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Northern Exposure Season 5, Episode 18 - Fish Story 

Also in this episode, two great cameos by all time "that guy" actors. First, classic Jew actor Jerry Adler. A pro's pro, Adler is THE go-to guy fo Hollywood when they need to cast an older Jew. 

And joining him, Mickey Jones playing Toolie, one of the Diablo bike gang guys. One of the all-time greats in terms of guest roles, Mickey is the guy Hollywood goes to when they need a threatening-looking biker tough-guy. In this episode he even gets to show a little comic range...

They may not be stars but goddamn have these two men worked a lot. 

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Northern Exposure Season 5, Episode 18 - Fish Story 

Feeling burnt out on her life as a small-town general store operator, Ruth-Anne (Peg Phillips) steals Chris' Shovelhead Harley and heads out to the open round. At a roadside bar she joins up with the Diablos, a seemingly tough-guy biker outfit that proves itself anything but. 

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Northern Exposure Season 5, Episode 18 - Fish Story

Nothing like starting off an episode with three straight weed references. First Chris (John Corbett), clearly blazed, is jonesing for some munchies. With his preferred salt and vinegar potato chips sold out, he opts to go with the STONED Wheat Thins instead. And then, while fishing, Dr Fleischman admits he's "caught on those weeds again."

You don't fool me Northern Exposure.

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Northern Exposure Season 5, Episode 11 - Baby Blues

Hey look at what we have here, young master Donal Logue, the king of the failed television show, whose latest, the criminally unwatched Terriers was actually really good. Here he plays Judd Bromell a Hollywood agent who signs on Ed Chigliak (Darren Burrows) only to subsequently get eaten by a pack of feral dogs. You know. As one does. 

We also have Regina King, better known to me as Will Smith's wife in Enemy of the State or as the roommate in Higher Learning. She plays Mother Nature during Shelly's hallucinatory dream about motherhood. Again. As one does. 

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Northern Exposure Season 5, Episode 8 - Heal Thyself 

Oh that? That's just the manifestation of Ed Chigliac's (Darren Burrows) anxiety and feelings of inadequacy, represented by a poorly made-up midget in green paint with weird early CGI lightning-bolts in his hair.   

Obviously. 

Little Green Man: I want to fill your life with fear, anxiety, misgivings, the whole 9-course meal. And speaking of which, how about fish sticks tonight?

How very Twin Peaks.

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Northern Exposure Season 5, Episode 6 - Birds of a Feather

You Can't Do that on Television! Well, you can't say it at least, not any more. The halcyon days of the 90s are long gone.

After Holling Vincoeur (John Cullum) tells everyone in his bar he doesn't like sports, he knows his 21-year-old bride Shelly (Cynthia Geary) is going to be disappointed.

He probably didn't expect to be told he came out of the closet, or be told he's "pussy about sports," but hey, Alaskan living is harder.

Shelly's dialogue is always brilliant by the way.

(Pooper is what she calls her unborn baby)

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Northern Exposure Season 5, Episode 4 - Altered Egos  

A baby-faced Jack Black as Kevin Wilkins: high school senior (one of only three students in the class) and captain of the Cicely School fly-fishing team. Here he's asking Maggie O'Connell to be the Homecoming Queen to his King because all the girls in school are ugly. Maggie thinks he wants to bang her.   

We also learn that the school's mascot is the Marmot, but peep the fish patch on the letterman jacket.  

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Fun Northern Exposure Fact

Fresh off the forgettable series Almost Grown and I'll Fly Away, the future creator of The Sopranos, David Chase, takes over in season 5 as the Executive Producer through the end of the series.  It is on Northern Exposure that Chase begins his long-term working relationship with the husband/wife team of Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green—she also wrote one episode of Almost Grown. Combined, the pair wrote over 90 episodes of the mob drama. On Northern Exposure, Burgess and Green wrote another 45 episodes between them and Green also served as a producer. Neat! 

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First up: Northern Exposure, the story of a nebbishy Jewish doctor (Rob Morrow) who is forced to work in the backwoods of Alaska to pay off his medical school debt. 

We pick up here in the beginning of the 5th season.

Featuring the always excellent Barry Corbin, John Corbett and Janine Turner