Twin Peaks

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks opening title screen
Format	Drama, Mystery, Horror
Created by	David Lynch & Mark Frost
Starring	Kyle MacLachlan Michael Ontkean Mädchen Amick Dana Ashbrook Richard Beymer Lara Flynn Boyle Joan Chen Sherilyn Fenn Warren Frost Piper Laurie Sheryl Lee Peggy Lipton James Marshall Everett McGill Jack Nance Kimmy Robertson Ray Wise
Opening theme	"Falling (Twin Peaks Theme)" by Angelo Badalamenti
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	30 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mark Frost David Lynch
Running time	approx. 48 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	April 8, 1990 – June 10, 1991
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Twin Peaks is an American Emmy Award nominated, Peabody and Golden Globe-winning television serial drama that follows the investigation of the brutal death of popular, respected teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), headed by Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan). Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, Twin Peaks's pilot episode was first broadcast on April 8, 1990 on the ABC Network, which led to another seven episodes being produced, and a second season, which aired until June 10, 1991. The show is set in a small fictional Washington town known as "Twin Peaks", and was primarily filmed in the Washington towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend.^[1]

After its debut episode on April 8, 1990, Twin Peaks became one of that year's top-rated shows, a critical success both nationally and internationally. Reflecting its devoted cult fan base, the series became a part of popular culture, referenced in other television shows, commercials, comic books, a video game, films and song lyrics. Declining viewer ratings in the long-running second season led to a cancellation. In 1992, the series spawned a prequel to the series, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), which attempted to connect the events leading up to Laura Palmer's death. From 2003 until 2004, Bravo re-aired Twin Peaks in the United States. Currently, NBC Universal's horror-themed cable channel Chiller, which launched on March 1, 2007, is airing the series. The entire series is also currently viewable online in the video section of CBS's website.[1]

[edit] Plot synopsis

Note: The series is set in 1989, with each episode — barring occasional exceptions — representing a single day in the chronology.

[edit] Season One

On the morning of February 24, in the town of Twin Peaks, Washington state, lumberjack Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse tightly wrapped in a sheet of clear plastic on the bank of a river. Following the arrival of Sheriff Harry S. Truman, his deputies, and Dr. Will Hayward on the scene, the body is discovered to be that of homecoming queen Laura Palmer, the most popular girl at the local high school. The news spreads among the town's residents, particularly Laura's family and friends. Meanwhile, just across the state line, a second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is found walking along the railroad tracks in a fugue state. Since Ronette was discovered across the state line, FBI Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate. Cooper's initial examination of Laura's body reveals a tiny typed letter 'R' inserted under her fingernail. He recognizes this as the "calling card" of a killer who took the life of Teresa Banks a year earlier in a town located "in the southwest corner of the state" (revealed in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me to be Deer Meadow). Cooper quickly establishes that Laura's character and relationships are not as they first appear, and that she's far from the wholesome homecoming queen that those closest to her believed her to be. It is revealed that Laura was two-timing her boyfriend Bobby Briggs with sullen biker James Hurley, a fact known to Laura's best friend Donna Hayward. Cooper also finds traces of cocaine in Laura's diary, indicating a drug habit she shared with Bobby. Meanwhile, Donna and James begin an investigation of their own into Laura's death, and find themselves embarking on a romantic relationship with each other.

Laura's cousin Maddy Ferguson arrives to stay with Laura's parents prior to the funeral. Maddy, who resembles Laura closely, befriends Donna and James and helps them in their efforts to find the killer — even impersonating Laura at one point to fool Laura's psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Jacoby. During his investigation, Cooper stays at the Great Northern Hotel owned by the Horne family. The Hornes' sultry daughter Audrey develops a crush on Cooper that initially appears to be mutual. However, Cooper later rebuffs her advances, on the grounds that she is a high schooler, and that she is involved in the case he is working on. With Audrey's help, Cooper traces Laura's cocaine usage to a brothel called One-Eyed Jack's, which Audrey later infiltrates on Cooper's behalf. It is revealed that Laura had also been working as a prostitute there. Cooper also experiences a bizarre dream, in which he sees a one-armed man called MIKE, who chants a strange poem: "Through the darkness of future past / The magician longs to see / One chance out between two worlds / Fire walk with me." MIKE tells Cooper about another man called BOB, and how they went "killing together." BOB also appears as a man with long, gray hair, dressed in denim, who swears to Cooper, "I will kill again." As the dream continues, MIKE shoots BOB. Cooper then finds himself twenty-five years later, sitting in a mysterious red-curtained room. It is here that he meets the diminutive Man from Another Place, who intones clues to Cooper in the form of strange phrases, and then proceeds to dance to a jazzy beat. Also present is the spirit of Laura Palmer (although the little man at first claims she's his cousin), who kisses Cooper, and then whispers into his ear the name of her killer. When he awakens, Cooper is unable to recall the killer's name.

Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) meets with the Giant

Cooper and the local police force are then able to track down Mike, whose full name is Phillip Michael Gerard. Gerard appears to be nothing more than a shoe salesman, and claims to know nothing of the BOB that Cooper describes. However, it eventually becomes clear that Gerard is possessed by an "inhabiting spirit" (the true "MIKE"), who reveals to Cooper and his colleages the true nature of BOB — BOB is a fellow inhabiting-spirit who has possessed someone in Twin Peaks "for over forty years." Cooper is also visited by an apparition of a mysterious Giant, who provides him with further clues in the murder investigation. All of the information that Cooper has gained from psychic and empirical means, including the mysterious utterances of an eccentric local woman known as The Log Lady, leads him to a number of suspects; but when he discovers the existence of Laura's secret second diary, he realizes that therein lies the key to solving the mystery. Harold Smith, a local man who was one of Laura's confidants, holds this diary. The secret diary reveals that from a very early age Laura was abused by a figure called "Bob," and that her use of drugs and sex are the means she has used to numb herself and escape from him. Cooper is shot by an unknown assailant at the end of the first season.

[edit] Season Two

After Cooper is shot, he is left lying in the room and he experiences another dream in which a giant man appears in the room and provides him a variety of clues, such as telling to Cooper to remember "the owls are not what they seem". Cooper recognizes this to mean that BOB is the owl. But the relevance of this is not yet known. On the night before she is to leave town, Maddy is brutally murdered by Laura's father, Leland, who is revealed as the man who is possessed by BOB, as seen when BOB's spirit occasionally takes a visual form in the place of Leland's figure. Cooper and Truman apprehend him, and as they interrogate the crazed Leland, it becomes clear that Leland has little to no memory of his grotesque actions while under BOB's influence. After confessing to two murders, BOB forces Leland to smash his own head against the wall of his cell. As Cooper and Truman rush to his side, Leland's memories of what he has done return to him, and in his dying moment, Leland claims to see Laura. However, as Cooper and the others note, if BOB has truly left Leland's body, it means his spirit is now loose in the woods of Twin Peaks, taking the form of an owl. With the murder investigation concluded, Cooper is then all set to leave Twin Peaks when he is framed for drug trafficking by the criminal Jean Renault, and is temporarily suspended from the FBI. Renault holds Cooper responsible for the death of his brother Jacques, who was murdered by a grieving Leland Palmer when Jacques was under suspicion for Laura's murder. After Renault is killed in a shoot-out with police, and Cooper is cleared of the charges, his former FBI partner and mentor Windom Earle comes to Twin Peaks to play a deadly game of chess with Cooper, in which each piece of Cooper's that he takes means someone dies. As Cooper explains to Truman, during his early years with the FBI alongside Earle, Cooper had begun an affair with Earle's wife, Caroline, while she had been under his protection as a witness to a federal crime. Earle went mad and killed Caroline, tried to gut Cooper with a knife, and was subsequently committed to a mental institution. Now having escaped and come to Twin Peaks, Earle hides out in the woods so that he may go about plotting his revenge scheme.

