The Worst Episodes of Northern Exposure
Every episode of Northern Exposure ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Northern Exposure!
After receiving a scholarship from the state, a recent Columbia University medical school graduate is required to set up his practice in an eccentric Alaskan town.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Northern Exposure" is "Grand Prix", rated 6.6/10 from 190 user votes. It was directed by Michael Lange and written by Barbara Hall. "Grand Prix" aired on 5/9/1994 and is rated 0.0 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "Let's Dance".
6.6/10 190 votes#1 - Grand Prix
Season 5 Episode 22 - Aired 5/9/1994
Ted tries to impress Marilyn with the rich client he's just landed and learns what makes them different. Maurice organizes Cicely's 1st International wheelchair race and demands too much from the contestant he is sponsoring. Ed prescribes a remedy for a racer with tennis elbow, but the little green man returns to try to undermine his confidence in his healing abilities.
Director: Michael Lange
Writer: Barbara Hall
6.6/10 162 votes#2 - Let's Dance
Season 6 Episode 22 - Aired 7/19/1995
Chris begins taking dance lessons from Marilyn but she disciplines one of her other students into giving him the lessons only she doesn't want to be seen talking to him, even though they have similar interests. Philip offends Marilyn's mother when he breaks tribal protocols for manners and Michelle confirms his deficiency. Maurice and Barbara travel on a prisoner transport with Cal the violinist to bring him back to the sanitarium. Along the way she falls under the spell of his violin playing causing her to think about violating the rules and letting him go free.
Director: N/A
Writer: Sam Egan
6.8/10 191 votes#3 - Zarya
Season 6 Episode 6 - Aired 10/31/1994
Ed films Marilyn telling the story of a Russian princess and her grandfather. It seems that Lenin and Anastasia arranged to meet in Cicely to work out an agreement that would reestablish the rule of her family in Russia. Meanwhile, an all-terrain vehicle is being prototyped for the Alaskan frontier.
Director: Jim Charleston
Writer: Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider
6.8/10 179 votes#4 - Little Italy
Season 6 Episode 18 - Aired 3/15/1995
Ruth-Anne makes her debut on National Public Radio telling about little slices of life from Cicely. The Capras go to Cicely's Little Italy, where it turns out there is an exclusive restaurant in the basement of a house in a feud with the people next door and they get caught in the middle. Maggie in her role as mayor must play marriage counselor for Shelly and Holling.
Director: Stephen Cragg
Writer: N/A
6.8/10 160 votes#5 - Ursa Minor
Season 6 Episode 21 - Aired 7/12/1995
Ed learns the responsibilities of parenthood when he begins caring for a lost bear cub. Maurice discovers that Cicely's population is declining. Chris uses a device that allows him to manipulate his dreams and work out some issues in his relationship with Maggie. Michelle waitresses at the Brick while continuing to work out her issues with Phil.
Director: N/A
Writer: Sam Egan
6.9/10 166 votes#6 - Lucky People
Season 6 Episode 16 - Aired 2/15/1995
The citizens get ready to celebrate founders' day; Chris and Maggie open an old garage and uncover Roslyn and Cicely's old Model T. While rebuilding the car, Chris starts to show an interest in Maggie. Maurice believes that Miranda is the reincarnation of his uncle, so he "plans to take a personal interest in her." The Capras look at their financial situation when they wish to build a house on land they've bought. Phil has a major anxiety attack, resulting from the onslaught of nature, and he tries to get Maurice to buy back the property. Michelle's wish to be different nearly gets her frostbite, when she decides to not wear the anonymous gifts she's received.
Director: Janet Greek
Writer: Diane Frolov, Andrew Schneider
7.1/10 167 votes#7 - Balls
Season 6 Episode 19 - Aired 4/6/1995
Ed resents Maurice's advice about his relationship with Heather. Chris believes that Maggie needs a new bowling partner so he holds tryouts and gets the woolly mammoth professor to be her partner. Michelle's success at bowling threatens Phil; they fight about it and she moves out. Chris becomes jealous of Maggie's new partner. Lester's wants to produce Ed's script for "The Shaman" with one change that makes Ed think about what Maurice said to him. Michelle moves out of the house.
