Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Sicily, Alaska, a Northern Exposure podcast. so I'm Anne Flynn Terrell. I'm a cabaret performer and emcee. I'm Caleb Kohart. I'm a documentary and commercial filmmaker.
Speaker: 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: Season six, episode eight. Sons of the Tundra. My first line was really, new Joel arrives with not Maggie wife.
Speaker: My first line was, how did these guys get cast? Really? Yeah, they're horrible actors. She's not bad, but in this show, she's horrible. She's not bad in ah like...
Speaker: Paul the hasn't really done much. Like he has a very small amount of credits, but I think it's also, again, it was a kill technique where they were like, let's cast somebody who is just never works.
Speaker: Do you ever see those um pictures online where it's like ah the beginning of a horse when you've got like time and budget and it's like somebody drawing this beautiful horse at the front. And then as the horse goes on, as they continue drawing, it just gets worse and worse until it looks like a basically a stick horse. It feels like they're weaving this show in with worse and worse. And like they're trying to make the tapestry that used to be cotton and wool and cashmere, polyester and nylon and synthetics. They're just weaving in worse and worse features that is the same fabric. Yeah. And then at the end we're we're ending up with
Speaker: Just a leaf. Good, good. So this is Dr. Philip Capra, which means goat for anybody listening. And Michelle, his wife, who is also a journalist for very high, important ah magazines like the Southwest Seatback Magazine. Would you like their IMBDs? They're short.
Speaker: Sure. Okay, so ah Paul Proveza, I think that's how you say his last name. might be Proveza. I don't know. he um He was in the Pursuit of Happiness, the Facts of Life, and Empty Nest. Those are the most notable things he did. And then the other thing is he was produced um and directed The Aristocrats, which I don't know if you guys know, but it's a basically it's a documentary of, like, hundreds of stand-ups who tell this one like but it's supposed to be the filthiest joke in the world and uh yeah he was the producer director of that oh i liked the documentary i remember watching it a few years ago i've never seen it and then we have uh terry polo uh so she was in some fun things she was in the arrival she was in felicity she was in all the meet the parents meet the fuckers all that stuff uh she was on west wing she was on numbers and uh yeah that's pretty much her notable things too
Speaker: Love it. um Yeah, I think she's fine. i think he is, you put it best, Amy, like one of those actors that when you see him on a pilot, you're like, oh, no, I don't think the show's going to make it. no it's And it's no fault to him. It's just one of those. He's almost a ringer for that type of show that just doesn't quite get over the hump of becoming a full season. He's very cursed in my opinion. i just feel like he he's got all of the attributes that should have worked in the late 80s, early 90s as a leading man. it' just He's so not likable.
Speaker: He's all attribute, no substance. yeah he's a He's a book cover with no pages. I'm sure he's a lovely person. in i know. I hope he never listens to this.
Speaker: yeah bad and He's been hanging on from the beginning of our podcast because he's like, finally, they're going to talk about me. They have talked so much shit on Joel for so long that when they get to me, this whole thing's going to turn around and he's going to hear what I just said about him and he's going to be devastated. And i am sorry, my man, because i i am not immune from criticism myself. I shouldn't criticize another artist, but this was not your cup of tea.
Speaker: I honestly feel like I'm the same type of person where it's just like, I am not filmed. Well, like you can film me all day long. i just, I'm one of those people that the lens rejects me and it's just like, not good.
Speaker: Not good. Really? ah Camera got pictures. Great. I look like I'm doing the best improv scene in the world because I pull faces like nobody's business and but weird body shapes, but everyone froze.
Speaker: of this car. So I gotta stop you guys because you froze um when I was talking about how I take good pictures but I did not filmed well and then after that, nothing.
Speaker: So did anyone say anything interesting? ah We were just talking about how Ann said that this new doctor and his wife are greeted by the international sign of you are in Alaska with a moose.
Speaker: And I said that you can blatantly see the moose trainer through the windshield of the car standing in front of the driver. To like coax the moose towards the car. Like, I don't know how this show is getting through quality control this season, but it's, it's bad.
Speaker: That's fun. They're playing it fast and loose. there is No time for quality. We got, we got shows to make. And they're gonna reach into like some light mythology for our second plot in this episode, which is like kind of the Celtic salmon of knowledge, kind of something else, but you are gaining wisdom by eating a a mystical type of creature. Ed is gonna eat a fish with some almond slivers on it with creepy gray eyes, and it is going to give him the power of 15 seconds ahead.
Speaker: He's gonna be able to see- power the Groundhog day He's going to have the power, the power of the future. I will say in the first sequence that we experience Ed having the power of the future, Walt has a delightful pink flamingo. And he has one of my favorite lines of the episode because he says, it's been a while since I've done any landscaping. Solid.