As this is going on, Cooper continues to try to track down the origins and whereabouts of BOB, and learns more about the mysteries of the dark woods surrounding Twin Peaks. It is here he learns of the existence of the White Lodge and the Black Lodge, two mystical extra-dimensional realms whose gateways reside somewhere in the woods, and which are occupied by spirits that appear in Cooper's dreams and visions (metaphorically referred to as owls — "The owls are not what they seem"). Cooper also falls in love with a new girl in town, Annie Blackburn. When Annie wins the Miss Twin Peaks contest, Windom Earle kidnaps her and takes her to the Black Lodge, which Cooper realizes has been Earle's goal all along. The Black Lodge then is revealed to be the place where BOB, the Little Man from Another Place, and the Giant come from, and where the red-curtained room of Cooper's dream is located. Cooper follows Earle into the Lodge, and has a set of bizarre encounters with doppelgangers of dead characters, including Caroline, Earle, and Laura and Leland Palmer. During Cooper's journey, Windom Earle is apparently killed when his soul is consumed by an enraged BOB after Earle tries to claim Cooper's own soul in trade for Annie's life. Cooper then tries to escape, but cannot find the exit in the non-linear path of the Black Lodge. He is also chased by his own smiling doppelganger as he tries to find a way out. The Cooper doppelganger catches him, as BOB laughs. Cooper returns to the woods, with Annie by his side, both found unconscious on the ground by Truman. Some time later, Cooper awakens in his room at the Great Northern Hotel, and is tended to by Truman and Doc Hayward. He then requests to brush his teeth in his bathroom. Locking the door behind him, Cooper then smiles uncharacteristically as he pours toothpaste into the sink. He then slams his head into the mirror, and when Cooper's bloody face turns toward the camera, he laughs — his reflection is that of BOB. Apparently the Cooper doppelganger has exited the Black Lodge, thus taking the real Cooper's place. The series then ends on this cliffhanger.

[edit] Production

[edit] Conception

David Lynch, who had experienced previous success with the acclaimed The Elephant Man (1980) and Blue Velvet (1986), was hired by a Warner Bros. executive to direct a film about the life of Marilyn Monroe, based on the best-selling book The Goddess. Lynch recalls being "sort of interested. I loved the idea of this woman in trouble, but I didn't know if I liked it being a real story."^[2] Mark Frost was hired to write the screenplay. Even though this project was dropped by Warner Brothers, Lynch and Frost became good friends, and wrote a screenplay titled One Saliva Bubble, with Steve Martin attached to star in it. However, this film was not made, either. Lynch's agent, Tony Krantz, had been trying to get the filmmaker to work on TV since Blue Velvet, but he was never really that interested in the idea. Early on, Lynch and Frost developed the town before its inhabitants.^[3] They drew a map and knew that there would be a lumber mill located in the town.^[3] Then, they came up with an image of a body washing up on the shore of a lake.^[3][4] Lynch remembers, "We knew where everything was located and that helped us determine the prevailing atmosphere and what might happen there."^[4]

Lynch and Frost pitched the idea to ABC during the time of Writers Guild of America strike in 1988^[5] in a ten-minute meeting with the network's drama head, Chad Hoffman, with nothing more than this image and a concept.^[4] According to the director, the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer was initially going to be in the foreground, but would recede gradually as viewers got to know the other townsfolk and their problems they were having.^[4] Lynch and Frost wanted to mix a police investigation with a soap opera.^[4]

ABC liked the idea, and asked Lynch and Frost to write a screenplay for the pilot episode. Frost wrote more verbal characters, like Benjamin Horne, while Lynch was responsible for Agent Cooper. According to the director, "He says a lot of the things I say."^[3] Originally, the show was entitled Northwest Passage and set in North Dakota, but the fact that a town called Twin Peaks really existed (much like Lumberton in Blue Velvet) prompted a revision in the script. They filmed the pilot for $1.8 million^[5] with an agreement with ABC that they would shoot an additional "ending" to it so that it could be sold directly to video in Europe as a feature if the TV show was not picked up. However, even though ABC's Bob Iger liked the pilot, he had a tough time persuading the rest of the network brass. Iger suggested showing it to a more diverse, younger group, who liked it, and the executive subsequently convinced ABC to buy seven episodes at $1.1 million apiece.^[5] Some executives figured that the show would never get on the air. However, Iger planned to schedule it for the spring. The final showdown occurred during a bi-coastal conference call between Iger and a room full of New York executives — Iger won, and Twin Peaks was on the air.^[4]

[edit] Overview

The episodes of Twin Peaks have a distinct structure previously uncommon in American television:^{[citation needed]} following a recap of events relevant to the upcoming narrative, the series begins with the music piece "Falling," sung by Julee Cruise. This is accompanied by a shot of a robin, and then of the Twin Peaks saw mill. The opening credits generally appear alphabetically. The majority of episodes end with a suspenseful twist or cliffhanger, revealed just seconds before the ending, which most of the times featured a photograph of Laura Palmer, and the credits imposed over the picture.

