MC Notes: 3.16 Three Amigos

3.16 Three Amigos

Chris: There they go into the last great gasp of the wilderness known as Alaska. We all have our own relationship with the wild. Out there or in here, in our hearts, in our souls. Wheeling, West Virginia, 1983. I'm in the joint, prison library, working my way backward from Z. Stendahl, Proust, I'm in the L's and eureka, baby! Jack London, my main man. If Whitman gave me poetry, then Mr. London took me to a place inside me I didn't know existed but recognized instantly, like I'd been heading there all my lost life. There was Buck, big civilized mutt from the south land, slapped down in the frigid north to redefine himself for what he really was. I was Buck, Buck was I, Buck is us. (6)

Original Air Date(1): March 2, 1992

Production Number: 77520

Written by(1): Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess

Directed by(1): Mathew Nodella

Log line(1): The death of a rugged hunting companion sends Holling and Maurice into the wilderness to make good on a promise to bury him miles from civilization at a paradise called No-Name Point. Chris reads from Call of the Wild and it reflects Holling and Maurice's adventure.

Synopsis(1): Maurice and Holling's old hunting friend, Bill Planey, dies and, as promised, they aim to take old Bill's body to No-Name Point, along with Solvang (guest star Joanna Cassidy), Bill's headstrong wife of three winters. But old age yells louder than the Call of the Wild, and the boys lose more than their unhobbled horses, which they find in Two Forks, along with Reinhart Schoelder (guest star Norbert Weisser), Teak (guest star Brian Finney) and Pig-Eye (guest star Tom Spiller), who fight Maurice and Holling over a bridge game. Solvang shacks up with Reinhart, also buying into his bar with the money Maurice and Holling gave her (Maurice writes a check for $1,643.81 and Holling kicks in a fifty). Holling and Maurice lose Bill's wrapped body down the river and end up burying him in a glen.

Background(2): Ruth-Anne recalls the night Bill Planey threw a miner though the barbershop window after the man insulted his lead dog ... he and Maurice & Holling cut down caribou all over the Kodiak Preserve; even now dead Bill is dragging them into trouble; Bill liked Blackjack gum; Bill used to be long and skinny.

One fateful day in 1964: the three musketeers were trapping out on No-Name Point when a storm blew up, sending Bill's mule down a bottomless crevice, lost all their food, bedrolls, tarp; rope cut Bill's leg deep. three matches left ... killed one of the horses and slept in its carcass, ate its liver for breakfast; Bill decided right then and there it doesn't get any better than that.

1983, Wheeling, West VA: Chris in the prison library reads backwards from Z - discovers Jack London.

Solvang's third husband worked the pipeline up in Barrow, ate nothing but fish and fried potatoes; died of hypothermia, storm blew him off the platform.

Holling's father shipped back to Quebec, rests next to his mother.

Maurice has never been married. He and Holling have known each other thirty years.

Facts to Wax(2): No-Name Point: forty-five miles on a switchback trail, through bogs and mire, over boulders and slate, thousand foot drops on either side ...

Ed made Bill's coffin.

Maurice writes a check for $1643.81 and Holling gives her a fifty.

Guest Stars(7):
Solvang Planey - Joanna Cassidy
Reinhart - Norbert Weisser
Teak - Brian Finney
Pig-Eye - Tom Spiller

Music: (3)
• It Won't Hurt - Dwight Yoakam
[Maurice brings news of Bill's death to Holling at the Brick.](8)

• Grand River
[Maurice buys supplies for his trip at Ruth-Anne's.](8)

• The Whiskey Ain't Working
[Maurice and Holling sit by the fire.](8)

• Acoustic Duet 1 - Country Blues Guitar
[Maurice and Holling play cards.](8)

• Hands on the Wheel - Willie Nelson
[Re -look at the trip; Shelly gives Holling a bath.](8)

Shelly's Earrings:
Frying pans with eggs[Maurice comes into the bar with the news of Bill Planey.]
Tropical fish [Holling returns from his trip.]

Barry Corbin being made up for his fight scene.

Footnotes and additional resources:
1. The Revised and Updated Northern Exposure Book, 2nd Ed. by Louis Chunovic (1995)
2. Revised NE Bible: New and Improved fro 94-95 season! Memo from: Ursula Wendel and Cynthia Cohen- Gugisch
3. Print-out of Jude Shabry's music list from the Moose's Guide to Northern Exposure.
4. Intertain 2000 collection of NX music online
5. Geoff's Miscellany
6. Kevin Wright's Culture NX Quotes for Season 3.
7. MCA TV Promotional Kit dated 9/27/95
8. The Northern Exposure Book, 1st Ed. (1993) by Louis Chunovic

Created 1/20/02 • Updated 4/11/02

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