We’re back with a new episode, this one on Episode Four (the fifth episode of Season One), titled, “The One-Armed Man.” It aired May 3, 1990 and was seen by 11.9% of US households, up slightly from the previous episode’s 11.3%.
The episode was written by Robert Engels, who would continue his association with Lynch and Frost through 1992, co-writing Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and co-executive producing their short-lived follow-up series, On the Air. He worked on other series such as Andromeda and seaQuest DSV until 2005. He now teaches screenwriting at Cal State Fullerton. Engels writes two more episodes, 16 and 28, both in Season Two. In this episode, he writes most of Gordon Cole’s dialogue, drawing on his experience with his mother, who was also hard of hearing. Engels feels the three biggest influences on the series are The Wild, Wild West, Mayberry R.F.D. and The Fugitive, and the latter certainly is reflected in the One-Armed Man.
This episode introduces David Lynch as FBI agent Gordon Cole (contrary to Scott’s comments in the podcast that he had been heard before). Lynch liked the idea of idea of speaking his lines at high volume, and so the character was written as hard of hearing.
Tim Hunter directed this episode, citing the techniques of Otto Preminger as an influence. He knew Lynch from their time studying together at the American Film Institute. Hunter would go on to direct the 9th and 21st episodes of Season Two as well. He has had a fantastic directing career, working on such series as, Carnivale, House M.D., Deadwood, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Dexter, Hannibal and even the Peaks-influenced, Wayward Pines.
This is the only episode of the series to use a Dutch angle shot (the camera is tilted so the horizon line is not parallel to the bottom of the screen, usually to suggest uneasiness, a world out of balance). Only Hunter was allowed to use this; the angle was otherwise forbidden by Lynch and Frost on the series.
The “washing Little Elvis” joke reminded Scott of SNL’s “Tiny Elvis” sketch, starring Elvis fan (to the extent he married his daughter) and Lynch alum, Nicolas Cage. It aired a couple years after TP, in 1992.
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Welcome back and please enjoy this bonus episode of the Who Killed Laura Podcast. This is actually from the first podcast we did, where we talked about the pilot episode of Twin Peaks, and once we’d done that we kept going and discussed the “International Version” of the pilot. We were already long on the pilot podcast, so we cut this piece off for this bonus episode. We present it now because it makes sense in the chronology of the series, as Episode 3 was the last to use dream sequence footage from that international version. From here on, it’s all new stuff.
The International (or “European”) Version results from an agreement made with ABC so that, if the pilot was not picked up for series, they could recoup their investment by selling it with additional scenes shot to provide closure as a quasi-feature film. Indeed, executives were initially cool on the pilot, not agreeing to a small 7 episode commitment until a younger, hipper group saw it and were more favorable. As discussed in the podcast, Lynch’s and Frost’s vision as realized in this version is a little more typical police procedural, with no overt supernatural elements.
This version is identical to the U.S. television pilot (94 minutes) up to its additional seven scenes, totaling 22 more minutes for a 116 running time. Lynch was obviously pleased with this footage, as it is used again early in Season One.
What is interesting about the pilot and initial creation of the series is not so much the road not taken with the International Version (not many would prefer this over the series) but how organic and instinctive Lynch’s creative process is. For example, The One Armed Man was written because Lynch had already met one-armed actor Al Strobel and wanted merely to include him in a brief scene exiting the hospital, a nod to the famous One Armed Man from ‘70s series, The Fugitive, down to the character’s name, Philip Michael Gerard being a reference to Lt. Philip Gerard from that series. However, after Lynch wrote the “Fire walk with me” speech, he envisioned Strobel reading it in the basement of that hospital, and enlarged the part.
A second example: Sheryl Lee was cast merely because she was local and there were no aims for her to do anything but play dead. But when she filmed the scene with Donna where they’re goofing around for James’ camera, Lynch and the rest were captivated, and created the character of Laura’s cousin, Maddy Ferguson, to give her more to do.
