Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to c Sicily, Alaska, a Northern Exposure podcast. dont I'm Anne Flynn Terrell. I'm a cabaret performer and emcee. I'm Caleb Cohart. I'm a documentary and commercial filmmaker. I'm Amy Gerlick. I own and run a improv and sketch comedy theater in Denver, Colorado. This is a podcast where we talk about Northern Exposure and how it's affected our lives. And we have some amazing special guests.
Speaker: Hi, friends. I want to wish you luck for your new podcast, Northern Exposure Podcast. Welcome to Sicily, Alaska. I'm Barry Corbin and I played Maurice Minifield on the television series. And I want to tell you a little story. In the first episode, John Cullum and I had a scene where I was going to kill him.
Speaker: ah He played Holly, you remember. And he came and sat on the log beside me, and I had a knife. And I said, John, it is cold here. The sun's going down. Let's not look at each other during this scene. And he said, what do you mean? I said, if if we look at each other, they're going to have to cover it.
Speaker: If we don't look at each other and look across the lake, all we've got to do is do one shot." He said, done. So that's what we did. That was my introduction to John Cullen, the famous Broadway singing star. So welcome to Sicily, Alaska.
Speaker: I'm Chris Corbin and my dad played Maurice Minniefield on Northern Exposure. His name is Barry Corbin. And so from first to fifth grade, I lived in Bellevue and Redmond, Washington for school while they showed up.
Speaker: ah
Speaker: That's pretty cool. That's my connection. Nice. What was it like to be on set? um It was very fun. I'd go over there after school a lot and just hang out. A lot of times I'd hang out with the extras um or background artists, and they were mostly Native, and it was it was very fun to hang out in that area, to be hanging out in my dad's trailer. or most a lot of times I'd be hanging out at craft service and just fattening myself up because they would give you all the food you wanted if your dad's on the show. I remember we'd I'd go and hang out in the Hollings bar it because it was a stage. so There was a Hollings bar, there was my dad's house.
Speaker: ah And ah the radio station was one part of the stage. And so wherever they weren't shooting, you kind of hang out in like the other place. So I remember hanging out a lot at Hollings bar. And then at one point, I do remember stealing a lot of knives.
Speaker: from the wall of my dad's house because they, if you look at the wall, it's covered in like knives and and the log cabin. And I remember I stole like seven of them and hit him in his trailer. And then the prop people told on me and my brother and they they took them all back.
Speaker: We're obsessed with knives. Your dad's houses, the set. Did you keep or did he keep any of the props? That house is my favorite set piece in the entire series. I love the lamps with the beating. I love everything about it. Did you or he keep anything? I don't know if he was able to keep anything. I know he has like a NASA hat somewhere and he's got stuff, but I don't know if it's gifted stuff. Um, like there was a lot of tension on that set at the end. So I think it was hard to like, uh, probably take stuff back, uh, to cause he moved to Texas after that and I'm sure it wasn't the easiest thing. He may, he may have gotten a couple of things I'd have to ask him. Yeah. I'm curious, like early on,
Speaker: you know, in our podcast to date, we've gotten through the first two seasons and you can tell that they were kind of fighting for their life in those first seasons. I know you were pretty young back in the day, but the show, like in those first few years, like really trying to find their footing or to get picked up constantly. Did your dad ever talk about what it was like trying to get this? Because this thing was groundbreaking like this and Twin Peaks and a few other shows of that era.
Speaker: we're doing something that we hadn't seen on TV really. do you ever Do you recall much of that struggle in the first few years to really find its voice and and become the show it was?
Speaker: You know, i not i I didn't really see any struggle at all. like it was It was interesting, because my I'd grown up and my dad was working already. like He'd already constantly gotten lots of work from before I was born. So he came in as like top of the call sheet, one of the most well -known people on the show. like ah I wouldn't say top of the call sheet, the highest paid actor, I think, on the show at the time. And so when we moved out there, we moved to Washington,
Speaker: for the summer and we were living in an apartment that was right across the street from like the Nintendo, the Nintendo like center, like where they made Nintendo and just shit. um And like we went from that after the first season was shot, um it really got picked up after it aired and we were living in like a really nice house.
Speaker: in Bellevue so it didn't and also I'm in first grade like my kids right now in third grade and I if I started working on a show I don't think he would know like he wouldn't see anything like he would understand it and i I liked watching the show but it wasn't something that I understood of whether it was a hit or not until my dad started getting ah like talk to it at dinner more. Like we'd go out to dinner and people would like stop us and want to take pictures. And that was happening more and more as the seasons progressed. Uh, so yeah, you could see something was happening. Um, so great. Chris, can you talk about the episodes you were in? I know that you, you didn't give me the names of the episodes, but you said you were in one episode that had a death, but there's been a bunch of those. Do you remember which, what it was? Uh, like, do you remember? Yeah.
