Posted in: ABC, TV | Tagged: mark frost, twin peaks

Twin Peaks: ABC Played Hardball Over Laura Palmer Killer Reveal: Frost

On the anniversary of the episode, here's what Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost shared about ABC wanting Laura Palmer's killer revealed.

Published Sun, 10 Nov 2024 17:37:07 -0600

by Ray Flook

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If you're a fan of David Lynch & Mark Frost's Twin Peaks, then you know why November 10th is so important. It was back on this date in 1990 when S02E07: "Episode 14/Lonely Souls" (directed by Lynch and written by Frost) hit ABC screens, with viewers learning in one of the most horrific ways possible that a BOB-possessed Leland Palmer (Ray Wise) had killed wrapped-in-plastic body of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) – and now, Maddie (Lee). It would be two episodes later, in S02E09: "Episode 16/Arbitrary Law," when the pieces of the puzzle would come together for FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean), and the team, and the killer apprehended – thought a much larger evil would live on. The series would run for two seasons (1990-1991), followed in 1992 by the prequel feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and in 2017 with a third season (Twin Peaks: The Return) on Showtime.

But did the groundbreaking series reveal its killer too soon? Frost believes so, adding that if it wasn't for the network, he could've easily seen the mystery continue into a third season. "Definitely too soon. I mean, we literally had a gun to our head from the network," Frost revealed during a recent interview with Variety. from earlier this year in honor of the pilot's anniversary. "As I recall, they were just going to stop sending us money if we didn't deliver this. They wanted it right off the bat at the start of the second season. But David always said, 'We should never solve the mystery — this should go on forever.' And there's a part of me that thinks he may have well have been right. At least through Season 2 would've been, I think, acceptable. We could've easily gotten through at least the rest of that season engaging with those story dynamics. But it was still 1992, and it was still network television, and they just put their foot down."

In the days before Disney owned the network, it was Capital Cities, described by Frost as "a very conservative family-owned business" that was "deeply disturbed" by what the show was doing and the directions it was going. "I remember talking to [Thomas Murphy], the CEO of the company, who I think felt we were unleashing some kind of digital Ebola into the world with the storytelling. He was really upset." Interestingly enough – from an almost "Lynchian foreshadowing perspective," it would be a future Disney CEO who would come to the show's defense. "The one fortunate part was that they had a young executive there in Bob Iger who, to his credit, was a real champion of the show. I always felt he was in our corner," Frost added.

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