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For the hills in San Francisco, see Twin Peaks, San Francisco, California

Twin Peaks is an American dramatic television series created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The show is set in the fictional town of Twin Peaks in northeast Washington, while the filming took place in northwest Washington.

It aired on the ABC network in the United States from April 8, 1990 until June 10, 1991. Some episodes were written and directed by Lynch and Frost, but most were directed by guests. The show was co-produced by Aaron Spelling's production company and ran for 30 episodes over two seasons.

Overview

Twin Peaks' central plot line tells the story of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper and his investigation into the shocking murder of a popular young local schoolgirl, Laura Palmer.

The program portrays small-town America via a tight-knit community of unsophisticates and eccentrics. The pilot was filmed in the real-life towns of North Bend and Snoqualmie, not far from Seattle, Washington, in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

The story begins with the famous discovery of Laura's body, washed up on the lakeshore, "wrapped in plastic". As the investigation unfolds, it gradually exposes each Twin Peaks resident to unwelcome scrutiny from Agent Cooper and the men of the local Sheriff's Department and reveals a disturbing dark side to the lives of many of the Twin Peaks citizens.

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 beneath it. 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 eerie tone and supernatural premises of horror films, and simultaneously offers a bizarrely hilarious parody of American soap operas with a campy, melodramatic presentation of the morally dubious activities of its characters. Finally, like the rest of Lynch's oeuvre, the show represents an earnest moral inquiry distinguished by both weird comedy and a deep vein of surrealism.

Twin Peaks is particularly memorable for Kyle MacLachlan's performance as special agent Dale Cooper, who uttered one of the more popular lines in the series which became a catch phrase: "Damn good coffee ... and hot!"

As the mystery unfolds, we are introduced to a cast of characters who range from the quirky to the decidedly sinister. They include:

  • long-suffering gas station owner Big Ed Hurley and his drape-obsessed, one-eyed wife Nadine, whose screeching exhortation "Those drapes aren't gonna hang 'emselves" became another popular Peaks catchphrase;

  • Margaret Lanterman, the eccentric "Log Lady", who apparently receives psychic messages from a log that she carries everywhere;

Other memorable phrases include: "There's a fish in the percolator", and "She's dead! Wrapped in plastic!" (the latter sentence becoming the title of the long-running fan magazine).

The casting of the show was another Lynch 'trademark', in that, like almost all of Lynch's projects, it features members of the loose ensemble of Lynch's favorite character actors, including Jack Nance, Grace Zabriskie and Everett McGill. It is also notable for the casting of several veteran actors who had long been absent from the screen, including '50s movie stars Piper Laurie and Russ Tamblyn and former Mod Squad star Peggy Lipton.

Another popular feature of the series was Frost and Lynch's use of repeating and sometimes mysterious motifs — trees, water, coffee, donuts, owls, 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).

Lynch also incorporated a number of random events that occurred during filming, most notably in the scene where Cooper first examines Laura's body. When the scene was filmed, 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 the cast off balance. Lynch was reportedly so pleased with this unsettling moment that he kept the 'mistake' in the scene.

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

Origins

A producer at Warner Brothers wanted Lynch to direct a film on Marilyn Monroe based on the book, The Goddess. Lynch recalls in the Lynch on Lynch book that he was "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." 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 entitled, One Saliva Bubble with Steve Martin 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. "So one day Mark and I were talking at Du Pars, the coffee shop on the corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura, and, all of a sudden, Mark and I had this image of a body washing up on the shore of a lake," Lynch remembered in the Lynch on Lynch book. Lynch and Frost pitched the idea to ABC in a 10-minute meeting with the network's drama head, Chad Hoffman with nothing more than this image and a concept, according to the director: "The mystery of who killed Laura Palmer was the foreground, but this would recede slightly as you got to know the other people in the town and the problems they were having...The project was to mix a police investigation with the ordinary lives of the characters."

ABC liked the idea and asked Lynch and Frost to write a screenplay for the pilot episode. 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.

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 million a piece. 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.

Surprise hit

Twin Peaks started life as an offbeat project for David Lynch and Mark Frost. They filmed the pilot with an agreement with ABC that they would shoot an additional "ending" to it so it could be sold directly to video in Europe as a feature if the TV show was not picked up. Such were the inauspicious beginnings of Twin Peaks.

During the first season it was the search for Laura Palmer's killer that drove the show and caught the public's imagination, although the creators admitted this was a macguffin designed to keep the audience coming back for more. Each episode was really about the townsfolk and the sinister underbelly of the seemingly idyllic town.

The first season contained only eight episodes and was considered technically and artistically revolutionary for television at the time, working hard as it did to reach the standards set by film. It has been said that Twin Peaks started the 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 (i.e. Caleb Deschanel and Tim Hunter) or referrals from someone he knew.