Speaker: ah I it. A scene with Walt not a bad scene. No. Agreed. Walt can carry a scene. yeah I talk about Walt a little bit later on in this ah because he makes another appearance that I really love.
Speaker: ah So we experience this whole, it's like a two minute scene maybe where Ed experiences Walt, runs into Walt, talks to Ruthann, something happens, Ruthann drops something. And then we find out that Rudy is coming for Thanksgiving.
Speaker: basically the end of the scene, we're reintroduced to Dr. Capra, who is meeting Marilyn for the first time. The structural relationship that has held together this show of Joel and Marilyn is now being uprooted because Marilyn is going to be working with Dr. Capra.
Speaker: She doesn't seem into it. like the The actual actress just- She's there for a paycheck. I would not blame her. I think she's like, okay, is this going to get us another few seasons?
Speaker: Because that's a great paycheck. oh I think that she was probably in it, or maybe she knew. Maybe she knew that the end was nice. She is the highest paid actor in this show.
Speaker: She's probably yeah one of the lowest paid out actors in the show, but per line of dialogue, very high. Yeah. her her Maurice is back to his scheming. He wants to make Sicily the endoscopy capital of the northern world.
Speaker: ah He wants people to come up and have colonoscopies and endoscopies and then ah be able to go fishing in the afternoon. That's just a great weekend. I mean, better than most endoscopic weekends I've ever experienced.
Speaker: um And then he offers Michelle an article in the newspaper so she has ah something to help her artistic and creative goals. And he gives ah Dr. Cara the 1961 Lafitte,
Speaker: which is oh so fancy Yeah, which I love because she writes articles for ah airline magazines, which is like, buku cash. and it And he's like, yeah, you want to write a little fluff piece?
Speaker: I won't pay you. Sicily World Report. ru piece i oh See, I would think it as the opposite, is like, She was basically writing articles for SkyMall, which is like, yeah how how much are you going to love wearing these lawn aerating shoes when you take a walk in your front garden in the morning? I'm telling you, those writers make a shit ton of money. i have a friend that does it.
Speaker: Do they still have magazines and airplanes? Yes. Oh. I guess they just got rid of them in Southwest. don't have the SkyMall, but they still have like the... i miss SkyMall.
Speaker: the in-flight like horizons. Right. Which tells you like places to go and the destination you're going to or in the area. Yeah. but Okay, so like travel blog.
Speaker: um the episode or The part of this episode that I care for the least is the Cool Boys Club. Cool Rich Boys Club. Where did this come from? This is a new location that we've never seen. it's gigantic. a plethora of rich men that we've never seen. This is like a whole other civilization that's been hidden in world.
Speaker: Yeah, but we see it was opportunity to bring the floor back. um We but not everyone in there is rich. It's like Walt just cleaned up. Walt just wore the same suit from the previous episode. You know, it's to be that the part that I thought was funny was that the requirements like you to be in this club. You have to kill something over 300 pounds. No whales. No roadkill.
Speaker: Yeah, must be a mammal. ah like I would love to see the over 300 pound roadkill. That would be, no right that would be you. That would be ah the human in the car. Yeah. yeah It's also, I also commented on it. It's a beautiful interior.
Speaker: Like for shooting just a few episodes ago on a ratchet airplane interior, this set is gorgeous. It looks like they actually found producers like one is club or something.
Speaker: Yeah, but to speak to what you all were talking about, yeah, there's senators that we've never been introduced to. Apparently, senators will regularly make a ah trip to the Sons of the Tundra for this good old boys club, and Shelly is brokenhearted because she can't come along because Holling has been given a one-night invite to kind of be test-driven into the Sons of the Tundra.
Speaker: This one bothered me with Shelly's attitude towards Hauling joining a men's club. Shelly and Hauling live and work together. They're together 24-7. um Margarita actively tries to get me out of the house to go hang out with other men for just even a night. like I'm in a poker...
Speaker: club with both of your husbands, we've been trying to get one together for six months now i know to the point where I finally just sent a group text and said, Hey, everybody, I will be at my studio on this date from this time. Show up if you can make it because I'm tired of scheduling everybody's schedules.
Speaker: But like to get your man out of the house to interact with other men for a night should be the goal any And here she is so upset and personally insulted by this.
Speaker: Well, she's not insulted that she can't come. She could give a shit. like She gets dressed up. He's like, no, you can't come. And then when she thinks about it, she's like, oh, I'm more upset of the fact that my daughter wouldn't be able to join this. Where you're like, wait, what?
