If You Miss ‘Northern Exposure,’ Watch These 9 TV Shows
This July 26 marks 30 years since Northern Exposure left the air… and we’d like to expose you to other TV shows in the same vein.
Created by St. Elsewhere’s Joshua Brand and John Falsey, Northern Exposure stars Rob Morrow as a New York City doc who heads to Alaska to get his student loans paid off. His Dr. Joel Fleischman realizes, however, that instead of being assigned to a hospital in Anchorage, he’ll have to pay his dues in the small town of Cicely (where he encounters many familiar faces).
The CBS comedy-drama aired six seasons between 1990 and 1995 and won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, and it finally started streaming (on Prime Video) last year. If you’ve seen every episode, though, take a look at the TV shows below, which all have similar premises.
Twin Peaks
Mountainous, northern setting? Small town full of eccentrics? Surreal elements? Check, check, and check. David Lynch’s game-changing drama follows an FBI agent traveling to the titular Pacific Northwest town to solve a murder, and the two shows share enough DNA that Northern Exposure even spoofed Twin Peaks in one episode.
Men in Trees
The late, great Anne Heche played another New Yorker facing unfamiliar territory in small-town Alaska in this comedy-drama. Her relationship-guru character finds a community in the 49th state where men outnumber women 10 to one (and one of those men is played by James Tupper, whom Heche ended up marrying).
Virgin River
If you prefer your big-city-protagonist-small-town-setting stories less quirky and more romantic, check out this hit drama, which is based on books by Robyn Carr. Alexandra Breckenridge plays a nurse practitioner who moves to a picturesque Northern California town to start a new job — and finds a new romantic prospect in Martin Henderson’s bartender character.
Schitt’s Creek
And if you prefer your big-city-protagonist-small-town-setting stories more quirky and more romantic, check out this hit comedy created by father and son Eugene and Dan Levy. They join Catherine O’Hara and Annie Murphy in a story of a one-percent family exiled to the unfortunately-named Canadian town of the title. And they’re surprised to discover that life there actually isn’t as Schitt-y as it seems.
Doc Martin
Across the pond, this fish-out-of-water comedy-drama entertained British audiences for nearly two decades. Martin Clunes plays Dr. Martin Ellingham, a buttoned-up and stuck-up London surgeon who adapts to his newfound fear of blood by becoming a small Cornish village’s new general practitioner. (FYI, Fox is developing an American adaptation, titled Best Medicine.)
Newhart
The Bob Newhart Show’s namesake comedian returned to television in this long-running sitcom. He and Mary Frann play a New York City couple that moves to a rural Vermont to operate a small town’s centuries-old inn. Expect a culture clash with the town’s unusual locals, and stay tuned for a headline-making crossover with Newhart’s prior self-titled sitcom. (Spoilery details here.)
Resident Alien
In this comedy, Alan Tudyk’s title character isn’t just from out of town, he’s from out of this solar system. After crash-landing on Earth and killing the town doctor of Patience, Colorado, our alien protagonist assumes the doc’s appearance and job. But can he assume a human personality enough to pass muster with the townsfolk? Find out in one of the best TV shows about aliens living among us.
Eureka
Another sci-fi show — actually, one of our picks for the best Syfy shows — features Colin Ferguson playing a deputy U.S. marshal who becomes sheriff of a secret Pacific Northwest town filled with brilliant scientists working on experimental technology for the Department of Defense. Those local brainiacs have book smarts, yes, but not exactly street smarts, as the sheriff comes to learn.
Ed
Lawyers can be square pegs in round holes, too, as depicted in this Emmy-nominated comedy-drama. Tom Cavanagh (right, with Justin Long) plays a New York City lawyer who suddenly finds himself out of a job and out of a marriage. So he hangs a shingle in his hometown of Stuckeyville, Ohio, becoming a local attorney and bowling alley owner. Just don’t call him the “bowling alley lawyer”!
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