Why did Morrow want out of his Northern Exposure contract? - Northern Exposure (1990) Discussion

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] MeganCraft 11 years ago

He wanted more money due to the success of the show. Since he didn't get it, he figured he could do just as good or better doing movies. So he left.

In the end, there was no show without him and they knew it. That's why it failed.

I agree the show became noticeably different once they had to shift the focus to something other than they had planned in the beginning. Basically, the show was retelling of Alice in Wonderland, and then they were forced remove Alice from story, leaving the show with just a odd collection of characters, but nothing to really contrast them against. Joel was odd as well in his nitpicky ways, but he was the one character that the audience could identify with.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] dijomaja-382-516639 11 years ago

"...taking out Felix Happer from the Scottish village in Local Hero."

Actually, Happer's as crazy as the locals. He fits right in. The "fish out of water" in LH is Mac.

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[–] Chaophim 10 years ago

Joel did well in the early seasons, serving as what would best be termed as a 'viewer's proxy', something akin to the 'reader proxy' in books.

Alaska itself, as well as Cicily, was an alien place filled with customs and phenomenon that, for the residents, were run-of-the-mill but, for Joel and the TV audience, they were new and strange and so, by explaining them to Joel, the people would be able to explain it to the audience via him.

I mean, there's only one "Spring Break" episode...after that, Joel is acclimated, so there's no mentioning it again. There's only one episode of the 'midnight sun', etc., Yes, Joel could have still developed as a person but the more 'native' he went, the less he served as a proxy.

Unfortunately this leads to the "Joel's replacement" not being able to serve as a proxy" problem, no matter who replaced them. By the end of Joel's run, there were no new (big) "Oh, this happens every year, we just never showed Joel asking about it" events or phenomenon, so it really didn't matter if Joel stayed or left - the show, itself, was running out of steam.

Of course, this is all just my opinion.

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[–] darryl-tahirali 10 years ago

Unfortunately this leads to the "Joel's replacement" not being able to serve as a proxy" problem, no matter who replaced them. By the end of Joel's run, there were no new (big) "Oh, this happens every year, we just never showed Joel asking about it" events or phenomenon, so it really didn't matter if Joel stayed or left - the show, itself, was running out of steam. - gutter_r

Not necessarily. One of Joel's replacements, Phil Capra, gave the show an excuse to teach us about "cotillion," in the penultimate episode, no less ("Let's Dance").

When Phil's manners prove to be so remiss that he must take Marilyn's cotillion class, we get to learn that on the frontier good manners are essential not just to civility but to survival. This never came up when Joel--whiny, pouting, self-absorbed Joel--was in town?

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"Man becomes the food of the divinity he worships." - Chris Stevens

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[–] standfan 11 years ago

I agree money was no doubt part of it - maybe even the main focus. However, Morrow did state that he felt that there was no growth for the character. In other words, that the character remained without growth from episode to episode. NX actors were apparently never to deviate from the shooting script, too. (their suggestions were apparently never considered)

I really think the show fell apart for other reasons, too. The addition of David Chase as showrunner being noteworthy. There's a big difference between the material that Brand/Falsey were behind, versus David.

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[–] dijomaja-382-516639 11 years ago

"I really think the show fell apart for other reasons, too. The addition of David Chase as showrunner being noteworthy. There's a big difference between the material that Brand/Falsey were behind, versus David."

My wife and I were big fans of the original show. After a few years we stopped watching, attributing the change to our changing taste or maybe some fatigue or loss of spark in the writing. When I came back to the DVDs a few years ago and started looking in on this board, Moosechick's notes, etc., I realized that our loss of interest in the show coincided with Chase's takeover. A related search turned up comments from Chase in which he admitted to "hating" the show. He went on to success with his Mafia show and I know there are NX fans who still like the "Chase years" but, for me, the show ended when he took over.