The interesting elements, charming style and intelligent writing made Twin Peaks a huge and surprising hit. People loved the quirky characters, not least Kyle MacLachlan's special agent Dale Cooper, and humor. Soon after the cliffhanger ending of the first season, the show's popularity reached a fever pitch, and "Peaksmania" was born. Suddenly everybody knew about Twin Peaks and it began to seep into mainstream popular culture (such as Saturday Night Live) and its cast and creators were seen regularly on talk shows and in interviews. ABC began to take a lot more notice of its quirky new show. Twin Peaks was hotly tipped to sweep the Emmys in 1990, being nominated for no fewer than eight non-technical awards, but to the shock of most (especially the show's creators), it didn't win a single one.

The second season

Soon after this success (both critical and financial) of the first season, ABC ordered a second season, this time expanding the number of episodes dramatically to 22. It was during this time that ABC put pressure on the writers to reveal the killer of Laura Palmer in the new season. This was at odds with David Lynch's sensibility who wished it to remain a secret forever, but he was overruled by the network executives and his fellow creator Mark Frost, with them fearing the audience would get bored with the mystery if it were not resolved soon.

For the longer second season new writers were hired, along with new directors, and, after directing a few episodes (including the one which finally revealed the killer), David Lynch began to drift away from the show. During his second season absence, Lynch worked on the highly acclaimed and award-winning film Wild at Heart, which was based on a novel by Barry Gifford, (who subsequently co-wrote the screenplay of Lost Highway with Lynch).

When the killer's identity was finally revealed, many fans of the show felt let down and alienated by the infamous murder's resolution, especially with the show's previously hinted at ethereal and "weird" side coming fully to the forefront. Also around this time a major story line involving a romance between Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) was vetoed by Kyle MacLachlan (some said with pressure from then-girlfriend and co-star Lara Flynn Boyle), as he felt his character, who was known for his strong morals, would never become involved with a high school student. Since no agreement could be reached, the writers unhappily had to take evasive action and bring minor subplots (which were never intended to dominate the show) into the foreground to cover the missing story.

Declining ratings

With the unpopular resolution of the show's main drawing point (Laura Palmer's murder) and with the story lines becoming more obscure and drawn out, public interest finally began to wane and "Peaksmania" seemed officially over. Many believed the show's new overt oddness had made it a parody of itself and was far removed from the first season's charm and intelligence. This discontent, coupled with ABC changing its timeslot over a number of occasions, led to a huge drop in ratings. On February 15, 1991, ABC announced that the show had been put in "indefinite hiatus", a move which usually leads to cancellation.

This wasn't quite the end, though, as there was still large enough interest in the show for fans to begin their own letter-writing campaign, dubbed C.O.O.P (Citizens Opposed to the Offing of *Peaks). The campaign was a huge success and ABC agreed to another six episodes (to finish the season).

With the creators knowing this was possibly the end for the show, they made a last ditch effort to revitalize it. Agent Cooper was given a love interest, Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham) (with no objections from Kyle MacLachlan this time around). With the season finale they hoped to spark more interest in the show with a dramatic cliffhanger ending (the same way the previous season had). Unfortunately it did not boost interest sufficiently and the show was not renewed for a third season, leaving fans with a completely unresolved story line that continues to be debated on fan web sites to this day.

David Lynch himself 'returned' to direct the finale of the series, leaving some of the head writers annoyed, as they had previously felt 'abandoned' by him, and didn't appreciate his unprompted return and subsequent changes to their script. However, Lynch's direction produced an episode which was nightmarishly surreal and memorable, and it should be noted that it returned some of the character's personalities to a state more akin to how they had been in the pilot, rather than how they had changed over the course of the second season.

Later, David Lynch, having been long unhappy with ABC's "meddling" during the second season, sold the whole show to Bravo for a small sum, finally taking it from their hands. Bravo began airing the show from scratch again, but even with David Lynch shooting special "Log Lady introductions" for each episode, it never caught the public interest the way it did the first time around.

Aftermath

David Lynch was not quite finished with Twin Peaks. In 1992 Fire Walk With Me, the Twin Peaks motion picture, was released to eager fans. It focused on the subject David Lynch had initially been interested in: the story of Laura Palmer. The film was a prequel to Twin Peaks, showing Laura's murder and the events immediately preceding it. Unfortunately, many people, both fans of the series and critics, were disappointed by the film, which was more disturbing and less humorous than the series and did not resolve the cliffhanger ending of season two. Another large complaint at the time was its incomprehensibility to those who were not familiar with the series.

In time, Fire Walk With Me has become more accepted, especially by fans, but also more surprisingly by critics who have come to appreciate its merits.