Third example: set dresser Frank Silva was accidentally captured in a mirror in a scene, and it inspired Lynch to consider casting Silva. He also overheard a crew member warn Silva about getting trapped behind furniture, which led to Lynch envisioning Silva crouched behind the bed frame in the very memorable first time we see him as the murderous, perhaps inhuman Killer Bob. Lynch had no idea if Silva had any acting ability.
A fourth example: during the scene in which Cooper first examines Laura Palmer’s body, an overhead light was malfunctioning, blinking off for brief intervals. Lynch liked the disorienting effect and kept it.
The famous Twin Peaks theme was composed by Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti in 20 minutes. Lynch knew immediately that this was the major theme and that, with variations, “75%” of the music for the series was done. The two would also borrow from their work on Julee Cruise’s 1989 album, Floating into the Night, for more Peaks music, and she would get to sing “Falling” on the show, after the instrumental version of the song had already been used.
Much of the exterior filming of Twin Peaks’ took place in Snoqualmie, North Bend and Fall City, WA, with other exteriors often shot in the wooded areas of Malibu, CA. Interiors were mostly in a San Fernando warehouse.
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WKLP Episode 3 - Do You Know Where Dreams Come From?
Scott and Chris are back with another episode of the podcast, this one focusing on Season One, Episode 3′s “Rest in Pain,” originally broadcast April 26, 1990.
The episode was written by Harley Peyton, who ‘80s kids may have first noticed as the screenwriter of 1987′s Less Than Zero, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Peyton would go on to write and/or produce some pretty poor films like Heaven’s Prisoners and Bandits in the early ‘00s and more recently worked on television series such as Dracula. Peyton was nominated for writing this episode, as was Mark Frost for writing the pilot. Before one argues that the split votes resulted in David E. Kelley winning for L.A. Law, Kelley was nominated with William M. Finkelstein for a different episode. Joseph Dougherty was also nominated, for thirtysomething.
As long as we’re talking Emmys, here are the Peaks nominations, with the winners in parentheses:
David Lynch - Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for the pilot, (Thomas Carter - Equal Justice/Scott Winant - thirtysomething)(tie)
Kyle MacLachlan - Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series (Peter Falk - Columbo)
Piper Laurie - Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series (odd choice to push her as a lead actress)(Patricia Wettig - thirtysomething)
Sherilyn Fenn - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Marg Helgenberger - China Beach)
Twin Peaks - Outstanding Drama Series (L.A. Law)
ABC did tie with NBC for most major nominations with 47, and won the most awards with 11, beating CBS with 10, NBC with 8, HBO with 3 and Fox with 2. HBO’s 11 nominations were primarily for original movies and specials; they were just starting with original series.
This episode had 16.7 million viewers, so another 2.5M dropped off from the previous week. There were at least two scenes in questionable taste featuring a male figure straddling either Laura Palmer’s corpse or her coffin, so perhaps the early ‘90s sensibilities of some fans were offended. The title of the episode is, “Rest in Pain.” As usual, we titled the podcast on a line of dialogue from the episode.
The episode was directed by Tina Rathborne, who would go on to direct one more episode of the series, episode #17. She previously directed Isabella Rossellini in the feature film, Zelly and Me, and of course, Rossellini was in Lynch’s Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. Rathbone borrowed some bits from the previous episode’s dream sequence with Lynch’s permission, wanting to add visual flair to an episode she felt was heavy with characters sitting and talking. Rathbone would praise the banal, mundane elements of life in Twin Peaks and the boy next door character of Agent Cooper, which made the violent, lurid and surreal elements more striking.
Rathbone describes the series as a Bildungsroman, a German term for a novel of formation/education/culture, as Agent Cooper learns over the course of the series to become a more enlightened, well-rounded person. She also points out that in Cooper, Lynch and Frost introduced Carl Jung’s theories of analytical psychology, which deals with and introduces such concepts as the personal and collective unconscious, and places great emphasis on symbols, anima and animus, the ego, and the shadow.
