@DRW50

This Vulture excerpt from a new book has a lot of gossip I already knew re: Season 2, but there's a couple new tidbits worth reading (or for others who didn't know).

IIRC the scene Lynch wanted dropped in last minute overnight and chewed Harley Peyton out over involved a long, technical opening sequence he thought up involving Catherine Martell. It obviously didn't get filmed but there's never been more detail and I've always wondered about that.

Edited Saturday at 03:09 AM5 days by Vee

54 minutes ago, Vee said:

@DRW50

This Vulture excerpt from a new book has a lot of gossip I already knew re: Season 2, but there's a couple new tidbits worth reading (or for others who didn't know).

IIRC the scene Lynch wanted dropped in last minute overnight and chewed Harley Peyton out over involved a long, technical opening sequence he thought up involving Catherine Martell. It obviously didn't get filmed but there's never been more detail and I've always wondered about that.

Careful with using archive.is/archive.today. They've been DDoS attacking via those who use their platform.

Good point. I'll nuke it and use the (paywalled) Vulture link.

Edited Saturday at 03:09 AM5 days by Vee

Thanks so much @Vee I hadn't heard about this article. A great look behind the scenes for such a murky period.

I still don't think the Evelyn Marsh was a nadir of the season. I am in the minority but the Civil War story and the story with Robyn Lively (not her fault) as they both had that early '90s "quirkiness" which felt less at home with Twin Peaks and more with something like a David Kelley show. Learning the very thin reason for the former story makes me dislike it even more.

I wasn't a big fan of the Nadine story either, but the relationship with Mike made it more interesting - and Wendy Robie was always worth watching.

I also don't agree it was OOC for James to be obsessed with Evelyn. Being a "Bookhouse Boy" doesn't change that as they all liked to play hero to women in trouble.

Fenn so bluntly disliking that pairing due to Billy Zane being so fresh amused me (I didn't think it worked onscreen either), and she was right about Audrey not being in that beauty pageant.

I'd wondered if Lynch was the reason Bobby circled back to Shelley, but no mention of that here.

I don't think ABC was wrong that viewers would not want to keep waiting to see Laura's killer. I don't think the show could be sustained with that secret. The show was, realistically, never going to maintain the public even if they'd done everything right, but I think they would have maintained more of them if so much hadn't gone wrong in the back half. The more time passes the more we see just how crippling the absences of Frost and Lynch were. Story ideas being based on "I liked comics" or, "I saw it on TV," kind of say it all.

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks so much @Vee I hadn't heard about this article. A great look behind the scenes for such a murky period.

I still don't think the Evelyn Marsh was a nadir of the season. I am in the minority but the Civil War story and the story with Robyn Lively (not her fault) as they both had that early '90s "quirkiness" which felt less at home with Twin Peaks and more with something like a David Kelley show. Learning the very thin reason for the former story makes me dislike it even more.

I wasn't a big fan of the Nadine story either, but the relationship with Mike made it more interesting - and Wendy Robie was always worth watching.

I also don't agree it was OOC for James to be obsessed with Evelyn. Being a "Bookhouse Boy" doesn't change that as they all liked to play hero to women in trouble.

I have a lot more fondness for the late Season 2 stories than a lot of the cast and crew do lol. Including some of Civil War Ben, Mike and Nadine and Bobby and Audrey.

I think it was Peyton who once told me flat out years on Reddit that the Evelyn story was a direct lift from Otto Preminger's classic noir Angel Face with Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons when I clocked it. Pretty much the exact same plot. Good movie. I think some of that stuff worked on paper but it was poorly done and miscast, and I don't think James Marshall could handle it. His best work was the more elemental stuff Lynch did with him.

I knew most of this stuff but I may check out the new book. I remember some other insane ideas Peyton and Engels (who were very talented and wrote a lot of the original series, they just weren't Lynch and Frost) knocked around for the original Season 3, like keeping Windom Earle and Ted Raimi's character as like, a revenant and his undead henchman somehow. No.

This AMA is interesting with the author. I definitely didn't know this.