Twin Peaks' legacy can be seen in the slew of "quirky" TV shows that followed it, such as Northern Exposure, Wild Palms, Eerie, Indiana, Picket Fences, The X-Files, Desperate Housewives, Veronica Mars, Lost, and Carnivàle. Many of these series have been referred to as "the next Twin Peaks", either before their run or after popular success.

Series plot summary

One morning on the bank of a river, Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse tightly wrapped in a sheet of clear plastic. The body is that of Laura Palmer, homecoming queen and the town's most popular girl. The news is relayed to the town's residents, who react in various ways. Meanwhile, just across the state line, a second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is found walking along the railroad tracks in a fugue. Since a crime was apparently committed that crossed state lines, the FBI is alerted and Special Agent Dale Cooper arrives 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 the nearby town of 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 the town believed her to be. It is revealed that Laura had been two-timing her boyfriend Bobby Briggs with surly biker James Hurley, a situation known to Laura's best friend Donna Hayward. Cooper also finds traces of cocaine in Laura's diary, a habit she shared with Bobby.

Cooper is staying at the hotel owned by the Horne family. The Horne's sultry daughter Audrey develops a crush on Cooper and when he traces Laura's cocaine usage to a club called 'One-Eyed Jacks' she infiltrates it on his behalf. It is revealed that Laura had also been working as a prostitute sometimes based at the club.

Cooper then experiences the first in a series of bizarre dreams, in which he visits the mysterious Red Room, where he meets the diminutive Man From Another Place, as well as the trapped spirit of Laura Palmer, who whispers into his ear the name of her killer. Lynch enhances the profoundly surreal nature of these scenes by having the actors recite their lines backwards (imitating the so-called backmasking technique). However, when he awakes, Cooper is unable to recall the killer's name.

As Cooper delves deeper into the sordid secret life of Laura Palmer he comes across a one armed man (a reference to The Fugitive) who reveals that Bob was an old drinking buddy of his who spouted poetry and engaged in various criminal activities. The Bob he knew, however, is currently in a coma in the local hospital.

Laura's cousin Maddie Ferguson, arrives to stay with Laura's parents. Maddie, who resembles Laura closely, and at one point even dresses up like her in order to gain information from Dr. Jacoby, also becomes obsessed with finding out who killed Laura and aids James and Donna in their hunt for the killer.

The information that Cooper has gained from psychic and observed means, including the mysterious utterances of The Log Lady, leads him to a number of suspects, but he knows that finding Laura's secret diary holds the key. Harold Smith, 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 character called "BOB", and that her use of drugs and sex are the means she has used to numb herself and escape from him.

Eventually, Maddie is brutally murdered by Laura's father, Leland, but he is soon apprehended by Agent Cooper. Cooper realizes that BOB, who is in fact an evil spirit, has possessed Leland. Leland smashes his own head against the wall of his cell and in his dying moment his soul is restored.

Cooper stays in Twin Peaks for a while longer. Cooper is framed for drug trafficking (featuring a hilarious cameo by David Duchovny as a transvestite DEA agent) and Cooper is temporarily suspended from the FBI.

After he is cleared of the charges, his former FBI partner and mentor Windom Earle, who went mad when he discovered Cooper was having an affair with his wife, comes to Twin Peaks to play a deadly game of chess with Cooper. As this is going on, Cooper continues to try to track down the origins of BOB and learns more about the mysteries of the dark woods surrounding Twin Peaks. Cooper also falls in love with a new girl in town, Annie Blackburn, who is played by Heather Graham.

When Annie wins the Miss Twin Peaks contest, Windom Earle kidnaps her and takes her to the Black Lodge, a mystical extradimensional place in the woods that BOB happens to inhabit and of which the Red Room is a part. Cooper follows and has a series of bizarre encounters including meeting his own shadow self, otherwise known as a doppelgänger. When the season and the show all come to an end, it seems that Cooper, although unknown to those around him, has become possessed by BOB.

Soundtrack

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 Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch, and was released in 1989. The song "Falling" (sans vocals) became the theme to the show, and the songs "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" and "Into the Night", found in their full versions on the album, were used elsewhere during the show's run.

Variant versions and video releases

The pilot episode, first screened on TV in the US, was also released theatrically in Europe as a stand-alone story. The European version is 20 minutes longer than the TV pilot with a different ending added to bring closure to the story (see below the spoiler warning for details). Much of this additional footage was incorporated into the second episode of the regular series — that is, the third episode shown in the U.S. including the Pilot.

After the TV series ended, Lynch made a prequel movie, Fire Walk With Me, co-written with Robert Engels (a writer from the series).

