‘Exposure’ Joins Short List of TV on Disc

While many TV shows are available on videotape, few have been accorded longevity on laser disc. Most that have wear some sort of cult pin and have been off the air for a while. Examples include HBO’s “Tanner ‘88” (Criterion), “I Love Lucy” (Criterion), “The Outer Limits” (MGM/UA) and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” (MGM/UA).

An exception is superstar film director Steven Spielberg’s low-rated TV series “Amazing Stories” (MCA-Universal), available on laser in several volumes, even though the series failed to maintain much of an audience on national television.

And now, along comes “Northern Exposure” (two volumes, MCA-Universal, $35 apiece), a series still inhabiting the Nielsen Top 20. The program has gradually built up a loyal and eager audience with its offbeat stories, smart and philosophical dialogue and genuinely likable if eccentric characters.

The Joshua Brand-John Falsey creation, which is nestled Monday nights at 10 in the CBS summer and upcoming fall schedule, got its start three summers ago. To the surprise and delight of many critics, it held on, drawing increasing attention for its quirky look at life in the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska. While the show has increased in popularity, not all of its present viewers have seen the earlier episodes that caught the initial attention of critics and the public in the summer of 1990.

The first volume of MCA’s laser-disc offering includes the premiere episode, which introduced us to the local inhabitants and to Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow), the young doctor who ended up obligated to serve the Alaskan town in return for the state paying his medical education tab. Also on the first disc is the early “Aurora Borealis: A Fairy Tale for Big People” episode. For those just catching up with the series, as well as those who got hooked immediately, these episodes provide an opportunity to see how the not quite fully formed characters have evolved over the last couple of seasons.

Volume Two offers a memorable episode from 1991: “Cicely,” which flashes back to the founding of the town; and the 1992 “Northwest Passages,” featuring Janine Turner as the independent Maggie O’Connell dealing with her 30th birthday rather unconventionally. But isn’t that how things are in Cicely?

Tall in the Saddle

Coming along just as Clint Eastwood makes news with a new movie is a collection of three of his most enduring Westerns, including last year’s Oscar-winning “Unforgiven.” (The 1992 film is also available singly, letterboxed, for $40.)

Also in the set are “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (1976) and “Pale Rider” (1985), showing off Eastwood across three decades as actor-director. The films are fine letterboxed transfers, with at times too-realistic full-bodied digital theatrical surround sound that makes you turn around to glimpse the horses trampling through your living room, or in those final, frightening “Unforgiven” scenes, surrounds you with a menacing rainstorm.

The four-disc Warner set ($120), however, includes no supplemental material, except a short essay by film writer Henry Sheehan. The films go midway through discs, so if you’re asleep at the switch you could end up seeing the beginning of “Pale Rider” flip to the end of “Josey Wales” and wonder which film you came in the middle of. The unfortunate “Pale Rider,” which easily fits on two sides of one disc, is put back-to-back with the end of “Josey Wales” and the beginning of “Unforgiven.” A poor piece of production.

What a missed opportunity to have Eastwood discuss the stoic, Western hero he has come to personify and his growth as an actor-director across the time frame that these films represent. Perhaps that will come another day on a Criterion disc.

Both “Josey Wales” and “Pale Rider” have been released in non-letterboxed versions, which barely hint at the Western panoramas that the new set so beautifully captures. “Josey Wales” lists for $30, “Pale Rider” for $25.

Coming Soon

“A Few Good Men” (Columbia TriStar, $40), originally due June 30, has been delayed a few weeks; “Scent of a Woman” (MCA-Universal, widescreen, $40) on Aug. 4.

Old Movies Just Out

“The Great Caruso” (MGM/UA, 1951, $35). Mario Lanza in the title role as the legendary opera singer.

“The Yellow Rolls-Royce” (MGM/UA, 1965, $35). Rex Harrison, Ingrid Bergman and Shirley MacLaine head an all-star cast in this British drama focusing on romances involving owners of the fabled car.

“Kiss Me Deadly” (MGM/UA, 1955, $35). Director Robert Aldrich’s renowned B-movie gangster tale with Ralph Meeker starring as detective Mike Hammer.