S2E5: “Spring Break” with Rob Thompson

Summary

Northern Disclosure: Season 2, Episode 5 - "Spring Break" with Rob Thompson

Release Date: August 12, 2025
Host/Authors: Rob Morrow and Janine Turner
Guest: Rob Thompson, Director and Executive Producer

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Introduction

In this lively episode of Northern Disclosure, hosts Rob Morrow and Janine Turner delve deep into Season 2, Episode 5, titled “Spring Break,” featuring a special appearance by esteemed director Rob Thompson. Together, they explore the intricacies of this standout episode from the Emmy-winning series Northern Exposure, sharing behind-the-scenes anecdotes, thematic analyses, and personal memories that bring the episode to life for both longtime fans and newcomers alike.

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Episode Overview

Janine Turner kicks off the discussion by highlighting “Spring Break” as one of her favorite episodes, emphasizing its uniqueness and entertainment value. She provides a succinct plot summary, setting the stage for a comprehensive exploration of its elements.

Janine Turner [01:05]: “Out today is one of my favorite shows ever, 'Spring Break.' If there's one episode to watch on Northern Exposure, I believe this is one to watch.”

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Guest Introduction: Rob Thompson

Rob Thompson, the episode’s director and an executive producer for 50 episodes, joins the hosts to provide his insights. Janine warmly welcomes him, praising his comedic timing and directorial prowess.

Janine Turner [01:49]: “Rob and I are doing press for Northern Exposure, a little Access Hollywood and KTLA and things that nature. We're glad to be promoting it.”

Rob Morrow [14:19]: “Hey, Rob. You know, you look great. I have to say, whatever you're doing, however you're living, you're doing something right because you look healthy and good, lucid and strong.”

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Plot Summary

Rob Morrow offers a detailed plot summary of “Spring Break,” capturing the episode’s chaotic and humorous events during Sicily’s annual spring days, including crime waves, romantic entanglements, and traditional festivities.

Rob Morrow [02:15]: “To Joel's shocked surprise, the impending ice meltdown submerges Sicily in its annual crazy spring days, including crime, a crime wave this year, car radio thefts and lustful cravings...”

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Behind-the-Scenes Stories

The conversation transitions into fascinating behind-the-scenes stories, particularly focusing on memorable filming experiences:

• Garden of Eden Scene: Janine reminisces about filming the iconic Garden of Eden scene late at night, highlighting the organic laughs and spontaneous moments between co-stars.

  Janine Turner [05:16]: “I remember filming the Garden of Eden, it was late at night... those little laughs... it was so much fun.”

• Challenging Snake Scene: Rob Thompson shares a humorous anecdote about handling a lethargic snake on set, revealing the unpredictable nature of live filming.

  Rob Thompson [23:41]: “We might as well have had a ceramic snake.”

• Naked Scene Escapade: Rob Morrow recounts the bold decision to film a scene where his character runs naked, including the unexpected encounter with local authorities.

  Rob Morrow [33:12]: “We did it... I went through the extra holding area and... we did a take where we were naked.”

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Themes and Discussions

The hosts and Thompson delve into the episode’s overarching themes, reflecting on humanity, nature’s influence, and community rituals:

• Humanity and Nature: Janine and Rob discuss how the episode portrays the innate human desires and the impact of natural phenomena on the townsfolk’s psyche.

  Janine Turner [09:27]: “In our society today, we don't forgive anybody for humanity...”

  Rob Morrow [11:17]: “Nature still impacts us in this modern world and how nature unifies us.”

• Community and Rituals: They explore the significance of Sicily’s community rituals, such as the bull run and solstice celebrations, underscoring the importance of shared traditions.

  Rob Thompson [38:46]: “There's obviously a sense of community...”

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Production Insights

Rob Thompson provides valuable insights into the production process, highlighting the collaborative nature of the show and the importance of reliable scripting:

• Script Quality: Thompson lauds the episode’s script, noting its strong storylines and character development.

  Rob Thompson [26:11]: “The script was just so good that you could not hit. It was impossible not to hit a home run with that script.”

• Directorial Approach: He discusses his directorial style, emphasizing flexibility and understanding actors’ needs to elicit authentic performances.

  Rob Thompson [46:32]: “As a director, you're just a pragmatist... I just do anything to get a good scene.”

• Editing Process: The conversation touches on the editing phase, where Thompson worked closely with editors to maintain the episode’s comedic timing and narrative flow.

  Rob Thompson [51:44]: “But the script was just so good that you could not hit. It was impossible not to hit a home run with that script.”

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Notable Quotes

Throughout the episode, several memorable quotes encapsulate the essence of “Spring Break”:

• John Corbett’s Reflection:

  “Sometimes you gotta do something bad to know you're alive.”
  Janine Turner [48:26]

• Rob Thompson on Community:

  “You can't see it a lot where these rituals, these annual rites that happen, you know, that acknowledge time passing...”
  Rob Thompson [38:46]

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Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, the hosts and Rob Thompson celebrate the enduring legacy of “Spring Break,” acknowledging the collective effort that made it a standout installment in Northern Exposure. They reflect on the importance of passionate leadership and high-quality scripting in creating memorable television.

Rob Thompson [61:44]: “Every show needs somebody like Josh who will protect the show...”

Janine Turner [63:59]: “So thank you, everybody for joining us today.”

Northern Disclosure continues to honor the cherished moments of Northern Exposure, offering listeners an intimate look into the making of one of television’s most beloved series.

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Tune in next week:
Join Rob Morrow and Janine Turner as they revisit another classic episode, sharing more stories and insights that capture the quirky charm of Northern Exposure. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and follow their journey down memory lane.

Transcript

[Janine Turner]

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[Rob Morrow]

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[Janine Turner]

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[Rob Thompson]

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[Rob Morrow]

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[Janine Turner]

Hi, I'm Janine Turner. Welcome to Northern Disclosure where Rob Morrow and I, we talk about the all the episodes one by one of Northern Exposure which is available to watch by the way on Amazon prime and numerous venues. So check it out. Out today is one of my favorite shows ever, Spring break. And we have the great director Rob Thompson with us today to talk with us about this episode. If you haven't watched it, if there's one episode to watch on Northern Exposure, I believe this is one to watch. It was so incredibly unique and fun. So welcome to the show today and Rob Morrow. Howdy though I'm in LA today.

[Rob Morrow]

That's right, yeah.

[Janine Turner]

Rob and I are doing press for Northern Exposure, a little Access Hollywood and KTLA and things that nature. We're glad to be promoting it. So. Hi Rob.

[Rob Morrow]

Hey Janine. Nice to see you. You look, you look fresh and, and lovely.

[Janine Turner]

Do I look la?

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah, you look very groovy.

[Rob Thompson]

La.

[Rob Morrow]

I like your, I like your outfit, your hair.

[Janine Turner]

This is viori. Viori is very la. I think it's an LA company. So anyway.

[Rob Morrow]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Janine Turner]

I love this chap scene.

[Rob Morrow]

You were waxing effusive about the episode. And I agree, as I always say, there's probably about 10 episodes that in my book were really truly stand above the rest and this is certainly one of them. And Rob Thompson is a, you know, he was a real force on the show. He came on as a director and then eventually a producer and produced a lot of shows, you know, for us. And always those episodes that he was behind were always distinguished by visually and tonally and emotionally great performances. So he's. I'm excited to hear his thoughts. And if you want, I'll just, you know, I know the audience loves to hear the plot summary of the episode, so I'll just kind of tell you the plot summary of spring break, which was episode five of season two. To Joel's shocked surprise, the impending ice meltdown submerges Sicily in its annual crazy spring days, including crime, a crime wave this year, car radio thefts and lustful cravings. Holling looking for fist fights, ending up with a surprising outside opponent. And even Joel has his first wet dream, kisses Maggie, who dreams of him and has an Indian date. Ed finds the thief. And then there's the annual bull run, Men in the Buff, which we have plenty to talk about. And I'll just say to the audience as well, you can listen to this show wherever you your podcast, but if you want to to see us, you can watch on YouTube on the Northern Disclosure channel. So thanks for tuning in.