In September 2001, the first season (episodes 2-8) of Twin Peaks was released as a DVD box set. 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 another company in order to facilitate its release theatrically. The pilot episode is included in the region 2 release, but as of summer 2006 it is not yet known whether the televised version of the pilot (which ties in with the rest of the series) will ever be released to DVD in North America, or if the version released there will be the theatrical version.

The second season is due to be released worldwide by Paramount. It has so far been postponed several times, from September 2004, to early 2005, to September 2005, to early 2006. Although no United States release date has been announced, a November 2, 2006 release date has been confirmed for Australia so it would seem that an release will be forthcoming. Complicating the process was the sale of Republic Pictures, the successor-in-interest to Worldvision Enterprises (the series' former distributor) and which currently holds ancillary rights in North America, to Paramount/Viacom in 1998; the transition of home video rights; and the later 2006 split of Viacom into two separate companies. Also, David Lynch is going to oversee the transfer from video to DVD personally, but has been delayed by the production of his new movie, Inland Empire. The first season was released to DVD on Artisan Entertainment, the video licensee for Republic, but Artisan/Lions Gate's rights expired in September 2005, and thus transferred to Paramount. Although Republic technically holds major ancillary rights, Paramount's home entertainment division (a Viacom unit) now holds home video rights, thus opening the door for a Season Two release on DVD. Television distribution rights are now held by CBS Paramount Television, the successor-in-interest to Paramount's television unit. North American rights to the Fire Walk With Me film are owned by Time Warner's New Line Cinema division, and is available on video and DVD through New Line.

The European version of the pilot film wraps up the story by showing Mike, the one-armed man, shooting Bob who admits to the murder. Most of the supernatural aspects of the story are toned down or eliminated. The scene in the Red Room where Cooper visits the Little Man From Another Place and his cousin who looks exactly like Laura Palmer was originally shot for this film. Lynch was so happy with the material that he incorporated it into the series as a dream Cooper has about the case.

Books

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. These three books are:

  • The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes (ISBN 0330272802), 1991: written by Mark Frost's son, Scott Frost. A collection of transcripts from Agent Dale Cooper's audio tapes, from his childhood to the day he is assigned to Laura Palmer's murder. The book includes Dale's family, his first stumbles with love, his obsession with the FBI and explores the relationship between himself, Windom Earle and Earle's wife. Many of these tape transcripts are dictated to "Diane", though a later tape states that Cooper enjoys the thought of Diane listening to his tapes so much that he will address all tapes to her, whether she will ever listen to them or not.

  • The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (ISBN 0330272292), written by David Lynch's daughter Jennifer Lynch in 1990. Lynch paints a haunting portrait of an abused teen's double life, falling into a world of prostitution and drug abuse while maintaining the status quo as homecoming queen and high school student. The book fits neatly into the show's continuity and fleshes out the character of Bob and Laura's relationships with her father.

  • Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town (ISBN 0671743996), 1991, is the most lighthearted and humorous of the books. It's a parody of a traveler's guide book, as published by the Twin Peaks Chamber of Commerce. Inside fans can find anything from a history of the Native Americans around the area to a list of songs on the jukebox in the Double R Diner. A double-page ad in the middle stars David Lynch and Mark Frost as brothers "Tim and Tom", who offer a "Taxi-Dermy" service: A blind David Lynch (Tim) will drive you anywhere within the Twin Peaks city limits, while Mark Frost (Tom) will stuff and mount any fish or game up to and including the size of a bear.

