel, in his final season, went out from a clean-cut irritable FishOutOfWater to a grizzled Zen master survivalist.
290	* TrollBridge: in the magical realist sequence in "The Quest," when Fleischman leaves the show.
291	* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: In-universe, folks often react this way to Chris's various art exhibits. Often Chris himself doesn't even understand what he's building.
292	* {{Tsundere}}: Maggie is definitely Type 1.
293	* TwinSwitch: In one episode, [[spoiler:Joel Fleischman]]'s twin brother [[spoiler:Jules]] shows up in Cicely. Let's just say [[FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling he's a bit more laid back than his brother]]. He gradually persuades his brother to switch places with him for a day, during which HilarityEnsues on both ends. We've conveniently never heard of him before ([[spoiler:and as it turns out, neither has Joel, because it was AllJustADream]]).
294	* TwoLinesNoWaiting: Aside from the pilot, all episodes had two, three or four plots.
295	[[/folder]]
296	[[folder:U-Z]]
297	* UncannyValley: In-universe. A wax replica of Maurice has this effect on people, and it starts to become the butt of their jokes until Maurice decides he can't stand it any more.
298	* UnconventionalCourtroomTactics: Mike Monroe, completely out of his depth when acting as Chris's attorney, makes a desperate defence on the grounds of identity - that Chris has changed so much since committing the crime that he was no longer the same person. It would have failed immediately, except that the prosecution's paperwork was so shoddy that it took them several days to actually prove that they had the right person on trial, buying Chris's case some time.
299	* UndignifiedDeath: Rick, Maggie's boyfriend, is killed when a satellite falls from the sky and lands on him. It fuses with his body to the point that it can't be removed so a coffin has to be specially made to allow parts of the satellite to protrude from it. The sight of this causes the guests at his funeral to erupt with laughter while Maggie vainly reminds them that a man is dead.
300	* UnfortunateNames: In-universe example: In one episode, Joel is listing strains of flu, and when he says "Russian flu", everyone immediately thinks [[WindmillPolitical the Soviets sent the flu across the Bering Strait to them]] and end of the Cold War was a hoax.
301	* UniversalAdaptorCast: Seen in two episodes where Cicely's history is explored, as well as the premiere of Season 6, where Joel experiences a vision of how his life might have turned out had he stayed in New York City.
302	* TheUnsolvedMystery:
303	** In "All is Vanity", a man who no one in the small town knows drops dead of natural causes in Joel's waiting room, and the episode ends with it remaining unknown who he was or what he was doing in either Cicely or the waiting room.
304	** In "The Mystery of the Old Curio Shop," Joel convinces Maggie that she's a WindmillCrusader in thinking some shopkeepers are criminals and explains most of their odd behavior, but it isn't shown exactly why they outright lied to Maggie about having never had a statuette like the one she tried to buy earlier. It's also never revealed who stole two nitrous oxide tanks from the dentist (in a notoriously crime-free town) or why.
305	* VikingFuneral: Chris uses his trebuchet to give his old friend Tooley a metaphorical Viking funeral -- one final Fling for the world's greatest party animal.
306	* VisionsOfAnotherSelf: The residents of 1909 Cicely in the {{Flashback}} to the town's founding: Maurice becomes the ruthless crime-boss Mace Mobrey; Maggie is the stong-willed missionary Mary O'Keefe; Chris's counterpart is the philosophical gunfighter Kit; and Ed is Ned, the old man telling Joel the story. Joel himself? His counterpart is Creator/FranzKafka!
307	** They revisited this past period in a later episode, only recasting Joel as a personal physician to Lenin and Maggie as a handmaiden to Anastasia. According to the story, Anastasia had agreed to emerge from hiding to meet with Lenin about possibly returning to the Soviet Union.
308	* VitriolicBestBuds:
309	** Maurice and Holling, [[LoveTriangle frequently over Shelly]].
310	** Joel and Maggie, arguably.
311	* WaterSourceTampering: Maurice taps into an underground water source and starts bottling and selling the water. Everyone who drinks it begins displaying a number of [[GenderInvertedTrope Gender-Inverted Tropes]].
312	* WeSellEverything: The general store seems to have everything (so long as Joel isn't looking for something New York-ish). "Left-handed noodle strainer? Let me look in the back.".
313	* WeWantOurJerkBack: Joel begs Maggie to go back to being mean to him in an episode where her attempts to be kind inadvertently end up injuring him.
314	* WhamLine: Late in season one, an old flame of Shelly's visits town, talking about how he's marrying her old best friend, and then drops a line that casts Shelly's relationships with Holling and Maurice [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery in a different light]] and temporarily damages her relationship with the honor-minded Holling.
315	--> '''Wayne''' I can't very well marry Cyndy 'till I first divorce you.
316	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Episodes often end this way -- a character will get into some sort of situation which won't really resolve itself, with the narrative resolution coming instead from the character learning something about him/herself or others.
317	** A good example is Maggie playing ''Franchise/NancyDrew'' in "The Mystery of the Old Curio Shop". The episode never actually tells us what the deal was with the couple running that curio shop.
318	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: All right, it's in Alaska. But fan discussions pointed out that there can not possibly be anywhere in the state with ALL the characteristics which have been indicated in-episode.
319	* WildWilderness: Alaska!
320	* WelcomeEpisode: Joel gets an unexpected and confusing welcome to Alaska in the pilot.
321	* WretchedHive: Sleetmute, judging from the way characters occasionally describe it in comparison to Cicely.
322	* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in one episode when Joel finds out that the local Indian tribe has adopted several Yiddish words and phrases into their native language, due to the influence of a 19th Century Jewish doctor who joined the tribe and became one of their heroes. When the ''very'' Jewish Dr. Fleischman starts casually using Yiddish with the local Indians in an attempt to connect with them, he's told (by them) to knock it off because he sounds like a poser.
323	* YouDidntAsk: Marilyn has a habit of being as vague as possible when others need information from her. Ask her if she knows why the [[HilarityEnsues wacky hijinks]] of the week are taking place in Joel's waiting room, the town, or just in Alaska in general, and she'll probably just respond "Yes".
324	** YouDoNotWantToKnow: Marilyn's response when Joel asks what the tribal flu remedy "Hio Hio Ipsanio" is made of.
325	[[/folder]]

Context Series / NorthernExposure