[Janine Turner]

Yeah, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for that synopsis, Rob. I can't believe I said wet dream. I mean, it's like, so funny that they would put that in the description, but it was all sexual. It was. Everyone had their sexual energy and it plays throughout the entire show. I think this show is so brilliant. And gosh, who was it written by? David Asl.

[Rob Morrow]

David Assel, who wrote six episodes over the course of the series.

[Janine Turner]

Excellent. It is just refreshing, brilliant. Once again, the music, you have classical music in the background or jazz during a boxing fight or whatever. The music we had Martin Bruce Lee on last week continues to be phenomenal. But what I was, I was really impressed with Rob Thompson. We loved him. I mean, Rob Thompson was our executive producer for. For 50 episodes, but he started as a director with this particular episode, and we just loved him. His. He's a wonderful spiritual creature and. But what I thought was really amazing, Rob, was the comedic timing. We can get into it more because I have my list. I'm sure you have your list, but when, when we're in that kitchen and we're up against the pots and pans, it's funny. It's been 35 years, but I remember this episode. I remember the set when we filmed the Garden of Eden.

[Rob Morrow]

That was a great set.

[Janine Turner]

The original set. I remember now because you're like, don't you remember the original set? And I'm really like, I really don't. But I remember the original set with the Garden of Even scenes. Garden of Eden scene. So I want to talk about that. But all the comedic timing, like those. That moment and when the pots and pans, when you and I have our first kiss, right. And then we talk about it, and then we're like, okay, fine, and we both run off frame. I mean, there was just this comedic timing. So where do we start with this episode, Rob? Should we start with the Garden of Eden?

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah, I mean, you know, I think we should get into it with Rob, but. But with the other Rob. But, you know, the Garden of Eden was. Was a lot of fun. It was. And it's such a great opening. And. And that first song, I want to just point out, that Lindsey Buckingham song, what was it called? I Wrote It Down.

[Janine Turner]

Was that in the Garden of Eden?

[Rob Morrow]

Oh, it's called. Yeah, it's called. Well, it starts before DW Suite, actually. It comes. Actually. It's actually plays when we cut. I guess it's after the credits. I don't remember the song. The Garden of Eden.

[Janine Turner]

And as. As we. As we talked about in the Amazon prime, when I was working with them and everything they got. They really retained a lot of the great music, unlike what they did in the DVD series. But in the. In the Amazon prime, they have a lot of the same great music. But I have memories. I know everybody listening wants to hear more about the filming of the show. And I'm like, well, God, it was 35 years ago, but I remember filming that with you, Rob, and to. To Rob Morrow and to Rob Thompson's credit, because they. They kind of oversee the editing as Josh Brand and everybody as well. But some of these funny little moments were left in. And I remember filming the Garden of Eden, it was late at night, is my recollection. It was really late, and you and I were slap happy when we finally got to the Garden of Eden. And those little laughs that I did, like, oh, you're like, oh, yeah. Or the. Or whatever it might be with the apple. Like, that was so much fun. I remember that moment. And fun it was. And I don't remember if we filmed it first or last, but in this episode are o' Connell and Fleischman's first kisses. But that Garden of Eden scene was brilliant. Just the temptation and the sexual temptations and whatnot. And that you and I had our first kiss, like, oh, you're naked. Oh, so am I. Oh, it was a lot of fun, don't you think? The Garden of Eden.

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah. And I also love the way they just kind of boldly cold open the show with it. So you kind. Like, even I. I forgot about that opening. And so when came on, I was like, wait, where are they? What are they doing? You know? And it is. It's. It does allow us. These sequences allow us to. To express other parts of the characters. And for instance, the. The scene in the igloo where you play an Eskimo. I mean, you're almost unrecog. I mean, you're beautiful, but you're like whatever you're doing in terms of playing that character, there's no Janine, there's no Maggie. You know, it's like someone else. And it's. It's fascinating, but I think we always. Opportunities. And this. This episode was chock full of dreams and fantasies. And so. So it's. It kind of. It allows them. I'm going to also talk about Rob, about the aesthetics. It allowed everyone, every department, to kind of be more creative than normal, which is already, you know, a high bar.

[Janine Turner]

Well, that's one of the things I loved about the show when we opened each script was the fun that we had. And, you know, Rob, I believe you and I were spoiled for any project we did after this, because you can't. I mean, if you think about a CSI or some of those kind of shows, it's always the same thing.

[Rob Morrow]

I know. I did one.

[Janine Turner]

Yeah, I know, I know. And I did other series which were always the same thing. And you look at this, you're like, oh, my gosh, in this episode, I was in the Garden of Eden. I was in your dream sequence. You know, to think, like, to be a thief, you have to think like one. I was in the igloo with this long hair forever. I had on red Adidas shoes. Catherine did a great job with the costumes and those fur.

[Rob Morrow]

What do you love about this episode?

[Janine Turner]

Well, I love this kind of thing. The fact.

[Rob Morrow]

I mean, the story, but the story. I mean, not. Not just like, what's. What is it? Why is the story so impactful? It's such an interesting.

[Janine Turner]

Well, before I get to the story, I'll just finish that in the igloo. It was so fun to learn other languages. I had to learn the other languages. And as I'm watching it 35 years ago, I'm like, oh, I was pretty good at that, you know? And I'll never forget Sick of Me Glue. I've always remembered Sick of Me Glue, which means ice. You know, you want some ice? Sick of Me Glue. And the fact. And I will have to talk to Rob that I. That I chopped the ice off the igloo itself and then plopped. It in your paper 7:11 type of cup. I mean, I just think things like that were brilliant directions, brilliant writing, but the fact that Darren and I had to learn a whole nother language, it was. The challenge of the show was so fun. Fun. And Rob, your reactions in all these fantasy. Fantasy sequences, your subtleties of your reactions are so funny. And when Ed walks in after you just had the fantasy and you dropped the phone and all that, I thought you were absolutely brilliant. And to answer your question, what overarching of the show, I. I think it talks about.

[Rob Morrow]

No, I'm asking you what you loved about.

[Rob Thompson]

What's this?

[Rob Morrow]

What is this? In the story itself, what is it that speaks to you?

[Janine Turner]

I think in the story itself, it's the overarching element of humanity, which we always talk about, and the sexual attraction and how people keep it hidden and they hide it. And yet nature does things to us that we are human. I love John Corbett's line about we used to live in the wild and had to worry about being attacked by the lion. And now we just go to the zoo where we don't have to worry about being attacked. And I think we have forgotten about the overarching humanity. And in our society today, we don't forgive anybody for humanity. It's like in the olden days, we used to forgive for humanity, and now we. Now there's like, oh, you can't possibly be human. You have to be perfect. So those are my thoughts, Rob. What are yours?

[Rob Morrow]

Well, what I think, you know, what you were touching on is really the heart of it for me, is that how nature still impacts us in this modern world and how nature unifies us, too, because we're all. We're all one when it comes to nature. You know, we all. We all are reactive to it. And I find it fascinating that the whole town, once again, there's such collective ideas, you know, going through the show that a town experiences these natural phenomenons and it informs their psyches, you know, in different ways. It's not just sexual. Holly has a violent thing, you know, and Chris has a. Chris Stevens is, you know, becomes a thief. It just kind of. It opens up other parts of us. And that, to me, is what really is distinct about this episode and really fascinates me.