Characters

Grouping Name Description Played by
The FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper Investigates the murder of Laura Palmer, very intuitive and gifted, falls in love with Twin Peaks and all its rural life, humble hero of the story Kyle MacLachlan
Albert Rosenfield Abrasive forensics expert, whose façade hides a spiritual nature Miguel Ferrer
Chester Desmond Investigates murder of Teresa Banks, mysteriously disappears Chris Isaak
Sam Stanley Forensics specialist, assists Desmond in the investigation of Teresa Banks' murder Kiefer Sutherland
Phillip Jefferies Long lost FBI agent who knows of the Lodges and their inhabitants David Bowie
Gordon Cole Stone-deaf Regional Bureau Chief, known to shout constantly David Lynch
Diane Cooper's never-seen secretary; when Cooper speaks into his tape recorder each episode, the intended recipient is Diane (never seen or heard)
Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department Sheriff Harry S. Truman Lover of Josie Packard Michael Ontkean
Deputy Andy Brennan Dorky sidekick, lover of Lucy Harry Goaz
Deputy Hawk, Tommy Hill Native American, expert tracker Michael Horse
Lucy Moran Ditzy receptionist, off and on lover of Deputy Andy Brennan Kimmy Robertson
The Palmers Laura Palmer Murder victim and the center of the story, Laura Palmer is the one figure that connects almost everyone in Twin Peaks Sheryl Lee
Leland Palmer Laura's father, known for his compulsive singing and dancing Ray Wise
Sarah Palmer Laura's psychic mother Grace Zabriskie
Maddie Ferguson Laura's twin cousin Sheryl Lee
The Haywards Doctor William Hayward The doctor of Twin Peaks, assists on the autopsy of Laura Palmer Warren Frost
Eileen Hayward Doctor Hayward's wheelchair bound wife Mary Jo Deschanel
Donna Hayward Laura's best friend, lover of James Hurley Lara Flynn Boyle
Harriet Hayward Donna's younger sister Jessica Wallenfels
Gersten Hayward Donna's youngest sister Alicia Witt
The Hornes Benjamin Horne Wealthy businessman, owns Great Northern Hotel and Horne's Department Store Richard Beymer
Jerry Horne Ben's playboy brother and business partner David Patrick Kelly
Sylvia Horne Ben's constantly angry wife Jan D'Arcy
Audrey Horne Ben's sultry teenage daughter Sherilyn Fenn
Johnny Horne Ben's mentally handicapped son, tutored by Laura Robert Bauer III
Packard/Martell Family Josie Packard Widowed sawmill owner, lover of Sheriff Truman, tutored by Laura Joan Chen
Andrew Packard Late Ex-owner of the Packard Sawmill and husband of Josie Dan O'Herlihy
Catherine Packard Martell Sister of Andrew, schemes with secret lover Ben Horne to burn down the sawmill Piper Laurie
Pete Martell Long-suffering husband of Catherine, fishing enthusiast Jack Nance
The Briggses Major Garland Briggs Intelligent and gifted Air Force officer involved in Project Blue Book, deep space monitoring, and the woods surrounding Twin Peaks Don S. Davis
Betty Briggs Unassuming and loving wife and mother Charlotte Stewart
Bobby Briggs Rebellious teenager, captain of the football team, boyfriend of Laura Palmer, secret lover of Shelly Johnson Dana Ashbrook
The Hurleys Big Ed Hurley Owner of Big Ed's Gas Farm, secret lover of Norma Jennings Everett McGill
Nadine Hurley Ed's one-eyed, mad, drape-obsessed wife Wendy Robie
James Hurley Ed's nephew, secret love of Laura Palmer, lover of Donna Hayward James Marshall
The Jennings' Norma Jennings Double R Diner owner, lover of Big Ed Hurley, organizer of Meals on Wheels with Laura Peggy Lipton
Hank Jennings Norma's husband, paroled criminal, conspirator with Josie Packard Chris Mulkey
Annie Blackburn Younger sister of Norma, an ex-nun with a troubled past Heather Graham
The Johnsons Leo Johnson Brutish trucker and drug-runner, had a sexual relationship with Laura Palmer Eric Da Re
Shelly Johnson Abused younger wife of Leo, waitress at Norma's diner, secret lover of Bobby Briggs Mädchen Amick
The Milfords Mayor Dwayne Milford Long time mayor of Twin Peaks, has an ongoing feud with his brother Dougie John Boylan
Dougie Milford Publisher of the Twin Peaks Gazette local newspaper, known to marry often Tony Jay
Lana Budding Milford Seductive wife of Dwayne, known to charm almost any man that's around her Robyn Lively
The O'Reillys Black Rose/Blackie O'Reilly The madame of One Eyed Jacks Victoria Catlin
Nancy O'Reilly Blackie's sister, lover of Jean Renault Galyn Gorg
The Renaults Jacques Renault Canadian croupier, drug-runner, and bartender at the Roadhouse. Had sexual relationship with Laura Palmer Walter Olkewicz
Jean Renault Oldest and most dangerous Renault brother, veteran criminal, insurance agent. Michael Parks
Bernard Renault Youngest Renault brother, mules drugs over the border Clay Wilcox
Others Margaret Lanterman ("The Log Lady") Mystic, widow who divines through a log she carries with her everywhere Catherine E. Coulson
Windom Earle Psychotic and brilliant ex-partner of Cooper, desires the powers of the Lodges Kenneth Welsh
Dr. Lawrence Jacoby Eccentric psychiatrist, Laura was a patient of his Russ Tamblyn
Thomas Eckhardt Former business partner of Andrew Packard, obsessively in love with Josie Packard David Warner
Jones Thomas Eckhardt's assistant Brenda Strong
Emory Baddis Store manager of Horne's Department Store, recruits girls to work at One Eyed Jacks Dan Amendola
Harold Smith Agoraphobic horticulturist, Laura's Meals on Wheels friend Lenny Von Dohlen
Denise/Denis Bryson Cross-dressing DEA agent who investigates drug allegations against Dale Cooper David Duchovny
Dick Tremayne Pretentious employee of Men's Department at Horne's, ex-lover of Lucy Ian Buchanan
Mike Nelson ("Snake") Bobby's best friend, high school wrestling champ, ex-boyfriend of Donna. Gary Hershberger
Ronnette Pulaski Ex-employee of One Eyed Jacks and Horne's Department Store, was with Laura the night she died Phoebe Augustine
Evelyn Marsh Rich woman who James Hurley runs into, and who is beaten by her husband Annette McCarthy
Teresa Banks First victim, found almost exactly one year before the murder of Laura Palmer Pamela Gidley
Roadhouse Singer Angelic singer at the Roadhouse, known for her dream-like voice Julee Cruise
Lodge Inhabitants Bob An evil and malevolent spirit who haunts Laura Palmer and inhabits humans similar to Mike Frank Silva
Phillip Michael Gerard AKA The One-Armed Man. A one-armed shoe salesman who acts as host for Mike, a good and supposedly reformed spirit Al Strobel
The Man From Another Place Enigmatic dwarf, consumer of garmonbozia Michael J. Anderson
The Giant A supernatural giant who helps Cooper Carel Struycken
Mrs. Tremond / Chalfont Connected to the Lodges, Pierre's grandmother, intentions unknown Frances Bay
Pierre Tremond / Chalfont Also connected to the Lodges, intentions unknown Austin Jack Lynch

