After ABC Television placed Twin Peaks on hiatus in February 1991, David Lynch and Mark Frost held a press conference encouraging fans to write letters to then ABC President Bob Iger. In addition to this media moment held on the set of the Great Northern Hotel, Lynch made the rounds on the late-night talk show circuit. On Wednesday, February 27, 1991, he appeared as a special guest on Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. The seven-minute interview is classic Letterman interviewing the eccentric director about his work and family.
DAVID LYNCH ON LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN ON FEBRUARY 27, 1991
Late Night with David Letterman was a late night talk show broadcast by NBC. Hosted by David Letterman, it aired from February 1, 1982 to June 25, 1993. The episode with David Lynch was aired on Wednesday, February 27. Other guests that night included stuntman extraordinaire Super Dave Osborne and Washington Bullet’s Bernard King. This was the first time Lynch had appeared on Letterman’s show.
The interview transcript below was pulled from the video using the Google Cloud service and edited for clarity. It’s important to me to have these transcripts preserved, especially this interview which Lynch famously calls Twin Peaks fans “party people” who are not home on Saturday nights.
“Three men on the same show named Dave, for the first time in the history of the program!” Letterman joked at the start of last night’s show, referring to Super Dave, Director David and himself.
Lynch was not included in television program listings at the time which makes me believe he was a last-minute addition after schedules were printed. Most likely, the press conference with Frost a few days earlier prompted Late Night producers to get Lynch on the show.
David Letterman: “Our next guest is the Academy Award nominated director of The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet and, of course, the guy responsible for Twin Peaks over there at ABC. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the program David Lynch.”
David Lynch enters from backstage and crosses to the couch next to Letterman’s desk. Paul Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band play an instrumental version of “Twin Peaks Theme”.
After shaking hands, David Letterman exclaims to the audience, “David Lynch!” He then notices the familiar sound of “Falling” emanating from the band.
Letterman: “How are ya? Thank you very much for being on the program. For years and years, I’ve been enjoyed your movies. They’re always entertaining, really interestingly entertaining and usually in a different in a different sense.”
Lynch: “I hear different. Yeah.”
Letterman: “Now, let’s oh hey, how did you get that elf to talk backwards? I think I got that out of the way.”
Lynch: “I heard that … he talks backwards. He talked backwards in high school. Yeah.”
Letterman: “And that’s it?
Lynch: “That’s it. Yeah. I mean, I didn’t know he talked backwards and I asked him uh to get ready to talk backwards and he said, ‘No problem.'”
Letterman: [Laughs] “Well now, did he really say ‘No problem’ or did he say that backwards?
Lynch: “He said it that forwards. Yeah.”
Letterman: “Tell us now what is happening with the with the show. It’s been on ABC now for two years and, when it came on, it was like one of the most talked about, most highly rated shows of all time. So where do we stand now?”
Lynch: “Well, we’ve been … [in] those popularity polls that we’ve been decreasing in them steadily. And there may be lots of reasons but it doesn’t make any difference. Now we’re sort of in trouble, and we think that we have a good show and we can do well on a weeknight because we feel very strongly that the people who like Twin Peaks are party people. They enjoy…”
Letterman: “What does that mean exactly?”
Lynch: “They are not home on Saturday night.”
Letterman: “Oh, I see.”
Lynch: “They don’t want to be home on Saturday night. And so to have the show on that [night] would be wrong.”
Letterman: “Right. So which night if you had to select one for yourself or if you could select one for yourself, what would it be?
Lynch: “I don’t know enough about the lineup but I’ve heard that Wednesday at 10:00 is a is a prime slot.” [Lynch, Letterman and audience laughs]
Letterman: “Just a hunch on your part. But you know the truth of it is if you stop and think about it, it seems like it might be the kind of show that would be, you know, kind of have a limited run and then would become a classic forever, forever.”
Lynch: “That’s okay too. If if it has to end, you know, that’s that’s all all right. But if it doesn’t have to end, that’s that’s even better and I’m asking people to write to Bob Iger, the President of ABC, and if I could I could give the address.”
Letterman: “Yes, please do. I love annoying these network weasels. Even if it’s not this network, let’s just annoy some network weasel here tonight.” [Audience laughs]
Lynch: “Yes. It’s very difficult to write a letter. People say okay, ‘I’ll write a letter,’ but when it comes down to it, it’s hard and I understand that but if they could write a letter to Bob Iger
Letterman: “Bob Iger. E I G E R?”
Lynch: “I G E R?
Letterman: “I G E R? Okay. Bob Iger.”
Lynch: “ABC Television, 77 West 66th Street, New York 10023”
Letterman: “Okay. Do you have his phone number there?
Lynch: “I don’t have his phone number.”
Letterman: “Do you know this guy?
Lynch: “Yes, he’s a real good guy.”
Letterman: “And is he on your side?
Lynch: “He is. But he needs to know uh certain things from the people.”
Letterman: “You know … lately they’ve saved a lot of shows like this. Cagney and Lacey was one and then you know several others I can’t remember right now.” [Audience laughs]
Lynch: “This is true.”