The episode introduces two significant characters but also a secret group, The Bookhouse Boys, an extralegal fraternal order consisting of two actual police, Sheriff Truman and Deputy Hawk, as well as Big Ed Hurley. The setting for the Bookhouse was a real location, That Old Place Restaurant in Cornell, CA, much the same as seen on screen but with the bookcases and books added. Other episodes featuring The Bookhouse would feature a set, quite a bit larger and with more rooms than possible, based on the dimensions of the outside.
The Bookhouse Boys insignia is that of a tree with a golden sword essentially taking the place of the trunk and spine of the tree.
Miguel Ferrer debuts this episode as FBI agent Albert Rosenfeld, getting some great scenes condescending to Twin Peaks’ Sheriff's Department, whom he sees as backwoods clods. Ferrer, son of Oscar-winning actor/director Jose Ferrer, would reprise his role in TP:FWWM. His other film, TV and animation voice credits are too numerous to mention, including roles in the holy trinity of network investigative dramas, CSI, NCIS and Law & Order. Ferrer’s work as Albert was well-received by critics, and Ferrer was reportedly a welcome addition to the set, bringing a lot of laughter to his approach to the character.
Sheryl Lee doesn’t debut, exactly, but gets her first shot really acting and talking onscreen, not as Laura Palmer, but as her cousin, Madeleine “Maddy” Ferguson, a nerdier, brunette version of Laura who seems to be as decent and nice as many thought Laura was. She comes from Missoula, Montana, Lynch’s real birthplace. We’ll discuss duality in Lynch’s work down the road more, but let’s note here that Maddy’s name is itself a reference to one of the great cinematic explorations of duality, Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which featured Kim Novak as Madeleine and James Stewart as Scottie Ferguson.
We question the acting skills of Dana Ashbrook in this episode, a San Diego native with two sisters also in the industry, but he’s had a decent career as well, mostly in TV (CSI, Blue Bloods, Law & Order), and no doubt his appearance in an episode of Psych must have been a Twin Peaks parody, as the episode was titled, “Dual Spires.”
Thanks, as always, for listening and reading. We’d love to hear what you think, so please follow us on Twitter @whokilledlaura1, on Facebook and Instagram at Who Killed Laura Podcast, and email us at whokilledlaurapodcast@gmail.com.
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So in this latest episode, we discuss S1E1′s “The Skill to Catch a Killer,” which, as we mention, aired on 04/19/90, was directed by David Lynch, and worsen by Lynch and Mark Frost. It was watched by 19.2 million ABC viewers, down 4 million from the previous episode, so the show was continuing to lose viewers not ready for what it was offering.
Although we mention having done our research this time, we didn’t note that Jerry Horne is played by character actor David Patrick Kelly, a steadily working actor since the late ‘70s who nonetheless is hard to recognize if you’re looking for someone who looks like spiky-haired Jerry. Kelly has appeared in a number of popular or cult classic series and films including The Warriors, Tales from the Darkside, Commando, Moonlighting, Miami Vice, on up to Bored to Death, The Blacklist, John Wick, and Spike Lee’s just-completed Chi-Raq. He also acted in Lynch’s Wild at Heart.
We might as well mention brother Ben, too, played by Richard Beymer, a North Hollywood High graduate who acted extensively in TV in the ‘50s until getting into films with The Diary of Anne Frank, playing Anne’s pencil (sorry, just seeing if you’re paying attention), and then one of his most well-known roles, Tony in West Side Story (also with future Peaks castmate Russ Tamblyn). Unlike his libidinous Ben Horne, the ‘60s films, Bachelor Flat and Five Finger Exercise, are apparently not very dirty. Screen work was sporadic in the late ‘60s through early ‘80s (perhaps more theatre?), but Moonlighting, Paper Dolls and Dallas got him back into the swing of things, leading to Twin Peaks, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and a surprising number of episodes of Murder, She Wrote, playing different characters (he has that look of a murdering weasel who’s going to be found out by a doddering old novelist, right?).