[Janine Turner]

I agree with you there. And then Cynthia, Gary Shelley wants to read a book, right?

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah, the opposite of her Normal.

[Janine Turner]

And I loved. I love Ed's character trying to figure out the. The. The. The. One of my favorite lines is, it's always been one of my Favorite lines. He says, that's it. It's a. He goes. But you say, is there any pattern? Because he's trying to be. He goes. He goes. Well, you know, it's random pattern. That's the pattern, right? You know, it's a random pattern. That's the pattern. And you ask about the. The overarching elements of the show. Perhaps that's it. I mean, life is a random pattern. And I do a lot of history. I love historical documentaries or, you know, futuristic documentaries, things of that nature, archaeological documentaries. But. But they talk about the summer solstice and how important that was and the winter solstice and the things that kind of affected people's energies. And this. The breaking of the ice did. And you're right, it brought out a little bit of something different in everybody.

[Rob Morrow]

How about we bring out young Rob and.

[Janine Turner]

Yes, bring Rob Thompson. Okay, so let me do a little intro. I've already kind of mentioned it, but Rob Thompson, we adored him. We literally adored him. There he is, ladies and gentlemen, Rob Thompson. And I'm gonna go to what I just wrote about Rob. He's living in New Mexico now. He was living in New Mexico then. He had a ranch then I bought my ranch after Rob had his. And he was a writer and a director. He's now written two historical fiction novels about the American west in 1861. But he started as a writer and then he became a director. And then I want to hear Rob. When we talk to Rob, one of my questions for him is because I know we first met Rob Thompson as a director, and what a superb director he was. And he. And he must have gone then to the studios in la, because we were in Seattle and worked with all of them. And somewhere in that, he was asked to be an executive producer. Lucky for us. So, ladies and gentlemen, here is Rob Thompson from New Mexico.

[Rob Thompson]

Thank you very much.

[Janine Turner]

Howdy, Rob.

[Rob Thompson]

Hi there.

[Janine Turner]

Ken Thompson.

[Rob Thompson]

Hello.

[Rob Morrow]

So good to see you. Hey, Rob. You know, you look great. I have to say, whatever you're doing, however you're living, you're doing something right because you look healthy and good, lucid and strong. And I know you're keeping busy, and so it's nice to see your face.

[Rob Thompson]

I'm happy to hear you call me lucid. That's my favorite. I'm red as a lobster. I'm normally not this red, but I'm not embarrassed, but it's just so fantastic to be with you guys, and I truly mean that. I haven't seen you guys for so long, and you were such a part of my life when all of this stuff was going on. I still use Janine. You said that thing about random pattern that sticks out to me. I've used that in conversation several times, you know, and it always confuses people. And it's supposed to confuse people. I mean, overall, just a tremendous experience. And if you want to me to talk about this specific episode, I will. Cause I thought it was a brilliant script, you know, it was a great script.

[Rob Morrow]

How did you come to the show? Did you. Did you. Was it just a straight offer? Did you lobby for it, or.

[Rob Thompson]

No, as a matter of fact, I turned the show down, Was happily living in New Mexico with my wife, Rebecca. And we're living in a very remote place right now, but we were remote in Abiquiu as well. We didn't even have television, to be honest with you. We would read and start a fire and listen to music in the evenings. And I would get calls from agents or producers asking if I wanted to direct the show. And I would generally tell a white lie and say, yeah, I hear it's a really good show. No, I know it's a good show. And so on and so forth, and let me think about it. And then I would call my agent at that point it was Eliot Webb and say, please send me a copy of this because I haven't watched the show. And that was the situation with Northern Exposure. When the first call was made. I didn't know anything about the show, to be honest with you, and I said no. And then somebody persevered. And I'm happy that they did because they sent me one of the shows and I liked it. But also, my parents. I grew up in Seattle, and my parents were still up there. So I thought, well, this is fortuitous, and, yeah, I'll go up there and shoot this show. It also had some relevance for me because as a young man, I spent a lot of time in Alaska. I was a commercial fisherman up there.

[Rob Morrow]

Man, you've had quite the life, huh?

[Rob Thompson]

Well, so I did know a little bit about it, basically, and I obviously knew about Seattle. I hadn't been away from there that long, so the whole thing kind of conspired. And then. And then I got this script, and the script was just so good. It had, like, four or five solid storylines. They were all vivid. It was like the thing. It's like the show was being. Well, it was being invented for me because I hadn't been a part of the earlier things, but there was, like, a sense of rebirth and that was. That's also the theme sort of of the show in a way. Basically, it's spring and all that sort of stuff. I just love the script.

[Rob Morrow]

When you get us, when you get a script, do you immediately start seeing images and, and ideas for aesthetic ideas and stuff like that, or does it take a couple read throughs to get. To get ideas?

[Rob Thompson]

I think a couple read throughs, you know, you just get a feel for the thing initially. And that was so solid because it had a wonderful framework with repressed libido and spring. And then it had, you know, four or five really solid storylines. The storyline with U2 was just fantastic and was so much fun to shoot. But then also, Barry Corbin had a great storyline with Officer Symanski.

[Janine Turner]

Oh, yes. God bless her, because she's passed and she has.

[Rob Morrow]

And this was the introduction of her. This was the first time we saw Barbara Szymanski, played by Diane Delano.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah. And she was fantastic. And Darren had a great piece, basically, and John had a great piece and you guys had a great piece and Barry had a great piece, all within this great framework. And then of course, John Cullum, he got to paste Officer Tamansky in the fight. And that was just. I mean, it was just so much fun to shoot.

[Rob Morrow]

You make a great point, Jeanine. Check this out, right? This might be the first episode where the ensemble is in harmony. Harmony and balance. Right. Because oftentimes one of us takes the lead, you know, our storyline takes it. But this was like everyone kind of had a real. It was a real ensemble effort. And maybe that's what stands out about it, aside from the story idea.

[Janine Turner]

I agree with that. I think that we talk a lot on the show, Rob, about federalism and community and being the wild wild west and the American experience of. Of kind of being self governed and the fact that they didn't even have a police officer. And you know, Fleischmann from New York's like, what do you mean there's no police officer? I love this. And Rob, you. And I love this because we live out in the middle of nowhere, right? Just this kind of lost sense of individualism and freedom. That they didn't even have a police officer is really a lot of fun. And Rob, my question for you is the comedic timing. You directed us so beautifully, even at the end, when we're kind of having that orgasmic sort of intellectual conversation at the end and then we smoke the cigarette. But my favorite, the comedic timing that you had with everything. I remember, like it was yesterday, filming the episode in the kitchen.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah.

[Janine Turner]

When. Rob. I think. And I don't know what we filmed first. I don't know if it was the Garden of Eden, because we're never in order.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah, I think we did the Garden of Eden first. Yeah.

[Janine Turner]

Did we? Okay, so that was Fleischmann OConnell's first kiss. And then. And then we did the kitchen and. And the whole. The choreography of this attraction. And then. And how we had to bang. Remember that?

[Rob Thompson]

Right. Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah.

[Janine Turner]

We had to bang into all the pots and pans and. And the comedic timing that then you had just like.

[Rob Thompson]

And then you guys just split. You split.

[Janine Turner]

Yeah. That was funny. Rob. That was really. Rob Thompson. That was really funny.