Speaker: Wait a second. you haven't taught We haven't seen your daughter all season. What do you mean? Yeah, she can't join the show, but now we're pissed off that she can't join the Sons of the Tundra. Which is also brand new to the show.
Speaker: ah Not once. like And Maurice would be bragging about this all the time. Yeah. Word of thing that was actually important to him. But it's clearly not, and we're clearly running into some brick walls, so we're going to make stuff up as we go along.
Speaker: Um, the Capra's are moving into Joel's now absolute shack. Looks like a shack. It looks like they tore down to the studs, but it's just the same. They didn't even wait for him to confirm that he's not coming back. It's just straight Well, he abandoned us. We're abandoning, abandoning him. Yeah. Yeah. We're abandoning him. We are changing the locks. We are doing all of the things make We're not even like putting his stuff in storage. You buy the place, you deal with this stuff. Yeah, which brings us to my second ah best moment for Walt, because ah Mrs. Capra is unloading all of her things and she hears something and she runs outside of the house and she encounters Walt finding her Arborio rice, but he can't stay. He's going to give her her rice back and he has to go because he has to, quote, get the viscera out of these puppies before they start to rot. Yeah. Because he has like marmots over his shoulder or something. And then he just keeps walking on by. i think he said that ah the animal that could have been in their house is a marmot, but she's got to like, she's got shore up all the different holes in the walls.
Speaker: And then Walt is gone again. i love Walt. Yep. If it was more Walt, less everybody else, this season might have been more worth watching. Yeah. He's like nailed the Canadian cross in this episode. It's just in and out. Steal the scene and go. Yep.
Speaker: Did we mention... Joel in the chair with the knife yet? Oh, no, no, no. Yes, we have not gotten to Joel appearing like a specter over at Hollings House, ah picking his nails with a knife that he wants to trade. So now he has become basically Adam.
Speaker: He's breaking and entering and stealing. Yeah, he's he's he's Adam because I'm sure they can't get... Adam Arkin back. No way in hell is Adam going to. Although I say that, I don't know if he makes an appearance in this season, but yeah, he's basically become Adam and now he's trying to trade goods for Hollings knife. And he has a like multiple animal pelts in like a silver Fox. He's got furs that he's going to trade Holling and Holling makes the trade.
Speaker: So weird. Well, that's just a weird little snippet. Yep. I feel like it was just something they randomly shot and inserted in this episode. So it didn't seem like it was so daunting that, that Rob Morrow is like not going to be in these episodes.
Speaker: It was weird. I, I, I do have it in my notes here now that I'm seeing it, but yeah, I didn't. ah Actually I said in my notes, I wasn't expecting to see Joel in this episode at all. Yeah.
Speaker: It's just like a reminder of, hey, he's still ah getting paid to do this. He still has top billing. He still has top billing in this show. Yeah. It still says Dr. Joel Fleischman during the the intro.
Speaker: I mean- Anyway. It's still on that building in the town, right? It's still there anyways in 2026. huh Yeah. but That's true too.
Speaker: um But we've got our Sons of the Tundra Good Old Boys Club. which honestly, ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be part of like a gentleman's club, ah a place to go and like have a brandy and smoke a cigar, even though I don't really drink brand brandy and I definitely don't smoke cigars, but I like the idea of like a ladies club now where I can just go and have a martini and,
Speaker: and talk with the ladies. They have those all over. like Clubs are actually making a huge comeback. What? There's a couple in Denver. Yeah, there's a couple in Denver. They're all over, like New York, everywhere. They're private clubs, but now they are open to all genders. and they're They're very curated in memberships, not just like economically, but um they want different personalities that will gel all together. so They'll make sure they want artists. They want filmmakers. They want actors. They want Because they want a ah good group of people that won't like freak out over you know other people there. But yeah, there there are a few around.
Speaker: Check it out. are therere a yeah It sounds like you're a part of the the siblings of the Rocky Mountain Territories. Can you get me an invite? I can't talk about it.
Speaker: I want to talk about the fantastic entertainment that I've always imagined happens in a gentleman's club, which is traditionally a barbershop quartet. but What?
Speaker: they They clearly just grabbed people that they could afford very quickly because that is not at all... If I were a part of a very expensive gentleman's club, I'm not going to sit there and listen to a barbershop quartet. I'm sorry. yeah That's all we do at Poker Night. we just We all sit around and yeah drink cognac and listen to barbershop quartet. It should have been like a dirty it should have been like ah like a Rodney Dangerfield kind of stand-up.