Scott erroneously calls The Great Northern “The North Woods Inn.” It just happens once.
Chris-Craft is indeed famous for its mahogany-hulled motorboats. The model in this episode is considered a classic and was popular from the ‘40s into the ‘60s, i.e. the era most influential on David Lynch. Despite at least one bankruptcy and many changes in ownership, the company is still going.
And how about that Nadine Hurley, the one-eyed, super-strong, quiet-drape-runner-obsessed wife of Big Ed? She is played by Wendy Robie, who has acted largely in television and often as someone at least quirky, often mentally disturbed. Aside from Twin Peaks, she may be best known for The People Under the Stairs, a decent Wes Craven film, or Vampire in Brooklyn, a not-decent Wes Craven film. She is also apparently in the 2000 Baz Luhrmann film, Romeo + Juliet.
“You’d be looking for your teeth on Queer Street” - we speculate on this, but Wikipedia indicates it’s an old expression referring to someone ending up in trouble, often in the financial sense. It is associated with Clarey Street in London, where the bankruptcy courts were located.
Chris isn’t sure if Grace Zabriskie, who plays Sarah Palmer, is still alive. She is, and was excellent in the most recent season of Showtime’s Ray Donovan as Miss Minassian, matriarch of an Armenian crime family. More on her in a later post.
Scott believes the One Armed Man’s dialogue in this episode holds the key to the mysteries of this series. We’ll see! Welcome to Twin Peaks has the text of Mike’s speech, all the Log Lady intros, and plenty of theorizing. The One Armed Man, Mike, is played by Al Strobel, who has a few other credits besides this and TP:FWWM. His role was expanded because of his impressive performance as Mike.
The Man from Another Place is portrayed by Michael J. Anderson, who used a phonetically reversed speaking style he and his friends developed in school, so it was not a Lynch or Frost idea. He has also been seen in the HBO series, Carnivale, as well as Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and (as a normal-sized man with the use of a prosthetic body) in Mulholland Dr.
“That Gum You Like Is Back in Style” is a track from Northern California rock band Camper Van Beethoven’s 2002 concept album, New Roman Times. Cowritten by David Lowery and Johnny Hickman, who are also in the band, Cracker, it should probably have been a Cracker song, but Lowery felt it fit CVB better, and though it predated the New Roman Times concept, it fit in fine. By Lowery’s admission, the lyrics aren’t particularly meaningful and are just intended to create a weird, Lynchian mood.
Thanks for listening. Please tell us what you think of the podcast and/or these interminable notes
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Chris and Scott jump into the first episode of Twin Peaks and a murder mystery in a small town full of secrets!
Rewatch the classic David Lynch & Mark Frost show with us and join in the conversation as we get ready for the continuation of the series on Showtime in 2017.
This episode was recorded just over a year ago. But going forward we will be adding our discussions on the first and 15th of the month.
Please let us know your thoughts and watch along with us.
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Who Killed Laura Podcast - Pilot
Hi, Chris here. As I write this, it’s actually almost a year since we recorded this pilot episode. I bought The Complete Mystery blu-ray set and in early October it was announced that the series would return, this time on Showtime. So it just seemed like good timing to revisit it and hopefully cover everything before the new episodes aired. Life intruded and we were sporadic in recording these, and for better or worse, David Lynch recently announced that the series wouldn’t air until 2017, so with several of these “in the can,” a little more efficiency in how we do them, and a renewed commitment, hopefully we will be on track to discuss the entire old ABC series, the film, the deleted scenes and “missing pieces,” and perhaps ephemera like the Agent Cooper Tapes and The Diary of Laura Palmer as well. And who knows, maybe somewhere we’ll talk about the fan edit James Hurley spinoff or the fan edit Fire Walk With Me.
We’ll number these like the series did, so this is the Pilot, and next episode is Episode 1, and so on. We have at least one Bonus Episode outside the normal numbering as well, and that may be where we discuss the non-series material.