I’ll drop a few here. I was absolutely shocked when Johanna Ray told me that, if her own son hadn’t been cast, she had Brad Pitt or Michael Madsen in mind to play Leo Johnson. It was fun grilling Mark Frost about the Albert Rosenfield spinoff series they kicked around, which didn’t get very far but sounded, in concept, a lot like The X-Files. I also loved asking people about what they would have wanted to do if Twin Peaks had been picked up for a third season back in the ‘90s. Harley Peyton had a killer pitch for an episode that would have been nothing but a stationary camera focused on a single booth at the Double R while various characters come in and out, advancing the plot by talking over pie and coffee.

Edited Saturday at 09:42 AM4 days by Vee

On 2/21/2026 at 5:04 AM, DRW50 said:

I still don't think the Evelyn Marsh was a nadir of the season.

To be fair, I don't think it's one storyline as much as there's a bit too much silliness going on. At one point you have the Nadine story running, the black widow story running, the James-in-a-noir running, the Lucy baby mess and her having Andy / Dick fostering that child... it's just a bit too much.

Knowing that the black widow plot was supposed to have supernatural elements makes a lot more sense. There seems to be hints of it early on (her saying that she's always had bad luck etc). But then they just don't go there at all. Same with the kid being fostered and having "bad luck" with his parents / care-takers dying. It makes me wonder if there was an entire aborted story that was meant to tie things together better.

But ultimately, I think the combo of just too many silly storylines that seemingly didn't go anywhere plus the 9PM slot bombing out with China Beach on Saturday killed the show. Twin Peaks was actually doing OK for the first part of the season for where it was. I don't think ABC expected miracles since they pretty much seemed to take "low-rated but critically acclaimed" shows when scheduling the night (Young Riders / China Beach / Twin Peaks). Had the show stayed within the 7.0-8.0 rating it probably would've survived for another season.

I think the issue was that they didn't ever plan for Laura's killer to be revealed so they had no back up plan, so they ended up faltering a bit. The season does improve towards the end, but unfortunately, with no solid show in the 9PM slot to keep Twin Peaks' ratings up during that rough patch people just stopped watching.

I thought this was interesting:

Audrey, for her part, got a new love interest of her own — though not before the show teased a flirtation between Audrey and Bobby, who was briefly positioned as Ben Horne’s new right-hand man. “I don’t know if they were definitely going to go with it. I thought they were definitely going to go with it, and we had those moments,” said Dana Ashbrook. “I think it was either a MacGuffin, or a change of someone’s mind, or I don’t know. It was so on the fly, always, the story.”

Because yeah, there was even a scene between Bobby and Shelley that read like a break up scene, but then it's just sort of ignored a few episodes later. I guess you can just reason they had a fight and got over it, but it's never acknowledged iirc.

Edited Sunday at 08:50 AM3 days by te.

47 minutes ago, te. said:

To be fair, I don't think it's one storyline as much as there's a bit too much silliness going on. At one point you have the Nadine story running, the black widow story running, the James-in-a-noir running, the Lucy baby mess and her having Andy / Dick fostering that child... it's just a bit too much.

Knowing that the black widow plot was supposed to have supernatural elements makes a lot more sense. There seems to be hints of it early on (her saying that she's always had bad luck etc). But then they just don't go there at all. Same with the kid being fostered and having "bad luck" with his parents / care-takers dying. It makes me wonder if there was an entire aborted story that was meant to tie things together better.

But ultimately, I think the combo of just too many silly storylines that seemingly didn't go anywhere plus the 9PM slot bombing out with China Beach on Saturday killed the show. Twin Peaks was actually doing OK for the first part of the season for where it was. I don't think ABC expected miracles since they pretty much seemed to take "low-rated but critically acclaimed" shows when scheduling the night (Young Riders / China Beach / Twin Peaks). Had the show stayed within the 7.0-8.0 rating it probably would've survived for another season.

I think the issue was that they didn't ever plan for Laura's killer to be revealed so they had no back up plan, so they ended up faltering a bit. The season does improve towards the end, but unfortunately, with no solid show in the 9PM slot to keep Twin Peaks' ratings up during that rough patch people just stopped watching.

I thought this was interesting:

Because yeah, there was even a scene between Bobby and Shelley that read like a break up scene, but then it's just sort of ignored a few episodes later. I guess you can just reason they had a fight and got over it, but it's never acknowledged iirc.