[Rob Morrow]

What I remember, though, is, Jean, about that we couldn't. It took a while to get it. They wanted. They didn't necessarily know. They said, we're banging around, but no one. It wasn't really written down, what we're doing. And ultimately, I remember you coming to us and saying, you know, it's gotta be wild or it's gotta be, you know, out of control. It can't. You know. And I think what we ended up doing, Jeanine, because it was. It was probably late, you know, that's what I'm getting. I don't remember, but it was. We're always behind the gun on a TV show. And I remember we did that take, and it may have been the only time we did it because we destroyed the set. And what I did was I grabbed you, Jeanine, and I held on and kind of flung you around, and you just kind of went with it, and we just flung. You know, I just flung you around the kitchen, and we knocked over as much as we could. And it may have been the only take that we got, that exact kind of choreography, as you say.

[Rob Thompson]

Oh, yeah. I remember it very, very well. And you guys were great. And, yeah, we did dial it up. I mean, we accelerated it, and you guys wound up bouncing against the wall. And I think you're right, Rob. I don't think we had another take in us, basically, because everything was just totally chaotic. And then you guys split. You also had a line in there, which I love. Oh, so you have the jello regulation book, huh?

[Rob Morrow]

I love that. I wrote that down, too. You know, it's a great line. But, Janine, you know what's funny about that? Like, we had a lot of great, sexy kisses on the show, you know, but this, to me, was not. In terms. It's not. The way it plays is great. But I remember it was not. We were. It was just. We just smacked our lips together and held on for dear life. It wasn't like sensual or anything, right?

[Janine Turner]

Yeah, I would say the Garden of Eden was a little more sensual, but.

[Rob Morrow]

Absolutely.

[Janine Turner]

But that was the animalistic part of it, probably to get the theme of the show. Rob Thompson, what are you trying to say? Rob Thomson?

[Rob Thompson]

I was gonna say there was another scene between you guys which was sublimated sex. Remember? You come over to Jeanine's house and you wind up smoking a cigarette at the end. They had you guys just fire down on the couch just at the very end, just as though it's Piscoital, you know, and you go through this whole thing. So that was another wonderful scene, I thought too. Yeah.

[Janine Turner]

And as I'm watching it this time, I'm looking at our dirty socks, you know what I mean? We're both sitting there in Alaska with his dirty boots and on my dirty socks and we're smoking that cigarette. But, yeah, I remember that scene too. We had to build up to that moment.

[Rob Morrow]

And it was just a climax. It was a literary climax. Right. It wasn't like there was. No.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah, no, absolutely. You guys played it brilliantly. Can I tell you one little story about the Garden of Eden?

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah, please.

[Rob Thompson]

Okay. This stuff happens in productions. So we got this wonderful set and we rehearsed it and you guys are great. And you guys, you reference a snake, remember? So I said to the snake handler, you know, bring the snake out. So there's a little bit of a pause and the snake handler goes off set and comes back with this hugely lethargic snake, basically. And the snake's not doing anything. And we had to have it up on a branch, basically. And the snake kept falling off. And I said, I said, what's with this snake? This snake is like half dead. And he said, well, we took it out of the refrigerator too late, you know. And then I learned that they will refrigerate snakes before they bring them on the set. And they just sort of forgot about the snake. And so we might as well have had a ceramic snake.

[Janine Turner]

I wondered if that was a real snake. You know, here I am in all these shows I've done, I've had to touch a snake. I've had dead bats and cliffhanger all over me, flying bats, flying around. But I thought how brave I was to touch that snake because I touched the snake.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah, the snake was comatose. It just didn't move. So those are the kind of behind the scenes production stuff. And then but you guys just adjust to it and it all works out. And that's kind of the miracle and fun of doing these things.

[Rob Morrow]

Rob, I want to ask you about the aesthetics because the show is particularly timed dark. I don't know if we. I'll be curious to see the next episode, but was that because of the kind of deprivation of light in Alaska? Did you remember making that choice or was it just overall?

[Rob Thompson]

I didn't make that choice at all. Yeah, who knows what it might have been about? It might have been final timing too.

[Rob Morrow]

You know, but you see how dark it is. I mean, it's lovely. It's very cinema. It's very chiascura, very cinematic. There's times where you can't even barely see people's features.

[Rob Thompson]

Well, it's been so long ago that I don't remember those kind of discussions. That's the kind of lighting that I prefer, where you're not afraid, even though you're doing comedy, of what I would call a black reference at some point in the frame. I mean, Storaro and all of those people do this thing. And so I don't think comedy should be, like, lit up on, you know, on all edges, basically, in all corners. I think it's. And it comes hat in hand with canned laughter and all that stuff. So. So I think we did have kind of a mildly painterly look for that show and for other shows.

[Janine Turner]

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[Rob Morrow]

EVGLIS Lebricizumab, LBKZ, a 250mg injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. Ebglis can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to ebglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new, new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine. When treated with Epglis before starting Epglis. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection searching for real relief.

[Janine Turner]

Ask your doctor about epglis and visit epglis.lily.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.

[Rob Thompson]

This episode is brought to you by FX's Alien Earth, the official podcast.

[Rob Morrow]

Each week, host Adam Rogers is joined by guests including the show's creation, creator, cast and crew.

[Rob Thompson]

In this exclusive companion podcast.

[Rob Morrow]

They will explore story elements, deep dive into character motivations and offer an episode by episode behind the scenes breakdown of.

[Rob Thompson]

Each terrifying chapter in this new series.

[Rob Morrow]

Search FX's alien Earth wherever you listen to podcasts. Janine we should, we should track now next episode whether it can because, because I know, you know, the Jimmy Heyman and the, the filmmakers are always wanting the show to be darker. But as they used to say to me is we do we shoot it like this. And then the guys in the broadcast booth when they, they just flip the buttons all to the brightest possible thing. But I think at a certain point Josh and John were able to kind of appeal to the network and say look, let's, let's try to make this show a little different than the average sitcom.

[Janine Turner]

The only thing is I did catch that Rob where, where I had to turn the light up on my phone because I watched it again this morning. I'm like I can't see anybody. So I like took the light up on my phone. But so that, that may have something except I think that, that the scenes with Diane Delano and Barry Corbin were very bright. They're lit, I think. Yeah. And I've always remembered so it might have been a cinematic thing with, we can talk about that with Jim Heyman. But I, I, I've always remembered that he ironed her underwear, you know, her clothes and her and I, or her out her uniform. And those scenes, you know, God bless Diane Delano because I used to exchange Christmas cards with her for 20, 30 years and recently she just passed and she was so funny and wasn't she funny, Robs?

[Rob Morrow]

She was very funny.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah, she was a godsend and she took direction and really had fun with it. But yeah, those scenes for whatever reason were a little more lit up. It was Maurice's lair, you know. But I also don't want to forget Rob, another dream sequence that you did, which I love, that was that Robert Palmer.

[Janine Turner]

Yes. We forgot we haven't talked about that yet.

[Rob Morrow]

That was, I get people asking me about all to this day, people ask me about they Love that sequence.

[Janine Turner]

Rob, were you singing. Were you singing in that?

[Rob Morrow]

Well, I was. There's one moment where this. I mean, I'm singing probably underneath it, but they didn't use my vocals until the end when the sound of the. Of the audio music drops out and then you hear me singing. So that's my. That's my voice.

[Janine Turner]

Okay, good voice. That's a good voice.

[Rob Morrow]

Thank you.

[Janine Turner]

But, Rob, y' all had a lot of fun with that. I wasn't there on the set, but I remember it was a lot of fun.

[Rob Morrow]

I'll tell you. I had fun.

[Janine Turner]

Those girls are from. What's that?

[Rob Morrow]

I mean, I was surrounded by 10 beautiful girls. I mean, it was like, you know, it was like, oh, boy, I gotta.

[Rob Thompson]

Go to work today. And Rob, I had to get them all to wiggle simultaneously because they're not necessarily professional dancers. And it took some rehearsal to get all of those curves going in combination.