Director: Scott Paulin
Writer: N/A
7.1/10 162 votes#8 - Buss Stop
Season 6 Episode 20 - Aired 4/24/1995
Michelle decides to mount a stage production of "Bus Stop" unaware of the curse that has plagued past stage productions. Ron helps guarantee that Erick gets a coveted role and Shelly is jealous when Maggie gets the female lead. Hayden designs the sets and a stage with a trap door. Holling, Erick and Chris all have issues to deal with about their parts in the play, which they discuss while drinking out at Holling's still.
Director: N/A
Writer: Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green
7.2/10 182 votes#9 - The Robe
Season 6 Episode 5 - Aired 10/17/1994
Satan comes to Cicely as a whirlpool salesman; he offers to fulfill Shelly's fantasy of making the Brick a major casino. Ed makes a mistake and skews the results of a cold medicine test that Joel is running for John Hopkins. Chris gets a ventriloquist's dummy and adds him to his radio show, but the dummy becomes more popular, because he "shoots straight from the hip." Maurice is convinced that Joel's cold medicine contains a new appetite suppressant and he presses Joel to tell him what it is. When that doesn't work, he gets Hayden to try to steal the information. To make her fantasy come true, all Shelly must do is burn Holling's old bathrobe.
Director: Lorraine Senna
Writer: Sam Egan
7.2/10 172 votes#10 - Realpolitik
Season 6 Episode 10 - Aired 12/12/1994
Maggie gets elected mayor. Joel invites Phil up river, for a game of golf and a test. Michelle covers Maggie's first city council meeting as mayor and Maggie makes her first motion for a centrally located dumpster but runs into opposition from the fiscal-restraint minded crowd. Maggie's power as mayor becomes a turn on for Chris. Marilyn invests money in a stud dog that doesn't want to mate.
Director: Victor Lobl
Writer: Sam Egan
7.3/10 181 votes#11 - Full Upright Position
Season 6 Episode 7 - Aired 11/7/1994
Maurice welcomes his young cousin Maurice to Cicely, hopefully to take over the family business. Charges of static electricity generate a new interest--and a new art project-- for Chris. Meanwhile sparks fly between Joel and Maggie on a Russian airline bound for St. Petersburg, where Joel is scheduled to speak at a medical convention.
Director: Oz Scott
Writer: Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green
7.3/10 161 votes#12 - The Mommy's Curse
Season 6 Episode 14 - Aired 2/1/1995
When Maggie's mother and her male friend, who dies, come to visit, she realizes that her luck with men runs in the family. Maurice becomes jealous of Holling's friendship with Phil. Ruth-Anne and Walt's relationship is put to the test when she has him help her out in the store.
Director: Michael Lange
Writer: Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green
7.4/10 243 votes#13 - Survival of the Species
Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 1/4/1993
Ed becomes gloomy about the future and begins to share Mike's visions about the future. Maggie digs up some artifacts from an ancient female in her front yard and Maurice wants to turn it into a major excavation. A young boy who runs away from a survival camp gets a job at "The Brick" to cover his room and board; he also falls madly in love with Shelly. Maggie and the rest of the women band together against the men who have dominated the dig in her front yard.
Director: Dean Parisot
Writer: N/A
7.4/10 198 votes#14 - A River Doesn't Run Through It
Season 5 Episode 5 - Aired 10/25/1993
Maggie is asked by the three guys in Cicely's high school senior class to be their homecoming queen and she accepts. Ruth-Anne faces an IRS auditor who besides trying to figure out her practice of accepting goods and services for payment is undergoing stress from her own marital problems. Maurice tries to outsmart a wealthy American Indian in a land deal. Joel is stuck out in the wilderness without his tape recorder.
Director: Nick Marck
Writer: N/A
7.4/10 167 votes#15 - Eye of the Beholder
Season 6 Episode 2 - Aired 9/26/1994
With Renaldo, Ed participates in an investigation of possible insurance fraud being perpetrated by Hayden Keyes. Maggie & Maurice both regret their donations to the library fund-raising auction. A dollhouse from the auction, Miranda's 1st birthday, and her growth begin to depress Shelly.
