MovieChat Forums > Twin Peaks (2017) Discussion > Old School Twin Peaks Fans

Old School Twin Peaks Fans


When I was in college (early-mid 90s), I carried a dictaphone with me. (Or microcassette recorder, or whatever you call them -- I called it a dictaphone.) You know, like Coop recording tapes for Diane. Those were fun days. And you actually could do "voice activated recording," like the way Coop recorded the bird imitating Laura. I'd turn it on during the night, and catch my roommate saying things in his sleep.

People I went to college with and had no idea about TP always wondered what the hell I was referring to. Finally the year after college, 1997, I got a hold of the full series on VHS so I was able to show it to one of my friends. We marathoned it, cursing Mark Frost while struggling to get through the Dick Tremaine episodes on no sleep.

Any stories from other OG fans?

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I can't believe that no one in the mid nineties knew what Twin Peaks was. In 1990, when it premiered, it garnered 37 million viewers in the first episode. Who killed Laura Palmer was on everyone's lips and the media was all agog over the show. I know there aren't many who know about it now, but having people not know what it is 4 or 5 years after the premiere is sort of unbelievable.

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I guess maybe it was different everywhere, but where i lived, no one watched it. I had some friends outside of school that did, but that's it. It was pretty cool actually because twin peaks had its own little subculture of people. We were the artists and weirdos and musicians and misfits.

By the time FWWM came to the theaters, twin peaks was considered "cool" by the masses, due to things like lollapalooza, jim rose freak show, and lsd.

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Weird memory: I remember staying up late (on a school night?!) to listen to a radio broadcast that was counting down to some deadline in the Gulf War (?). It was like, "is Bush going to launch missiles or not"? I can't really remember, but there was an ultimatum and a time, where if something didn't happen by that time, missiles would be launched. And for some reason they would take music breaks, and one musical interlude was music from FWWM, which I hadn't seen yet (and I got really excited).

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Best "end of the world" music ever! Remember "operation: shock and awe"? Gross.

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I think shock and awe refers to the 2003 Iraq war (?). I was talking about the first Gulf War, 1991.
Looking now at that other website, I see FWWM wasn't released until Aug. 1992. So I'm not sure it's possible I heard it on the radio that night. Maybe it was music from the original series?
I was still more or less living under the rules of my parents, and they poo-poo'd TP after the general public panned the 2nd season. Basically, they rejected any interest in new Twin Peaks stuff. Funny though, they did visit the TP tourist stuff up in Washington a few years back.

I was really into Little Jimmy Scott ("Sycamore Trees"). Love his unintentionally androgynous sound -- his voice was like an old female jazz singer's. It was funny because one day he ended up performing at a Borders bookstore when I happened to be there.

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Yeah, the "shock and awe" was right after the towers. I don't remember the gulf war much except ollie north?

All the soundtracks were amazing. My jam was "real indication". Also, weird twin peaks stuff like that happens to me as well. I roadtripped a lot in my 20s, and at one point ended up living in montana for awhile. The entire time i lived there i couldn't believe how much the place reminded me of twin peaks. I didn't find out until years later that it was lynch's hometown.

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Whaaaa? I was recently in washington, i didn't know they had tp tourist stuff???

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I haven't been, but yeah, evidently you can go to the various sites where they filmed it. I'm too lazy to Google right now, but I'm sure you can go to the Double R and order the cherry pie and Instagram it or whatever, heh. I wonder if the RR in season 3 is in reference to that.

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Hey briggs, did you get to see FWWM in the theaters?

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Oh yeah and besides the show's popularity, Laura Palmer's diary was a number one bestseller for weeks. I also remember the cast was on Donahue and the entire audience went crazy for them, and many were old ladies and housewives. You can see the video on Youtube.

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I have/had no idea what was a bestseller then. Was just a high school kid trying to go to punk rock shows and be weird, make edgy commentary on Reagan and Bush, and read the classic literature. Then off to college and no media contact. I didn't discover the Secret Diary until I ran upon it in a bookstore in ~95-6. I had seen TP and developed my own mythology about it and had *word-of-mouth* discussions of it. It's not like fandom scenes nowadays where first thing ppl do is Google and join the chat group and buy every piece of media and sign up for the newsletter and catch the latest YouTube or whatever. I'm talking purely memories of actually experienced events.

So do you remember watching Donahue back then and/or seeing the Diary on display in stores?

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It's crazy how many people's memories of twin peaks closely resemble the "twin peaks-wiki description". Hmm...

I gotta tell ya briggs, i am very pleased you have the sand to back your namesake. Seriously.

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If I'm interpreting you correctly, you're basing this on logic rather than having experienced it, yes? I don't deny that you have a point, but nonetheless far from everyone had heard of it. And a lot of people were just like, "What's that weird show? Boring." and promptly forgot about it.