[Rob Morrow]

I remember that. And you had a choreographer there. Yeah, I remember that. But I don't know. But she may not. But you're right. They were models or something. They weren't dancers.

[Janine Turner]

So did you have to get permission from whoever the singer was? Robert Palmer. You like, like Robert Palmer? Did you have to get permission to. To actually literally kind of copy that? Exactly.

[Rob Morrow]

They had to get. They had to license the song, and then they had to get the. The. You know, I'm sure they had to sign off totally.

[Janine Turner]

Which makes me think his music video.

[Rob Morrow]

And Rob did a great job of recreating it almost. I mean, it'd be interesting to watch them next to each other. I have never done that, but. But it makes me think that Robert Palmer might have been a fan of the show because I don't know why he would let us do that.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah. And speaking of that piece of music, I'll go back and. Yeah, the intro music. We can all go crazy together. I thought it was sensitive and perfectly in sync with what we were doing, and I think we used it starting the show and ending the show. So it provided just a terrific frame, you know, for this thing.

[Rob Morrow]

I agree. That's Lindsey Buckingham. And it's so evocative. It's so. It just kind of touched. There's something about great music that hits you in the guts, and that one just. Just instantly hits you and start and takes you on into something, another dimension or whatever.

[Janine Turner]

Especially at the end when everybody's running naked through the.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah, I was gonna say it worked at the beginning, but it was really pungent at the end. There was something about sort of dropping out the real sound and seeing the ladies egg you guys on. And one and doing that soundtrack was just. Was terrific.

[Rob Morrow]

Well, that we should talk about that last scene and we can go back to the. To the middle of the show. But that last scene, you know, I know you have some memories of it now. Let's hear yours.

[Rob Thompson]

Well, I love that. That wasn't, you know, we didn't shoot sequentially, so I think that was. We did eight day shoots, so I think that was probably around day six. And we'd rounded into good form, I think, you know, as a production company by then. And we're obviously shooting in Rosslyn. And it was very discreetly shot, actually, you know, you guys, I think were in flesh colored jock straps or something, right?

[Rob Morrow]

No, there's another part to this that was naked. Well, what happened was, I mean, I'll let you get back to yours. But what happened was I being the, whatever, young, idealistic, you know, truth seeker. It was written that we're naked. And then when we came time to shoot it, they were like, you're in your underwear. And I said, oh, come on, this is 1991. And we're, you know, let's do it.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah.

[Rob Morrow]

And I got Matt Nodella to give me a wad of cash and I went through the extra holding area and I said, and they. We come up with some number like $30 on top of whatever they were making for anyone who would run naked with me. Because I wanted to run naked.

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah.

[Rob Morrow]

And so we did it. And so we did a take where we were naked. Most of the takes we did with our underwear on. But then we did one take, the last one, and that was the one where the mayor of the town happened to have been coming out with some people that were looking to do some business in the town and walked out on his porch and spotted they already hated us in the town at that point. They weren't happy that we were there. We always came over and take and took over and told them what they could do. The mayor comes out, he sees us. And as you. You're gonna. I don't remember this, but you tell this part and then I'll come back to my end of it. So what. So the mayor comes out and what happens?

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah, I mean, I didn't see the mayor and I didn't, you know, I was just very satisfied with the shooting of the scene. And Jim Charleston called for lunch. And so I'm about to head off and I see a policeman approach me and it's really, like out of Mayberry RF it's like Barney Fife, you know, and he's got his hands on a pair of handcuffs, basically. And he comes up to me and he said something. Something like, are you the guy that is the. And I said, the director? And he said, yeah. Are you the director of this thing? And I said, yeah, I was proud of it. And he said, well, you're under arrest. I said, what for? And he said, running naked in the streets. And if you're the guy, then you're going to jail. And I told you guys prior to the show, it was such a stupid thing. I just should have said, I'm your man, you know, do the crime, do the time. Take me, take me right now, basically, because it would have been so lovely to be tossed in the clink in Roslyn and then have the production company come back and say, where the f is our director? What's going on? So here's what I said. Here's what I said. I thought about it and I said, you know, I may be the director, but I said, I'm a small fish. I'm just a cog in this large wheel. The guys you really want are in Hollywood and in New York. I said, those are the guys that made me do this scene. And so the guy's staring at me, I know he wants to make an arrest, he's got to arrest somebody. And I kept yakking out about this deal about these guys, you know, they make you do these scenes and so on and so forth. Finally defeated, he just turned around and left. And I went and had lunch.

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah, but what happened was they didn't give up because then someone told them that I'm the guy that paid off everyone. So basically I'm the one responsible. So they come, they want to arrest me and they had to take. They put me in the little movie theater there and they had teamsters guarding me because they thought they were going to come arrest me. They had to call down to la, get Business affairs on the phone and make some of kind settlement or something saying we'd never do it. And mind you, for all of this trouble is the one that you never see our butts for real on the finished cut.

[Rob Thompson]

Well, yeah, we had those berms that were on wheels. Remember that? The snow.

[Rob Morrow]

That's right.

[Rob Thompson]

Kind of discreetly cut, you know, on a couple of those things, basically.

[Rob Morrow]

But it doesn't take away from the triumphant aspect of it. I mean, I just watched it an hour ago and that last image of us running through and the women cheering. And I think I'm the last bot and my arms are up like this. There's just something so triumphant about it that, that you did a great job.

[Janine Turner]

It's back to that human nature, I mean, and it goes back to the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, we were naked. Right?

[Rob Thompson]

Right.

[Janine Turner]

We were naked until we took the bite of the apple.

[Rob Morrow]

I'll just, I'll just tell people who don't know that that, that she's saying the word naked.

[Janine Turner]

I know it always makes fun of me. I'm from Texas.

[Rob Morrow]

No, it's cute. It's cute. Let's hear you say naked. Just, just say naked just to say it.

[Janine Turner]

Okay. Naked.

[Rob Thompson]

There you go.

[Janine Turner]

So you're good. We're naked in the Garden of Eden and then we're in your naked at the end. So it's back to that whole primal aspect of, of what we're like before we became so self conscious. And I, and I think that that maybe has a little bit of an impact on the show where people go to not be judged and not to have to be self conscious all the time about whether they're doing things right or wrong. And the behind the scenes filming of it is fascinating. I remember. But you know, Rob Thompson, you had the snow piled up really high. So you should talk about how you brought the snow in to kind of COVID And then I don't recall ever seeing anybody naked. So I think you called us in later. Are we to get our reactions and they just ran through with their underwear on? Because I think when you actually did that moment of everyone naked, nobody else was around, right? Because I don't remember that at all.

[Rob Morrow]

I don't remember. But I love what you're saying though, you know, I mean that it's also. It makes me think about how the town always has these rituals that they share in which is very, you know, it's beautiful. And you don't see it a lot where these rituals, these annual rites that happen, you know, that acknowledge time passing and, and this annual running of the bulls which Jolf experiences for the first time is very powerful.

[Rob Thompson]

Well, there's obviously a sense of community and we don't have that a lot in this country. And that's why shows like Northern Exposure and even Mayberry rfd, they're just a lot of people long for that. But also, I think the best of the Northern Exposure shows always had an underlying theme to them and the themes were always different basically. And then they would was fill in the blanks. With the various storylines. But there would generally be some overriding theme that was significant. You know, I don't remember. I'm thinking of the trebuchet thing. I can't remember what that was.

[Rob Morrow]

The trebuchet. He's talking about a great episode where the flinging of the piano episode, which I guess was the next.

[Janine Turner]

Burning down the House.

[Rob Morrow]

Burning down the house, Yeah.

