Twin Peaks evening w/Robert Engels in LA on April 9

[nemo]

In TWIN PEAKS one should preserve the sense of ambiguity. That's why I don't like the planet image at all. It would tell us, where they came from and partly, who they really are. The extraterrestrial origin would contradict the nature of them: woodsmen, electrician...Even if they got these roles later. The Black Lodge is far more poetic place, than the planet. Besides the image of planet itself is quite an old one, cos we saw it in Eraserhead. Of course, it's my humble opinion.

[Audrey Horne]

I had a long reply all set basically thanking the Arm for this -as well as a few opinions -but it got wiped out. (ugh, always type in Word first!)

basically, THANK YOU!!!

And I think the idea of a planet of creamed corn (which has been alluded to in the series) is just fine. It's about the execution of it. And I'm highly sure though Lynch's filter is would be vague enough not to be definitive. It seems like a whole play on the mundane/everyday objects found and heightened to otherworldly views. The woodsman could also been seen as such. This is no more sillier than hearing about a Giant in Cooper's room, a dwarf talking backwards, or a horse in a living room. I think it's actually taking an object as dull as creamed corn and using that as a basis that would continue to make the world/show continue to live in undefined terms had it continued instead of making it something more practical. This way we cannot draw an exact solution to something that is beyond human scope.

I've heard everything before -EXCEPT the two minute time lapse. I love this. And time and repitition is such a theme of the show it makes sense. Rings, doughnuts, etc. Heidi herself repeats time when she states she "couldn't get her car started."

Thank you so very much, The Arm! You've made my morning.

[Audrey Horne]

And I think he meant Fenn was sick during episode four of the second season. Entertainment Tonight used it in their lead-ins teasing the viewers asking if Audrey Horne was going to not be on the show- then saying no worries, she was able to film her scenes.

[Brad D]

soooo....we have bob engels and harley peyton to burn at the stake for much of season two....JK. that sounds awesome. for some reason i thought trudy was mark frost's wife! oops.

[BookhouseBoyBob]

I know I've read that bit about Mike and Bob being from a planet made of creamed corn in WIP (I don't think I own the last issue)..I'm going to have to look this up

[TheArm]

First of all, you're all very welcome. Honestly it was just really exciting that there was so much going on in L.A. for the 20th, between FWWM/Mulholland Dr. double feature at the New Beverly, this event with Bob Engels, and the UCB show. I had rather feared the anniversary would go by quietly with maybe an article or two in some newspaper somewhere, so it was just really nice to be a part of all this, AND to see so many fans out (everything I went to was packed). I'm hoping that they see how many fans are out there and will to come/pay for this kinda stuff and it just means that we get more in the future. I do think the Echo Park Film Center will probably do this again, since the night seemed to exceed even their expectations.

And yes Brad, as I suspected Bob & Harley are the ones mainly responsible for Season 2, especially the stuff post-Leland's death. But honestly, I did get the sense that Bob was truly, genuinely enthusiastic and appreciative of his time on the show, and even he conceded that mistakes were made and some ideas didn't pan out, but what's amazing to me is that he was brought into Twin Peaks with absolutely no professional writing experience whatsoever. I can only imagine what it must have been like, being a green, young, brand new writer having the responsibility of a pop culture phenomenon thrust into your lap. As he said himself last night, "I'm one lucky son-of-a-bitch, what can I say?" But also, as he and many other indicated, I don't think any of them ever really expected the pilot/first seven episodes to be aired at all, let alone to be the sensation that it became. It was Lynch & Frost's ship to steer, and I can't help but wonder if maybe if it was irresponsible of them to entrust the show with total rookies. (Having said that though, I do love a lot of what Peyton/Engels did, so I'm not criticizing!)

He did say that the show was made very cheaply, even for that time, which again is interesting to me considering how high its production values look compared to most other dramas from its time. He estimated that each one-hour episode cost approx. $800,000 on average.

He mentioned that the scripts actually got shorter and a bit "looser" as time went on, eventually averaging only about 38 pages (very short for an hour show), to give the directors the time and space to improvise their own stuff.

Oh, this was interesting! Speaking of short scripts, Bob said that Episode 2 (the Red Room dream episode) actually came in under-length by about 2 minutes when they cut it together initially. And Lynch, who of course directed that episode, decided the best way to fill that couple of minutes was to have Audrey drop a quarter into the jukebox at the Double R and dance dreamily for a couple minutes. So that's how that famous scene was born, he claims - just to fill time!

What was also really interesting to learn is that Twin Peaks was one of the very shows that was entirely packaged by CAA (the Creative Artists Agency), as it was first rising to power in the late '80s under Mike Ovitz (and now pretty much owns most of Hollywood). This was one of their first big coups in the TV world, he said. All of the writers and directors were CAA clients, as were a large portion of the cast at the time.

