Twin Peaks returning to TV??

[DRW50]

I've enjoyed talking to you about Twin Peaks - it's still a relatively new experience for me, so for fans like you who go back decades, this must be incredible.

I have mixed feelings about the show returning, but the show is timeless (likely one of the reasons it still has a following for its merits, not for kitsch purposes) and still has a cast more than able to deliver. I'm sure Lynch will mostly hire new actors, which is understandable, but if he does want to bring back past players, they were almost always impeccable and I have a feeling they can still get right back into the characters.

I'm going to have to go find that Dale Cooper book somewhere and give it a read.

http://www.hypable.com/2014/10/06/social-izing-with-twin-peaks-25-years-on/

http://www.indiewire.com/article/what-twin-peaks-got-right-and-how-it-kept-us-hooked-20141006?utm_campaign=what-twin-peaks-got-right-and-how-it-kept-us-hooked

[Ryan Chamberlain]

I just started watching it. I've heard it was excellent for years. But, I was like...It's a 2 season show. Why should I bother. Now, I know why. This show was mindblowing!

I cannot stress how much I am looking forward to watching the rest of the series and the reboot.

[quartermainefan]

The first year of TP was perfection but it sort of went off the rails a little the second year. It was the respectable artsy soap and that is how it was mareted, as a crazy soap. I will definitely be checking it out but isn't Ray Wise now on Y&R or something?

[Vee]

In fairness, Carl, I can't remember a piece of good news you didn't have mixed feelings about.

I think there will be new people - it has been 25 years, and Lynch has a large repertory cast of favorites, like Laura Dern, Naomi Watts, etc. who he uses often, but much of the TP ensemble is also part of that same repertory. People like Catherine Coulson (the Log Lady, and ex-wife of the late Jack Nance, who Lynch adored), Charlotte Stewart (Betty Briggs), etc. go back to Eraserhead. Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Grace Zabriskie, etc. he remains close to (Lee, Zabriskie and Sherilyn Fenn are in Wild at Heart, and Zabriskie is in Inland Empire) and I don't think he's ever gotten over Mädchen Amick.

From the interviews Mark Frost has given, it sounds like we will be seeing quite a lot of the original cast. Kyle MacLachlan seems all but confirmed, and Amick has begun hinting at it as well on social media (and also exchanging happy comments with Peggy Lipton). I would fully expect to see all of the Palmers in some way, shape or form, because David Lynch has always considered Laura (and Cooper) to be the heart of TP, and because he went out of his way to film a bit with them for the first time in decades, which I believe ended with him, in the out of character segment, asking the actors about their hopes for the future - and Ray Wise said he wished they could all work together again soon. And Lynch agrees.

The other interesting thing is that, years ago late in the second season, there was something of a rift between Lynch and Frost. Reports vary depending on who is interviewed in Brad Dukes' book on how serious it actually was, but they were working on their films outside of the show, and they weren't necessarily getting along as well as they had, and they each had a writer that they worked particularly well with - Lynch was tight with Robert Engels, and Frost with Harley Peyton, and Engels and Peyton were apparently running much of the show (together, not in opposition to each other) while the creators were sometimes indisposed, although many performers hired later, like the woman who played Evelyn Marsh, say Mark Frost was always there. They both still had a lot of input and influence - Kenneth Welsh said Lynch gave specific advice re: Windom Earle's wardrobe - but everyone seems to differ on how much each man was there until the end stretch of episodes, when things really picked up again.

When Lynch did the finale and threw out most of Frost's script - full of speeches for Windom Earle, etc., and a very different take on the Black Lodge - and apparently began improvising most of it on-set, the famous quote he gave one of the location coordinators was, "I wouldn't pay too much attention to that script if I were you." Not in a mean way - he's not a mean guy, by any account anywhere - just a typically Lynch way. And then he told them to "just have everything ready," whatever that means, and voila. For the record, Frost says he was fine with it. But as it stands, neither Frost nor Peyton were involved with Fire Walk with Me - that was all Lynch and Bob Engels.

In the years since, Lynch and Frost have mended whatever differences they have and are apparently very close today. But the thing I take away from it most is, it was Frost who often knitted so much of the dream logic and madness that popped into Lynch's head and came out onscreen into something coherent and cohesive to build the mythology of TP - the Black Lodge, etc. It started with Lynch's visions and Frost often translated them. Lynch's work has gotten more and more wild since then, starting with great films like Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive that are more and more inward-focused, where the 'mythology' is simply the architecture of the soul, culminating with stuff like Inland Empire, which was shot on digital video and is utterly impenetrable to me, three or four hours of Laura Dern and a living nightmare, beautiful but beyond me. What I think this news signifies, though, and what I think I take away from what Mark Frost is saying, is that Lynch is interested in doing something more long-form, something more narrative-driven again, and is going back to some of those older roots. Lynch has talked about falling back in love with shooting on film, but I think it's more than that. I think he's getting back into this whole world, and I think both of them working together is always for the best for the show.