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[–] standfan 11 years ago

I think there's a tendency in audiences to knee-jerk blame the actors for the problems with the show, as these are the faces that we see on the screen. Sometimes we will even see a character behave in a new yet unwanted or undesirable way - or we will see the stories suddenly shift in quality, and sometimes we will blame the actor for it, when often it has much to do with the writing and the people behind the camera.

Edit; Darren Burrows is apparently in the process of writing a book detailing what it was that really dragged the show down, and apparently it has something to do with the higher ups at the network.

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[–] MrBook_ 11 years ago

Yeah, Chase is a genius when he's doing something he cares about, but he clearly wasn't the right fit for this show. There are some definite gems from his period of running the show, but generally speaking it was just not the same show once Brand and Falsey left.

_______Patriotism swells in the heart of the American bear.

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[–] RoIn100 11 years ago

"NX actors were apparently never to deviate from the shooting script, too. (their suggestions were apparently never considered)"

Not entirely true. Peg Phillips, who played Ruth-Anne, had little to go on with background on her character and wrote a biography of Ruth-Anee and gave it to the writers who liked it enough that they used much of it in the scene in which Ruth-Anne takes a despondent Maggie home after Maggie has learned that the late Rick had been cheating on her. That marked the moment when Ruth-Anne began the transition from minor character to major one.

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[–] snazzydetritus (44) 2 years ago

"NX actors were apparently never to deviate from the shooting script, too. (their suggestions were apparently never considered)"

Source for this statement please?

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[–] RadicalEd26 11 years ago

See Shelly Long

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[–] ColinInLa 10 years ago

See McLean Stevenson

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Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

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[–] josh_w_richards 9 years ago

Except Morrow actually had success after leaving. Nobody ever heard from Long or Stevenson again.

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[–] HiFiAudioGuy 8 years ago

He worked but I wouldn't say he had success like he did with Quiz Show. Real success didn't come until Numb3rs.

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[–] mistermycroft 8 years ago

He did the same thing that David Caruso did when he left NYPD Blue in 1994. he thought he'd be a big movie star, but that did not occur

Caruso came back to TV within a few years' time with Michael Hayes and then CSI MIAMI

Same thing with Morrow. After a few films, he came back with Numb3rs. He was also on that legal drama "The Whole Truth" but it only lasted a half year on ABC

He never became the big movie star he wanted to be

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[–] rockmail 8 years ago

The thing is, is an actor doesn't make the leap, no one is going to do it for them.

See Robin Williams

See Tom Hanks

See Steve McQueen

et al

No guarantees, but if you see that you're a valuable commodity, you either sell it for more when it's hot, or you settle in for a lower level burn. Which is fine too.

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[–] RoIn100 11 years ago

Another factor, as I recall, was that in the beginning the idea was that the character of Joel was going to be the focal point of the show, but it quickly emerged as an ensemble show in which the town was the star of the show and he was unhappy with that development.

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[–] eljimster 11 years ago

I only discovered this show recently and it's wonderful.. I love most of the characters, but without Joel there is no Northern Exposure as far as I'm concerned. He was the glue that held the show together, his reactions to the odd things Cicillians take as normal, were our window into the show. And when he was replaced by the new doctor, it just wasn't going to work.. Quite sad how they finished it even though it ended so long ago, but it's all fresh to me and has aged well imho.

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[–] nephihaha 11 years ago

Art imitates life, after all, wasn't Joel locked into a contract for several years?

I think he was either afraid of being typecast, or he felt he didn't get enough money. Or both.

I haven't seen him in much else. IN fact, I can only vaguely remember him in one other film, which is a shame since he's not a bad actor.

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It's not "Sci-Fi", it's SF!

"Calvinism is a very liberal religious ethos." - Truekiwijoker

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[–] darryl-tahirali 11 years ago

I haven't seen him in much else. IN fact, I can only vaguely remember him in one other film, which is a shame since he's not a bad actor. - nephihaha

Rob Morrow starred for six seasons as FBI agent Don Eppes on the CBS crime drama Numb3rs, which also starred David Krumholtx and Judd Hirsch. Morrow's character was a straightforward agent who relied on his math-genius brother Charlie (Krumholtz) for trickier, off-the-wall analysis. Hirsch played their father.