[Rob Thompson]

I was fortunate enough to direct both of those. And Burning down the House. We actually had to burn a house down.

[Janine Turner]

I know.

[Rob Thompson]

We had to build a trebuchet, which is a phenomenal thing. I want to mention Woody Crocker's name because he was just a genius pulling this stuff together, you know.

[Rob Morrow]

Absolutely. And his whole team were always champions. But I like what you just said to Janine about the materialism, you know, is not that important ultimately, which was the theme of that. But I'm curious, Rob, like, do you remember how the tone meetings went? Like, was the theme articulated to you, or did you just kind of intuit what the theme of the episode was?

[Rob Thompson]

You know, Rob, you've directed and Jeanine may well have too. You try to kind of stay alert in the tone meetings, you know what I mean? I have a concept of how I want to shoot it, basically. And this is the writer's last shot at you, basically. They want to do a lot of hand holding and God bless them. So you kind of pretend like you're really paying attention, you know what I mean? And I would screw little notes in the side and then I would kind of ignore them once we got there. I mean, you want to do the spirit of the thing, basically, and you don't want to not do what they want. But yeah, tone meetings, you know, basically, if you think you get the show so you just kind of. You just go through the motions, basically.

[Janine Turner]

I have a behind the scenes question. Two of them for you, Rob Thompson. One is when you were doing those tonal meetings, you were probably in Seattle once you became executive producer. And so that's my first question. Were you in Seattle for those when you did the tone meeting?

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah. No, I think a lot of those were on the phone because the writers are in, obviously in Los Angeles. And I'm not gonna fly down there for tone meetings, basically.

[Rob Morrow]

I remember them. I used to walk in on them. They'd be in that corner office there, and there'd be a speakerphone.

[Rob Thompson]

Was I awake?

[Rob Morrow]

And you were awake, of course. And the right. You know, whoever the key people were in the room with you, and they'd be talking about Their ideas and stuff. But I do remember them well.

[Janine Turner]

You know, this was. But you went back to la, probably as the director for this episode before you were executive producer, to edit it, correct?

[Rob Thompson]

No, no. You know, all the editing was done in Los Angeles. And because.

[Janine Turner]

And you went there. You were there for the editing.

[Rob Thompson]

Well, I guess that I. I guess I was for that show because I was a hired gun. I was not a producer on that. And I couldn't have done it later on as a producer because you're. You're prepping another show and, you know, you're doing three things at once, essentially. I think I did go down on.

[Janine Turner]

That one because the music, again, the music was phenomenal. I mean, there was. There's opera music when Darren. Ed Burrows comes in and catches Chris in the morning, that he was the thief, you know, and it's opera. I mean, and then much during the. During the fight, the sequence of that was like jazz.

[Rob Morrow]

I think that was. Original score by David Schwartz. I have a feeling. I have a feeling. Yeah. It just seemed original to me. Yeah.

[Rob Thompson]

You're bringing up Chris's dialogue about the stolen Raiders. Do you want to hear an anecdote about that?

[Janine Turner]

Yes. Yes.

[Rob Thompson]

Okay. These things always work out this way. It's Friday. We're in Rosslyn. You always wind up shooting late because you've gone over on Tuesday and a little bit on Wednesday, so you got to shoot your day out on Friday. And it's always like you're shooting at 11:12 or something like this. And that was the case when we were there. And it was also crummy weather. It was quite cold. And I hadn't directed before with this show. And so I didn't have the kind of communication that I got later on with all of you wonderful actors. But John Corbett, who I just loved, had this. This piece of business in a wildness, Ed. Wildness. He goes through a. He couldn't get it for some reason.

[Rob Morrow]

Wait, what was his business? What did he have to do?

[Rob Thompson]

The wildness, Ed. You know, this was after Ed Chigliak had exposed him as the thief, basically.

[Rob Morrow]

Oh, right, right.

[Rob Thompson]

And so he's got like a third of a page to deliver about why he did it and why it's not a bad thing, why it was actually a good thing. And John, bless his heart, I don't know if he was tired, but he just couldn't get that speech. He got the introduction to it, but he couldn't do the speech. And that was seminal. And unless he completes this, we're not Going to get out of Rosslyn, and we got to go over the pass back to Seattle, and it's snowing. And so, you know, you don't do this with actors, obviously. But John would say, what do I say? And I would. I'm not an actor, but I would say the words. So we try it, and it failed. And he tried another time, and he failed. And now everybody's looking at me side eyes. Basically, they just want to get the hell out of there. And I asked the assistant director. This is not in a directing handbook. Basically, John and I were in the back room, and if you remember, it was dark and it was full of rubbish, and there may have been rodents back there, and so on and so forth. John and I are disconsolate with our backs against the wall, and I asked the director to go out and get some bourbon.

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah, baby, I love it.

[Rob Thompson]

Give me a shot of bourbon. There you go. I said, get me a miniature or get me a pint, but bring it in here. Don't let anybody see this. Just give it to me. So John and I are sitting against the wall. Basically, I like bourbon, you know, and I take a pop, and I say, john, you want to try it? He says, yeah, I'll take a pop. So we're standing back there in the dark, and we got, like, semi lubricated, you know, And I say the words, and Don says. John says, I got it. I got it. I got it, Rob. I got it. So he goes in there, absolutely perfect. Cut. Let's go back to Seattle. Everybody's happy. So you don't find that in the director's hand.

[Rob Morrow]

But isn't that what's so genius about it and why you're so good a director? Obviously, you know, people get drinking, you know, is not the way to get performances all the time. But in this case, and it wasn't that. It doesn't sound like you guys were chugging. It sounds like you just. He needed something to break his. His pattern of not being able to retain the lines, and you found something to just ease the tension, which is that, to me, is the key. He was blocked.

[Janine Turner]

He just blocked. He released it. That's a brilliant story.

[Rob Morrow]

It's a great story.

[Rob Thompson]

It just loosened him a little bit, you know, Rob, you know, as a director, you're just a pragmatist, too. I mean, I'll just do anything to get a good scene, you know what I mean?

[Janine Turner]

Well, but also what I think that speaks to Rob Thompson is understanding the actor with whom you're working.

[Rob Morrow]

Absolutely.

[Janine Turner]

How does this actor tick, Rob? And I've had a lot of discussions about how I always looked at a script from an emotional standpoint. What are my choices emotionally before I did anything else. It's like, how does the actor tick? How can I get through to them? And that is a brilliant story about, about directing. I absolutely love that story. And also, I just want to tell a little antidote here. Jim Charleston. We've got to get Jim on the phone, because Jim was our first assistant director forever. He was. And you know what? Assistant directors can make or break the energy on a set, because they're the ones go, rolling, quiet on the set, action. You know, and if they're like these manic, obsessive, loud people, it makes you nervous. You know, they're going, and action. And you're like, oh, my God. Okay, I've got to go act now. But. And Rob Thompson always had a low key demeanor. He was always funny, he was sort of friendly. You felt a relationship to him. But I remember so many of these late nights, Rob Thompson and Rob Mora and one of Jim Charleston's our assistant, first assistant directors lines, he would always say, you gotta get this. The pass is closing.

[Rob Thompson]

How many times did you hear at the end of a scene, good job, now get out?

[Rob Morrow]

So, right, so let me just explain to the. Let me just explain to the audience that we lived and shot mostly on sound stages in. Right outside of Seattle, in Redmond. But two days out of every episode, we would go over the pass, over the Snoqualmie Pass, about an hour and a half southeast into the Cascades, which was where the town of Roslyn was, which was our town of Sicily. So when it snowed, you couldn't get over. You know, you'd have to put chains on to get over that pass. So if sometimes they.

[Janine Turner]

And sometimes they closed the pass.