Speaker: I don't remember the title. I know it was the frozen man episode where they found the front reed found the frozen man. and And he was, I was in Hollings bar. I was one of the kids who come up and look at it. Me and my cousin were. And then I was also in ah the wedding of Adam and Eve. I was in the audience that Um, those are the two that I definitely remember. I think I was in a third, but I couldn't tell you what it was, but I was like there when they launched the piano and to the lake. Nice. They did that in Roslyn. That was a practical set. Like I was there for like a lot of the big set piece of stuff. Like that we would all go and watch. So.
Speaker: I do remember a lot of that. And then the frozen man was actually, they kept him in the production offices afterwards. So you'd walk into like the production office next to the stage and the frozen man would be there. That's great. Yeah, it was interesting. Yeah. And you said your your brother was also in those same episodes with you?
Speaker: I think so. i Again, I'd have to ask. My cousin definitely was like staying with us. She was living at ah in the apartment with us in the first season. and i started So I think The Frozen Man was definitely in the first season. Those are some great episodes. the yeah Fantastic episodes. And I think we're about to discuss that on the podcast right now, The Frozen Man episode. That's one of the next two episodes that we'll be discussing.
Speaker: um Yeah, so do you have any fun stories about living up in Washington while your dad was filming the show and while you were also filming the show? A very fun time to like when we go out to Roslyn where they'd shoot the exteriors. And I remember one year they had my dad as the the marsh grand marshal in the parade ah in Roslyn for because of course they would and me and my buddy like old childhoods like best friends both wrote in the back with him and I they wrote in the paper like
Speaker: Barry Corbin and two native boys but riding in the back of a car together. And so apparently we looked native because and my my friend is very Jewish and not native at all. I think he might be have some Italian in him. But hey, Italians used to play natives back in Hollywood all the time, so I guess it makes sense. Interesting, right? Wow.
Speaker: So I'm curious. um Other than that, like I go go ahead. Oh yeah. I was just going to say like as the son of Maurice Minnafield, how did your dad feel about this show? Like what was it for him? How did, what was this experience for him? Which by the way, shout out, I just watched war games the other day and your dad crushes that movie. So good in that movie. But so he gets this show and he's like up there in Alaska and he's my favorite character. How did he feel about this show?
Speaker: It's funny mentioned war games because that was so early. Like I was born the second day of film filming on war games. Oh, wow. And he was late to set and he replaced somebody else on that movie. So he thought they were going to fire him because he was late because I was being born. So every time there's like a 40th anniversary, which was two years ago, I always know about it because it's right around my ah but birthday.
Speaker: ah But yeah, it's ah It's it's it's funny. I know that when we went there, it was very new and very fun for everybody. When it got to the later seasons, it got a little bit more difficult. um And they brought in a producer that did not like the show in order to kill the show. And my dad ah was not happy about it. And I know that like
Speaker: He threatened him at the Emmys or something like that. And I honestly don't know the guy and I for some reason had that like. ah Almost like a crow. Have you heard crows like can be a hand down like ah hate to the generations? they can like get like They can teach their young to not like somebody. So if you piss off a crow, they will teach their young to not like them, and then they will like force them to, like if they're knocking on their windows and shit, like the other crows, the young crows will do the same thing. They will teach them, so they'll pass that down. And so for the longest time, I never watched the Sopranos. I still haven't, because
Speaker: David Chase, the guy who killed the show, made the Sopranos. And so my dad didn't work for a long time after that ah because of that whole debacle. Apparently David Chase was a powerful guy and ah him and my dad did not get along.
Speaker: so they And from what I understood is the show got into a lot of ah lawsuits for like apparently the show up the idea for it being stolen. And so and the the people won the lawsuits because I guess the idea may have been taken or something like that.
Speaker: and after that like Rob Morrow left and they thought they could keep it going and my dad was trying to like wanted to stay the show he really loved that show and it just all kind of came crumbling down you know but my dad was going through a lot too and my mom were going through divorce and there was just a lot a lot of stuff going on at that time towards the end Oh my god, I have a million questions. I'm gonna try to - Sorry, I didn't want to bring down - I didn't want to bring down - No, no, no.
Speaker: So i I'm obsessed with your dad as an actor. i ah One question I have, what do you think, did he ever talk to you about like how he felt about being portrayed as kind of like lightly racist and like lightly homophobic? Like what was his, do you feel like he kind of just, that was his character, it was like had nothing to do with him? He just kind of was playing into this character that he was playing?
