Season five of Northern Exposure closed out on 23 May, 1994 with Lovers and Madmen, which was written by Jeff Melvoin.

Joel (Rob Morrow) takes a tumble while golfing, and discovers a thawing mastodon. There could be fame and fortune in his future. But the museum sends out an ornithologist, Pickering (Wayne Pere), and things get wacky. Because the mastodon goes missing.

Chris (John Corbett) is letdown when a high school crush shows up, and isn’t anything like he remembered. And when he’s less than nice to her, and more focused on his own experience of how he remembered her, that makes things all the worse.

Shelly (Cynthia Geary) trues to straighten him out. He could have been nicer, but he very much plays the part of someone who recalls someone the way he remembers them, not the way they are. We all do that.

Maurice (Barry Corbin) is trying to get a talented violinist released from hospital care as a birthday present for Barbara (Diane Delano). It’s nice to see them together, but Maurice is so intent on making everything perfect, what will he do when the violinist, Cal (Simon Templeman) absconds the next morning, making a break for it.

And what happens when Barbara realizes the truth that Maurice removed the violinist, illegally. There’s a manhunt starting with Ed (Darren E. Burrows) and the skilled tracker, Holling (John Cullum), but are Barbara and Maurice over? Will he be arrested? Will the relationship continue?

It’s kind of a quiet way to end the season, there’s no real setup for anything to come, it’s just another episode. It’s a good episode, and it’s entertaining. But doesn’t do anything like we would expect from a season closer in today’s broadcast world.

Dinner at Seven Thirty debuted on 19 September, 1994 and launched the sixth and final season. It was written by Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider.

When Joel drinks some ‘orange juice’ from Ed’s fridge, he has an episode. Is he in an alternate reality? He’s in New York, he’s married to Shelly, Maggie (Janine Turner) is their nanny, and he’s looking to partner with Ruth-Anne (Peg Phillips).

Chris is still an artist, but he’s not sure he’s capable, or good enough, and thinks about walking off the roof.

And there’s a dinner party! And Maurice, whose a doorman, walks in with a gun!

Everyone shows up in different ways, and it’s fun to see riffs on characters that are kind of the same, but twisted into someone new.

And there are some people who just have to connect to one another, no matter who, when, or why they are.

There are ferrets, suits, strange takes on characters, while still being familiar, and it all plays very oddly, as characters find their way back to one another, despite the trappings.

It’s a charming episode, as far from Cicely as the story can get, while still being undeniably, Northern Exposure. It’s an interesting way to start the season, and it’s kind of sad that it will be a standalone, and these versions of the characters won’t be explored any more.

Welcome to the final season of Northern Exposure.