References to other works

There are several references to the 1944 movie Laura, both explicitly through shared names and implicitly through the plot.

  • Laura Hunt in the movie is thought to have been murdered in the doorway of her apartment, but reappears midway through, having lent her apartment to a friend named Diane who was the actual victim. Since the victim's face was destroyed, the body in the apartment was misidentified. The character of Diane is only mentioned, never seen. In Twin Peaks Laura Palmer is in fact murdered, but midway through the first season her cousin Maddie appears. Diane is the unseen secretary to FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper.

  • Despite her high-society lifestyle, Laura Hunt in the movie is really a 20th century courtesan, who owes her position to relationships with men, especially Waldo Lydecker. The movie producers referred to the character specifically as a whore. Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks is promiscuous and indulges in deviant sexual behavior, in addition to being an actual prostitute.

  • Waldo Lydecker is the murderer in the movie. In Twin Peaks the Lydecker Animal Clinic is where the investigators find the one-armed man, Mike. Additionally, "Twin Peaks" features a talking-bird named Waldo, who provides information about the night Laura Palmer was killed.

  • Waldo Lydecker is a father figure to Laura Hunt in the movie, but attempts to kill her out of jealousy. Laura Palmer is killed by her father.

  • Jacoby is a painter and sometime lover of Laura in the movie. He painted the portrait of her that obsesses various men, just as the photo of Laura Palmer features so prominently in Twin Peaks. The TV series has the psychiatrist, Lawrence Jacoby.

  • Waldo Lydecker is a main character in the movie, and in Twin Peaks the police discover the bird that left marks on Laura Palmer is named Waldo at the Lydecker Clinic.

  • In the movie Det. McPherson bizarrely plays with a hand-held ball-bearing game that features a baseball diamond, claiming it helps him think. In Twin Peaks Agent Cooper uses baseball pitching as a divining tool.

There are also a couple of similarities to a 1987 science-fiction movie, The Hidden.

  • In the movie a murderous creature inhabits human bodies as hosts much in the same way as "Bob".

  • The murders are investigated by an FBI agent, also played by MacLachlan.

Later cast appearances

  • The series launched the careers of a number of actors, including Heather Graham, Lara Flynn Boyle, Sheryl Lee, and Sherilyn Fenn.
  • A number of actors from Twin Peaks had roles in the short-lived 1992 Lynch / Frost TV series On the Air about a 1950s live television show. Seven episodes were produced while only three aired in the U.S.
  • A number of principal and minor actors from Twin Peaks also had small (but memorable) roles on the sitcom Seinfeld:
    • Warren Frost (Doc Hayward) and Grace Zabriskie (Sara Palmer) had recurring roles as the parents of George Costanza's fiancee, Susan.
    • Ian Abercrombie (the medical insurance salesman when Leo is brought home after being shot) had a recurring role as Mr. Pitt (Elaine's boss).
    • Frances Bay (Mrs. Tremond) appeared in three episodes as the "marble rye-bread lady" (where Jerry Seinfeld stole her marble rye).
    • Walter Olkewicz (Jacques Renault) appeared as the cable man that Kramer tries to avoid.
    • Molly Shannon (woman from the adoption agency, also of Saturday Night Live fame) appeared as one of Elaine's co-workers who did not swing her arms when she walked.
    • Brenda Strong (Ms. Jones, Thomas Eckhardt's friend) appeared as Elaine's friend Sue Ellen Mishke, the heiress to the Oh Henry candy bar fortune.