Most people just had a few channels on TV. You had ABC and NBC and CBS or whatever, and then PBS if you wanted to watch "Victory Garden" or "This Old House" (lol). If you were a sort of couch potato family that worked normal hours, 8pm was a really important "prime time" and you'd go, "OK, it's prime time. Let's see what's on." If you happened to like "21 Jump Street" with Johnny Depp (or whatever!) on ABC, then that was your show, and you didn't pay attention to Twin Peaks on CBS. (I don't remember what channel it actually was on.)

As an aside, my whole 4 years at college I never watched/saw TV at college. I didn't know anyone who had a TV in their dorm, and TVs were not put in public places of the college. There was one little cubby-like place where you could go watch a TV, kind of for research purposes like if you were taking a politics class and wanted to see the news. Of course, when I would go to live with my parents in the summer, it would be the couch potato routine again and the TV automatically stayed on (as if to keep everyone company) during prime time. I'm not claiming it was like that for everyone, just saying it wasn't weird to not know what was going on on TV unless you were following it or had a habitual routine of keeping TV on certain times.

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Hold up...was "this old house" the show with the diabetes guy???

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haha! No, that's Wilfred Brimley. This Old House had Bob Villa and "Norm."

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You completely misinterpreted her. What she's saying is, if you really want to see what it was like back then, check out the youtube video.

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Exactly...Donahue rarely had on television programs as a topic. He dealt mostly with politics and social issues. The fact that he had on the cast of Twin Peaks is really amazing. Also, the first season of Twin Peaks had more viewers than any season of Game of Thrones and very few people don't know about that HBO darling. I am not saying that Briggs did not have that experience, but I just find it really strange that college kids were unaware who Laura Palmer was. That character(and Cooper) and the show were a sensation back in 1990. Most people don't remember that now, but it was.

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You're a rare gem modica.

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Thanks. I would like to be a red diamond.

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lol.

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I hope you kept hold of those tapes... probably be funny to listen to now.

So i was in middle school when the originals aired. When i heard about the cancellation i decided i was going to single-handedly stop that from happening. The kids at school were watching fresh prince or something, they'd definitely never heard of twin peaks. That didn't stop me from tearing out a piece of notebook paper, and starting a petition entitled "Help Save Twin Peaks".

I got so many signatures that day! They cancelled it anyway. I have always been proud of my dedication though.

Yeah, i have old vcr tapes with the episodes. They're completely warped from overviewing. Especially that last episode!

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Yeah see that was the weird way things were, because I had heard of Fresh Prince, but never even seen an episode.

Signatures! Whoah. The only thing like that I did was write a letter to Weird Al. And to a ninja.

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Ninja's are awesome. I heard they aren't good at writing back though.

Oh yeah, i got signatures alright. Half of them were probably in lead lol. I was gonna change the world with that petition...

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I have just converted an early 20's person into a huge TP fan.

I explained all about the history of TP, what it was like to watch it in those times and all the shows that wouldn't be here if it wasn't for TP.

I will always remember not being able to stop laughing when Cooper came face to face with the llama - the timing of the scene couldn't have been more perfect!

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Yes, yes, yes! That f'ckin llama scene is definite top 5 best tps scenes!

Good job converting the young one. Mormons... you'd think there'd be more of um.

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I was in sixth grade when this aired.
Perfect time to get scared.

After this show I would hit HBO for a little tales from the crypt and dream on combo.

Awesome times

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I became a Lynch fan with Dune back in the day. When Twin Peaks was broadcasted it was like a family event. Everyone one at my parents place would sit down and swallow the episode. There are some things on the series that I wasn't too happy about [way too many needless things that had no satisfactory resolution [if any] and uninteresting plot lines that didn't move the main story forwards], but overall it was loads of fun. The final episode when Bad Coop gets out of the Lodge made many kids in high school say "how's Anny" in the middle of class just for shit and giggles.

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...Finally the year after college, 1997...


Thank you GRANDPA for confirming your age.

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Exactly. My age is 41. (How is that a surprise or a mystery?) Which is why you calling me grandpa or a child (alternately) falls flat.

With you on the other hand, being an actual Pinterest Grandma, with your overuse of emojis on the tablet, boasts about your porcelain skin and thick hair, tabloid talk about botox, Tesco's runs for missing recipe ingredients, hormonal mood swings, furious use of ellipsis while typing in the doctor's waiting room, holidays to Spain, etc etc it is clear you are in slight denial of your senior status.

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Don't forget your personality disorder medication now don't ya!

Even at 41 you can still have the brain of a 10 year old, whilst actually looking like a 70 year old, which I'm sure you do.

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