60 Fun Facts About Hard Twin Peaks

What was Twin Peaks originally going to be titled, before the setting moved to the Pacific Northwest?

North Dakota's lack of forests and mountains prompted the change; Northwest Passage became the pilot's title instead.

Which unsolved 1908 murder partly inspired the Laura Palmer story?

Frost and Lynch imagined a girl next door leading a 'desperate double life' that ends in murder.

Lynch and Frost first worked together on a screenplay about which star, for a film that was never made?

Venus Descending, based on the book Goddess, was dropped by Warner Bros., but the two became friends.

How long did Lynch and Frost take to write the pilot screenplay after three months of talking about it?

They pitched ABC in a ten-minute meeting during the 1988 writers' strike with little more than an image and a concept.

What was the budget for the two-hour pilot?

ABC then bought seven episodes at $1.1 million apiece.

Which ABC executive fought to get Twin Peaks on the air, winning a conference call against New York executives?

He later admitted in his memoir that ABC's push to reveal the killer early hurt the show.

Which scene did ABC's Standards and Practices ask Lynch and Frost to shorten, and they refused?

The extreme close-up made the censors uncomfortable, but it stayed.

Isabella Rossellini was originally cast as which character, before dropping out?

The role was reconceived as the Chinese-born Josie Packard and given to Joan Chen.

Which cast member is the father of the show's co-creator?

He returned for The Return but died in February 2017, before it aired.

Sheryl Lee was originally hired from Seattle for what modest purpose?

A home-movie picnic scene convinced Lynch she could act, and she was recast as cousin Maddy too.

The one-armed man's appearance in the pilot began as a homage to which TV series?

Phillip Michael Gerard's name references Lieutenant Philip Gerard from that show.

What was Frank Silva's job on the crew before he was cast as Bob?

His reflection was accidentally caught in a mirror during Sarah Palmer's vision, and Lynch kept it.

Lynch first had the idea for the Log Lady while working with Catherine Coulson on which film?

That was his directorial debut, years before Twin Peaks.

Richard Beymer, cast as Ben Horne, was best known to Lynch for which 1961 film?

Several other stars of 1950s and 60s cinema were cast alongside him.

How long did Badalamenti and Lynch take to write the show's signature theme?

Badalamenti called it the 'Love Theme from Twin Peaks'; Lynch told him he had just written 75% of the score.

Several of the show's musical motifs were borrowed from which 1989 Julee Cruise album?

The album also served as the soundtrack to Lynch's Industrial Symphony No. 1.

Which jazz vocalist performed 'Sycamore Trees' in the series?

Julee Cruise sang four of the Lynch-Badalamenti collaborations.

Where, according to Cooper in the pilot, is Twin Peaks located?

That puts it near real-life Metaline Falls, though filming happened in Snoqualmie, North Bend and Fall City.

The soap-within-the-show, Invitation to Love, was shot in which architectural landmark?

Most interiors were otherwise shot on standing sets in a San Fernando Valley warehouse.

What everyday moment gave Lynch the idea for the Red Room dream?

The scene was never scripted and was shot with the pilot as an alternate ending for the European video release.

Which malfunctioning object did Lynch keep in the Twin Peaks scene where Cooper first examines Laura's body?

He liked the disconcerting effect it created.

What share of the audience watched the pilot, the highest-rated TV movie of the 1989-90 season?

ABC's research chief credited later growth to 'the water cooler syndrome'.

Which NBC sitcom did Twin Peaks compete against on Thursday nights, hurting both shows' ratings?

ABC moved the season-one finale to a Wednesday, and ratings jumped.

What did the letter-writing campaign to save the show call itself?

Citizens Opposed to the Offing of Peaks won the show four more Thursday nights.

Which world event bumped Twin Peaks from its time slot for six weeks out of eight in early 1991?

After episode 15 ranked 85th of 89 shows, ABC put the series on hiatus.

According to Frost, who effectively vetoed the planned Cooper-Audrey romance?

Boyle was dating MacLachlan at the time; Annie Blackburn was created as a replacement love interest.

Which two producers joined Lynch and Frost as showrunners after episode 14?

Lynch had little creative control after the killer's reveal until the season finale.

How did Lynch describe the effect of resolving the Laura Palmer murder?

He and Frost had wanted to keep the mystery unsolved until the very end of the series.

Which two Emmys did the first season actually win from its fourteen nominations?

Kyle MacLachlan lost the lead actor Emmy that year, though he won the Golden Globe.

Who won the Golden Globe for supporting actress for Twin Peaks at the 48th awards?

Fenn was nominated in the same category; the show also won Best Drama Series.

