Twin Peaks
In 1988, Mark Frost and David Lynch met at Nibblers restaurant in Los Angeles to discuss a television project. Tony Krantz, their agent, suggested they create a show about real life in America. Lynch recalled the idea of a small-town thing that would become Twin Peaks. They decided to set it in the Pacific Northwest instead of North Dakota due to the lack of forests there. The initial pitch involved an image of a body washing up on the shore of a lake. ABC executives Chad Hoffman and Brandon Stoddard reviewed the concept during a ten-minute meeting. The network ordered a two-hour pilot for a possible fall 1989 series. Lynch filmed the pilot for four million dollars with an agreement to shoot an additional ending if the TV show was not picked up. Bob Iger later convinced ABC to buy seven episodes at 1.1 million each after showing the dailies to a younger group who liked it.
The story begins when local logger Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse wrapped in plastic on the bank of a river outside Twin Peaks. Sheriff Harry S. Truman identifies the victim as high school senior Laura Palmer. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper arrives to investigate and finds a tiny typed letter R under her fingernail. Through Laura's diaries, law enforcement learns she lived a double life involving cheating on her boyfriend Bobby Briggs and prostituting herself. Her father Leland Palmer suffers a nervous breakdown after her death. Donna Hayward begins a relationship with James Hurley while investigating the murder alongside Maddy Ferguson. Cooper has a dream about a one-armed being named MIKE who tells him the murderer is Killer BOB. The investigation leads them to One-Eyed Jacks, a brothel owned by Ben Horne across the border in Canada. Jacques Renault is arrested but smothered to death by Leland Palmer before he can be questioned. The season ends with Cooper shot by a masked gunman.
Filming took place primarily in Snoqualmie, North Bend, and Fall City, Washington, which are about an hour from Roslyn. Most interior scenes were shot on standing sets in a San Fernando Valley warehouse. Lynch decided not to replace a malfunctioning fluorescent lamp during the scene where Cooper examines Laura's body because he liked the disconcerting effect it created. The Red Room scene leapt into Lynch's mind after he touched the side of a hot car left out in the sun. He wrote the dream sequence without scripting it beforehand. The show used repeating motifs such as trees, coffee, doughnuts, cherry pie, owls, logs, ducks, water, and fire. The soap opera Invitation to Love was shot in the Ennis House, an architectural landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles. Lynch maintained tight control over the first season, handpicking directors including Caleb Deschanel and Tim Hunter.
The two-hour pilot achieved a 22 rating and was viewed by 33 percent of the audience during the 1989-90 season. Twin Peaks scored ABC's highest ratings in four years at 9:00 pm Thursday. Each point equaled 921,000 homes with TVs. The third episode lost 14 percent of the audience that had tuned in a week before. This drop resulted from competing against Cheers which appealed to the same demographic. ABC moved the first-season finale to Wednesday night at 10:00 pm instead of its usual slot. The show achieved its best ratings since its third week on air with a 12.6 rating. On the 22nd of May 1990, it was announced that Twin Peaks would be renewed for a second season. Public interest began to wane after the resolution of Laura Palmer's murder in the middle of the second season. A week after the season's 15th episode placed 85th out of 89 shows, ABC put Twin Peaks on indefinite hiatus. An organized letter-writing campaign called COOP attempted to save the show but ultimately failed.
For its first season, Twin Peaks received fourteen nominations at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards and won two categories including Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design. It won Best Television Series Drama at the 48th Golden Globe Awards. Kyle MacLachlan won Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series Drama while Piper Laurie won Best Supporting Actress. The pilot ranked 25th on TV Guide's 1997 list of 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. In 2007, UK broadcaster Channel 4 ranked Twin Peaks ninth on their list of 50 Greatest TV Dramas. Time included the show on their list of 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time in 2007. Empire listed Twin Peaks as the 24th best TV show in their list of 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time in 2011. Entertainment Weekly named it number 12 in 2012 among 25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years. The series has been nominated for the TCA Heritage Award six consecutive years since 2010, winning in 2024.
Season three was announced on the 6th of October 2014, as a limited series airing on Showtime. David Lynch and Mark Frost wrote all episodes with Lynch directing. The third season takes place 25 years after the cliffhanger ending of season two. Most original cast members returned including Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, and Sherilyn Fenn. New additions included Jeremy Davies, Laura Dern, Robert Forster, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Amanda Seyfried, Matthew Lillard, and Naomi Watts. The season explores Cooper's return from the Black Lodge where his evil doppelgänger had lived for two decades. A mysterious murder of a librarian in Buckhorn, South Dakota attracts attention while messages from the Log Lady lead to reopening investigations into Laura Palmer's death. The show received widespread critical acclaim upon release. Film journal Cahiers du cinéma named it the best film of the 2010s. Lynch died in January 2025 making future production unlikely.
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Common questions
Who created the television series Twin Peaks?
Mark Frost and David Lynch created the television series Twin Peaks. They met at Nibblers restaurant in Los Angeles in 1988 to discuss the project.
When was the pilot episode of Twin Peaks filmed?
The network ordered a two-hour pilot for a possible fall 1989 series. Lynch filmed the pilot for four million dollars with an agreement to shoot an additional ending if the TV show was not picked up.
Where were most exterior scenes of Twin Peaks filmed?
Filming took place primarily in Snoqualmie, North Bend, and Fall City, Washington. These locations are about an hour from Roslyn.
What happened to Twin Peaks after the murder of Laura Palmer was solved?
Public interest began to wane after the resolution of Laura Palmer's murder in the middle of the second season. ABC put Twin Peaks on indefinite hiatus a week after the season's 15th episode placed 85th out of 89 shows.
How many nominations did Twin Peaks receive at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards?
Twin Peaks received fourteen nominations at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards for its first season. The series won two categories including Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design.
When was Season three of Twin Peaks announced?
Season three was announced on the 6th of October 2014 as a limited series airing on Showtime. David Lynch and Mark Frost wrote all episodes with Lynch directing.