And re: Garmonbozia, the creamed corn planet, and whatnot, I dunno - Mark Frost always says that he and Lynch would have been very committed and back on board 100% for the third season; as long as it was Lynch overseeing that, I bet it could have been pretty fascinating, and probably just abstract enough to leave us wondering what exactly we were watching. After all, the planet in Eraserhead I always took to be more metaphorical than literal anyway, and the same may have been true in this case. And it does seem pretty consistent with a lot of the information we were being given, with all of the weird/quasi-mystical creamed corn references, the frequent Garmonbozia references in FWWM, the monitors pointed at deep space and the space messages being picked up from the woods, all of the Project Blue Book/UFO stuff, etc.

A lot of Twin Peaks sounds pretty absurd when you try to verbalize it. After all, as my old roommate once said, when she gave up on the show, "okay, so there's this guy with long grey hair and he's supposed to be a demon who lives in the woods in some alternate reality? and the demon's name is Bob? and all he wears is denim? and he comes out when they turn on the ceiling fan? are you kidding??" Everything she said is 100% correct and it DOES sound pretty dumb when you describe it that way, but we know how absolutely brilliantly Lynch & co. executed this. So I won't judge, since we never saw it. I bet Lynch could have made it pretty fucking cool!

Having said that, the "time travel" stuff with the 2 minutes was all new info to me, and I really do think that stuff sounds terrific. Especially when you think of how closely Lost has paralleled that the past couple seasons, with all of the time travel/parallel universe stuff (not to mention that the bad guy has turned out to be some evil supernatural entity that, yep, possesses people to do his evil bidding). Just more confirmation that Twin Peaks really was ahead of its time!

[eyeboogers]

Robert Engels had been on the "Wiceguy" writers staff prior to "Twin Peaks" so he wasn't 100% without experience, but still going from your first staff job to co-executive producing a huge pop culture phenomenon must have been daunting.

[TheArm]

Robert Engels had been on the "Wiceguy" writers staff prior to "Twin Peaks" so he wasn't 100% without experience, but still going from your first staff job to co-executive producing a huge pop culture phenomenon must have been daunting.

Oh, I didn't realize that (and he didn't mention it). That's cool - I wonder if he was at all responsible for that Lynchboro story arc, then?

[eyeboogers]

He talks a bit about working on "Wiseguy" in that lenghty interview he did with Wrapped in Plastic, i'll see if I can dig it up....

[nemo]

Thank you TheArm for your comment about the planet:) It calmed me somehow down. I think, Robert Engels shouldn't blurt it out without giving any context, as though it was like a rigorous fact. I'm not sure also, if it was worth to talk about it at all then...You hit the nail on the head, telling, that the fact itself is elusive and isn't enough for TWIN PEAKS to judge about it. I am sure, the origin of these beings wouldn't be revealed even with the introduction of the planet image.

[dugpa]

While not the actual interview with Engels, here is a recent article by John Thorne that uses some of the details from the Engels interview:

http://abovethestore.blogspot.com/2009/ ... -judy.html

[Jouster]

Hey everybody, my first post. I was also at the event last night, and it was great. Most of the inside info has been covered already by TheArm and G42, but I did want to weigh in on the two minutes issue. As best I can remember, he segued into that directly from talking about Fire Walk With Me, and my mind immediately went to Cooper seeing himself in the hallway surveillance footage. I'm still turning it over in my mind, but I think the discussion for this is definitely rooted in that particular scene.

Another interesting thing he mentioned re: the third season was that Windom Earle would infect the town of Twin Peaks via the Black Lodge, in some way. I feel like I have read something similar in the past, and the idea of the town and the Black Lodge merging in some way is really interesting. I always assumed Earle was done when BOB took his soul in the final episode, but maybe not...

All that said, I'm not sure how trustworthy Bob's memory is - he said when he was working on the six episode "On the Air" that the guys in the studio next to him were positive the show would run for many years, being a David Lynch project, and were unconfident in their own show continuing, having gotten only a three episode order. Bob claims that it was Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, but of course that show was in its third or fourth season by the time of "On the Air" (the pilot for "Seinfeld" aired in 1989, and the other 4 episodes of the first season aired in 1990). More likely is that this story originated from the (very) early days of Twin Peaks.

[TheArm]

Hey everybody, my first post. I was also at the event last night, and it was great. Most of the inside info has been covered already by TheArm and G42, but I did want to weigh in on the two minutes issue. As best I can remember, he segued into that directly from talking about Fire Walk With Me, and my mind immediately went to Cooper seeing himself in the hallway surveillance footage. I'm still turning it over in my mind, but I think the discussion for this is definitely rooted in that particular scene.

Spot-on, Jouster. I don't know why I didn't make that connection. You may very well have nailed it. I love that sequence!

[dugpa]

Welcome to the board Jouster. I love how after all these years have gone by, there is still so much to discuss regarding my favorite film of all time.

I was curious for those of you attended, how many people were roughly in attendance?

[dugpa]

Video from the event:


Thanks to Cherie Savoie for the video clip!