Letterman: “But I have to believe that you’re the kind of person that if this does not turn out the way you would like it to turn out that you have several other projects right now that you’re in the middle of, don’t you?
Lynch: “I do. We have a new show, a half hour show called On the Air that we hope will be on the air. I’m shooting a pilot for that soon and I’m going to finally be able to do this film I’ve been trying to do called Ronnie Rocket.”
Letterman: “Now tell us of Ronnie Rocket. What is that?”
Lynch: “It’s the absurd mystery of the strange forces of existence. And that’s, that’s…”
Letterman: “Who might be in that?”
Lynch: “Well, Little Mike, Michael Anderson [ed. note: Little Man From Another Place in Twin Peaks] will be Ronnie Rocket. And Ronnie Rocket is uh three and a half feet tall.”
An interesting note about Ronnie Rocket, the film was never made but Julien’s Auctions sold a group of 11 scripts this unfinished film project for $195,000 in summer 2025. Two of the scripts were undated, while the remainder were dated 1988, 1991, and 2012. The annotated script was fastened inside a black paper cover and dated February 22, 1991 in blue ink. So when Lynch mentioned he was working on the film, he literally made annotations to a script five days before his appearance on “Late Night With Davie Letterman.”
Letterman: “Wow. And you [are] also in a couple of episodes on the Twin Peaks, you’ve appeared yourself, haven’t you?
Lynch: “I have. I’ve had a great time doing it.”
Letterman: “Shall we show the people this? Do we have any of that footage? You know Roone Arledge over there at ABC?”
Lynch: “No sir, I don’t.”
Letterman: “Oh man, if you ever ever meet this man, ask to see his cufflink collection. That’s all I’m going to tell you.”
Roone Arledge made a profound impact on television news and sports programming through the 1960s, 70s and 80s at the ABC Television Network. Born in Forest Hills, New York on July 8, 1931, Roone received his B.A. at Columbia College in 1952, and began his broadcasting career as a production assistant at the DuMont Television Network and later at NBC as a stage manager, director, and producer.
In 1960, Arledge moved from NBC to ABC, where as vice president of ABC Sports, he created what would become the longest-running and most successful sports program ever, ABC’s Wide World of Sports. He was promoted to the sports division in 1968 and elevated NFL Monday Night Football. In 1977, he was promoted again to president of ABC News despite having no formal journalistic training. For 10 years, he unctioned as president of both ABC Sports and ABC News. He passed away on December 5, 2002, in New York City.
Letterman: “Okay, so this this is David Lynch now in his very own creation and you’re playing a sheriff, right?”
Lynch: “I’m playing Agent Cooper’s supervisor. I’m his supervisor in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Letterman: “Okay, here we go. A couple of seconds from Twin Peaks, David Lynch.”
Letterman shows a clip from Twin Peaks episode 2.006 when Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole and Special Agent Dale Cooper speak at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department. Cole tells Cooper that he reminds him of a “small Mexican Chihuahua.” Then the two plan to use Sheriff’s Truman’s office to speak in private.
Letterman: “That’s very funny. That’s it’s kind of a confident dumb guy with a little hearing disorder.”
Lynch: “Very bad, 99% hearing loss.” [Laughs]
Letterman: “What were you like as a as a child? Is there anything in your background that would suggest what you’ve uh arisen to here?”
Lynch: “No, sir.”
Letterman: “Really?”
Lynch: “No. It’s, um, I … No.”
Letterman: “Do you have brothers and sisters?”
Lynch: “I have a brother and a sister.”
Letterman: “And then what do they do?”
Lynch: “My brother is responsible for all…” [Laughs]
Letterman: “Now you’re you’re making something up now, aren’t you?”
Lynch: “Nope.”
Letterman: “Yes, you are.”
Lynch: “He’s responsible for all the electrical wiring of the government buildings in the state of Washington.”
Letterman: “Oh, he is not.”
Lynch: “He is.”
Letterman: “He installed all of the electrical wiring?”
Lynch: “He has … it’s been done before he was born, a lot of it. But, in the new wiring, he’s responsible for it.”
Letterman: “So if a fuse goes, we call your brother?” [laughs]
Lynch: “Yes.”
Letterman: “And you said you have a sister.”
Lynch: “Yeah.”
Letterman: “And what does she do?”
Lynch: “She’s a financial planner.”
Letterman: “Oh, well there you go. That sounds pretty good.”
Lynch: “Good thing to have. And you’re off now to what? You’re going back to California?
Lynch: “Tomorrow.”
Letterman: “Oh, good for you. Have a great trip. Good luck with the program.”
Lynch: “Thanks a million.”
Letterman: “Good luck with your future projects and it was a great thrill to meet you finally.”
Lynch: “It was great to see you.”
Letterman: “David Lynch. We’ll be right back then.”
When David Lynch passed on January 16, 2025, the YouTube channel for Letterman posted a slightly shortened clip of this classic interview from February 1991.
I can only imagine how fun it was to interview David – he was really a funny guy!
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