Northern Exposure is an American comedy-drama television series that originally aired on CBS from July 12, 1990, to July 26, 1995, with a total of 110 episodes. The series follows the eccentric residents in the fictitious town of Cicely, Alaska. Rob Morrow starred as New York City native Dr. Joel Fleischman, whose med school tuition was underwritten by the government of Alaska in exchange for him practicing medicine for four years in the state.

In the first episode, the newly graduated doctor is shocked to learn that instead of being assigned to a modern hospital in Anchorage as he had expected, he is being sent to the remote town of Cicely to serve as the area's only general practitioner. The first season was centered around Fleischman's fish-out-of-water experiences in rural Alaska and his attempts to get out of his contract. As the series progressed, it developed into more of an ensemble show, with episodes focused on other residents of the town.

Northern Exposure received 57 award nominations during its six-season run and won 27, including the 1992 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, two additional Primetime Emmy Awards, four Creative Arts Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globes.

The series was created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey, who also created the award-winning shows St. Elsewhere and I'll Fly Away, in addition to the show A Year in the Life. It started as a mid-season replacement summer series on CBS in 1990 with eight episodes. It returned for seven more episodes in spring 1991, then became a regular part of the network's schedule in 1991–92. It ranked among the top 10 viewed by 18- to 49-year-olds, and was part of the network's 1992–93 and 1993–94 schedules.

In 1994, writer Sandy Veith won a lawsuit against Universal, alleging that the series was based on an idea he conceived for which he received no credit or compensation. Veith subsequently won $10 million in damages and legal fees on appeal three years later. The Los Angeles Times reported that Brand and Falsey were not included in the allegations and that jurors seemed to believe the studio brought the basic concept for the show to them rather than that they knowingly stole Veith's idea. Veith's original idea was about an Italian-American doctor who moves to a small town in the South. In 1994, the same year that the lawsuit was filed, Brand and Falsey resigned. David Chase was brought in to serve as executive producer. He later went on to say that he took the job purely for the money, stating that he disliked the premise of the show; Brand cited Chase as having run the show into the ground.

In January 1995, the show moved from Monday to Wednesday, and in May 1995 there was a gap during sweeps when CBS broadcast other programming. At one point, Barry Corbin wrote an open letter to TV critics that called the show "an understandably weakened show". On May 24, 1995, CBS announced the cancelation of the show, which had its final episode shown on July 26. "The show had a lot of life in it, and the move (Wednesday at 10pm) killed it," said executive producer Andrew Schneider. "This piddling out is sad."

Morrow and his representatives spent much of seasons 4 and 5 lobbying for an improved contract, and intermittently threatened to leave the show. The producers responded by reducing Fleischman's role in the storylines, and introducing characters such as Mike Monroe (season 4) and Dr. Phil Capra (season 6) to partially compensate for the absence of Morrow, whose last appearance came midway through the show's final season.

In the show's last season, two new characters were introduced to fill the void left by Morrow's departure: