Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

General discussion on Twin Peaks not related to the series, film, books, music, photos, or collectors merchandise.

Moderators: Brad D, Annie, Jonah, BookhouseBoyBob, Ross, Jerry Horne

How and when did you first experience Twin Peaks TV Series or FWWM?

Original Airing in 1990/1991
125
38%
Borrowed a Friends Taped VHS Episodes in the 90's
4
1%
Official VHS or Laserdisc in the 90's
12
4%
Warner Bros. Euro Pilot VHS or Laserdisc
3
1%
Twin Peaks FWWM Theatrical Release
2
1%
Twin Peaks FWWM VHS, Laserdisc, or on Cable
8
2%
Bravo Twin Peaks Airing in 1993
4
1%
Twin Peaks Pilot Theatrical Screening
1
0%
Twin Peaks Artisan/Paramount DVD Set
21
6%
Twin Peaks Gold Box Set
33
10%
Twin Peaks Entire Mystery Blu-ray 2014
11
3%
Twin Peaks on Netflix, Hulu, or CBS on Demand
39
12%
Twin Peaks on iTunes
3
1%
Illegal Download
23
7%
Original Airing Outside of US
42
13%
 
Total votes: 331
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RainingPostToasties
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by RainingPostToasties »

I watched it on Netflix a couple years ago and loved it immediately.

My first exposure to the show was the late 90's or early 2000's on the Sci Fi channel. There was a Twin Peaks marathon and the ads kept referring to it as the "legendary Twin Peaks," which should twin-pique anyone's interest. All I remember from that viewing was the corny show-within-a-show, and a lady with cockamamie hair screaming her head off. (I now recognize those things as Invitation to Love and Sarah Palmer, respectively.) Once I came across the title again on Netflix, I knew I had to give it another chance. It's legendary, after all.
Aerozhul
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Aerozhul »

I started watching it as it aired in 1990 on ABC. I was a little late to the party, my first episode was Episode 5 or 6 (depending on whether you count the pilot as 0 or 1). At any rate, it was the episode in which Shelly shot Leo and Coop found Audrey in his bed at the end. I was in the 6th grade at the time. I watched the next few episodes, then ABC re-aired the whole first season that summer and I got caught up on the earlier episodes. The 2nd season aired when I was in the 7th grade. I remember that I could always watch the first half hour, then had to go to bed so I'd always record it and watch the rest in the morning. LOL. My dad watched it with me but my mom hated the show because it was "too weird". It kind of became my Dad's and my thing to watch together on Saturday nights. I also recall suspecting the correct person as the killer after I watched the re-broadcast of the funeral episode - Albert described how the killer leaned in for one last kiss with Laura's corpse and I could see Leland doing that in my mind, for some reason. Of course, then I started suspecting other people and got off on a tangent.

The killer reveal episode was one of the craziest, scariest things I'd ever seen on television. I remember the local 10:00 news coming on right after and the anchors were all kind of shell shocked as they had watched it live right before their news broadcast. "It's cold outside, but I don't know if it's as chilling as the end of that Twin Peaks episode", the weather guy said.

After that ABC started pre-emptying Twin Peaks all the time with college basketball. It was really hard to keep watching as it would either be completely wiped out and aired very late that Saturday night / early Sunday morning, or they'd cut to the last 10 minutes. So in the original broadcast of Season 2 I ended up missing some of the most unpopular episodes (Evelyn Marsh's arc, for example) because it was always pre-emptied. At that time, I also got a computer and was introduced to the internet - we had Prodigy, which was sort of an early version of America Online. There were Twin Peaks message boards, so I checked those out as much as I could. After the Josie drawer knob episode, the show was cancelled and so I followed the whole "Save our Show" mail campaign, and the show came back for the last 6 episodes, but they only aired the first four, then cancelled it again and made us wait 2 months before airing the last two episdoes together that summer - guises the ratings were that bad!
Like the killer reveal episode, that last episode was totally insane, unlike anything I'd ever seen on TV.

I was too young to go see FWWM in the theaters, and by that time my dad had given up on the show, so I didn't get to watch it until it was on video. I thought it was really dark and twisted, and I was disappointed it wasn't a direct continuation of the series. I've come to appreciate it a lot more over the years, but that initial disappointment due to the many hanging threads of the series.

