"Diane, 11:30 am, February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks. Five miles south of the Canadian border, twelve miles west of the state line. I've never seen so many trees in my life. As W.C. Fields would say, I'd rather be here than Philadelphia. It's 54 degrees on a slightly overcast day. Weatherman said rain. If you could get paid that kind of money for being wrong sixty percent of the time, it'd beat working. Mileage is 79,345, gauge is on reserve, riding on fumes here. I've got to tank up when I get into town. Remind me to tell you how much that is. Lunch was, uh, $6.31 at the Lamplighter Inn. That's on Highway 2 near Lewis Fork. That was a tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat, a slice of cherry pie and a cup of coffee. Damn good food. Diane, if you ever get up this way, that cherry pie is worth a stop. Okay. Looks like I’ll be meeting up with the, ah, Sheriff Harry S. Truman. Shouldn’t be too hard to remember that. He’ll be at the Calhoun Memorial Hospital. I guess we’re going to go up to intensive care and take a look at that girl that crawled down the railroad tracks off the mountain. When I finish there I’ll be checking into a motel. I’m sure the sheriff will be able to recommend a clean place, reasonably priced. That’s what I need, a clean place, reasonably priced. Oh Diane, I almost forgot -- Got to find out what kind of trees these are. They’re really something."
-- Special Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks: "Pilot"
Thirty years ago today, the very first episode of David Lynch and Mark Frost's television masterpiece Twin Peaks aired on ABC. In the bland landscape of network TV in 1990, Twin Peaks quite literally changed television forever, breaking new ground in terms of storytelling, visuals, music, characterization, and more. Pete Martell's words "She's dead...wrapped in plastic" grabbed me immediately as I watched the pilot, and two episodes later, Dale Cooper's surreal dream sequence forever bonded Twin Peaks to my very soul.
In honor of this celebration of a place both wonderful and strange, here's a timeline of my personal highs and lows of being a Twin Peaks fan for the past thirty years. I'm sure it's incomplete, there's just too much to cover in a simple blog post, but these are the events that truly stand out:
April 8, 1990 -- Twin Peaks' pilot episode "Northwest Passage" debuts on Sunday, ABC at 9 p.m. EST. I'm absolutely mesmerized from start to finish, instantly becoming a fan of Kyle MacLachlan as Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Dale Cooper. Grace Zabriskie's blood-curdling scream as Sarah Palmer in the cliffhanger haunts my dreams and the wait for Episode 2 is excruciating.
April 19, 1990 -- The third Twin Peaks episode, "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer" airs. Cooper has his famous dream sequence featuring Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer and Michael J. Anderson as The Man from Another Place. The mystery of Laura Palmer's murder takes a sharp turn into the supernatural, and I become a Twin Peaks fan for life, while Twin Peaks rockets into becoming a pop culture phenomenon.
May 23, 1990 -- With Twin Peaks now firmly in the nation's collective zeitgeist, "The Last Evening", the Season 1 finale, airs on ABC. 18.7 million people tune in to watch Agent Cooper get shot in a "Who Shot J.R./Who Shot Mr. Burns?" style cliffhanger.
September 11, 1990 -- Twin Peaks fandom explodes over the summer, leaving Peaks Freaks starving for anything new. The Season One score album Soundtrack from Twin Peaks is released on CD, finally giving fans a decent copy of Angelo Badalamenti's "Dance of the Dream Man" that wasn't recorded onto audio cassette by holding a recorder up to the television speaker.
September 15, 1990 -- The month of New Twin Peaks Goodness continues. The first Twin Peaks novel, The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer by Jennifer Lynch, is released, giving fans their first powerful glimpse into young Laura Palmer's horrible molestation by BOB and the tragic spiral of her life. We also get a few hints about what's coming up in the Season 2 premiere.
September 29, 1990 -- Kyle MacLachan hosts the first episode of Saturday Night Live Season 16. Fans rejoice as he reprises Cooper in a brilliant Twin Peaks satire sketch, also featuring Kevin Nealon as Sheriff Harry S. Truman, Chris Farley as Leo Johnson, Conan O'Brien as Deputy Andy Brennan, Phil Hartman as Leland Palmer, Victoria Jackson as Audrey Horne, Jan Hooks as Nadine Hurley and the Log Lady, and Mike Myers as The Man from Another Place.
September 30, 1990 -- At long last, the first episode of Season 2, "May the Giant Be With You" airs on ABC. Fans are screaming at David Lynch, who is seemingly delighted at the idea of torturing us by having an interminably-slow old waiter be the person who finds Cooper bleeding out in Room 315 at the Great Northern Hotel. He makes up for it, though, with the frightening cliffhanger sequence of Phoebe Augustine's Ronette Pulaski waking up from the coma she's been in since the pilot.
October 1, 1990 -- As fans are still reeling from the Season 2 opener, the two-sided audio cassette book "Diane...": The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper by Scott Frost, performed by Kyle MacLachlan, is released. Essentially, these are recordings of Cooper's dictations to the mysterious Diane into his pocket tape recorder taken directly from the TV, but with additional new entries to fill in events leading up to Cooper's first meeting with Harry.