[Rob Morrow]

Absolutely. But I just want to point out.

[Janine Turner]

Yeah, you're right, he was being funny. It's like the past really wasn't closing. I mean, maybe occasionally it did, but it's like the pass is closing. In other words, no one's gonna get home.

[Rob Thompson]

Like a bumper sticker or a T shirt for Jim, you know, it's a.

[Rob Morrow]

Good point, but I wanna, I wanna point out that in. In light of your story about Corbett, his. One of his lines that I love, which might even close the. Or come. One of the last lines in the show is Chris Stevens says, sometimes you gotta do something bad to know you're alive.

[Rob Thompson]

That's good, huh?

[Rob Morrow]

You know, it's a Great line.

[Rob Thompson]

I mean, you guys sure you've been talking about. All comes down to the script, basically. And there was brilliant writers on Northern Exposure and yeah, we would just get, I mean, you guys know it. You get the scripts and you'd say, holy cow, look at this. This is fantastic. And we also got him in a timely manner. We got him with plenty of time to prep, which was Josh made this happen because on lots of shows that you guys have worked on and certainly I've worked on, you don't get it till the last moment and you're going to compromise doing that. Josh had these wonderful scripts come down the pipeline on time.

[Rob Morrow]

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[Janine Turner]

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[Rob Morrow]

You're right. That kept us all the way through the whole series, the whole five years. We always had scripts on time. We were never running, you know, at the last second.

[Janine Turner]

And they were so much fun to get and so much fun to read. It's like, do I get to speak Russian in this episode? Or, you know, the Native American Eskimo in this episode or, you know, whatever it might be doing. But the scripts were just simply terrific. And I have a question about the editing process. When you, because you directed that episode and then you were there to watch the editing. And also, Rob Moro, I don't remember a lot of loopy in this, in this particular episode, that loopy went on for, you know, six hours or whatever, redirecting, rewriting, but I don't remember a lot in this particular episode. How much power did you have, Rob Thompson, in the editing process? Because I thought the editing was really, really great as well. The timing of the comedy and whatnot.

[Rob Thompson]

Well, you know, it's so many years ago that it's really hard to recall it. You're right. I did go down to Los Angeles because I was a hired gun at that point. And I did oversee the editing at the end of it. You know, Josh gets ahold of it and he does what he wants to do. But yeah, they had good editors as well, so. But I'm a broken record. The script was just so good that you could not hit. It was impossible not to hit a home run with that script.

[Janine Turner]

If it's not on the page, it's not on the stage. Well, but I think you. I think you're not giving yourself enough credit, Rob Thompson, because it can be on the page, but someone has to understand, like the story you talk about, John Corbett, you've got to bring it out in the actors and then the comedic timing and then make it all work. And it was just. And you were a joy with you. It was a joy to work with you because you, you. We felt you were one of us. Some directors will come in and be very sort of controlling or whatnot. And it was. It was just a. I have so many stories with you, Rob Thompson. You'll have to come back.

[Rob Morrow]

And the way, the way it works, though, just for the audience, is the director even, you know, even when they're a producer will do. They'll shoot the show, the editor will do an assembly of it. Then the director gets a cut. They always get a kind of pass. It's mandated by the dga. It's like four days. They get to do a cut. But ultimately after that, the executive producers get it and they do whatever they want, sometimes changing it drastically, sometimes accepting what they. They. They got.

[Janine Turner]

I have a fun story to build on what you're saying, Rob, which. Which is in the days of film, before, you know, high def and digital, the film was very expensive and. And you had to cut the film in between, so you didn't waste film if there was directing or someone had to pick up a line or what it may be. And now today, with hd, you can, can just, you know, with digital, you can let it run forever. But you would say, take one, take two, take three, take four, take five. Lots of times we did like eight takes. I think Rob Thompson once told me that I always got going around the third or fourth take. So I was like, from the third or fourth take. But then after the director saw what he wanted, he would say, wasn't it. Print that take. It's like, that was the favorite take. Mark. Mark that take. Print that take. Because not all the takes were printed. And Rob Morrow, I remember you. And I would also step in and say, okay, Rob Thompson might have liked to mark take four, but I really love take five. Do you remember that, Rob? And then we would watch the dailies. I mean, that was. I think it's an interesting behind the scenes aspect that doesn't really exist anymore.

[Rob Morrow]

I think we would ask for certain takes to be printed, but again, ultimately, we had no say what was, you know, And I never knew what.

[Janine Turner]

No, no. But that was our say. That was our say on the set. We were able to say, please, please print this. Do you remember that, Rob? Rob Morrow?

[Rob Morrow]

I do, but I'm saying is it didn't mean anything. Once it went down south, they did whatever they wanted.

[Janine Turner]

Well, that's true.

[Rob Morrow]

So, Rob, how did the producing. How did that come about that they were asked. They asked you to come on as a producer.

[Rob Thompson]

Well, so I think Josh really liked that show. And this is a true story. So my agent had a good relationship with Josh, and I came up with an idea for a show. And he said, I want to get you together with Josh Brand and you guys could become partners. So I said, well, great. I like Josh. I like doing spring break. So we got a meeting and I came in. It was just Josh and I. And I thought I was really articulate. I thought I laid out. I thought he did a really good job. It took me like 10 minutes to explain the whole thing. Josh was paying attention at the end. He seemed to be paying attention. And then I said, so what do you think, Josh? And he said, I don't want to do it. And I said, really? He said, yeah, yeah, I don't want to do it. But he said, but I'm doing three shows right now. I'm doing Northern Exposure, which, you know, up in Seattle. I'm doing I'll Fly Away in Georgia, and I'm doing Going to Extremes in Jamaica. You can produce any of the three which one you want to do. Basically.

[Rob Morrow]

Wow, what a compliment you want to do.

[Rob Thompson]

And I said, let me think about it. So I went home, thought about it, talked to my agent, and I thought, well, I really enjoyed the experience on spring break. My parents are still up in Seattle. Yeah, I'll do that show. So that's how it happened. But also, I'd never produced before. So I asked the salient question to Josh. I said, well, what do I do? And he Said, you just keep doing what you did on spring break, basically. Because he said, that's basically where we want to be.

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah, it's so interesting. Josh is such an intuitive kind of guy that way. But I just want to point out that he probably knew before he took that meeting with you, he had a different agenda.

[Rob Thompson]

Oh, yeah. And then I also said at the end of it, I said, well, I'll go up there and do this, but how will I know if I'm doing a good job? And he said, oh, you'll hear from me. I didn't hear from him that whole first season. I kept waiting for the call, you know, and so. And that was a great season.

[Rob Morrow]

And it was so great because you came in, I think maybe that. Not insecurity, but that sense of not exactly knowing what your thing was made you so open. You didn't come in and throw your authority around as a producer. You kind of just presented as someone who's where the buck stopped, but that. Where you were an ally to all departments.

[Janine Turner]

One of us. One of us. You were one of us.

[Rob Thompson]

Well, that's a tremendous compliment. And I felt that way, basically. I felt we were all sort of inventing ourselves basically, at that point. And we were fortunate that we're not doing it in Los Angeles. It would have been a different animal if we'd have been down there. We had some leeway. We had a longer leash shooting up in Seattle. And I think that was a part of why this thing was. It was a small part of why Northern Exposure was so successful. We weren't shooting at the studios, basically, and so we didn't have those people looking over our shoulders, you know.

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah. And, Janine, I want to ask you a little about that igloo scene. What was it that you were doing that. I'm fascinated with how different you were. Yet you were. It was just. Were you wearing contacts? Like brown contacts or something?