[edit] Music

Main article: Music of Twin Peaks

Composer Angelo Badalamenti, a frequent contributor to Lynch projects, scored the series and provides the leitmotif "Laura's Theme", the famous title theme, and other evocative pieces to the soundtrack. A handful of the motifs were borrowed from the Julee Cruise album Floating Into the Night, which was written in large part by Badalamenti and Lynch, and was released in 1989. This album also serves as the soundtrack to another Lynch project, Industrial Symphony No. 1, a live Cruise performance also featuring Michael J. Anderson (the "Man from Another Place").

The song "Falling" (sans vocals) became the theme to the show, and used in both the introduction and closing sequences, and the songs "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart", "The Nightingale", "The World Spins", and "Into the Night" (found in their full versions on the album) were all, except the latter, used as Cruise's roadhouse performances during the show's run. A second volume of the soundtrack was released on October 23, 2007 to coincide with the Definitive Gold Box DVD set.

[edit] Filming locations

The towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend, in Washington, which were the primary filming locations for stock Twin Peaks exterior footage (many exterior scenes were actually filmed in wooded areas of Malibu, California)^[6], are only about an hour's drive from the town of Roslyn. This town was the setting of the series Northern Exposure, which debuted the same year, and also focused on the eccentric populace of a small northwestern town. A scene in the Northern Exposure first-season episode "The Russian Flu" was shot at Snoqualmie Falls, which was also featured in the opening titles sequence of Twin Peaks. The background behind the actors of Invitation to Love is not a studio set, but the interior of the Ennis House, an architectural landmark of Frank Lloyd Wright in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles.

[edit] Improvisation elements

At several points during the filming of Twin Peaks, Lynch improvised by incorporating on-set accidents into the story. The most notable of these occurred when set decorator Frank Silva was accidentally filmed in a mirror during Sarah Palmer's vision at the end of the pilot. When David Lynch saw Silva's face, he liked it so much he kept it in the show, and cast Silva as "BOB", the mysterious tormentor of Laura Palmer.^[7]

During the filming of the scene in which Cooper first examines Laura's body, a malfunctioning fluorescent light above the table flickered constantly, but Lynch decided not to replace it, since he liked the disconcerting effect that it created. Also, during the take, one of the minor actors misheard a line and, thinking he was being asked his name, he told Cooper his real name instead of saying his line, briefly throwing everyone off balance. Lynch was reportedly pleased with the lifelike, unscripted moment in dialog, and kept the "mistake" in the final cut:^[8]

ATTENDANT: I have to apologize again for the fluorescent lights. I think it's a bad transformer.

COOPER (Kyle MacLachlan): That's quite all right.

TRUMAN (Michael Ontkean): Agent Cooper, we did scrape those nails when we brought her in.

COOPER: Here it is. There it is. Oh my God, here it is!

COOPER (to attendant): Would you leave us, please?

ATTENDANT: Jim.

COOPER: Uh.... would you leave us alone, please?

ATTENDANT: Oh. Certainly.

[edit] Cast and characters

Main article: Characters of Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks is well known for its array of quirky and bizarre characters, especially the lead Agent Dale Cooper, portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan, whose eccentric personality and fondness of coffee, cherry pie and donuts served as hallmarks of the series.

Twin Peaks features members of a loose ensemble of Lynch's favorite character actors, including Jack Nance, Kyle MacLachlan, Grace Zabriskie, and Everett McGill. Isabella Rossellini, who had worked with Lynch on Blue Velvet, was originally cast as Giovanna Packard, but she dropped out of the production before shooting began on the pilot episode. The character was then reconceived as Josie Packard, of Chinese ethnicity, and the role given to actress Joan Chen.^[9] It is also notable for the casting of several veteran actors who had long been absent from the screen, including 1950s movie stars Piper Laurie and Russ Tamblyn, and former The Mod Squad star Peggy Lipton. The main character of the series, Agent Dale Cooper, played by Kyle MacLachlan, would appear in all thirty episodes of Twin Peaks, including the pilot.

