One story I’ve been tracking down for nearly 27 years comes from the production of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. During the 1996 Twin Peaks Fan Festival, I heard a story about Laura Palmer’s soggy cereal. Thanks to a conversation with a reporter from the Daily Herald in Everett, Washington, I now know the origin of this tale.
LAURA PALMER’S SOGGY CEREAL
The particular scene from David Lynch’s 1992 masterpiece takes place on the “Last Morning” after Laura Palmer has a terrible revelation the night before. The scene opens with Laura holding a spoon in a bowl of soggy cereal.
The script from David Lynch and Bob Engles dated August 8, 1991 even mentions the bowl of soggy cereal.
INT. PALMER HOUSE, DINING ROOM – DAY
CLOSEUP: BOWL OF SOGGY CEREAL
On screen it reads:
“LAST MORNING:”
The scene continues as scripted:
ON THE SCENE
Sarah sits at the dining room table smoking. Laura pushes her spoon around in the soggy cereal. Leland stares at her.
LELAND
Laura, I would like to talk to you. Is something wrong?
Laura gets up and leaves the room. Leland stares at the empty door. He– waits for a moment and then follows her.
Sarah, nervously, watches him go.
Laura carries her bowl of soggy cereal into the kitchen and retreats to her bedroom on the second floor.
I recall being told that the bowl of cereal was Kellogg’s Raisin’ Bran but all of the raisins had been removed by a crew member. Did this actually happen?
MARILYN PETTERSEN’S INTERVIEW
Thanks to an interview with Marilyn Pettersen, the previous owner of the Everett, Washington home that served as the Palmer house in Twin Peaks, we learned the origin of the soggy cereal story.
Daily Herald reporter Leslie Moriarty published an article titled, “House Owner Loved Days on the Set…” on August 26, 1992, just two days before the theatrical release of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in U.S. theatres. In the story, Pettersen gives a behind the scenes look at the Palmer house scenes which were most likely shot around September 25, 1991.
“Many of the scenes they shot were meals at the dining room table,” Pettersen says. “They thought they were going to have to go out and buy food to make it look real. But I told them to forget that. I cooked all the food they used in the meal scenes.”
Even Laura Palmer’s cereal, shown in an intense morning-after-an-attack scene, came from Pettersen’s kitchen cabinet. “That’s a funny story,” Pettersen says. “It was Raisin Bran. But David didn’t think it looked right, so he had his guys pick the raisins out one by one.”
KELLOGG’S RAISIN BRAN
Before writing this article, I had assumed there were only two bran cereals with raisins – one by Kellogg’s and one by Post (remember the Claymation California Raisins from the 1980s?). As it turns out, “raisin bran” cereal has a long history dating back to the late 1880s to 1925. Skinner’s Raisin Bran was one of the earliest cereals to include raisins, yet have been at least five companies making this kind of morning treat – Kellogg’s, General Mills, Total Raisin Bran, U.S. Mills, and Ralcorp’s Post.
Kellogg’s supposedly introduced their version of the cereal around 1942 (though I found listings dating back to 1897). Despite having introduced their cereal in 1925, Skinner Manufacturing Company lost a trademark dispute to Kellogg’s in 1944 as the name “raisin bran” was considered cereal ingredients.
It would take Kellogg’s decades before they introduced Raisin Bran Crunch in early 1999. This new cereal was part of a larger advertising campaign titled, “A Healthier Life Is Within Your Reach,” and was designed to help the company grow and reach potential customers who skipped breakfast.
MITCHUM BROTHERS PREFERRED CEREAL
I mentioned Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Crunch as it would make a cameo during the Mitchum Brothers’ breakfast in Twin Peaks – Part 11 of Season 3.
After pouring his cereal, Bradly Mitchum briefly reads the back of the box before setting it aside. Thanks to the Behind the Curtin videos from the Twin Peaks Z to A box set, we a closer look at the box and other details.
JANUARY 21, 2016
The Mitchum Brothers’ breakfast scene was shot on January 21, 2016 at private residence in Chatsworth, California once rented by Frank Sinatra.
David Lynch speaks with Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper about the scene before grabbing a box of cereal from the counter.
There were four cereal boxes on the counter inside the Mitchum Brothers’ home.
A closer look reveals the boxes were Kashi Go Lean Crunch, Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Crunch, Quaker’s Cap’n Crunch, and Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats.
This isn’t the first time Cap’n Crunch has appeared in Twin Peaks … sort of. In the pilot episode, a stylized box of “Crunchies” is briefly seen in the Palmer’s kitchen. In Part 11, I believe this is the cereal that Rodney Mitchum is eating before being joined by his brother.
David Lynch reaches for the box of Raisin Bran Crunch. Director of Photography Peter Deming is also seen in the kitchen behind his camera.
We get a better look at the box front as he sets it down on the table. Granted, he could have been reaching for any box and happened to grab the tallest one for this scene.
Yet, based on numerous other examples of Lynch’s purposeful decision making in his works, I believe he specifically wanted Raisin Bran Crunch for this scene. He even remarks about the cereal being the character’s favorite in the behind the scenes footage, but the scene is abruptly cut.
When David pulls out the Raisin Bran Crunch box, we can see the back of the box that Bradly Mitchum reviews in the scene.
Once he places the box down, details about earning vacation points are shown.
The box advertisement was for Kellogg’s Family Rewards program which was discontinued in November 2022. This particular promotion for “[getting] up to $200 off your next vacation” was launched around August 18, 2015. The $200 logo is seen on the front of the box in Part 11.
One thing has bothered me during the entire time I wrote this article – how many raisins are in two scoops? As it turns out, someone figured that out in this video from Cereal Time TV.
Special thank you to Eric from the Daily Herald who helped fill in the missing pieces about the two scoops.
