NON SPOILERS: Twin Peaks: Season 3 on Showtime Thread

[Gabriel]

Here is an answer I got from Quora:

'Q: Would a small US town have a sheriff or police?
A: It depends on the size of a town and the available money in a budget as well as the laws of the state whether they will have one or more municipal officers or rely on the county sheriff's department for law enforcement. In an area without sufficient funds to pay a full-time officer, sometimes a small town will hire a part-time person(s) who may also work full-time elsewhere. "

I say the size of the Twin Peaks Sherriff's dept. implies:
1) Twin Peaks is a county as well as a town (like San Francisco, which is a city and a county), since all sherrifs offices in the U.S. are at the county level
2) the population is closer to 50,000, since a town of only 5,000 would not have the budget to pay for such a large force (Sherriff, Andy, Hawk, Lucy, Cappy and the deputy seen in the pilot etc.)

That's really interesting. It would also allow for the possibility that the county has 50,000 inhabitants and the town far fewer, which would fit with the smaller town feel throughout the show.

[kitty666cats]

Here is an answer I got from Quora:

'Q: Would a small US town have a sheriff or police?
A: It depends on the size of a town and the available money in a budget as well as the laws of the state whether they will have one or more municipal officers or rely on the county sheriff's department for law enforcement. In an area without sufficient funds to pay a full-time officer, sometimes a small town will hire a part-time person(s) who may also work full-time elsewhere. "

I say the size of the Twin Peaks Sherriff's dept. implies:
1) Twin Peaks is a county as well as a town (like San Francisco, which is a city and a county), since all sherrifs offices in the U.S. are at the county level
2) the population is closer to 50,000, since a town of only 5,000 would not have the budget to pay for such a large force (Sherriff, Andy, Hawk, Lucy, Cappy and the deputy seen in the pilot etc.)

That's really interesting. It would also allow for the possibility that the county has 50,000 inhabitants and the town far fewer, which would fit with the smaller town feel throughout the show.

It would also help with the Fat Trout inconsistencies that TSHOTP created

[garethw]

That's really interesting. It would also allow for the possibility that the county has 50,000 inhabitants and the town far fewer, which would fit with the smaller town feel throughout the show.

I seem to be in the minority (possibly of 1), but it never seemed plausible to me that a town of just 5,000 would have Horne's Department Store.

My completely unsubstantiated belief is that the correct population is 15,201.

[garethw]

That's really interesting. It would also allow for the possibility that the county has 50,000 inhabitants and the town far fewer, which would fit with the smaller town feel throughout the show.

I seem to be in the minority (possibly of 1), but it never seemed plausible to me that a town of just 5,000 would have Horne's Department Store.

My completely unsubstantiated belief is that the correct population is 15,201.

Oops, + 0.1 for Sam Lanterman au bois.

[Gabriel]

That's really interesting. It would also allow for the possibility that the county has 50,000 inhabitants and the town far fewer, which would fit with the smaller town feel throughout the show.

I seem to be in the minority (possibly of 1), but it never seemed plausible to me that a town of just 5,000 would have Horne's Department Store.

My completely unsubstantiated belief is that the correct population is 15,201.

Yeah, it's an odd one resulting, I guess, from the network making them up the size of population. In the final episode of season two, what's more jarring than the bank exploding is that we see what passes for a substantial urban high street exterior in the show for the first time when Pete and Andrew set off Eckhardt's bomb.

[baxter]

I grew up in a town of 7,000. Twin Peaks would certainly not have had a department store!

[garethw]

That's really interesting. It would also allow for the possibility that the county has 50,000 inhabitants and the town far fewer, which would fit with the smaller town feel throughout the show.

I seem to be in the minority (possibly of 1), but it never seemed plausible to me that a town of just 5,000 would have Horne's Department Store.

My completely unsubstantiated belief is that the correct population is 15,201.

Yeah, it's an odd one resulting, I guess, from the network making them up the size of population. In the final episode of season two, what's more jarring than the bank exploding is that we see what passes for a substantial urban high street exterior in the show for the first time when Pete and Andrew set off Eckhardt's bomb.