[Janine Turner]

No, I. I wasn't wearing brown contacts. I think it was just the nature of the lighting, I think, because the more light in my eyes, the more you would see the green, but the light was very shaded in there. And. And I hearkened back to. I always worked with my acting coach, Marsha Hofrecht, who had been a member of the Actors Studio during the days of Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman and Marilyn Monroe, you know, and. And when I got a script, I looked at all of it, and I made specific choices. So my choices in that script were very specific to the tone of what was happening with that particular character. So I must have made, I mean, some sort of choice that it wasn't. It wasn't Joel Fleischman. You know, it was like she was somebody and wasn't. And it wasn't Maggie o'. Connell. She was somebody completely different. So I must have called upon a different era of my life, a very specific choice, because everything I did was sort of a sensory choice. And I got very specific about, with whom am I speaking? Where am I? Where am I in this igloo? You know, what is the smell? Am I cold? Am I. Am I comfortable in this situation? So everything was sort of central.

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah, it was great. I just loved it. Hey, Rob. So we need to kind of start winding down. Is there any anything else that you thought of that we should hear from you?

[Rob Thompson]

Oh, I don't know. You know, if we had two. Two more hours, I could gas on with behind the scenes stuff, because that's. That's the fun stuff.

[Rob Morrow]

Well, go ahead. Give us. Give us one or two before.

[Rob Thompson]

I think I've shot my wad on this show. It's a broken record because I just thought everything came together just brilliantly on that. I will tell you this, too. After I became a producer on that show, and I think we were like, halfway through that season, our Emmy season, and Jeff Skansky, who was running the network, came up and said, let's have lunch, Rob. So we had lunch, but we had lunch on the set. And he said, you know, you guys just keep doing what you're doing. So far as I'm concerned, I don't get the show at all. I always conceived it and still conceive it as medical jeopardy. In the outback back, you know, some guy with his guts hanging out, coming off a gurney. But he said, so I don't really get the show, but you guys just keep doing what you're doing because it's going well, you know, so that's great. And then, you know, all the execs, too, they would always come up and they would always wear a plaid shirt. Remember, like the guys or the network, they would have a brand new, relatively expensive plaid shirt.

[Rob Morrow]

Right? Yeah, like a Gucci plaid shirt.

[Rob Thompson]

And they had their lattes, you know, on the side of the set. And then next thing I know, they're flying back to la. So I thought, well, we must be doing something good.

[Rob Morrow]

That's a great point. Because the show was doing well despite the networks not understanding what it was, and also to their credit. And I like Jeff Sagansky. He's a good guy and has good Taste and was smart enough to see something working and not get in the way. Because a lot of times people's egos will force them to kind of get involved and try to shape it even, and end up hurting it. But they didn't.

[Rob Thompson]

Maybe the last thing I'll say, too, is every show needs somebody like Josh who will protect the show, who will go to the mat and tell the network, get out of our body bag. I know in one or two instances, I think Josh said, you know, if so, and so goes, I'm going. And so in order to make anything really successful, there's got to be somebody who's the blocking back who will do these things. And that was Josh, basically.

[Janine Turner]

That's a really interesting statement. I will just step in there and talk about the fact. I'm really glad to hear you say that, because when someone like Josh takes a stand and becomes quota difficult. Right?

[Rob Thompson]

Yeah.

[Janine Turner]

Like, I'm sorry, this is what I'm going to do. This is what I believe. This is the genius of the show. And if you don't like it, I'm gone. You know, and now in this day and age, you're like, oh, you know, he's difficult, or she's difficult. And I find myself getting really wrapped up sometimes and like, oh, I need to be a, like, pleasant little actress or whatever I am, and I shouldn't raise any. And yet it's that. It's that kind of. And Rob, Rob, Rob's. Both of you and I, we were very passionate about what we did, and sometimes that means you had to take a stand. And now we're in this, like, politically correct kind of environment where it's even harder to do. You know what I mean? It's. But it's refreshing to hear that you're, you know, you're sure that the Leonardo da Vinci's or the Michelangelos or the Puccinis or, you know, the, the. The Mozarts of the world, you know, they. They have their vision and they. And that's a great line from Amadeus, the movie where the King comes up and everybody's in the King's ears and they're saying, saying, tell him. Tell him that it wasn't any good. And yet the king really kind of liked it. And so Mozart goes up and says, what did you think? What did you think? And the King says, oh, I don't know. Just like, well, too many notes.

[Rob Thompson]

Too many notes.

[Janine Turner]

Yeah, right. Amadeus looks at him sort of like, Rob Moore, you would do. Or I would do. Or Rob Thompson, you would do or Josh would do. And he looks right at the King and he says, said, oh, which notes? You know, tell me which notes.

[Rob Thompson]

And so that's kind of Josh protected us, basically. And you have to have Josh on something like that.

[Rob Morrow]

Yeah, that's a great point. All right, well, on that, on that note, I think we'll, we'll wind it up and say, Rob, hey, so great to see you and so glad to see you doing well and just have so many great memories of working with you. And, and as we go through these shows, I'm sure we're going to ask you to come back and share some more insights. So keep watching them. So you'll be.

[Janine Turner]

Yes, please, please come back. Rob Thompson, it's such a joy to see you.

[Rob Thompson]

This has been a total pleasure, guys. So, yeah, I'm here for you.

[Janine Turner]

All right. And I just want to say, Rob Mora, really quickly, you went through those highlight years with us, those seasons of like the third and fourth seasons with all the Emmys, the Golden Globes. We were Online like Cloud9, top of the mountain during those episodes.

[Rob Morrow]

You're right. That's a good point.

[Janine Turner]

Those were kind of the, created the apex of, I think, what we did. So please come back because, so if.

[Rob Morrow]

You love Northern Exposure, you're looking at a guy here with the silver hair. That's a big reason why you liked it.

[Janine Turner]

Yeah. And we loved you. I have a lot of stories and you do, too. So please, I hope you come back. And so thank you, everybody for joining us today. Next week's going to be another awesome show just like this one. Please spread the word about this as well. You can watch the show on Amazon Prime Video. Amazon Prime Video. And as Rob said, you can listen to this anywhere. You can watch us on YouTube, things of that nature. And so we're signing off today from o' Connell and Fleischman.

[Rob Morrow]

No, I think it's actually Fleischman o'. Connell.

[Janine Turner]

In your dreams, Fleischman. Northern Disclosure is a production with Evergreen Podcasts and executive produced by Paul Anderson and Scott McCarthy for Workhouse Media.

[Rob Thompson]

Hey, I'm Paul.

[Janine Turner]

And I'm Erica.

[Rob Morrow]

And we're the hosts of that Aged.

[Janine Turner]

Well, we're kind of like your old friends you want to relive your childhood pop culture with, but with the benefit of a little wisdom and a lot of off color joke.

[Rob Morrow]

Look, if there's one thing we've learned doing this podcast, it's that nostalgia is way more fun if you aren't the only one embarrassed by it.

[Janine Turner]

If you have a couple of friends to cringe along with it goes from an exercise in humiliation to an exercise in giggling.

[Rob Morrow]

Let us be the friends to remind you that, yes, we loved some garbage growing up, and we still love it now.

[Janine Turner]

If you think I will stop loving overboard just because it's about a kidnapped amnesiac woman gaslit into caring for a brood of children not her own, you've got another thing coming.

[Rob Morrow]

And if you think I I won't love Sixteen Candles just because, nope, I didn't love Sixteen Candles.

[Janine Turner]

You surely didn't. But hey you. You listening right now? If you did love 16 candles, we celebrate you.

[Rob Morrow]

That's right. So join us as we guide you down some of your fondest memories. And don't worry, we'll walk you around all the pitfalls along the way.

[Janine Turner]

So download that Aged well Dropping Monday wherever you get your podcasts.