Twin Peaks Publicity – Albert Rosenfield and Dale Cooper Discuss Autopsy

As a follow-up to the deep dive into the Twin Peaks Morgue scene written by Harley Peyton for Twin Peaks episode 1.003, I’m looking at another publicity photo from my collection. This image of Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer) and Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is unique in several ways. We never see this exact exchange in the episode, and the image was captured by a photographer who comes from a long line of famous Hollywood photographers.

TWIN PEAKS PUBLICITY PHOTO | ALBERT ROSENFIELD AND DALE COOPER DISCUSS LAURA PALMER’S AUTOPSY

This black and white publicity photo was released during the first season broadcast of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks. The photo has catalog number 27160A-2-14 with a photo credit to Daniel Watson / ABC.

The caption on this image reads: “FBI agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan, right) listens as an FBI forensics expert (Miguel Ferrer) discusses the condition of Laura Palmer’s body in the continuing investigation of her murder, on the hour-long dramatic series, “TWIN PEAKS,” airing THURSDAY, APRIL 26 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.”

There is also a date of JP 4/3/90 which could be the day the photo was published. It was, however, taken on October 30, 1989 during production of episode 1.003.

The scene itself is never seen in the broadcast version. The action takes place just after Albert Rosenfield gets up after being punched by Sheriff Harry S. Truman. The close-up scene doesn’t show Albert adjusting his latex glove. It’s assumed an alternate take or a wider shot had the exact action captured on film.

WHO IS PHOTOGRAPHER DANIEL WATSON?

As a long-time photographer and a historian of this show, I love learning about the people who made things happen behind the scenes. Imagine my delight when I discovered Dan Watson, the person who captured publicity photos for ABC Television, comes from an incredibly long line of Southern California photographers.

According to a profile by Scvnews.com on Apr. 28, 2025, the Watsons were  “Hollywood’s First Family,” whose roots stretch back to the 1880s. There are four generations of “movie actors, horse wranglers, stuntmen, special effects producers, film studio innovators and inventors, news and commercial photographers, photojournalists, and newsreel-TV cameramen.”

Daniel West Watson was born to Jackie and Garry Watson in Los Angeles, California, on March 15, 1957. Garry was a noted singer, actor and photographer. Dan eventually became the fourth and last generation of “Watson Family lensmen, and the last in the line of 10, following his great-grandfather James, grandfather Coy Sr., great-uncle George, uncles Coy Jr., Harry, Bill, Delmar, and Bobs, and Garry, Dan’s father.”

I highly recommend Stephen Peeples profile about Dan as it’s a fascinating look at this talented photographer’s history.

Dan started an 18-year freelance career for the ABC Television Network in 1988.

ABC Photo Department Murray De’Atley, who had recently joined ABC from CBS Television, hired Watson as a photographer. Early assignments included shooting “publicity stills of the network’s talent, on the sets of top-rated network series including ‘Roseanne’ and ‘Home Improvement,’ and big ABC events like the Academy Awards telecasts.”

“One of my first assignments was on ‘China Beach’ (1988-1991), a TV show about a medical evac hospital in the Vietnam War,” Dan told Peeples for the April 2025 profile. “The scene we were shooting was on the beach. It was all M.O.S., which means there was no sound, so I didn’t have to worry about blimps (camera enclosure to eliminate shutter noise). I was shooting with Leicas then, so it was pretty quiet. All the talent was very nice. I shot three rolls of color and three rolls of black and white 35mm film. I got every scene a couple of times.”

Hal Garb, who was Murray’s boss, was surprised by the lack of film to process.

“‘Where the hell is the film? You only shot three rolls.’ ‘Didn’t I get all the scenes?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Were all the pictures good?’ ‘Yes.’”

“They were used to somebody shooting 30 rolls of film,” Dan said. “It didn’t matter what it was: brrrr [motor-drive sound], you just shoot. I said, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that was the case. I’ll do that from now on.’ It wasn’t what I was used to doing, but I understood.”

Watson didn’t care for on-set photography.

“I never really liked the job because everything was a fight. The director didn’t want you there. The stars didn’t want you there. But I got on the set with the directors because of my news background, and I was good with the talent.”

From 1994-1996, Dan was the staff photographer for the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum at Exposition Park near Downtown Los Angeles. He then joined The Signal newspaper in Valencia, California, spending three different tours of duty between 1998-2024.

ALBERT AND COOPER’S PUBLICITY PHOTO IN THE PRESS

The publicity photo of Albert Rosenfield and Cooper appeared several times in newspapers throughout the United States. Many times, this image appeared alongside television programming grids.

Oftentimes, the image appeared next to the exact caption printed on the publicity photo. This made sure the episode or image was described exactly how ABC Television’s publicity department wanted.

This is an example of how the image was paired with the television program grid for April 26, 1990 in the York Daily Record.

The image was also used to accompany articles about Twin Peaks long after the episode first aired. This syndicated article by Jonathan Storm from Knight-Ridder Newspapers appeared in The Times Tribune on Aug. 5, 1990. It was published in advance of ABC Television rebroadcasting the series beginning Aug. 5, 1990 in advance of the second season premiere on Sept. 30, 1990.

You can download a high-resolution copy of this photo from my Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/54633667109.