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"I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now." - Bob Dylan

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[–] ColinInLa 10 years ago

Morrow also did two seasons on Street Time, a series that aired on Showtime. Morrow's done very well for himself.
You can take a look at the beautiful home he shares with his wife in LA:
http://www.architecturaldigest.com/celebrity-homes/2010/rob-morrow-debbon-ayer-los-angeles-home-slideshow

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Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

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[–] darryl-tahirali 10 years ago

Morrow also did two seasons on Street Time, a series that aired on Showtime. Morrow's done very well for himself. - ColinInLa

Thanks for the info!

Rob Morrow's wife is named Debbon Ayer ("debonaire")? No wonder they named their daughter Tu, as Tu Morrow. No doubt she'll get the title role in Annie some day.

Morrow is also in the current Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?, the third actor to play Hank Rearden in the Ayn Rand saga as, for the third time, an entirely new cast portrays the same characters who appeared in the previous two films. Puts the two Darrens in Bewitched to shame.

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History is hard to know, because of all the hired bull$hit. - Hunter S. Thompson

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[–] nephihaha 9 years ago

I don't think Numbers has been shown over here. Never seen either of these programmes.

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[–] GuyOnTheLeft 8 years ago

Street Time was such a great show, and it's so frustrating that it's not on DVD or streaming.

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My top 250: http://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?user=SlackerInc&perpage=250

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[–] MeganCraft 11 years ago

Art imitates life, after all, wasn't Joel locked into a contract for several years?

I think he was either afraid of being typecast, or he felt he didn't get enough money. Or both.

I haven't seen him in much else. IN fact, I can only vaguely remember him in one other film, which is a shame since he's not a bad actor.

Does seem like he identified with character a little too much.

He was in Numbers, which ran for several seasons on CBS.

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[–] inconsequentia-1 11 years ago

let us not forget "quiz show"

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[–] MeganCraft 11 years ago

let us not forget "quiz show"

Yes, and from what I recall reading back in the mid 90s. It was his work on Quiz Show that had a direct impact on his decision to leave NE. What I vaguely remember it was that working with Redford; During production of Quiz show Reford allowed the actors to take a lot of time to perfect each scene. On NE, scenes were shot at a very fast pace, even though the scenes could have been much better given more time. To Morrow NE felt like factory work; shoot the scene as fast as possible and let the editors fix things later. Overall he simply didn't like how the producers ran things and\or simply didn't like TV acting.

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[–] TracesOfLove 11 years ago

Quiz Show was a great movie! It's a shame there wasn't more films like it. I would've loved a bunch of Redford/Morrow films that really showed the truth like that.

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[–] standfan 10 years ago

Darren Burrows goes into a lot of detail about the dissatisfaction of the situation with the actors on NX in a recent book/dvd combo he released about a year or so ago. In short, The NX actors were severely underpaid in comparison to other actors on hit network television shows. According to Darren, they were also not treated with kindness by the execs in L.A. (the crew in Washington were generally very supportive). Morrows problem with the show was primarily about pay, but it also extended to the growth of Joel Fleishman, which Brand/Falsey absolutely did not want. It was only when Brand/Falsey left the show for good that Joel began to grow as a character, but by that point the shows creative juices were rapidly vanishing.

Again, Rob Morrow was not the only one on the show to be dissatisfied with working on it.

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[–] 8 years ago

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[–] eyebrowmorroco 10 years ago

Life imitating art

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[–] !!!deleted!!! (46827070) 9 years ago

Rob Morrow/Joel has the most annoying/awful voice I've ever heard in my life, so its a blessing that the show was able to disinfect itself from him for a few episodes.

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