I think we’ll leave our feelings about the series for the podcast itself, especially since they’re still evolving with this decades-later analysis, so let’s just discuss some of the errata of this episode. And yes, I realize its breadth resembles the corrections crawl of SNL’s “Fox & Friends” sketch. As you can probably here a couple times, as much as we were enjoying ourselves and having a good conversation, our lack of research was embarrassing. We get better. Now for the corrections, additional background and observations.
First, the show aired on ABC. It is now owned by CBS, who put their logo at the end of every episode on the blu-ray set. We got confused.
We’re not very concerned in this and the next episode or two about when the episode in question aired, who wrote it, and who directed it. We make it a habit later. This pilot episode, entitled “Northwest Passage,” though the titles were never revealed in the credits, aired April 8, 1990, was written by Mark Frost and David Lynch, who also created the series, and Lynch directed it. It’s a longer episode than normal and was seen by 34.6 million viewers.
As a bit of background we don’t discuss in this episode, Lynch and Frost met in 1987 and started work on a couple film ideas that didn’t get the ground–a biopic of Marilyn Monroe and a comedy called One Saliva Bubble–before coming up with an idea for a crime film called Northwest Passage. This became Twin Peaks. Interesting that that series mixes both comedy and a tragic blonde with secrets, so both creative itches apparently got scratched.
Dumb mistake: I repeatedly call Doctor Hayward “Doc Martin.” I think it’s because his daughter is named Donna, and somehow I was conflating her with Donna Martin, Tori Spelling’s character from another ‘90s show I watched at the time, 90210. As another great friend and Lynchian pointed out, Hayward is very close to “wayward,” though Laura fits that bill more than Donna. The good doctor is played by Warren Frost, father of series co-creator Mark Frost. He and his show wife, Grace Zabriskie, would also play a married couple in five episodes of Seinfeld spanning 1992-1998.
Not as dumb a mistake: Scott says “Bunkhouse Boys” rather than Bookhouse Boys.
It’s implied here, due to faulty memory, that the Log Lady (RIP Catherine Coulson) didn’t play an important part in the series, but she was on the periphery of every episode. Neither is true. She isn’t in every episode, but does play an important part, particularly in Episode 5.
The Lynchboro storyline of the crime series Wiseguy aired just weeks before Twin Peaks premiered and was oddly prescience, with lead character Vinnie becoming sheriff of a small Washington town and trying to stop a serial killer.
The 1993 mini-series Wild Palms was mentioned as possibly being influenced by Twin Peaks, or maybe it’s just a similar-sounding name. Other shows said to containing some Twin Peaks influence include Picket Fences, Northern Exposure (as it aired just a few months after, it’s unlikely, at least not as an initial inspiration), and who knows if there would have been an X-Files if Agent Cooper hadn’t opened the door for other quirky, charismatic and obsessive FBI agents investigating the bizarre. And basically, any series set in a small town where the characters have old secrets might get labelled a Twin Peaks knockoff, rightly or wrongly.
You’ll note we talk about what we perceive is one of the larger if not main themes of the series, Man vs. Nature. The aforementioned friend, Alan, a great fan of author James Howard Kunstler, pointed out that Kunstler has said that suburban housing is often named after the natural elements destroyed in its creation. So what to make of Ghostwood Estates, eh? Also along those lines, note our main despoiler of nature, Ghostwood developer Ben Horne, has an autistic son he ignores and perhaps doesn’t love, the Native American headdress-wearing Johnny.
Finally, you’ll notice the episode cuts off fairly abruptly. In this same session, we went on to discuss the “International Version” of the Pilot, but the podcast was long enough as it was, so we cut that section and will present it as a bonus episode a few weeks from now. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know why we’re waiting. If not, just sit tight.
Thanks for listening and reading. We’d love to hear from you what you liked, didn’t like, what we screwed up that we don’t discuss here, and what Twin Peaks and Lynch and Frost have meant to you.
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