On Saturday afternoon, we held phone interviews with Adam Arkin, Barry Corbin, John Cullum, and Rob Morrow. We were unable to get ahold of Moultrie Patten at the time.

Some tidbits:
Rob Morrow "Well .. I don't know if I'll give you the right answers." He is working on a Fall CBS Pilot, "Numbers."

John Cullum mentioned working with Barry Corbin on another project - "Molding Clay."

Barry Corbin spoke to us from his car, claiming to be driving fast, on his way back from filming his WB series "One Tree Hill."

Adam Arkin "My real shoe size is 13 ... but, of course, I don't wear shoes." He has an upcoming Broadway show called Brooklyn Boy. He joked about extensive voice-over work he and his father do -- "Stay off camera and we'll keep giving you work." He said the Quest episode (6.15) was "Bittersweet ... [had] a quality of being behind the curtain."

Saturday night followed a very hot day - temps cracking 100 F. We had five special guests join us - Dan Dusek, Cynthia Geary, Don McManus, Rosetta Pintado and Bill White.

During the dinner, we got to hear many behind the scenes stories from the guests.

Cynthia Geary was a music major in college and did her own singing in 4.25 Old Tree, which at one point was planned as a cast-wide opera. She studied French and Italian for the show. 5.15 Hello I Love You is her favorite episode. Don McManus chimed in that 6.20 Buss Stop was his favorite.

Don: "I never read her character [Shelly] as a ditz. I always thought she was a pure heart."

Don was a fill-in for the original actor who was slated to play Erick, but who decided to take another series pilot. The irony - that series didn't make it. He laughed about many scenes with Doug Ballard (Ron). "He kept trying to lead." he said, speaking of the dance scenes, "but I wouldn't let him."

Discussing the episode where he and Ron get married, "the director said that I was supposed to have 'bridal angst'... and I said, *me* have bridal angst?!"

"We had so much fun, it was stupid!"

Rosetta Pintado talked about how she ended up on the show (featured as Mrs. Noanuk in 3.12 Our Tribe):

"[the crew] needed a group of native elders to get on and off a bus for a scene. They did the scene about ten times but they are elders and move a little slow. So after ten times, they were done."

She explained how she thought she was only appearing as an extra in the background but someone gave her a script and asked her to read from it. Next thing she knew, she had a speaking part.

Since Northern Exposure, Ms. Pintado has done a lot of theatre around the Seattle area. But now, she says, "I'm not doing theatre anymore ... it's my turn to play bingo."

Cynthia Geary on Shelly: "My character got to go through complete change... on this show, the characters were so multi-faceted."

She mentioned everyone was so talented, specifically Katherine Bentley (Costume Designer, responsible for many things - including Shelly's earrings), and Woody Crocker (Production and Set Designer).

The original idea was for an Indian woman to play the part of Shelly, but then the writers changed their minds. Cynthia and Don both talked about their auditions and interviews for the parts.

"I didn't know enough to be nervous, " she said. "We [she and her now-husband, Robert] were excited I didn't have to wait tables for six months." The Pilot was enough to cover ends meet for that time period.

The guest unanimously agreed that Peg Phillips was great to work with, and was the closest in real life to her character.

"If Peg ever had an unexpressed thought ... " Don reminisced.

"Adam" (Kurt in costume) harasses the crowd.
"Please Gringle"

Enjoying the Saturday night big feast.

Don Was living in New York at the time, but flew to LA for Pilot Season. "A magical hunting season ... " he muses. He took a studio apartment in what he describes as "an adult singles building from the 1950s." Pool was full of rain water. There were lots of bugs. He explained he had to wash his dishes to use them. So he was very happy when he got the part.

On Northern Exposure and if it were on the air today: "It was too tolerant. It wouldn't survive today."

Don has done many other projects since (watch for an updated biography on Moosechick Notes soon!). He says he suffers from "that guy syndrome." When people see him, they say "hey ... that's that guy ... you know ... the one from that movie ..."

The group talked about the success of the show.

"What made this magic, " explained Cynthia, "was we were kind of left alone. No one from the studio was up here. We were out of the way." She laughed and offered, "They didn't understand it and they left us alone."

Cynthia has done a handful of movies filmed in the Pacific Northwest but has mostly been focusing on raising her daughter. Her husband, Robert, was with her at the dinner.

When asked what he thought about Shelly and Holling's relationship: "Every time she kissed John Cullum, my phone would ring ... 'dude, she's kissing him again' ..."

During the popularity of Northern Exposure, she had her share of attention. She says now she can live a fairly normal life. Now that her daughter will be starting school soon, she says she'll start doing more work.