Lynch was born on January 20 1946 in Missoula, a slice of smalltown America that is surrounded by mountains and lakes, an image that would play a significant role in much of his work. Throughout the early years of his life his family would regularly relocate, resulting in him having to consider such towns and cities as Boise, Spokane and Alexandria, Virginia his home. His academic life outside of high school would begin with Boston Museum School, an experience he found uninspiring, prompting a trip to Europe with his best friend, Jack Fisk, in which they hoped to learn more about their favourite artists. Upon returning to America, they eventually enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where they would find inspiration from the likes of Jackson Pollack and Francis Bacon. A little over a year into his studies and Lynch decided to experiment with film, creating a bizarre animation that showcased his skills as an artist, entitled Six Figures Getting Sick.

In his spare time, Lynch had become a graphic artist, working for a company owned by a friend’s mother-in-law, Dorothy McGinnis. He would eventually cast her in the title role of his first live action, a thirty-four minute piece called The Grandmother. Borrowing funds from the American Film Institute and using his close friends as cast and crew, Lynch would develop his unique storytelling abilities and Avant-garde sensibilities, leading to his most ambitious project to date, Eraserhead. Shot in Los Angeles at the AFI Conservatory, where Lynch was studying, the project started as a $10,000 student film but would eventually take several years to complete. The film, however, would catch the attention of filmmaker Mel Brooks, then most known for the spoofs Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, who offered the young director the chance to make a proper movie, which would result in the critically acclaimed fictional biopic The Elephant Man.

Following on from the unpleasant experience of making Dune for notorious producer Dino De Laurentiis, Lynch retreated to smaller budgets and instead shot the surreal film noir Blue Velvet. Around this time, his agent, Tony Krantz, would introduce him to one of his most important collaborators, Mark Frost. Having previously found success writing for shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man and Hill Street Blues, Frantz felt that he would be an ideal partner for Lynch, whom he had been trying to convince into producing a show for television. Lynch and Frost would immediately connect and form a production company, Lynch-Frost, which they intended to use to help create several projects together, the first being Goddess, which told of the last months in the life of screen legend Marilyn Monroe.

One afternoon, Lynch and Frost were sat in DuPar’s Restaurant and Bakery at 12036 Ventura Blvd in Studio City when they would suddenly come up with the notion of a body wrapped in plastic washing up on a shore. Lynch was intrigued by the idea of telling a story that could run for several seasons and so the two of them knew that they had the origins of a television show. Sensing their enthusiasm, Krantz took Lynch and Frost to ABC to pitch their idea, which would prompt the studio to order a pilot script within a little over a week. Other ideas soon followed and an outline for a show was conceived, which would focus on a small, isolated mountain town that is shocked by the brutal murder of the high school homecoming queen. But when another student is found soon afterwards, seemingly survived the same killer, the police are forced to call for the FBI.

Initially, Lynch wanted to direct all twenty-nine episodes, but due to his commitments for his next feature, Wild at Heart, he was only available for the pilot and a further five episodes. On hand to shoot the remaining segments were Frost, Blue Velvet’s editor Duwayne Dunham, actress Diane Keaton, Lesli Linka Glatter and Todd Holland (Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories), Caleb Deschanel (cinematographer of The Right Stuff), Tim Hunter (River’s Edge) and Tina Rathborne (Zelly and Me). For the lead role of Special Agent Dale Cooper, Lynch chose twenty-nine year old Kyle MacLachlan (who, incidentally, would turn thirty during the filming of the pilot), the young and charismatic star of his two previous movies, Dune and Blue Velvet. MacLachlan had also played an unusual agent in Jack Sholder’s underrated science fiction horror The Hidden two years earlier. The producers would cast twenty-one year old German-born actress Sheryl Lee in the pivotal role of Laura Palmer, the murdered girl, as well as her cousin Maddy Ferguson in several episodes. Lynch had chosen her for the role due to her striking features, and upon viewing the dailies and seeing the scene in which she enjoys a picnic with her best friend, her brief appearance would become a more substantial role.

The cast would be made up of a mix of established performers and young newcomers. The more experienced cast would include Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beymer, both of whom had appeared in West Side Story, Eraserhead’s Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart and Catherine Coulson (who had previously worked for Lynch as an assistant director), Ray Wise (RoboCop), Everett McGill (Dune) and Piper Laurie (Carrie). The younger cast, meanwhile, consisted of Dana Ashbrook (Return of the Living Dead Part II), Lara Flynn Boyle (Poltergeist III), James Marshall (Growing Pains) and the truly stunning Sherilyn Fenn (from the erotic drama Two Moon Junction). The huge cast would be selected by Lynch and Frost with the help of their casting director, Johanna Ray, who had previously worked with the director on Blue Velvet.

The two-hour pilot was budgeted at approximately $4m and shot on 35mm by cinematographer Ronald Víctor García (he would be replaced by Frank Byers for the remainder of the show, until returning for the movie prequel Fire Walk With Me). Perhaps ironically for a show rife with infidelity, principal photography commenced on Valentine’s Day 1989 in and around Snoqualmie near Seattle, Washington. The various locations used throughout the pilot would include the Salish Lodge (which would double for the exteriors of the Great Northern Hotel), Snoqualmie Falls and Kiana Lodge on Bainbridge Island. Shooting under near freezing conditions, filming eventually came to an end almost three weeks later on March 2.

Despite being unsure on what to make of the pilot, ABC eventually gave the series the green light. Each subsequent episode would be budgeted at $900,000 and run at a standard time of forty-five minutes. Although the pilot had been shot on location in Washington State, the remaining episodes would be filmed in Los Angeles. As well as directing the first episode, Dunham would also edit both the pilot and the following episode, before being replaced by Jonathan P. Shaw (his assistant editor on Blue Velvet), Paul Trejo (The House on Sorority Row) and Toni Morgan (who would later work on Law & Order). One of the show’s most acclaimed elements is the score, composed and performed by Lynch regular Angelo Badalamenti, whom he would also write several songs with, to be performed by singer Julee Cruise (including the haunting theme tune, Falling).

Twin Peaks would be subjected to several advanced screenings, resulting in positive feedback from critics. The show made its premiere on ABC on April 8 1990, with the first season (the pilot and seven episodes) running until May 23. In total, there would be the pilot and a further twenty-nine episodes, followed two years later by the movie. The publicity campaign would run the question, ‘Who Killed Laura Palmer,’ which would attract large audiences and eventually lead to merchandise, such as the publication of her diary and various other tie-ins. The success of the show would introduce a whole new audience to the bizarre imagination of David Lynch and, twenty years on, still remains his most popular work.

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