Which character spent several season-two episodes disguised as a Japanese businessman?

Lynch and Laurie kept the secret even from cast and crew until the on-screen reveal.

What line did Gordon Cole say he told Denise Bryson's transphobic colleagues, in season three?

David Duchovny's Denise became a cult icon for transgender women.

On what date do Snoqualmie and North Bend celebrate Twin Peaks Day?

That is the date Cooper mentions in the first episode; the pilot itself aired April 8, 1990.

Which 2010 episode of Psych reunited Twin Peaks cast members?

The X-Files, Lost, Fargo, Riverdale and Atlanta have all cited the show as an influence.

The director of which 1993 Nintendo game cited Twin Peaks as inspiration for its 'suspicious' characters?

The Velvet Room in the Persona games is inspired by the Black Lodge.

Which creator said 'We pretty much ripped off Twin Peaks' about his own series?

Lindelof said no show had more impact on him than Twin Peaks.

Which actress replaced the original Donna Hayward in Fire Walk with Me?

Sherilyn Fenn also sat the film out, citing scheduling conflicts.

Roughly how much footage did Lynch shoot for Fire Walk with Me before cutting it to 134 minutes?

The cut scenes became the 2014 compilation Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces.

How much did Fire Walk with Me gross in North America in total?

It opened in 691 theatres and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Which singer, whose songs Lynch had used in Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart, was cast in Fire Walk with Me?

He plays Agent Chester Desmond, investigating the murder of Teresa Banks in the film's opening act.

Why did David Bowie shoot his Fire Walk with Me scenes in just four or five days?

His character, Phillip Jeffries, became central to the 2017 season's mythology.

The first act of Fire Walk with Me is set in which town, described as a meaner parallel of Twin Peaks?

Police there discover the body of Teresa Banks.

Showtime's 2014 announcement described the revival as how many episodes?

It grew to 18 after Lynch's budget stand-off, all written by Lynch and Frost and directed by Lynch.

On what date did The Return premiere on Showtime?

It opened with a two-hour episode and concluded on September 3, 2017.

How did the Cannes audience react to the two-hour premiere of The Return in 2017?

Twenty-five years earlier Lynch had described the Cannes reception of Fire Walk with Me as 'horrible'.

Which actor played Sheriff Frank Truman, brother of Harry, in The Return?

Ontkean had retired from acting and did not return.

Which cast member died less than two weeks after the last episode of The Return aired?

Ferrer and Frost had died earlier in 2017 but still appear in the season.

Where did the 2022 Sight & Sound critics' poll place The Return in its list of the greatest films?

Cahiers du Cinéma had already named it the best film of the 2010s.

Besides Twin Peaks itself, which of these is NOT a location visited in The Return?

The story also reaches New York City and Texas.

Which agency did Kyle MacLachlan reluctantly limit his involvement in Fire Walk with Me to avoid?

As a result Cooper's presence in the film is smaller than planned.

Which former Mod Squad co-stars both appear in Twin Peaks?

Lipton played Norma Jennings; Williams had a smaller role.

Who wrote the tie-in book The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer?

David Lynch's daughter wrote the diary seen in the series, running from Laura's twelfth birthday to the days before her death.

Which relative of Mark Frost wrote The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes?

Kyle MacLachlan also recorded Diane: The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper, mixing episode audio with new monologues.

Cooper's pilot-episode directions place Twin Peaks near which real Washington town?

The coordinates land in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness, though the exteriors were actually shot around Snoqualmie, North Bend and Fall City.

Twin Peaks: Visual Soundtrack, a LaserDisc release, played the soundtrack over silent footage shot by whom?

The footage showed the Snoqualmie, Washington locations where the series was filmed.

Which French distributor did Lynch sign a three-picture deal with in 1991, leading to Fire Walk with Me?

Lynch said he was 'not yet finished with the material' and called the film his cherry-pie present to fans.

In Fire Walk with Me, which two agents does Gordon Cole send to investigate Teresa Banks's murder?

The prologue is set in hostile Deer Meadow, a meaner mirror image of Twin Peaks.

Fire Walk with Me won which prize at the 19th Saturn Awards?

Angelo Badalamenti's score also took Best Original Score at the Independent Spirit Awards, where Sheryl Lee was nominated for Best Female Lead.

Instead of a conventional script, Lynch and Frost wrote The Return as a plot document of roughly how many pages?

They finished it in January 2015 and asked Showtime executives to read it over a weekend, without pitching any other network.

How many days did principal photography on Twin Peaks: The Return take, starting in September 2015?

It was shot continuously from a single long script on an Arri Amira, then cut into 18 episodes.