Twin Peaks fans wondered, “Who Killed Laura Palmer?” since the offbeat mystery/horror series premiered on April 8, 1990.
There was a cultural refresh as the water-cooler conversations about who murdered the fictional high school student – who was the homecoming queen, but also led a tragic life of abuse – dominated pop culture.
In Scott Meslow‘s book A Place Both Wonderful and Strange: The Extraordinary Untold History of Twin Peaks, readers see behind the curtain of David Lynch’s and Mark Frost’s dedication to finishing what they started with the groundbreaking show.
Who Killed Twin Peaks?
In season 2, episode 7 of Twin Peaks, viewers learned who took Laura’s life. Despite the hype, ABC urged co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost to share an answer to the mystery at the heart of the crime drama, which many feel caused the quirky drama to lose its luster.
Executive Bob Iger shared, “Looking back on it now, I’m not convinced I was right [about the timing of the reveal].”
“Deep down, I felt David was frustrating the audience, but it may be that my demands for an answer to the question of who killed Laura Palmer threw the show into another kind of narrative disarray,” Scott Meslow quoted in his book.
“That was something that contributed as much as anything to the momentum falling apart,” explained Mark Frost. The show ultimately “paid a big price for it.”
“Especially network television—when you’re dealing with twenty-two episodes, and the production monster’s chasing you, you don’t really have any other choice.”
The late, great David Lynch was quoted in Scott Meslow‘s book as directly declaring, “That killed Twin Peaks. Totally dead. Over. Finished.”
Because of ABC’s inability to air the season due to the media focus on the Gulf War, fans lost interest in Twin Peaks. Mark Frost noted, “Every night, everybody was watching reporters standing in front of bombs falling in Baghdad, and this was not a show that benefited from people not seeing it for six weeks.”
The story about the town of Twin Peaks was slated to continue …
Despite another end-of-season cliffhanger, ABC opted against bringing Twin Peaks back. There had been chatter about a third season. Mark Frost revealed, “It would have looked at least in part like [Twin Peaks: The Return], because I had already come up with the battle between the good and the evil Cooper [Kyle MacLachlan] and how that was going to play.”
“I think I even mentioned that to ABC as the place that we would go, which I thought would have really revitalized their audience engagement. But it was clear that they already sort of moved on. They were looking for another dopamine hit.”
The first two seasons of Twin Peaks – and Twin Peaks: The Return – can be streamed on Paramount +.