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's just what like they, I mean, he's been casting so many things and there were so many layers to Maurice, like a guy who is absolutely in love with like what a classical music and
Speaker: He's he's very into like what was a Walt Whitman and he just and was like broke Chris's arm because of the whole like Walt Whitman stuff on the radio like there's so many things that
Speaker: And then going later into the seasons, like he's he's got so many layers. But as you can see from the first episode, he is the villain, the driving villain of the show. And so and throughout it, he's the villain. So you kind of have to make him have some hateable views. But he also it people you begin to like him as it goes on because yeah he grows on you. And yeah even though he is the villain and he has like these all these sideways views, you're like, oh, he also is someone we like after you go on with the show.
Speaker: He was one of the most human characters and most vulnerable in a lot of ways, really honest characters. So kind of jumping to the other side of Amy's question, were there any parts of your dad that he informed to the character as the seasons went on? Were there elements of him that the writers decided to input within the character, those more human elements, the kinder elements? Because we see a lot of facets of the Maurice character and while the writers are amazing. I was wondering if there's anything that you saw that might have been pulled now that you know you're older, you know your dad in a different light that you saw that the writers might have just pulled and added to that character. I don't know because my dad is so far from the way Maurice is.
Speaker: the that I don't know if they'd ever pulled anything from that, from from those things. I know one thing that they definitely had to pull was when he fell off a roof in an episode, he he had shattered his leg in like so many places when a horse fell on him. um And so they ended up, like it was rough. like he he I can't remember if he was riding the horse backwards or what happened, but the horse fell on his leg.
Speaker: And it shattered in tons of places. They had to rebuild his foot. And I remember he said that like he didn't want to lose his butot boots because they would come and cut him off. So he made the guy that was with him pull the boot off.
Speaker: his foot before it swole up too much. And I think it did a lot more damage to his foot because he really liked those boots. um He was an avid like horse rider. He used to do celebrity rodeos all the time doing like a cutting. If you know what that sport is in rodeo, it's where you're like cut out like a battle and try to put one into a pen. ah And he was very into riding.
Speaker: and especially back then. And so when he fell, they had to implement that into the show for a few seasons of him not being able to like be on that foot. But other than that, I don't know if like his personality got put into it.
Speaker: That's all I need to hear is you're like, he's so different from Maurice. because like yeah yeah Even how he is as Maurice, I'm still like constantly obsessed. like I talk about how that first shot of you that you see him just like bounding down the side of like, ugh.
Speaker: I love him. and And not to steal your time, Caleb, because I just want to make a point. No, please go. um So i my whole family was like obsessed with Yellowstone and I never wanted to watch it. I was just like, no, it's not for me. And then one of my friends texted me that your dad was in an episode and I started watching from the very end. And your dad's part is so small, but it was, I was like, Oh my God. I, for one scene ah but so what I was like, but i I also thought it was really cool that, that, that you just said that he was into horse riding and he was into like, you know, the rodeo stuff because he was basically playing, I mean, I straight up believe that he was an old school.
Speaker: cowboy from that. And then I haven't seen it yet, but the Flower Moon movie that I haven't seen him in that yet. um But yeah, he's I can't believe he's still he's still like working all the time in these like really huge things. I mean, is he is he psyched to be like getting these roles now or like or is he just like, oh, yeah, he loves to work. yeah They keep on check his availability, but he lives in Texas. So it's a little harder to get Like, nobody wants to pay to bring you out but t a hor to to fly you places. It doesn't happen as much, especially to for someone like him where his quote is a higher quote than other people. So usually they'll just hire someone whose quote is less or someone who's in town where they don't have to fly and put them up. ah
Speaker: so yeah he doesn't work as much as he probably could be if he lived in la but he he's touring now doing like a one -man show where he talks about his life he's doing a lot in like the south right now and i'm trying to convince him to bring it out to la but i know he's doing it in branson coming up in december and he just he tours around with that a lot but so my co -hosts here they watch the show when it first came out when and that's when they became obsessed. I did not. um I literally binge watched this thing a few months ago when it came out on Amazon again. And that's when it grabbed me and it just became like this amazing show to me. And I had this realization when I was actually watching a scene with your dad, I think it was the episode where he was selling the Airbnb to like the gay couple. And I had this realization, I was like, you know what, this show,
Speaker: I think what makes this show so special is that it's not trying to teach me anything. It's not trying to preach anything. It's just it's letting me live with these this quirky group of people who are just truly being themselves in this small town. I relate. I grew up in a very small town.
