In case you hadn’t already caught wind of it, the Television Critics Association winter press tour is in full swing in Pasadena, California. Members and panelists have been plied with sweets and trailers through CBS Networks’ day, which were all to be expected (hey, we’re in a conference room for 10 hours a day!). But the biggest treat was quite a surprise, as the Twin Peaks revival panel opened with a 15-minute free-for-all with David Lynch. Of course, this being Lynch, even the most dogged journalists were unable to pry much about even his experience working on the original series. But even though he couldn’t tell anyone what they could look forward to in the revival—beyond a damn fine cast—he did indicate the 18 hours of TV he just directed were all we would get from him for the foreseeable future.
Lynch, who answered few questions point blank, said he had his hands full with Twin Peaks, and has no plans for any other projects. Bummer. It was still pretty exciting to be in the room with Lynch; even though we were unable to wrest any info from him, his responses were still eminently shareable. The director-producer answered queries succinctly or in Zen koans, leaving frustrated nerds—sorry, critics—to wait for the debut of the series on May 21. One question about new cast member Laura Dern just elicited an “I love Laura Dern” from Lynch. When asked how he works with Mark Frost, Lynch answered “via Skype.” Did Lynch like Mark Frost’s book? He hasn’t read it, but only because that’s Frost’s history of working on Twin Peaks; Lynch has presumably written his own in his head.
What was interesting to learn was that Lynch hadn’t had any issues with ABC’s standards and practices while working on the original series.
I couldn’t believe the freedom and the things that we did. It’s kind of amazing—sometimes dialogue had to be changed, but those changes always led to a better thing. But we had a lot of freedom.
But lest any critic think Lynch was just toying with them, series star Kyle MacLachlan, having overheard the discussion, assured all the writers in the room that “You guys got a lot—you did really, really well. He must like you.” Also, that gum we like is coming back into style.