See ‘Twin Peaks’ Cast Quirkily Protest David Lynch’s Exit From Revival
A large portion of the original Twin Peaks cast is so alarmed that David Lynch has stepped away from Showtime’s revival of the series over a contract dispute that they have bandied together to launch a viral video campaign to bring the show’s co-creator back.
A Facebook community page purporting to be the “official cast-run site” with the handle “Save Twin Peaks” teased the actors’ protest a couple of days ago when Sherilyn Fenn, who played the cherry-stem-knotting Audrey Horne on the show, announced “in the next few hours we will release a surprise that will show this is really us taking a stand.” She also thanked Mädchen Amick (waitress Shelly Johnson on the show) for assembling what turned out to be a video.
The two-minute clip shows many members of the cast – with the notable exception of Kyle MacLachlan, the show’s star who attached himself to the revival in January – saying “Twin Peaks without David Lynch is like…” and then filling in the blank. Actress Sheryl Lee, who played the original series’ deceased mystery girl Laura Palmer, says, “like a girl without a secret.” Actor Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs) likens it to a dog without a bark. Fenn says it’s like eyes without brows. Amick compares it to a waitress without a uniform. And on it goes with analogies by Peggy Lipton (Norma Jennings), James Marshall (James Hurley), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Moran), Gary Hershberger (Mike Nelson), Wendy Robie (Nadine Hurley), Al Strobel (“Mike”), Charlotte Stewart (Betty Briggs) and, finally, Lynch’s daughter Jennifer.
The best analogy, though, goes to Catherine E. Coulson, who played Margaret “Log Lady” Lanterman, who says, “Twin Peaks without David Lynch would be like a log without bark.”
Grace Zabriskie, who played Laura’s mother Sarah Palmer, submitted a statement that ran in the video, saying it was like “sad without funny…or funny without sad.” Separate from the video, Ray Wise (Leland Palmer), posted a picture of himself with Lynch saying the filmmaker had his love and support and using the hashtag #SaveTwinPeaks.
Lynch announced his departure from the revival earlier this week via Facebook. He wrote that Showtime was not offering enough money to do the script the way he felt it needed to be done. His exit does not preclude Showtime from moving forward with the series, which ostensibly still has co-creator Mark Frost writing scripts.
A Showtime brief described the revival by saying it would be set in the present day. “Twin Peaks will continue the lore of the original series, providing long-awaited answers and a satisfying conclusion for the series’ passionate fan base.”
Lynch and Frost announced the show’s return with great fanfare last October when they both tweeted that they were excited to resume work on the show – decades after its network-TV de facto finale – and punned, “May the forest be with you.”
Frost is also working on a book – The Secret Lives of Twin Peaks – which will catch fans up on the past quarter-century of goings-on in the fictional Washington town and is due out this year.