  • The original RoboCop film features: Ray Wise (Leland Palmer), Dan O'Herlihy (Andrew Packard) and Miguel Ferrer (Albert Rosenfeld)

  • Several of the actors from Twin Peaks appeared on The X-Files:
    • David Duchovny (Agent Denise Bryson) starred as Agent Fox Mulder.
    • Don S. Davis (Major Briggs) played Agent Dana Scully's father, Captain William Scully.
    • Michael J. Anderson (The Man From Another Place) appeared as Mr. Nutt in the second-season episode "Humbug". (He also played carnival director Samson in Carnivàle, a show which shared many of the quirks, mysteriousness, and general weirdness of Twin Peaks and X-Files.)
    • Michael Horse (Deputy Tommy Hawk) appeared as Sheriff Charles Tskany in episode "Shapes" (1.18), airing 1 April 1994.
    • Richard Beymer (Benjamin Horne) appeared in the episode "Sanguinarium", airing 1997.
    • Kenneth Welsh (Windom Earle) appeared in the episode "Revelations", airing 1996.

  • A number of Twin Peaks actors appeared on Dawson's Creek:
    • Mädchen Amick (Shelly Johnson) played Nicole Kennedy, Dawson's critical film teacher who also dates his father, in three Season 2 episodes.
    • Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne) was Alex Pearl, Pacey's temptuous boss in three Season 5 episodes.
    • Ray Wise (Leland Palmer) had a small role at the end of Season 6.
    • Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs) played Rich Rinoldi, Pacey's smarmy "boiler room" boss in nine Season 6 episodes.

  • Everett McGill (Big Ed Hurley) and Wendy Robie (Nadine Hurley) played the evil parents in the movie The People Under the Stairs (1991).

  • Both Mädchen Amick and Sherilyn Fenn have played ex-girlfriends of Lorelai's boyfriends on Gilmore Girls. Amick played Sherry, Christopher's girlfriend in season 2 (and eventual wife in later seasons), and Fenn plays Anna, an ex-girlfriend of Luke's, in season 6.

  • A number of Twin Peaks actors have appeared in The WB's supernatural dramedy series Charmed, mostly in supernatural roles.
    • Dana Ashbrook appeared as a biker (apparently similar to James Hurley's character in Twin Peaks) in episode 3.15 - Just Harried.
    • Ian Buchanan portrayed Cole Turner's old mentor, Raynor, in episodes 3.19 - The Demon Who Came In From the Cold and 3.20 - Exit Strategy.
    • Ray Wise appeared as Ludlow, a recruiter of young demon candidates in episode 4.12 - Lost and Bound.
    • Carel Struycken was cast as a Giant Demon in episode 4.21 - Womb Raider.
    • Grace Zabriskie was the demon The Crone in episodes 5.16 - Baby's First Demon and 5.20 - Sense and Sense Ability
    • Michael J. Anderson appeared as a leprechaun in episode 8.13 - Repo Manor and in episode 8.20 - Gone with the Witches.

Trivia

  • The population of the town, according to the sign in the opening credits, is 51,201. Initially, the population was only 5,120 but ABC deemed this to be too small a number, and instead added a digit to the end, making the population inordinately high.

  • The name of Dale Cooper might have been inspired by the mysterious "D.B. Cooper" who, in 1971, high-jacked an airliner leaving Seattle and jumped from the plane with $200,000 dollars strapped to his chest, never to be seen again. D.B. Cooper is re-used in Prison Break.

  • The two mountains in Twin Peaks are called Whitetail and Blue Pine.

  • The Twin Peaks High School mascot is a steeplejack (stated in Second Season, Episode 9).

  • The towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend, in Washington State, which were the primary filming locations for Twin Peaks, are only a few miles from the town of Roslyn. This town was the set of the series Northern Exposure, which was heavily influenced by Twin Peaks (including an episode which was a clear parody).

  • Some people objected so much to the Peakesmania that they started wearing t-shirts saying "I killed Laura Palmer".

Influences and parodies

  • The musician Moby used "Laura Palmer's Theme" as the basis for his track "Go".

  • "Laura Palmer's Theme" is heavily sampled in the drum and bass record "Blue Rose" by Teebee.

  • The heavy metal band Anthrax recorded a song entitled "Black Lodge" which was co-written with Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti on their album Sound of White Noise. Anthrax had previously referenced David Lynch's film Blue Velvet in the lyrics to the song "Now It's Dark" on the album State of Euphoria.