Speaker: And it just felt like I'm hanging out with my friends and everybody gets to be their own messy human existence, you know? In your opinion, what made this show so special? I mean, that's my opinion, but from your perspective, why is Northern Exposure, why are we still talking about this thing 20 years, 30 years later? And it's so revered now that it's been re -released.
Speaker: Well, I think that the fact, it's the same thing with all these shows that are being re -released, like Friends was released and everybody became Friends fans, but like also the great thing about Northern Exposure, it was very avant -garde and it was just a cast of interesting characters who all had interesting backgrounds and who all had interesting wants and likes. And you don't get that with a lot of like,
Speaker: shows a lot of shows it's like here's your lead guy here's a couple of quirky characters and they're going to come in here and there and sell their jokes but it doesn't have as much depth and I think that like there's a lot lot and more depth to these people um and it makes it more interesting it makes the town more interesting and Yeah, I love the show when I was watching it as a kid. I have not re -watched it because me and my brother were talking about doing another exposure re -watch podcast. And we just, my brother does not have time, he's in school. And so I'm toying with the idea of going back and doing the other podcast where I watch all of my dad's movies. I contact him and bring on guests. So I've been up and down, but again,
Speaker: producing your own podcast is a hard thing. So I commend you guys doing it. I, I hate sitting down and editing these things and putting so much time into them and not knowing what's going to happen when I put them out. So, you know, I've got like five episodes banked for things and they've been sitting around for over a year now because I just, it's a lot of time.
Speaker: Uh, well, one of those was going to be my question. It sounds like you haven't in adulthood rewatch the show. What do you remember the last time you watched it? Was it when it was on first run or some like early nineties reruns?
Speaker: Recently, I watched the first episode twice because me and my brother were going to record twice and we never got I could never get a hold of them. but and It's just such a perfect first episode. It really does land you in the space so quickly.
Speaker: ah It's an amazing pilot. and and no i haven't I haven't really gone back as an adult. like Every once in a while I'd find like a VHS down in our pool room here and I would put it on and it would have more of the exposure on it and I'd get to all that nostalgia from hearing the song. and i ah I used to work, ah well, I used to go to Universal Studios all the time. I live right near it and I do work there. I drive trams over there. I used to hear that song come on and it's like as you go up the starway and like it would just come on because it was a CBS show and Universal used to be owned by CBS, now they're NBC, but it was, you'd see and they'd see the posters up on the walls and I'd get that visceral feeling of like being in that pride.
Speaker: Be like, that's my dad's show. Look, that's him on the wall on the poster. And like, I, it's, it's, I really do want to go back and watch the show, but yeah, it's one of those things where I haven't had time to binge a show. I have to commend Amy for consistently getting Caleb and I in the same audio space. It is not easy to wrangle people. It's not easy to wrangle your own siblings. So the fact that you and your brother are even talking about it, I think is commendable.
Speaker: Okay. This one's a quick one. Uh, besides your dad, you're not allowed to use his character. Who was your favorite character and why? I think Ed just, I love that. He's just such a cool,
Speaker: Like the fact that he's like into movies and he's still like Nate, it's, it's a cool character. The native character that's like just works from Reese, but also is super into movies and has like this interesting background. I, yeah, I think it would be. And, and then like, Chris is always great is Chris in the morning. It's, it's yeah.
Speaker: she Those are the two. Yeah, those are two of our favorites, too. um So you you mentioned that you we only have a few more questions. I have to go soon, too. But you um you spoke about hanging out with a lot of the Native Americans that were ah playing extras. So a lot of them were actually like Hollywood stars back in the day, did you did they ever have any conversations with you about what it was like living in Los Angeles and playing like doing cowboy and Indian movies? and like you know Because this was the first television show to have so many Native Americans in it. um
Speaker: And that we talk about that a lot, right? Because everyone got really pumped up about reservation dogs and they were like, oh, wow. And I'm like, when everyone was talking about, oh, my God, this has so many Native Americans in it, I would be like, what about northern exposure? And people would look at at me like I'm 100 years old, you know. um But did they talk to you about their days like in Los Angeles and Hollywood?
Speaker: No, not really. Like, I mean, I was a young kid, so if they did, I don't really remember. I know that um Elaine, uh, her, her mom, uh, Armenia used to like be on set all the time. She did a lot of the background stuff. Um, and I remember like, I guess she told my mom that like one of the native Americans to put a curse on the set. And that's why all the stuff was going wrong. on Um, she saw them and like extras holding, putting a curse on the set or a hex on the set.
Speaker: And that's why like everything went bad. ah But I don't know. I know i we we ended up going to like a powwow in Idaho. We drove out there with some people from the set. It may have been Elaine. When I last went to Seattle, I got to see her. And she's doing well. And it's nice to still be connected here and there. I got to see Rob.