Speaker: You need Rodney Dangerfield and a lady in a cake. That is what you need in the ninety s or and that is what i have always expected i want yeah i want andrew dice clay style like yeah dudes and like telling back the ah the aristocrats that's what i am expecting i'm expecting them going around telling their their best aristocrats joke but no instead we got barbershop quartet um anything to add about the sons of the tundra before we get continue on I think that Holling wanting to join this club is bad news bears from the beginning.
Speaker: Oh, and it's just awful. I don't love the stress of trying to get into a club like that. Like the interview scene where it's daylight and nobody wants to go to a gentleman's club during the daylight hours. I don't like the the curtains being pulled back. I just like, ah I am a cabaret performer. I love the magic of the night. Once it becomes light out, the magic is gone. Once you leave that room, the magic is gone. And the fact that you have to interview for this kind of thing, i don't when i hit the judgmental nature of this this is like high school clicks yes got over the shit in high school like i didn't want to be a part of a fraternity because of this exact same reason like who are you to judge me yeah know yeah i don't yeah i i hate these things yeah who are these people to judge us who who this is why we're this man is better than all of them except for walt
Speaker: Says a group of three people who have constantly been judged for our entire adult lives being on a stage. That's why we hate them because we weren't the cool kids in the club. Speak for yourself.
Speaker: True. Ann and I weren't the cool kids in the club. Caleb and I were not the cool kids in the club. I'm making up for it now though. And so were you, Caleb. Yeah. Damn straight. Busy and blessed. With my sons of the Rocky Mountain tundra.
Speaker: Soul member. Siblings, right? They allow ladies. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. The Raccoon. Like, again, we get into this weird, like foreseeing the future. Sorry. I forgot about that whole narrative thread as we got it onto it. Um,
Speaker: Ed helps Michelle because a raccoon stole her ring and then dropped it into the water. So she must basically baptize herself in the Alaskan runoff of a glacier to become a member. It's a computer key. It's the key. It's the key to a computer. Because like back in the day, you had keys yeah to turn on and ah off your computer. Yep.
Speaker: it was on a key ring which is where ed says was it on a silver ring right but it's also that it's the one thing she has to escape cicely is to go into her computer so i felt like that was the symbolism i loved this i loved the hunt for the computer key it felt very northern exposure and it gave me a small bit of hope And it lead led us into that last little delivery truck scene, which I also obsessed with the delivery truck. I remember seeing it as a kid or a teenager being like, that's the car I want. Like, it it kind of, i got hopeful in those last five minutes of this episode and was like, okay, maybe we can get through this.
Speaker: I agree. i agree. i I didn't mind. Well, okay, so it also felt like maybe you should confirm this. It felt like they did used a different film stock in those final moments where the car is driving.
Speaker: it felt like they had moved away from, i don't know, maybe it's close up versus far away film. I don't know, Caleb, you could probably speak to this. You used a different film stock for outside versus inside. Yeah. Maybe that was it. So that would have been. But it felt more like when they were, when Northern Exposure was going head to head with Twin Peaks yeah and the kind of visuals that we got, it's what it felt like. Agreed. In those final moments.
Speaker: And then my last line was, i'm so ready for this show to be over i know i i start i just type what i'm thinking as i'm watching all of these shows right um it's a struggle i i remember loving seasons one two three four and even five yeah this this is becoming a slog well everybody who's gonna give us shit on reddit needs to realize we're almost at episode 90. So we have spent 90, almost 90 hours of our lives rewatching a show that we were obsessed with, or, you know, at least Anne and I were obsessed with it. And we're seeing it from a different lens.
Speaker: our Our age has changed how we think about things. And not only that, we're recording another almost probably 70 hours and on top of that i am going back and editing all of these episodes so if you come at us saying that we don't like this show you're insane no one would spend that much time hate watching hate editing hate recording a podcast like we love this show it's just disappointing because we love Sicily and the people in it are changing and it's upsetting and we're passionate about it.
Speaker: We miss our old friends. It's fair to yes it's fair to be... frustrated with what's going on with a lot of this because yeah we did love it so much and then even like the frustrations with Joel that was like a fun little thing but to get so frustrated with you just you don't feel like they're doing the characters in the town justice right now yeah yeah and Have you ever had a friend that you really like, maybe you grew up with them for years and years and then you saw them take a really rough turn in life and it was because of their own choices yeah and it's not anything that we could do, but it hurts nonetheless. yeah you You want to do everything you can to help them.
Speaker: find their happiness or or or get back to like their glory. But for whatever reason, they've decided, no i want to be a poopy pants right now.
Speaker: Oh, that's, that's how it feels. It feel feels like we're watching somebody that we've cared about so, so, so deeply for so long and literally for decades of Amy, our lives. Yeah. And we're watching them hurt themselves at this point.
Speaker: Right. Yeah. Alright, well, onward and upward.