November 10, 1990 -- Under pressure from ABC to wrap up the mystery of Laura Palmer's murder, David Lynch and Mark Frost finally reveal Laura's killer in "Lonely Souls", the seventh episode of Season 2. And, of course, they also proceed to kill off Sheryl Lee once again, this time as Laura's cousin Maddy Ferguson.
December 1, 1990 — With David Lynch suddenly elsewhere, the Laura Palmer mystery finally concludes with “Arbitrary Law”, the ninth episode of Season 2. It’s a powerful conclusion, with an incredible performance by Ray Wise that should’ve earned him an Emmy.
December 8, 1990 — One week after one of the best Twin Peaks episodes ever, the show abruptly spirals downward and begins floundering creatively for the next two months without a central mystery to keep viewers watching.
February 2, 1991 — The show finally moves forward with its second major storyline featuring Kenneth Welsh as Cooper’s former mentor and new arch-nemesis, Windom Earle. Unfortunately by this episode, “Double Play”, Twin Peaks has lost 4 million viewers since “Arbitrary Law”.
February 16, 1991 — On my Dad’s 56th birthday, the episode “The Condemned Woman” airs, featuring the last appearance of Joan Chen as Josie Packard and the return of Frank Silva as BOB. However, the show loses another million viewers, giving ABC a reason to put it on hiatus for six weeks.
March 28, 1991 — Twin Peaks finally returns with “Wounds and Scars” and an increase of 1.4 million viewers, which keeps new episodes airing for the next three weeks. Richard Beymer’s character Ben Horne launches a campaign to “Save the Pine Weasal”, a metaphor for the cast, crew and fans campaigning to save Twin Peaks.
April 18, 1991 — The episode “The Path to the Black Lodge” airs, but ratings are back down to 7.4 million. The feeling of foreboding is all too real at this point as ABC puts the show back on indefinite hiatus, with only two episodes left to air.
May 1, 1991 -- As we continue waiting for ABC to air the final two episodes, the second Twin Peaks novel, The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper, written by Scott Frost, is released. This gives us the much-desired backstory to Cooper's history with Windom Earle, as well as greater insight to Cooper's problems with romance.
June 1, 1991 -- Twin Peaks: Access Guide to the Town by Gregg Almquist, Tricia Brock, Robert Engels, Lise Friedman, and Harley Peyton is released. This version of a traveler's guide book is a fun idea, great for fans trying to visualize Twin Peaks as a real place. Sadly, it feels like a token gesture with the show's ending looming.
June 10, 1991 -- At long last, ABC airs the final two episodes, "Miss Twin Peaks" and "Beyond Life and Death", ending Season 2 and the original Twin Peaks series. David Lynch finally returns to direct the final episode, which ends on a cliffhanger that leaves fans screaming for a resolution for the next 26 years.
August 7, 1992 -- After learning that David Lynch and show writer Robert Engels are bringing Twin Peaks back as a feature film, the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack is released on CD. The soundtrack is a godsend to fans, especially those wanting a new Julee Cruise song and a decent recording of Jimmy Scott's performance of "Sycamore Trees" from the Season 2 finale.
August 28, 1992 -- Lynch's film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, a prequel featuring the events leading up to Laura Palmer's murder, is released in the United States. Even with a budget of only $10 million, the film only earns $4.2 million at the box office so it quickly leaves the theaters. Fortunately, I'm able to see it once in theaters with my then-girlfriend Lori Millman, who somehow agreed to become my wife later on after watching FWWM.
August 1993 -- With Twin Peaks seemingly gone forever, fans enter the Wilderness Years. Those of us who remain loyal take solace with the first issue of Wrapped in Plastic, a new Twin Peaks magazine devoted to the show and Fox's series The X-Files, which many fans turned to in Twin Peaks' absence.
December 18, 2001 -- After a decade of rewatching Twin Peaks on limited VHS releases and videotapes recorded from the original ABC broadcast, Twin Peaks: The First Season (minus the pilot) is released on DVD. A separate unofficial release of the European version of the pilot episode follows with an ending never seen by US fans. The upgrade in video quality over VHS more than justifies the purchase.
September 2005 -- As fans continue wondering where the hell the Season 2 DVD release is, Wrapped in Plastic releases issue #75, the magazine's final issue. Now thirteen years after FWWM, Twin Peaks now exists primarily in our memories and imaginations.
April 3, 2007 -- Seemingly out of nowhere, Twin Peaks: The Second Season is finally released on DVD in the US. The remaining embers of fandom flicker into life once again.
October 30, 2007 -- A bonanza day for fans. Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition is released on DVD, including an official release of both versions of the pilot. Also, Twin Peaks Season 2 Music and More is released on CD. We can now do the "Hayward Boogie" and listen to James Marshall's "Just You" as often as we want.
September 17, 2010 -- I launch this very blog of geeky things, DAMN Good Coffee...and HOT!, named after one of Kyle Maclachlan's best lines ever as Special Agent Dale Cooper and my old TitanTalk amateur press association zine from back in the '90s.
