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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