The character of Ed at one point quotes from St. Elsewhere (1982), praising the show. The creators of Northern Exposure (1990), Joshua Brand and John Falsey were the masterminds behind St. Elsewhere (1982).
Even though Maurice shows Joel the Roslyn's Café mural, Roslyn's Café is never featured in the entire show's run.
Maurice tells Joel that he had to paint the apostrophe in "Roslyn's Cafe" himself, because the artist who had done the mural was so high on weed that he forgot it. In truth, the apostrophe and letter s were added by the crew to the existing mural in the Washington town of Roslyn, where the show was filmed. They were removed again after filming.
When Joel arrives in Cicely, the population of the town is shown as 215, corrected from previously 214, on the Welcometo Cicely sign. In a later episode the town's population is 839, as a joking reference to the show's budget of $839,000. This rise of the population is never explained.
Elaine Miles won the part of Marilyn Whirlwind by accident. She accompanied her mother, who was auditioning for the part of Marilyn, and they cast Elaine instead.