Speaker: not too long ago at the Emmys because my mom was there for jury duty and so it was nice to run into him and yeah it's cool. It's so fun. My final one is not very Northern exposure related, but more your dad's ladder life, because I found out that either he lives in or around where my husband was raised because he was also part of the ranching heritage society in Lubbock, Texas. And you may have also gone to high school at the same time and at the same location as my husband, Monterey.
Speaker: No. That's that's interesting. No. ah So Luddick, Texas is where my dad grew up. He lived there forever. very long time. He went to ah ah Texas Tech ah with ah like him and GW Bailey, who played ah Lieutenant Harris in all the police academy movies. They were in college together and they did a bunch of Shakespeare plays. So they're good friends from back in the day and then they moved away
Speaker: and got into theater. He met my mom in theater and they were doing a lot of plays together. And then they moved out to California, had me and my brother. So me and my brother were raised in LA, in the Valley. yeah And so I went to high school actually out here. Were you ever kind of had the acting bug? Oh yeah, I've been acting most of my life. ah I've had runs on shows here and there. and
Speaker: I did a show called Jane the Virgin for a couple of seasons. yeah um i did ah yeah dead i've I've done it for a while and I'm working coming up in a couple other shows. I actually just worked on the lot acting on a show called St. Dennis Medical. Same people did Superstore. It's like one of the three shows they're shooting on the Universal lot right now. That one looks fun. It's interesting because I worked a day on that and then got a same day called the Dry Trams that night.
Speaker: so it's Yeah, it was fun. I got to have my knee wrapped by David Alan Greer, who is a very nice guy and is cool meeting one of my old comedy idols.
Speaker: on that show that you were just working on St. Dennis Medical, did you by any chance work with Alison Tolman? I saw her. Alison actually used to teach my ah used to teach mike nephew acting. um And now my nephew is on the show called The Chosen, which is has gotten really big ah ah for all the Christians out there that love that stuff.
Speaker: Alison and I went to college together. So we were out there visiting a few other friends. We got the chance to see her. I personally could talk about your dad for hours. um So if you need me on your podcast, just to gush about him, feel free to invite me. Sure. um But also, like you know if if we ever ah want to have you back, i will I will email you and beg you to come back. Maybe there's something, because I was thinking, you might have been in the episode where all the kids in the school classroom, do you remember that episode? That might be the third episode that you were in, where it was the woman who played
Speaker: rosalind Rosalind comes back later in another episode and plays the teacher and we see the schoolhouse and it's all the kids and hauling is in there with them. But they're like, it's a ton of children. I might have been. Yeah, it's it's hard because I think it would just always line up with, oh, I don't even know if I ever got paid to be an extra. I think they just happened to be like, oh, I'm ah off school right now.
Speaker: throw him in a fucking flannel and just put him in there. I think that's pretty much how it all worked out. ah I know I did audition to play the young rock um Rob that that that comes in ah and talks to him, the younger version of him. Yeah. um I know I definitely auditioned for that, but I didn't get it. And that was ah the time when I auditioned for Free Willy. I auditioned for like Searching for I was auditioning a lot as a kid and I never really booked. I didn't start booking until I was like 30. Yeah, until I was like 30. That's when I started actually booking work. When I started doing a shit ton of improv, that's when I started getting work. Yeah, exactly. That's the key. I mean, you're talking to all improvisers here.
Speaker: Okay, great. Thank you so much. ah We loved having you on. we My whole life was informed by this show, like and I didn't realize it until much later in life. like I lived in New York for 20 years. I moved to Los Angeles. I've always wanted to live in Alaska. yeah I lived in Northern California, got pretty close. ah I was a filmmaker with kids. Yeah, and I've still never been to Alaska. i've've I've always wanted to go.
Speaker: Well, well, you know, if you make any money, we'll take you up there. Like I'm going up next summer. So if we make any money off this podcast, you're coming with us and we're going to go. We'll go up there. That's perfect. Thank you so much. And i I'll let you know so when it comes out. Thanks, Chris. I love. I love it. Well, thank you all so much. It was a pleasure meeting you all and hopefully we'll do it again sometime. I love it. Thank you.
Speaker: This is Susan Berger, and I play Barbara on jury duty, and I have done a whole lot of improv, and my favorite is musical improv, which is just the most fun. I'd never tried it till I was in my late 70s, I think, but it's really good. I do it with my son sometimes. He's very good at improv also, Christopher Corbin.
Speaker: Actually, he's who coached me for jury duty and a whole lot of other shows. Anyway, I am so happy for you guys.