I agree it was a combination of factors.

I had forgotten about the story with Andy, Lucy, and Ian Buchanan. I also disliked that whole plotline and the forced wackiness. Lucy and Andy were at their best when they had some of the more poignant moments rather than just the laugh track. Ian was so wasted - he was much better served with On the Air.

I definitely felt like they broke Shelly and Bobby up and were going to move them in other directions for a while. I'm not sure how far Bobby and Audrey were ever going to go (my guess is not far), but something was set up. I think they reconciled Bobby and Shelly because they may have sensed the show was done and it was a good full circle moment.

13 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I agree it was a combination of factors.

I think the issue is that people like to point to one factor, but that's just not the case here. It's not the Laura mystery ending - nor is it one particular storyline. The truth is that the Evelyn Marsh story is like one or two scenes per episode. Maybe at the high point three - it wasn't taking over the show to the point you'd tune out if everything else was going swell. But as I said, the show lost its footing and balance. Up until solving the mystery, there was a balance between silly, supernatural and mystery. It really doesn't regain that ground until late season 2.

16 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I think they reconciled Bobby and Shelly because they may have sensed the show was done and it was a good full circle moment.

I don't think they really "reunited" them as such, but more retconned it a bit. I watched episode 26 today and I found it odd how Bobby just appeared talking Shelly into being in the Miss Twin Peaks contest. Next time I rewatch I might have to take note what happens between them in episodes 20 to 26. Shelly also has her brief moment with Gordon Cole here, but that was probably down to David Lynch having a crush on Mädchen Amick (who wouldn't, tbh), lol.

I remember Dana and Sherilyn being vocally baffled by the Bobby/Audrey thing in many interviews in later years. I personally thought they had chemistry, but what do I know. I do think Bobby and Shelly being put back together in the end was likely a Lynch/Frost choice.

For a time I wondered if the whole Little Nicky tortured origin thing could lead to a more serious parallel towards Laura's abusive home and childhood abuse. That might've been nice, to see a comic plotline take a turn. But it got so stupid. The kid wasn't bad, and I always loved Ian Buchanan no matter how dumb the story. I wish he'd appeared in Season 3.

I will have to get the book - some of the lore (like the Albert spinoff, and the Peyton concept for an episode set in just one Double R booth) is new to me.

1 hour ago, Vee said:

I remember Dana and Sherilyn being vocally baffled by the Bobby/Audrey thing in many interviews in later years. I personally thought they had chemistry, but what do I know.

They did, but I think that post-season one we barely saw any of these characters in high school so it was hard to see their connection. We only really saw a bit in the first half of season two with Nadine, but then the focus was on her (and Mike). You'd be excused for entirely forgetting that Shelly, Donna and Audrey were supposed to be the same age (along with James, Bobby, Laura).

10 hours ago, te. said:

They did, but I think that post-season one we barely saw any of these characters in high school so it was hard to see their connection. We only really saw a bit in the first half of season two with Nadine, but then the focus was on her (and Mike). You'd be excused for entirely forgetting that Shelly, Donna and Audrey were supposed to be the same age (along with James, Bobby, Laura).

Which is one reason they allegedly had planned a multi-year time jump shortly after Cooper was retrieved from the Black Lodge in the original Season 3, to dispense with pretending the twentysomethings were high schoolers. I wonder if any of that is addressed in the book.

@DRW50

Kyle MacLachlan did an AMA for Twin Peaks Day, in addition to plugging his memoir.

1 hour ago, Vee said:

Kyle MacLachlan did an AMA for Twin Peaks Day, in addition to plugging his memoir.

Thanks!

Thinking about it, my least favourite part of Twin Peaks is the episode(s) after the Leland reveal / Maddie's murder.

Why? Because first it becomes almost like they're giving Cooper an epiphany - "sorry I've been mucking about in this town for two weeks, but now I know how to solve it" out of nowhere for plot contrivance. Another murder happens and barely anyone but Donna and James react to it, even in passing. Even worse - Leland's wake. We see no real conflict or struggling to grasp the revelation that respected lawyer Leland Palmer not only molested his daughter, but also murdered her.

It's actually frustrating to watch how little of the actual aftermath for the town citizens we get.