  • Australian DIY avant-pop star Talkshow Boy has a song with lyrics inspired by Twin Peaks. Entitled "Black Logic (VHS Version)", Talkshow Boy maintains that song was written whilst "stuck" in the fictional Black Lodge.

  • The Gothic band Creaming Jesus has a sample-laden song entitled "Upside Down" that samples Jack Nance's immortal line "She's dead .... wrapped in plastic."

  • In a Sesame Street "Monsterpiece Theater" skit, the Cookie Monster played a Dale Cooper-esque character investigating how the town of Twin Beaks got its name, unable to connect this to the fact that all the town's inhabitants (including "David Finch") are birds with two beaks.

  • The Darkwing Duck episode "Twin Beaks", aside from the title itself, has several nods to the series, including the "corpse" of Darkwing Duck's nemesis Bushroot showing up wrapped in plastic like Laura Palmer's as well as an occult-obsessed Launchpad McQuack mentally communicating with a log (which is actually Bushroot in disguise), and the repeated phrase "The cows are not what they seem".

  • In The Simpsons episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two" (2F20, 1995-09-17), Chief Wiggum has a dream that resembles Dale Cooper's dream in which Lisa talks backwards to reveal clues. The chief awakens from his dream with his hair mussed like Cooper's bed hair after his awakening. In the episode "Lisa's Sax" (3G02, 1997-10-19), a flashback to 1990 shows Homer watching the show as Dale Cooper remarks, "That's some damn fine coffee you got here in Twin Peaks... and damn good cherry pie." The Giant is then shown waltzing with a unicorn, under a tree with a traffic light hanging from a branch. Homer's opinion of the show is "Brilliant!... I have absolutely no idea what's going on."

  • Red velvet drapes similar to those of the "Red Room" in the Black Lodge appear in the 4th-season finale ("Restless") of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, during Willow's surreal dream sequence. There is no evidence, however, that this is anything but coincidence - in fact, the DVD commentary by series creator and writer Joss Whedon explicitly states otherwise.

  • The fictional TV series Address Unknown in the Max Payne video games took some elements from the show, including backmasking and an appearance of the "Red Room" during an episode seen in the first game.

  • One of the major influences on the Konami video game series Silent Hill was Twin Peaks. The opening theme tune to the first game on PSOne has very noticeable similarities to "Laura Palmer's Theme". Silent Hill 2 contains not only a character called Laura, but the opening theme music is listed as "Theme of Laura" on the original soundtrack. The Silent Hill series also prominently features paranormal and supernatural themes, similar to but moreso than Twin Peaks.

  • One of the scenes in the 2001 film The Hole shows the character Martin Taylor (played by Daniel Brocklebank) being interviewed by the police where he lists his activities on the day of his classmates' disappearance. His answers are very reminiscent to those of Bobby Briggs in the Pilot.

  • There is an indie rock band in Cleveland Ohio named Garmonbozia, a reference to Twin Peaks. http://www.myspace.com/bozia

  • On the popular webcartoon Homestar Runner, the 150th Strong Bad e-mail references Twin Peaks in a hidden scene at the end. The scene was a continuation from a precursor to the episode, where another character suggested doing the e-mail like an experimental film. In the hidden scene, set in an environment similar to Black Lodge, Coach Z has black coffee dripping on his head while he holds a pear with googly eyes glued on. Homestar enters and speaks backwards, and says "Coach Z, if you're not going to eat that eyeball pear..." then clears his throat and speaks normally, finishing his sentence with "...then I suggest you give it to someone who will."

  • On Hip-hop artist DJ Shadow's album "Endtroducing", the Giant can be heard saying "It is happening again" during the last track.

  • The Norwegian electronica artist Biosphere samples from Twin Peaks on the album Substrata.

  • Fantomas do a cover song, including lyrics, to Angelo Badalamenti's "Theme from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me".

  • The first season of "Veronica Mars" is clearly influenced by Twin Peaks. Throughout the season the title character investigates the murder of her best friend, a popular, blond, Laura Palmeresque cheerleader named Lily Kane. The show utilized flashbacks and Veronica soon discovers secrets about Lily's sexual past.

  • One of the character from the manga and anime MONSTER, "Baby", is heavily influenced by the characteristic of Man from another place. His appearance is also nearly identical, appearing to Nina Folster from behind a red curtain while dancing to the tune "Be My Baby".

  • In the popular online game Kingdom of Loathing, players can receive a trophy entitled "Your Log Saw Something That Night" by writing "Laura Palmer" on their Quest Log (an actual log).

See also

External links

Further reading

1990s TV shows in the United States | ABC network shows | Fantasy television series | Fictional towns and cities in Washington | Twin Peaks | CBS Paramount Television shows | TV shows by Aaron Spelling

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Twin Peaks".

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