In the summer of 1991, David Lynch was at a crossroads. Wild at Heart had been an enormous critical success, but the same could not be said of the second season of Twin Peaks, which had endured declining ratings and network indifference to limp to its denouement in June. Not wanting to turn his back on either the town of Twin Peaks or the medium of television, Lynch – and partner Mark Frost – forged ahead with two different projects.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me was the director’s big-screen continuation of the popular series, but since it was told entirely in flashback it offered no new advancement to the way things were left at the end of Season 2. Consequently, the film was a critical and commercial failure, although it came to be reassessed as time passed, and later critics have lauded the movie as one of the director’s finest.
Production of Fire Walk with Me overlapped with the creation of a new television show, once again for ABC despite the mishandling of the final few episodes of Twin Peaks Season 2. Perhaps reflecting their difficult relationship with the network, Lynch and Frost set the new show in the world of TV, albeit at the birth of the medium, and told the story of Lester Guy, a washed-up Hollywood star given a final chance to resurrect his career with an eponymous TV variety show.
This story is from the October 2020 edition of Starburst Magazine.
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This story is from the October 2020 edition of Starburst Magazine.
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