Due to budget restraints, Lynch intended to cast a local girl from Seattle, reportedly to "just to play a dead girl".^[2] The local girl ended up being Sheryl Lee — Lynch stated "But no one — not Mark, me, anyone — had any idea that she could act, or that she was going to be so powerful just being dead."^[2] Indeed, the image of Lee wrapped in plastic became one of the show's most enduring and memorable images. And then, while Lynch shot the home movie that James takes of Donna and Laura, he realized that Lee had something special. "She did do another scene — the video with Donna on the picnic — and it was that scene that did it."^[2] As a result, Sheryl Lee became a semi-regular addition to the cast, appearing in flashbacks as Laura, and becoming a recurring character — Maddy, Laura's cousin who also becomes another victim of BOB. The character of Laura would not be seen in any episodes, only through videos and photographs. Lee, however, had a dual role in portraying Laura's similar-looking cousin Maddy Ferguson, appearing in the late stages of season one. The character of MIKE's appearance in the pilot episode was only originally intended to be a "kind of homage to The Fugitive. The only thing he was gonna do was be in this elevator and walk out", according to David Lynch.^[2] However, when Lynch wrote the "Fire walk with me" speech, he imagined MIKE saying it in the basement of the Twin Peaks hospital – a scene that would appear in the European version of the pilot episode, and surface later in Agent Cooper's dream sequence. MIKE's full name, Phillip Michael Gerard, is also a reference to Lieutenant Philip Gerard, a character in The Fugitive. Lynch met Michael J. Anderson in 1987. After seeing him in a short film, Lynch wanted to cast the actor in the title role in Ronnie Rocket, but that project failed to get made. While editing the alternate ending of the foreign version of the pilot episode, an idea occurred to Lynch on his way home one day: "I was leaning against a car — the front of me was leaning against this very warm car. My hands were on the roof and the metal was very hot. The Red Room scene leapt into my mind. 'Little Mike' was there, and he was speaking backwards... For the rest of the night I thought only about The Red Room."^[2]

[edit] Response

Before the two-hour pilot premiered on TV, a screening was held at the Museum of Broadcasting in Hollywood.^[10] Media analyst and advertising executive Paul Schulman said, "I don't think it has a chance of succeeding. It is not commercial, it is radically different from what we as viewers are accustomed to seeing, there's no one in the show to root for."^[10] Initially, the show's Thursday night time slot was not a good one for soap operas as both Dynasty and its short-lived spin-off The Colbys did poorly.^[10] Twin Peaks was also up against the hugely successful sitcom, Cheers. Initially, the show received a positive response from TV critics. Tom Shales, in the Washington Post, wrote, "Twin Peaks disorients you in ways that small-screen productions seldom attempt. It's a pleasurable sensation, the floor dropping out and leaving one dangling."^[11] In the New York Times, John J. O'Connor wrote, "Twin Peaks is not a sendup of the form. Mr. Lynch clearly savors the standard ingredients...but then the director adds his own peculiar touches, small passing details that suddenly, and often hilariously, thrust the commonplace out of kilter."^[12] The two-hour pilot was the highest-rated movie for the 1989-1990 season with a 22 rating and was viewed by 33% of the audience.^[13] In its first broadcast as a regular one-hour drama series, Twin Peaks scored ABC's highest ratings in four years in its 9 pm Thursday time period.^[14] The show also reduced NBC's Cheers's ratings. Twin Peaks had a 16.2 rating with each point equaling 921,000 homes with TVs.^[14] The episode also added new viewers because of what ABC's senior vice-president of research, Alan Wurtzel, called, "the water cooler syndrome," in which people talk about the series the next day at work.^[14]

During the first and second season, it was the search for Laura Palmer's killer that served as the engine for the plot, and caught the public's imagination, although the creators admitted this was largely a macguffin — each episode was really about the interactions between the townsfolk.^[5] The unique (and often bizarre) personalities of each citizen formed a web of minutiae which ran contrary to the quaint appearance of the town. Adding to the surreal atmosphere was the recurrence of Dale Cooper's dreams, in which the FBI agent is given clues to Laura's murder in a supernatural realm that may or may not be of his imagination. The first season contained only eight episodes (including the two-hour pilot episode), and was considered technically and artistically revolutionary for television at the time, and geared toward reaching the standards of film. It has been said that Twin Peaks began the trend of accomplished cinematography now commonplace in today's television dramas. Lynch and Frost maintained tight control over the first season, handpicking all of the directors, with some that Lynch had known from his days at the American Film Institute (e.g., Caleb Deschanel and Tim Hunter) or referrals from those he knew personally. Lynch and Frost's control lessened in the second season, corresponding with what is generally regarded as a lessening of quality once the identity of Laura Palmer's murderer was revealed.