Director: Jim Charleston
Writer: Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green
7.4/10 173 votes#16 - Sons of the Tundra
Season 6 Episode 9 - Aired 11/28/1994
A new doctor and his wife move to Cicely to take over Joel's practice and his house. While settling in, they get to know some quirks of the people and their new environment. After eating a trout, Ed starts to see the future. Holling tries to join the "Sons of the Tundra" and Shelly dislikes the "men only" aspect. Joel stops by and trades Holling pelts for a new knife.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.4/10 168 votes#17 - The Graduate
Season 6 Episode 17 - Aired 3/8/1995
Maggie outbids Maurice for the ownership of the town's rundown theater which she begins to run with help of Ed and Heather. When two professors come to Cicely for the oral examination for Chris' master's degree, they clash over Chris' dissertation. A young Canadian Air Force lieutenant claims that Holling is his father, something proven because Holling sent his mother money every month for 25 years. However, that's just covering up a secret from his past. The theatre business causes stress for Maggie.
Director: James Hayman
Writer: Sam Egan
7.4/10 212 votes#18 - Tranquility Base
Season 6 Episode 23 - Aired 7/26/1995
Maurice's plans to ask Barbara to marry him while spending the weekend at his new summer home are in jeopardy when her style clashes with the way he wants his guests treated. Phil and Michelle continue to try to work out their differences and Ed, in his Shaman capacity, and Joel's Rabbi offer some advice. Chris is on the loose when Maggie doesn't make the journey to Maurice's but soon realizes that he is a changed man. The Vincoeurs stay locked up in their room when Holling is in heat.
Director: Michael Fresco
Writer: Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green
7.5/10 429 votes#19 - Dreams, Schemes and Putting Greens
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 8/2/1990
Joel's mind is on helping Maurice sell Alaska as the "new Riviera" to two Japanese businessmen in hopes of becoming the "attending physician"--and playing golf--at their proposed resort. Meanwhile, Holling has proposed to Shelly when he learns that she is carrying his child, when the wedding day arrives, he is somewhat reluctant to go through with ceremony.
Director: Dan Lerner
Writer: N/A
7.5/10 251 votes#20 - My Mother, My Sister
Season 3 Episode 18 - Aired 3/16/1992
An abandoned baby gets attention from the whole town and helps awaken Adam's paternal instincts while Shelly's life is unsettled by a visit from her youthful, giddy mother and her new boy friend.
Director: Rob Thompson
Writer: Mitchell Burgess
7.5/10 232 votes#21 - Old Tree
Season 4 Episode 25 - Aired 5/24/1993
The town's oldest tree is dying. Shelly wakes up and finds that she can't talk, but she can sing. The town asks Joel to diagnose Old Vicki. Chris goes wireless and is freed from the confines of the broadcast booth. Shelly's singing starts to get on Holling's nerves. Maggie tries to be pleasant to Joel and the result of all this kindness is that Joel keeps getting injured. Maurice is intent on bringing the tree down. Shelly becomes worried that she may never talk again. After the felling of Old Vicki, the town has a wake. Maurice feels remorse after the felling of Old Vicki. Maggie and Joel cut a deal to try keeping Joel injury free.
Director: Michael Fresco
Writer: Diane Frolov, Robin Green
7.5/10 181 votes#22 - Altered Egos
Season 5 Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1993
Bernard is surprised when he discovers his new love once lived with Chris for 6 months. Joel starts to fear that he is losing his New York edge. Marilyn screens her potential dates via their medical records.
Director: John David Coles
Writer: N/A
7.5/10 198 votes#23 - Baby Blues
Season 5 Episode 11 - Aired 1/3/1994
An agent stops by to see Ed about his idea for "The Shaman" but he wants a few "little" changes made to better sell the script. Chris seeks to discover his feminine side. Joel and Maggie "discuss" motherhood. Shelly flees her baby shower as all the pressures of motherhood begin to show themselves to her, when Eve and others tell their child birthing experiences.
Director: Jim Charleston
Writer: Barbara Hall
7.6/10 486 votes#24 - Soapy Sanderson
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 7/26/1990
A hermit takes Joel's advice to put his affairs in order and leaves all his considerable land holdings to be jointly administered by Maggie and the good doctor, who has definite ideas about how to dispose of the windfall.
Director: Stephen Cragg
Writer: Jerry Stahl, Karen Hall
7.6/10 412 votes#25 - Sex, Lies and Ed's Tapes
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 8/16/1990
A young man from Saskatchewan further rocks the already delicate relationship between Shelly and Holling. Ed suffers from writer's block and a lack of focus as he tries to begin work on his blockbuster movie. Maggie and Rick tiptoe around ""Maggie's curse"" when he shows symptoms of a serious medical problem.
Director: Sandy Smolan
Writer: Joshua Brand, John Falsey