16 little-known facts about the cult TV series Twin Peaks

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

More than a quarter of a century ago, Twin Peaks appeared on the screens. Surely those who wondered who actually killed Laura Palmer were simply lost to the whole world until the series ended. Today we will focus on curious facts that many people do not know, despite all the love for this film around the world.

1. The forerunner of the film - a script about the story of Monroe

David Lynch and Mark Frost met while working on the screen adaptation of Marilyn Monroe's biography based on Anthony Summer's book Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe. According to their script, which was called "Descending Venus", Kennedy was ultimately to blame for Monroe's death. Although Lynch and Frost changed the name of the main character to Rosilyn Ramsey, the studio was very wary of funding a film on such a sensitive topic. As a result, the film never came out, but Lynch and Frost managed to work out the elements of "Goddess", which were later reflected in "Twin Peaks". Many may notice the clear similarities in the stories of Laura Palmer and Monroe.

2. North Dakota?

Twin Peaks is set in Washington state, but before Lynch and Frost settled in the Pacific Northwest, they wrote about North Dakota. According to Frost, they wanted to play on the idea of an endless plain, away from the whole world, but later felt that their script lacked a "mysterious forest."

3. Cheryl is just a corpse

Cheryl Lee, who played Laura Palmer and her cousin lookalike Maddie Ferguson, was originally hired for a wordless cameo. As Lynch later explained in an interview, his plan was to hire a local girl in Seattle, paint her skin gray and simply film her in a scene where Laura's body washes ashore. But after Cheryl was given another small scene (a picnic with Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) and Lynch was very impressed with her acting skills. So soon Cheryl began to regularly star in the role of Maddie.

4. Tribute to the movie "The Fugitive"

Another character that was supposed to appear within literally a few seconds was the one-armed man. "Mike" only needed to get off the elevator in the original script. By this Lynch and Frost wanted to refer to the quick intrigue in the movie "The Fugitive." But Lynch was also a fan of the actor Al Straubel, so he wrote the role for him in the final script.

5. Rossellini didn't play Parker

Isabella Rossellini, who was the lead actress in Lynch's "Blue Velvet" and just the director's girlfriend, was to play the role of the wealthy widow Josie. But they quarreled with Lynch (and broke up in 1991). Therefore, the role was rewritten for Chinese American Joan Chen.

6. Other names …

Critics were quick to point out that the name Maddie (or Madeleine) Ferguson was made up of the names of the characters in the movie "Vertigo" by Alfred Hitchcock (in which Kim Novak also played the dead blonde and her brunette counterpart). Such matches can also be found with the names of insurance agent in Twin Peaks Walter Neff (character Fred McMurray in Double Insurance), veterinarian Lydecker (character Clifton Webb in Laura), FBI regional bureau chief Gordon Cole (character Bert Moorehouse at Sunset Boulevard), etc.

7. Otherworldly misunderstanding

The most creepy character in the series was created by accident thanks to the decorator Frank Silva. Lynch accidentally removed it while rearranging furniture in Laura Palmer's bedroom. During the editing of the shots, it was discovered that Silva's reflection is visible in the mirror during the scene of Sarah Palmer's nightmarish visions. So the idea of creating an otherworldly character was born.

8. Seattle, $ 200,000, parachute …

One of the most iconic figures in Washington state is D. B. Cooper, who hijacked a plane from Seattle, and jumped in the air with a parachute, taking with him a ransom ($ 200,000). After that, no one found him. The main character in Twin Peaks is named exactly the same (given his middle name Bartholomew). The film also features Sheriff Harry Truman, and this is not at all a reference to President Harry Truman, but to a local resident of the same name who refused to leave his house during the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.

9. Replicas in the "Black Lodge"

"Black Lodge" (or "Red Room") is notable for the fact that the voices in it sound otherworldly. This was achieved in the following way: the actors had to read all their lines backwards. Then the track was scrolled in the opposite direction. Thanks to the distortion of the sound when reading in reverse order, such unusual sounds were obtained.

10. Black Tepee and "Eraser Head"

Lynch refers to his own work (Eraser Head, 1977) with unusual decor in the Black Lodge. The mosaic pattern on the floor of the Lodge is exactly the same pattern on the floor in the foyer of Henry's apartment in the Lynch horror movie.

11. Piper Laurie is Japanese …

In terms of the Twin Peaks storyline, Katherine Martell is posing as a Japanese businessman. In order not to hire an additional actress to shoot some scenes, Lynch asked actress Piper Laurie to make up like a Japanese woman. Make-up turned out so well that Peggy Lipton was convinced that Rossellini was starring in makeup in dialogues with her.

12. Lara Flynn Boyle interfered with the romance …

For many viewers, the biggest question was: what happened to Dale and Audrey? It seemed that their romance was developing right before our eyes, but suddenly everything stopped. It turns out that Kyle's girlfriend (Dale Cooper) Lara Flynn Boyle was strongly against the intimate scenes of her boyfriend with Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey), since the two girls did not get along very much on the set.

13. Spielberg in the wings

In an interview, co-writer Harley Peyton said that Steven Spielberg was very interested in the first season of Twin Peaks, that he wanted to direct the second season of the series. Peyton and Frost then met with Spielberg to discuss his vision for the plot. Spielberg wanted to make the second season "as weird as possible," but Lynch wasn’t enough.

14. The collapse of the intrigue …

The murder, around which the plot of the entire series is built, was unsolved until almost the end of the second season. This would have continued further, but the leadership of ABC demanded that Lynch and Frost tell about the name of the killer. Although they were outraged by this decision, the episode, which divulges the main secret of the series, went on the air. As the number of viewers began to decline sharply afterwards, the episode was eventually cut.

15. Audrey and Mulholland Drive

It turns out that they wanted to make a film especially dedicated to Audrey Horn. According to Sherilyn Fenn, who played the role, a new project was soon to be launched, which would begin with the scene as Audrey drives down Mulholland Drive.

16. Mikhail Gorbachev is a fan of the series

The former Soviet leader was an avid Twin Peaks fan. Somehow he even called his American colleague George W. Bush to find out the idea of the writers and find out who killed Laura Palmer.

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