December 1, 2010 -- Just to prove that we're not alone, the USA Network series Psych airs "Dual Spires" (Season 5, Episode 12), a wonderful tribute/homage to Twin Peaks featuring original series stars Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Sherilyn Fenn, Catherine E. Coulson, Dana Ashbrook, Robyn Lively, and Lenny Von Dohlen. I wasn't a Psych fan back then, so I missed the original airing on USA but quickly tracked it down after learning of its existence.
July 24, 2014 -- In another upgrade of video quality from DVD, Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery is released on Blu-Ray. In addition to finally having the original Twin Peaks series and FWWM together in one set, the big selling point to justify rebuying is The Missing Pieces, 90 minutes of glorious unused footage from FWWM. The set's title The Entire Mystery soon proves to be a complete lie.
October 6, 2014 -- In a truly wonderful day, David Lynch and Mark Frost announce Showtime's revival of Twin Peaks for a third season on Twitter. Fandom crawls out of their secluded Owl Caves, completely stunned by the announcement, and erupts with absolute joy that Twin Peaks is coming back!
April 5, 2015 -- Meanwhile...in a truly horrible day, on my and Lori's 18th wedding anniversary and three days before the show's 25th anniversary, David Lynch announces he's not directing Twin Peaks Season 3 due to budget concerns with Showtime. Panicked fans mobilize a #SaveTwinPeaks internet campaign and two days later, a video featuring various Twin Peaks actors called "Twin Peaks without David Lynch Is Like...??" hits the interwebz.
May 15, 2015 -- Fans breathe a huge sigh of relief when David Lynch announces that budget issues have been worked out with Showtime and he's directing Season 3 again. All is well.
October 18, 2016 -- Building up anticipation for the Showtime revival, a new Twin Peaks novel, The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost, is released. Presented as a "dossier" compiled by the late Don Davis' character Major Garland Briggs, the novel provides considerable backstory into the fictional town's history and teases the first hints of what happened to Dale Cooper after the Season 2 finale cliffhanger.
December 22, 2016 -- With the feeling like Twin Peaks is indeed happening again, I approach my longtime friend and fellow Twin Peaks diehard Xan Sprouse about the idea of doing a Twin Peaks podcast for the Southgate Media Group. On this day, we record our first episode of Ghostwood: The Twin Peaks Podcast, "The Secret History of Twin Peaks" to introduce ourselves and review Frost's novel.
May 21, 2017 -- At long last, Twin Peaks returns to TV as Showtime airs the first two episodes, "The Return, Part 1" and "The Return, Part 2", back-to-back. Xan and her husband Chris invite me and my wife Lori over to their house to watch, and the episodes are an absolute delight to Xan and me. We're enthralled, amazed, excited, and perplexed all at once, while our respective spouses seemingly wonder what the big deal is.
September 3, 2017 -- Showtime airs the final two episodes of Season 3, "The Return, Part 17" and "The Return, Part 18" back-to-back. Lori and I are vacationing in London, so I'm not able to watch the finale with Xan, although she offers to hold her iPad up to the screen so I can watch. Unfortunately, because of the 5-hour time difference and wanting to watch the finale properly, I have to decline her generous offer and wait until we get home to see it. Hating to end the show's mystery, Lynch ends Season 3 on another insane cliffhanger with another horrifying scream by Sheryl Lee, which leaves fans desperately wanting a Season 4.
September 8, 2017 -- As I continue processing the finale, Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series) and Twin Peaks: Limited Event Series Original Soundtrack are released on CD. It feels amazing to have another two Twin Peaks albums to add to my collection after so many years.
October 31, 2017 -- Twin Peaks officially comes to another close with the release of another novel from Mark Frost, Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier. Presented as a final FBI report by Chrysta Bell's character Tammy Preston, the novel gives updates on the fates of various Twin Peaks residents, and ends with Tammy realizing that the timeline has been changed so that Laura Palmer's murder never happened.
December 5, 2017 -- Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series is released on Blu-Ray, so now we can store it beside "The Complete Mystery" set for a more complete mystery.
July 20, 2019 -- On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Team Ghostwood and Xan's husband Chris attend the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me Event at the Studio 35 Cinema and Drafthouse in Columbus, Ohio. Stars Ray Wise and Sheryl Lee do a Q&A and autograph signing, and I finally get to meet two actors from Twin Peaks.
December 10, 2019 -- Since Twin Peaks fans are always up for another home video release, the cube-shaped 21-disc megaset Twin Peaks: From Z to A is released on Blu-Ray, combining The Entire Mystery release with the Limited Event Series release into one set, along with two new discs of behind-the-scenes special features and a disc of 4K transfers of the original pilot and "The Return, Part 8". Xan and I rationalize rebuying the episodes yet again by reviewing the set on our Ghostwood podcast.
April 8, 2020 -- To celebrate the show's 30th anniversary while social distancing during the worldwide Coronavirus outbreak, Twin Peaks fans rewatch the pilot episode along with Kyle MacLachlan on Twitter, followed by a Q&A on his Instagram account. Now would be a really great time for a Season 4 announcement.
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