Twin Peaks Pilot Episode – Laserdisc (U.S. Release)

My analysis on Twin Peaks on home video continues with a look at the Laserdisc release of the International Pilot in the United States. Like their close cousins vinyl album covers, Laserdisc cover artwork offered a fantastic canvas to present some stunning artwork. This may be one of my favorite packaging designs from all of the home video releases.

OCTOBER 23, 1991

While David Lynch and his stellar cast and crew were wrapping up principle photography in Washington and California for Twin Peaks – Fire Walk With Me, Warner Home Video released the Laserdisc for the beloved pilot episode. The VHS version of this release happened a few weeks earlier on October 8.

It’s interesting to note that this home video release (and the companion VHS) contained only the International Pilot. Unless you recorded it with a VCR in the United States, the original broadcasted pilot (which ends with Sarah Palmer seeing the gloved hand) would not have an official release until the Gold Box DVD set on October 30, 2007!

Fellow Bookhouse Boy Jared Lyon added some additional context about the availability of the broadcast version on home video.

“The broadcast pilot wasn’t available on DVD until the 2007 Gold Box set. BUT all Season 1 DVD releases has the broadcast pilot EXCEPT the U.S. release. So technically worldwide, that version was available on DVD in 2001, six years before the Gold Box release in the U.S.”

Look for a different article about some of those releases soon.

LASERDISC FRONT COVER

Thanks to Adobe Photoshop’s “Content-Aware Fill,” I remove some of the text from the front cover. The quote from Time Magazine – “Like nothing else on earth” – comes from Richard Zoglin’s review of the show published in the April 9, 1990 issue.

After Showtime announced the return of Twin Peaks in October 2014, Time’s Lily Rothman published a tribute piece to Zoglin’s original review. Sadly, the link to the Time Magazine blog isn’t working. Once I have a copy of that issue, I’ll provide an additional look. Meanwhile, she wrote the following:

As TIME’s Richard Zoglin put it in his Apr. 9, 1990, take on the show:

In outline, ABC’s heralded new series Twin Peaks sounds like an amalgam of familiar TV genres. A touch of true-crime docudrama, a dash of Columbo, a jot of Knots Landing. But in the darkly idiosyncratic world of director David Lynch, terms like murder mystery and soap opera don’t begin to tell the tale. Twin Peaks, which debuts Sunday as a two-hour movie, is like nothing you’ve seen in prime time or on God’s earth. It may be the most hauntingly original work ever done for American TV.

It is also something of a miracle. Imagine: one of the world’s most perversely offbeat movie directors persuades ABC to let him try a prime-time series. He shoots a pilot with virtually no interference. The network bigwigs look at the result, realize that it will probably befuddle many viewers, then decide to air it anyway. The programmers even consider horrors showing the two-hour pilot without commercials. (Cooler heads prevail; the show will have ads, though fewer than usual.) It’s enough to restore one’s faith in television.

Here are two Twin Peaks logos pulled from the packaging.

THE ARTWORK

Isn’t this artwork too dreamy? I wish I knew which artist designed this piece. The back cover doesn’t list a specific name: Package Artwork, Design and Summary (C)1991 Warner Home Video, Inc.

If the artist who did this is out there, please drop me a line at TheTwinPeaksBlog@gmail.com as I’d love to give you proper credit. This artwork screams original Twin Peaks to me.

LASERDISC – BACK COVER

The back cover contains a variety of information along with three publicity shots. Here are the uncropped versions of those shots from the amazing TheMauveZone.com.

The Program Content & Photography are credited to (C)1989 Lynch/Frost Productions, Inc.

CREDITS AND SYNOPSIS

Brief credits are provided at the top of the cover design, and a quote from Rolling Stone is bolded in blue – “The best two hours of film you’ll find anywhere these days.” Most likely this is from the original 1990 review from Rolling Stone magazine (I also have an issue on it’s way and will update accordingly).

Next up is the release synopsis which I’m presenting here for archival purposes:

Who killed Laura Palmer?

Unlike any other TV series, Twin Peaks – and the burning question of the identity of Laura’s murderer – became 1990’s most notorious national obsession. But hold onto your pie and damn good cup of coffee, all you Peakers. Because there’s an exciting new twist to those obsessions, right here in your hands.

You’re holding the special home video version of the feature-length Twin Peaks pilot, the staggeringly original first-season premiere of the series that captured two Emmys (from a total of 14 nominations) and the Peabody Award. It features a mind-warp finale – not seen on network TV – to keep conversations at water coolers and doughnut stands going for days.

Twin Peaks grows out of the combined imaginations of David Lynch and Mark Frost. It’s Blue Velvet (written and directed by Lynch) meets Hill Street Blues (Frost was a co-writer on that trailblazing series). In story, in character, in dialogue, Lynch and Frost take everything one step further – and leave viewers a tantalizing half-step behind – in what “may be the most original show on TV (Time).

Stop by. Grab a cuppa joe. Try the pie. Solve the murder. In Twin Peaks (pop. 51,201 and growing stranger by the minute).

LASER DISCS AND CHAPTER INDEX

The release contained a double-sided Laserdisc that clocks in at 113 minutes.

One of the most interesting aspects of this release is the inclusion of a Chapter Index. You may recall that David Lynch hasn’t preferred including chapter stops on other home video releases. He feels the entire film should be watched from beginning to end without interruption. So to have these stops, with official descriptions, is an extra treat.

CHAPTER INDEX
Chapter Stops have been placed before highlights of Twin Peaks. Please refer to your player instructions for the proper procedure on how to utilize this function.

Side One

• Chapter 1 – Credits; lady in the lake.
• Chapter 2 – Up the stairs and into the room: looking for Laura.
• Chapter 3 – The Great Northern; bad news travels fast … and painfully.
• Chapter 4 – Diner dalliance. Bobby’s secret romance.
• Chapter 5 – High school confidential. A grievous announcement.
• Chapter 6 – The Packard Sawmill; girl on the trestle.
• Chapter 7 – Agent Dale Cooper on the case.
• Chapter 8 – A key, chocolate bunnies and other evidence.
• Chapter 9 – Interrogating Bobby.
• Chapter 10 – Interrogating Donna.

Side Two

• Chapter 1 – “The person we’re looking for is a biker.”
• Chapter 2 – Scene of the crime. Words written in blood.
• Chapter 3 – Opening a safe deposit box; at home (but not at ease) with Leo and Shelley [sic]
• Chapter 4 – The Roadhouse; rendezvous and a riot.
• Chapter 5- James, Donna and a necklace.
• Chapter 6 – Up the stairs and into the room: in the mind’s eye.
• Chapter 7 – Phone calls in the dead of night.
• Chapter 8 – Meeting a mysterious informant.
• Chapter 9 – “Welcome to the killer’s lair.”
• Chapter 10 – 25 years later.

If I ever get my Laserdisc player from my parent’s house in Ohio, I’ll have to fire this thing up to see the picture quality. In the early 1990s, this Laserdisc was the most cutting-edge way to see Lynch and Frost’s masterpiece.

The idea of a 4K Blu-ray transfer found in the Twin Peaks – From Z to A set was only a dream, something we had to wait more than 25 years to enjoy.