[Lynch] A dead girl.
This was what got us going, me and Mark.
The question of "Who killed Laura Palmer?"
resonated around the world.
[screaming]
[Jordan] In 1990,
there was nothing on television.
It was a desert.
Entering the town of Twin Peaks.
The pilot aired, and it became
a lime bit of a sensation.
The show was both dangerous and exhilarating.
Culturally, it was a game changer.
You can't watch television right now
without seeing the imprint of Twin Peaks-.
Sheriff, we've got a lot to talk about.
[Jordan] I didn't watch television.
It was the lamest thing you could do.
But then I found out:
Oh, it's David Lynch. What?
I rock music 2
III
♪ dramatic music 2
I was there when David Lynch and Mark Frost
came in to pitch the original Twin Peaks.
I had seen David's movie Blue Velvet.
Frankly, t was scared.
[laughing] Because Blue Velvet scared the crap oui of me.
Much to my surprise, in walked the most Midwestern,
polite, soft-spoken man,
and we said. "Absolutely. Let's develop it."
[John] Mark Frost was a TV guy
best Known for the work he did on Hill Street Blues,
and had a sense of how you tell a story in that medium.
[Gary] Mark and David were a really wonderful melding
of sensibilities, where Mark had thoughtful television sensibilities,
and David Lynch was David Lynch.
You can ask it now.
[crying]
[Jordan] Is it a police procedural? Yes.
Is it a soap opera? Yes.
Is ll this son of avant-garde surrealist
psychosexual stream of consciousness?
Yes, M's all of these things and more.
[John] There was this freedom that Lynch seemed to have
to explore these characters in a different way
that you don't ever see on television.
Are you using drugs, Bobby?
- Nope. - Alcohol.
- AlcohoFs a drug. - [scoffs]
Twin Peaks basically proved
that there wasn't just one way to make television.
Somehow, Lynch was able to plant a flag
and say, "We can make weird, creative art
in the most mainstream places of ail,
primetime television on a major network."
[imitates explosion] It doesn't make no sense.
[owl hooting]
David Lynch was really the first filmmaker
to make television.
David Lynch brought not just the auteur theory to TV,
but he brought a framing style and a cinematic style
that didn't exist before.
It felt like watching a movie,
but a movie that just kind of went on
and for hours and hours.
[Lynch] I see it as a film.
Instead of going on a truck
to a theater, it goes on a truck to the TV.
- Oh, Andy. - Oh, Funky.
I'm pregnant.
I rock music 2
[female newscaster] All across the country,
11 1/2 miflion Americans
planted themselves in front of the television.
You probably wonder who killed Laura Palmer.
[all] We want to know!
The outcome is considered top secret.
[Kyle] We knew it was gonna be something special'.
We just didn't know how,
so when it blossomed like it did,
entering into the consciousness of the world,
it was a Httle overwhelming.
Whatever the zeitgeist of the culture at the time
that was not Beverly Hills 90210,
ft seemed to really hook in to Twin Peaks.
We were there, 9 p.m., watching the pilot episode,
and as soon as Pew Mane“ says me words ...
- "She's dead." - She's dead.
"Wrapped in plastic," we were hooked.
[John] You started hearing about the idea
of the water cooler effect,
people taking about it at work the next day,
and you also heard about Twin Peaks parties.
Just the idea of something that was event television
became its legacy.
It would be on for an hour,
but it actually necessitated discussion following it.
when'.!
I didn't know how long it was gonna take
for people to kind of get it, but to see
that it happened really quickly was fascinating.
Man.
It not only went well in America,
but it went well pretty much every place ll played,
some places through the roof.
It was surreal, is what it was.
I went to David, and I said, "Wow, this is crazy.
Everyone loves this thing,"
and he said, “Enjoy it,
'cause it's not always this way."
And I was like, "Oh, okay."
[gunshots]