Wednesday, June 26, 2013

CBS broadcast network TV's first scripted gay wedding nearly 20 years ago on Northern Exposure

It was on the season 5, episode 21 installment of Northern Exposure, entitled 'I Feel the Earth Move,' broadcast May 2, 1994, that the two bickering ex-Marine proprietors, Ron and Erick, who ran a bed and breakfast in mythical Cicely, decided to get hitched. A couple CBS affiliates refused to air the show.
Synopsis: After eight years of sharing, Ron and Erick are making wedding plans, complete with a gourmet menu, classical music, and a full guest list. While all of Cicely is excited over the first wedding of the season, Maurice is dumbfounded and feels they are making a mockery of marriage. Throughout the preparations, the tension builds as the lucky grooms constantly bicker over music, guest list, seating arrangements, caterer, and so on. The night before the big day, they get into a fight and Erick shows up on Maurice's doorstep with a black eye asking to borrow $500 to leave and go to Seattle. Against his better judgment, Maurice calms him down and convinces him to sleep on his rash decision to call off the wedding. With a new day, everything looks brighter and the hitching goes off without a hitch.
     Holling gets caught up in the wedding excitement, as he underbids Cantwell Catering to prepare the gourmet fare for the day. Hoping to use the profits on a new sump pump, Holling is crestfallen to discover that the delicacies on the menu are much more expensive than he anticipated. He decides to alter the ingredients ever so slightly to keep costs down, substituting honey-baked ham for prosciutto and apricots for melon. As they wedding draws near, and it dawns on him that he is cheating the couple on such an important day, Holling starts from scratch with all the right ingredients and everyone raves about the food.

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