No, my point was actually the opposite - that the network's mandated population of 50,000 actually is more plausible when you look around the town than what Lynch/Frost wanted. Twin Peaks doesn't actually seem like the small town it's purported to be.

None of it really bothered me; I'm just surprised that fans seem to universally believe the population of this town (with a fancy hotel, fancy houses, a boutique department store, the high street you mention) should really be 5000.

[Aerozhul]

None of it really bothered me; I'm just surprised that fans seem to universally believe the population of this town (with a fancy hotel, fancy houses, a boutique department store, the high street you mention) should really be 5000.

I guess I just always attributed the hotel, department store and what appears to be a "revitalized" Main Street to the fact that there's a lot of money in the town - the Packards and especially the Hornes probably bankrolled a lot of those aspects. Ben Horne being the financier/developer and tycoon that he was, trying to attract foreign investment into the town, made sure that things were nice. Doubtful the Icelanders and their ilk would have been as impressed without those things.

[mtwentz]

I guess I just always attributed the hotel, department store and what appears to be a "revitalized" Main Street to the fact that there's a lot of money in the town - the Packards and especially the Hornes probably bankrolled a lot of those aspects. Ben Horne being the financier/developer and tycoon that he was, trying to attract foreign investment into the town, made sure that things were nice. Doubtful the Icelanders and their ilk would have been as impressed without those things.

It doesn't matter how much money is in the town, a population of 5,000 would still not support a full blown department store, unless there were a lot of other surrounding towns to draw customers from I suppose.

[Dead Dog]

All of you make good points. I've always reconciled those things by telling myself they have a lot of tourism dollars coming into their local economy (Great Northern sure is a busy place after all).

[krishnanspace]

Was there any tribute to Miguel ferrer or Warren frost during the Oscars?

[teddyleevin]

I guess I just always attributed the hotel, department store and what appears to be a "revitalized" Main Street to the fact that there's a lot of money in the town - the Packards and especially the Hornes probably bankrolled a lot of those aspects. Ben Horne being the financier/developer and tycoon that he was, trying to attract foreign investment into the town, made sure that things were nice. Doubtful the Icelanders and their ilk would have been as impressed without those things.

The establishing shot used for the dept. store always seems to me like it comes from another universe altogether.

[Mordeen]

Was there any tribute to Miguel ferrer or Warren frost during the Oscars?

I'd venture a guess "no," considering the awards and tributes were for 2016, but you can bet when Twin Peaks gets the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series there will be something said for all the TP alumni whom have passed, both recently and further back.

-Mordeen

[bob_wooler]

I guess I just always attributed the hotel, department store and what appears to be a "revitalized" Main Street to the fact that there's a lot of money in the town - the Packards and especially the Hornes probably bankrolled a lot of those aspects. Ben Horne being the financier/developer and tycoon that he was, trying to attract foreign investment into the town, made sure that things were nice. Doubtful the Icelanders and their ilk would have been as impressed without those things.

It doesn't matter how much money is in the town, a population of 5,000 would still not support a full blown department store, unless there were a lot of other surrounding towns to draw customers from I suppose.

I don't know, but to me the Great Northern always seemed like a conference hotel. Back in '89, if so, I would guess 90% of those conference guests would be men. Let's say there would be 100-200 men staying there at (almost) all times, a store like that - maybe open four or five days a week - could be realistic. And then there's fathers day........
Anyway, these minor inconsistencies, like the city street and the department store, I really don't think Lynch/Frost cared if it fitted with Twin Peaks being a 5120 town or not.

[indyit]

Was there any tribute to Miguel ferrer or Warren frost during the Oscars?

Didn't see it but Miguel Ferrer was on the list.

http://www.oscars.org/about/memoriam

Looking at Frost's imdb page it looks like he acted nearly exclusively on TV only. There's a few minor credits for films, but I doubt they would have been enough to justify a mention. His distinguished TV career should prompt a mention at the Emmy's though.