Its ambitious style, paranormal undertones, and engaging murder mystery made Twin Peaks a surprising sleeper hit. Its eccentric characters, particularly Kyle MacLachlan's Dale Cooper, were unorthodox for a supposed crime drama previously known to American audiences, as was Cooper's method of interpreting his dreams to solve the crime. Following the cliffhanger finale of the first season, the show's popularity reached its zenith, and "Peaksmania" seeped into mainstream popular culture (such as Saturday Night Live, in which Kyle MacLachlan hosted and performed a sketch that parodied the show). For the 1990 Emmy Awards, Twin Peaks led all series with eight nominations, although it only won two awards: Outstanding Costume Design for a Series and Outstanding Editing for a Single-Camera series.

[edit] Declining ratings

With the resolution of Twin Peaks main drawing point (Laura Palmer's murder) in the middle of the second season, and with subsequent storylines becoming more obscure and drawn out, public interest finally began to wane, and "Peaksmania" seemed over. This discontent, coupled with ABC changing its timeslot over a number of occasions, led to a huge drop in ratings after being the most-watched television programming in the USA in 1990. On February 15, 1991, ABC announced that the show had been put on "indefinite hiatus", a move which usually leads to cancellation.^[15]

This wasn't quite the end, though, as there was still a large enough fanbase for viewers to begin an organized letter-writing campaign, dubbed C.O.O.P (Citizens Opposed to the Offing of Peaks).^[16] The campaign was successful, and ABC agreed to another six episodes to finish the season.^[16] In the final episodes, Agent Cooper was given a love interest, Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham), to replace the intended story arc with Audrey Horne. The series finale did not sufficiently boost interest, and the show was not renewed for a third season, leaving an unresolved cliffhanger ending that continues to be debated.

David Lynch himself returned to direct the finale of the series, annoying a few of the actors and writers, as they had previously felt "abandoned" by him. The writers, for their part, didn't appreciate his changes to their scripts.^{[citation needed]} In the featurette "A Slice of David Lynch", included with the 2007 "Gold Box Edition" DVD release of the complete series, Lynch expressed his regret at having resolved the Laura Palmer murder, stating he and Frost had never intended for the series to answer the question and that doing so "killed the goose that laid the golden eggs". Lynch directly blames network pressure for the decision to resolve the Palmer storyline prematurely.^[17] Later, David Lynch, having been long unhappy with ABC's "meddling" during the show's production, sold the whole show to Bravo for a small, undisclosed sum.^{[citation needed]} Bravo began airing the show from scratch again, along with Lynch's addition of introductions to each episode by the Log Lady and her cryptic musings.

[edit] Rankings

Twin Peaks was ranked on TV Guide magazine's 2002 "Top 25 cult shows" at No. 20, and one of the "Top 50 Television Programs of All Time" by the same guide at No. 45.^[18] In 2007, Channel 4 (UK) ranked Twin Peaks #9 on their list of the "50 Greatest TV Dramas".^[19] Also that year, Time included the show on their list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All-Time".^[20]

[edit] Themes and style

As with much of Lynch's other work (notably Blue Velvet), Twin Peaks explores the gulf between the veneer of small-town respectability and the seedier layers of life lurking beneath it. Each character from the town leads a double life that is slowly uncovered as the series progresses. It attempts to expose the dark side of seemingly innocent lives. The show further resembles Lynch's previous and subsequent work, in that it is difficult to place in a defined genre: stylistically, the program borrows the unsettling tone and supernatural premises of horror films, and simultaneously offers a bizarrely comical parody of American soap operas with a campy, melodramatic presentation of the morally-dubious activities of its quirky characters. Finally, like the rest of Lynch's oeuvre, the show represents an earnest moral inquiry distinguished by both weird humor and a deep vein of surrealism.

