The following are fictional characters who appeared in Northern Exposure, an American television series which originally aired on CBS from July 1990 to July 1995. Main characters Joel Fleischman Joel (Rob Morrow) is the central character at the beginning of the series, a young, somewhat uptight Jewish doctor from Flushing, Queens (New York City) who is contractually bound to practice in the remote Alaskan town of Cicely for four years to repay a student loan from the government. The comedy centered originally on the clash between Fleischman's petty and neurotic, almost Woody Allen-like, urban mindset and the easy-going, community-minded people around him. The role receded somewhat in importance by season four, as behind the scenes Morrow was involved in contentious contract negotiations, and Fleischman's character was minimized or even entirely absent for some later episodes. Morrow left the series in the middle of the sixth (and final) season. Maurice J. Minnifield Maurice (Barry Corbin) is a macho, patriotic ex-astronaut and millionaire entrepreneur, owner of the local radio station KBHR and newspaper, as well as fifteen thousand acres (60 km²) of local land. Determined to make tiny Cicely the next boomtown, on "the cusp of the new Alaskan Riviera," Maurice arranges to bring Dr. Fleischman to the town, which previously had no permanent physician. In season 3, Maurice is visited by a South Korean man who turns out to be his son (Yung Duk Won) that he fathered during his deployment in South Korea in the 1950s as a Marine, who in turn has his own son (Yung Bong Joo) that makes Maurice a grandfather. Christopher Danforth Stevens Chris (John Corbett) is the disc jockey at KBHR, conceptual sculptor, and an ex-convict who spent most of his prison time reading, a fact which makes him one of the most well-educated people in Cicely. He intersperses the music of his morning show with philosophical musings on the nature of life and readings from such writers as Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Carl Jung, and Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are). Chris is also Cicely's only clergyman, ordained as a minister in the Universal Life Church through an advertisement in Rolling Stone magazine. As radio host "Chris in the Morning", he serves as the de facto narrator for the show. Mary Margaret "Maggie" O'Connell Maggie (Janine Turner) is a professional bush pilot, property agent and Fleischman's landlord. She was a debutante