Twin Peaks Publicity – Bobby Briggs at the Double R Diner

I would have loved to be in North Bend, Washington on February 21, 1989. This was the first day of filming for what became Mark Frost and David Lynch’s pilot to Twin Peaks. Scenes that day were captured at the Mar-T Cafe which was the Double R Diner in the show. Today, it’s known as Twede’s Cafe where the coffee is still damn fine and the cherry pie is like a gift from heaven. In the pilot, the diner is where viewers were first introduced to Bobby Briggs played by Dana Ashbrook. I acquired this black and white image of Ashbrook sitting at the counter which was later used as a publicity photo for the series.

BOBBY BRIGGS AT THE DOUBLE R DINER

This black and white photo shows Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook) sitting at the counter inside the Double R Diner holding a coffee cup. The scene was shot on the first day of filming for the Twin Peaks pilot on February 21, 1989. This publicity photo has a copyright of 1990 Capital Cities / ABC, Inc.

The script by Mark Frost and David Lynch from December 8, 1988 describes the scene.

INT. DOUBLE “R” DINER – MORNING
SHELLY JOHNSON, a young, slim waitress, is putting on her coat, as the other waitress, HEIDI, a hefty German girl, enters. The owner of the diner, NORMA JENNINGS, a statuesque, well-preserved forty year old former beauty queen, pours a warm-up for BOBBY BRIGGS, handsome, muscular high school senior, wearing a letter jacket.

The image is part of a sequences of images captured of Ashbrook who was 21 at the time of filming this scene (his birthday is May 24, 1967).

The Mauve Zone has full color images from this scene where Norma Jennings pours Bobby a cup of coffee.

I’ve never seen a color version of the black and white photo in this article. But these other portraits of Ashbrook are great.

It’s wild to think the cast and crew had no idea how much the world would embrace the wonderful and strange show a little over a year after this image was taken.

You can download a high-resolution scan of the black and white photo on my Flickr account in the “Twin Peaks Publicity” album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/albums/72177720325607231/