A popular feature of the series was Frost and Lynch's trademark use of repeating and sometimes mysterious motifs — trees (especially fern and palms), water, coffee, donuts, owls, logs, ducks, fire — and numerous embedded references to other films and TV shows, such as The Twilight Zone (mysteriously malfunctioning electrical equipment), and The Patty Duke Show (the phenomenon of identical cousins).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Invitation to Love

Invitation to Love is a fictional soap opera in Twin Peaks. It is seen briefly on TV screens in all but the first of seven episodes of the first season, and was shot in the Ennis House. The show acts as a commentary on events unfolding in Twin Peaks itself^{[citation needed]}, often highlighting some of the more outlandish or melodramatic elements of the show. The most obvious example of this "show-within-a-show" commentary can be found when Maddy Ferguson, the near-identical cousin of Laura Palmer, first arrives in Twin Peaks. Just before Maddy first appears on the show, an episode of Invitation to Love is shown in which it is revealed that there are identical twin characters in Invitation to Love who are played by the same actress, much as Maddy and Laura Palmer are almost identical, and are both played by Sheryl Lee. It is also implied in the brief snippet of the show that is shown that Jade and Emerald, the two characters in Invitation to Love, are characters with very different personalities, much as sweet and innocent Maddy is diametrically opposed to the dark and secretive Laura in Twin Peaks.

Another example can be found in the final episode of the first season, when Leo Johnson is shot in a dramatic fashion, and a similar event is shown happening to the character of Montana in Invitation to Love. Lynch later reused the motif of a show-within-a-show in his film Inland Empire (2006), which incorporated a secondary series, Rabbits.

[edit] Merchandise

Main article: Twin Peaks media releases

The popularity of Twin Peaks led to a merchandising industry; ranging from books and audio tapes of the series. In addition, there have been DVD and VHS releases of the series.

[edit] DVD and VHS releases

The contents of the 12-disc edition of Twin Peaks Gold Box Set

The pilot episode, first shown on TV in the US, was released on home video in Europe in 1989. The European version is 20 minutes longer than the TV pilot, with a different ending added to bring closure to the story. The Red Room dream sequence that ends episode two, where Cooper encounters the Man from Another Place and Laura Palmer, was originally shot for this film. Lynch was so happy with the material that he incorporated part of it into the second episode of the regular series (that is, the third episode shown in the U.S., including the pilot) as a dream Cooper has about the case (at the start of episode three, Cooper gives a scene-by-scene account of the European ending, including references to events seen only in the international pilot and not the dream-sequence version, such as MIKE shooting BOB). This version of the pilot was also offered by Warner Home Video in the United States, resulting in a rights-entanglement which prevented the broadcast version of the pilot being released for a number of years. On October 30, 2007, the broadcast version of the pilot finally received a legitimate U.S. release as part of the Twin Peaks "Definitive Gold Box Edition". This set includes both versions of the pilot.^[21] On December 18, 2001, the first season (episodes 1-7, minus the pilot) of Twin Peaks was released on DVD in Region 1 by Republic Pictures, which had an output deal through Artisan Entertainment, now part of Lions Gate Entertainment. The box set was noted for being the first TV show to have its audio track redone in DTS. The region 1 release was heavily criticized for not including the key pilot episode, which could not be included due to the fact Lynch sold the rights to it to Warner Home Video in order to facilitate its video release in Europe. When the series was released on video in the US (twice by Spelling Entertainment's Worldvision Home Video), the pilot episode was excluded both times. In turn, Warner Home Video released the pilot on video — however, it was actually the European version, and was labelled as having "bonus footage". The televised pilot episode is included in the UK (region 2) DVD release from Universal Home Entertainment. A DVD collection of Season One was released in Australia by Paramount Pictures, in 2001. In 2006, Season 2 was released by the same distributor in two parts (Collections 1 and 2). In addition, the entire series was released in Australia in a box set collector's edition.

The first season DVD box set is known to have production errors, which cause many DVD players to freeze. One known track glitch occurs during the opening credits of episode 2. Another glitch occurs fifteen minutes into episode 4, during Donna and Audrey's scene in the girls' high school restroom. The European DVD box set of season two has an audio flaw where in episode 12, the center and right channels have been flip-flopped. The release of Season Two was complicated by the sale of Spelling Entertainment (which included both Republic Pictures, and the predecessor company, Worldvision Enterprises, the series' former distributor) - and later the transition of video rights - to Paramount/Viacom in 1998; and the 2006 split of Viacom into two separate companies — this saw the rights go to CBS Corporation/CBS Studios. Also, Lynch oversaw the transfer from video to DVD personally, but was delayed by the production of his new film, Inland Empire.