[DRW50]

I guess that explains why most of the back half of season 2 overdid the folksy town feeling, while the movie barely had any of it.

I'm mostly reminded of how few of the main cast seem to have a presence on social media. (poor Sherilyn Fenn said a year or two ago she got rid of her Twitter because people constantly attacked her appearance) At least I got to see Madchen and Peggy Lipton tweeting about being back behind the counter.

Have you seen the deleted scenes from FWWM? Are they around online?

You have so many profound things to say about this. You sad it all, really, and make me more excited about the show coming back. Otherwise I'm just doing things like stopping myself from leaving angry comments at websites that don't list Bobby as one of the characters who should come back.

A few more articles.

http://tvline.com/2014/10/06/twin-peaks-showtime-cast-new-episodes-spoilers/

(that one is an interview with Frost and Lynch as they sort of answer questions)

http://www.adweek.com/news/television/5-other-times-twin-peaks-came-back-160592

http://www.vulture.com/2014/10/twin-peaks-new-york-magazine-cover-story-john-leonard.html

http://www.vulture.com/2014/10/twin-peaks-influence-prestige-tv-showtime.html

I wonder if they will give James Roday a bit role.

[Vee]

Nothing I have to say about it is very profound, just longwinded and pretentious.

The FWWM scenes are online and I do know of at least one place to find them, which I will PM to you. As for the town, David Lynch adored it - he's a very folksy guy, and he loves the light, folksy, silly stuff. Loves, loves, loves it. He wrote back in all the stuff with Bobby, Shelly and the diner in the finale, as well as the endless bank teller scene with the old man creeping across the room (the actual cliffhanger was there from the start, though).

I think the reason the back end of Season 2 overloaded on the light stuff vs. plot was because a) they had had to throw out the massive Cooper/Audrey romance which was to drive the rest of the year, leading to the Windom Earle/Black Lodge denouement with Audrey in Annie's place, and had been forced to sort of put the subplots upfront, and Lynch and Frost were less involved in finding that balance of horror and beauty.

FWWM is much darker and more obscure, but I think it needed to be - Lynch was obsessed with getting back to Laura, telling Laura's story. He filmed almost 90 minutes of fun town stuff, which he loved, but cut it all out because it was not germane to Laura. But it doesn't mean he doesn't love, love, love the Double R diner crew, or the Briggs family or whoever else any less.

Wendy Robie is also on social media, I believe - mentioned calling her agent. I would not be surprised to see any of them.

[DRW50]

If any of you have any pull with the mods maybe you should try to get them to contact some of the Twin Peaks cast. Some of them used to give interviews to soap magazines back in the day - they may be willing to chat with SON.

[Vee]

With the mods? Of this board? Me? I think you'd have a better shot.

Who knows, though, Ray Wise has the Y&R connection and might be approachable.

[ghfan89]

Here are some deleted scenes from the series worth watching

http://vimeo.com/95894586

[Vee]

Some first reactions from the cast.

[dragonflies]

http://tvline.com/2014/10/06/twin-peaks-spoilers-season-3-evil-agent-cooper/

Twin Peaks Is Back: 14 Burning Questions Season 3 Must Address

[Juliajms]

I've never seen it, but I'm happy for all of the fans of this show.

[Vee]

Per the Variety piece, Frost has also said the TP return is open-ended, that they could continue beyond the nine episodes depending on reception and contingent on their inspiration to go on.

[DRW50]

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[Vee]

Brenda Strong, late of Dallas, Seinfeld, etc. played Thomas Eckhardt's female assassin Jones, who tried to kill Harry.

Michael J. Anderson - the dancing dwarf, the Man from Another Place - is not dead, as I previously had thought for some reason. He was apparently asked about returning on FB and said "probably not." There is allegedly some sort of falling-out between Anderson and either elements of the production or the very tight-knit fandom. Lynch still speaks very highly of him, so hopefully that will be worked out. It's not the Black Lodge without a dancing dwarf, and with Frank Silva (BOB) having passed, the show needs all the ambiguously evil spirits it can get.

I also thought Al Strobel (MIKE/the One Armed Man) was dead - I dunno why. He's not!

Also, the always-interesting character actor Chris Mulkey (Hank Jennings) has big plans:

From Brad Dukes, author of the TP oral history Reflections:

From Welcome to Twin Peaks and its twitter account:

GH's own Duke Lavery weighs in - Dick Tremayne was one of Ian Buchanan's best roles, IMO:

I wouldn't be surprised.