Twin Peaks Publicity – Laura Palmer On Television

In advance of the Twin Peaks first season finale in May 1990, the ABC Television Network created a publicity photo with images of Laura Palmer presented in miniature television screens. These smaller images gave newspaper outlets more flexibility to include photos in stories.

TWIN PEAKS PUBLICITY – LAURA PALMER ON TELEVISION

This black and white publicity photo featured two images of Laura Palmer – a framed homecoming queen photo on an end table in the Palmer house and the iconic photo of Laura being discovered on a rocky beach, dead and wrapped in plastic. Both image were pulled from the Pilot episode and made to look like miniature televisions.

The capture reads: “The mystery surrounding the grisly murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) shakes up the seemingly sleepy northwest logging town on “TWIN PEAKS,” which has its season finale on WEDNESDAY, MAY 23 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.”

The publicity photo has a date of “JP 5/8/90” which means it could have been printed and sent to news outlets on that day. This would have been two weeks before the broadcast. You can download a high-resolution version on my Flickr account.

Here is the full color photo of Laura’s homecoming queen image from the Palmer house. It was used as an establishing shot before cutting to Sarah Palmer being questioned by Sheriff Harry S. Truman.

The full-color image of Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic is found just after Sheriff Truman and Doc Hayward discover her on the beach. You can see part of Hayward’s finger in the shot

Episode 1.007 (#7 of the first season) aired on Wednesday that week instead of its regular Thursday night spot to close out the Sweeps Week period. The concept dates to 1954 when the Nielsen ratings system collected television viewing diaries from homes in the Eastern United States and then would “sweep” west. These seven-day diaries (which later became eight-day diaries for homes with DVRs) were mailed to homes to track of which shows were watched and by whom in the particular household.

During the sweeps time period, networks did everything possible to get viewers to tune in to their programming. This may include celebrity appearances, cross-over episodes or things that would make for must-see television. The Mark Frost-directed season one finale certainly had all of the ingredients for such a dramatic and exciting episode that would end the show on a cliffhanger.

LAURA PALMER’S IMAGES IN NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

The two small television screens with Laura Palmer’s images were great for newspapers. This allowed editors to crop the publicity photo to add to stories. I performed a search on Newspapers.com using the exact photo caption and found a few examples.

This article from The Buffalo News on May 18 is a syndicated story from The Los Angeles Times reporter Howard Rosenberg.

The framed image was used in a teaser image for upcoming Wednesday, May 23 broadcasts in Anchorage Daily News on May 20, 1990.

The same image also appeared in The Naples Daily News on the same day.

A Los Angeles Times News Service article by James Endrst appeared in Staten Island Advance on May 22. Both miniature television screens with Laura Palmer appear but the caption is slightly edited.

Karen Telleen’s syndicated article “Looking for Laura” from Knight Ridder News Service appeared in Anderson Independent on May 23, 1990.

It’s great finding these early publicity photos from a time when David Lynch and Mark Frost’s show was all the rage across the United States.