The first season was released on DVD by Artisan Entertainment, the video licensee for Republic, but Artisan/Lions Gate's rights expired in September 2005, and thus were transferred to Paramount. As a result of the 2006 corporate split of CBS and Viacom, CBS Studios (which ended up with Republic Pictures' and Spelling Entertainment's TV holdings) now owns the rights to the Twin Peaks series, with CBS Television Distribution handling syndication, and CBS Home Entertainment owning the DVD rights (although CBSHE releases are distributed by Paramount). The second season release was postponed several times, from September 2004, to early 2005, and then to September 2005, to early 2006. Season Two was finally released in the United States and Canada on April 3, 2007 via Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS DVD, which now acts as home video distributor. In Germany, Season 2 was released in two parts on separate dates in April 2007. Part 1 went on general release on January 4, 2007, including the "broadcast" version of the pilot episode. North American rights to the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me film are owned by New Line Cinema, a division of Time Warner (which also owns Warner Bros.), and is available on video and DVD through New Line. In Canada, the DVD was distributed through Alliance Atlantis, which holds all Canadian rights to the New Line library.

At the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, a Twin Peaks box set was confirmed for U.S. release.^{[citation needed]} It includes both seasons, the two versions of the Pilot episode, deleted scenes for both seasons, and a feature-length retrospective documentary. It was released on October 30, 2007. No date as yet has been announced for a U.K. release. A Holland release exists which is Region 2 encoded, however the text on the packaging is in Dutch.^[22]

[edit] Books and audio

Main article: Books of Twin Peaks

Many books have been written from or about the television show Twin Peaks. During the show's second season, Pocket Books released three official tie-in books, each authored by the show's creators (or their family), which offer a wealth of backstory.

One of these books: The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer written by Jennifer Lynch, David Lynch's daughter, is just that, the diary as seen in the series and written by Laura chronicling her thoughts from age 13 to the day she died, including the missing pages which an unknown vandal tore out. Kyle MacLachlan also recorded Diane: The Secret Tapes of Agent Dale Cooper, which combined audio tracks from various episodes of the series with newly recorded monologues.

[edit] Film adaptation

Main article: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

Official film poster for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me can be viewed as both prologue and epilogue to the series. It tells of the investigation into the murder of Teresa Banks and the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer. These two connected murders were the central mysteries of the television series. Thus, the film is often considered as a prequel, but it is not intended to be viewed before the series and also has sequel qualities. Most of the television cast returned for the film, with the notable exceptions of Lara Flynn Boyle who declined to return as Laura’s best friend Donna Hayward, who was replaced with Moira Kelly, and Sherilyn Fenn due to scheduling conflicts. Also, Kyle MacLachlan was reluctant to return so his presence in the film is smaller than originally planned.^{[citation needed]}

Fire Walk With Me was received poorly, especially in comparison to the series. It was greeted at the Cannes Film Festival with booing from the audience and met with almost unanimously negative reviews by American critics.^[23] The film fared poorly in the United States, partially because it was released almost a year after the television series was canceled (due to a sharp ratings decline in the second season) and partially due to its incomprehensibility to the uninitiated.^{[citation needed]} It grossed a total of USD $1.8 million in 691 theaters in its opening weekend and went on to gross a total of $4.1 million in North America.^[24]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Tropiano, Stephen (2000). TV Towns. New York, NY: TV Books L.L.C.. ISBN 978-1-57500-127-2. 

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Twin Peaks

• Twin Peaks at the Internet Movie Database
• Official DVD site
• TwinPeaksFestival.com The yearly Twin Peaks Festival
• Twin Peaks at the Encyclopedia of Television
• A Guide to Twin Peaks An interactive guide to 'Twin Peaks', includes reviews of each episode and the prequel film
• Highly detailed timeline of the show from twinpeaks.org
• InTwinPeaks.com Twin Peaks filming locations, then and now
• Entertainment Weekly interview with David Lynch
• Full Streaming Episodes at CBS.com