Over the years, I've bought Twin Peaks on almost every home entertainment medium - video, DVD, blu-ray. It's really nice to finally have it all collected together with the blu-ray package and the missing pieces. The first DVD release was without the pilot, so I had to import it from Japan - really shoddy video quality, BTW. I've shared the series with many of my friends over the years and watched it on blu-ray a few years ago with my wife. My daughter is now 12....around the same age I was when I first watched it, so I'm considering watching it again with her before S3 premieres. Totally psyched for Season 3....have only waited 26 years for it!
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Dirk
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Dirk »

I was in high school. Big Lynch fan since Eraserhead. A life changing experience. Wanted to be an F.B.I. agent for a while, even tho I am Canadian ha ha
JadeAndEmerald
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by JadeAndEmerald »

Six or seven years old. We were living abroad at the time and I can't remember if they aired it right around the same time it aired in the US or if my mom had people send us VHS tapes in the mail so we could watch it, but I know it was 1990-1991 ish. It totally blew my mind. The backwards talking, Dr. Jacoby's mismatched sunglass lenses, the giant... I had no idea what was happening most of the time but it was all seared into my brain forever! I watched it again in 2012 or so, then 2016, and now watching it for a fourth time to prep for the new season!
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Ratmeat
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Ratmeat »

I was born two months before the pilot aired...so I feel so young seeing everyone else's answers. :o I watched it about a year ago on Netflix.
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Pöllö
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Pöllö »

I saw the series for the first time on TV in 2006 or 2007. I just saw a glimpse of it and really liked the intro but only saw the entire series for the first time on DVD in 2010. I've rewatched it only twice ever since, I don't want to spoil the series by watching it compulsively.
The cow jumped over the moon.
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Gabriel
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Gabriel »

Pöllö wrote:I saw the series for the first time on TV in 2006 or 2007. I just saw a glimpse of it and really liked the intro but only saw the entire series for the first time on DVD in 2010. I've rewatched it only twice ever since, I don't want to spoil the series by watching it compulsively.
Yes, I'm careful not to overdo it because I like to immerse myself in the world of Twin Peaks as much as follow the stories. Too much and I might grow contemptuous of it!
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Pöllö
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Pöllö »

Gabriel wrote:
Pöllö wrote:I saw the series for the first time on TV in 2006 or 2007. I just saw a glimpse of it and really liked the intro but only saw the entire series for the first time on DVD in 2010. I've rewatched it only twice ever since, I don't want to spoil the series by watching it compulsively.
Yes, I'm careful not to overdo it because I like to immerse myself in the world of Twin Peaks as much as follow the stories. Too much and I might grow contemptuous of it!
Yes, that's exactly how I feel.

I'll have to restrain myself from listening to the soundtracks before the series hits the air. I want to be immersed in that world once again.
The cow jumped over the moon.
Romalotti
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Romalotti »

I was in junior high school when the show originally aired. My parents wanted me in bed by 9:30 during the week so I never saw Twin Peaks on tv. Admittedly, I was also more into sitcoms at the time and probably wouldn't have gotten into the series no matter what my bedtime was.

Fast forward to the summer of 1995. I had just graduated high school and saw the complete series of Twin Peaks available on VHS at the mall. Back in those days, TV series never were released on video. I remembered reading articles about Twin Peaks being a murder mystery and being weird and different, so I bought the series set without knowing anything about the show at all, save for the 'Who Killed Laura Palmer?' premise. (Also, I thought that I had read somewhere that a sheriff had been revealed to be the killer. So I watched the show thinking I had been spoiled and being totally surprised that Harry Truman seemed like the nicest guy in town. I kept waiting for his 'dark side' to be revealed and was genuinely shocked when Leland was unmasked as the killer.)

After watching episode one, I felt that there was no way that could have been the first episode so I went to my local video store the next day and rented the European pilot that I had seen displayed on the shelf every week during my rental excursions. More confusion at the tacked-on ending, at least until I finished watching episode 2 and realized the BOB stuff in the European pilot wasn't a spoiler or an alternate solution to the mystery but just the full version of Cooper's dream.

I watched the entire series in maybe two weeks, alone in the middle of the night in my parents' house in the living room after everyone had gone to bed. Probably the ideal time and location for getting into Lynch's horrific/comedic small-town mystery.
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Highllama
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Highllama »

First airing in Norway- not all episodes, but the last episode made a big impression on a 12 year old boy. Rented the EU Pilot VHS not long after. In another world! so long ago...
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Gabriel
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Gabriel »

Romalotti wrote:After watching episode one, I felt that there was no way that could have been the first episode so I went to my local video store the next day and rented the European pilot that I had seen displayed on the shelf every week during my rental excursions. More confusion at the tacked-on ending, at least until I finished watching episode 2 and realized the BOB stuff in the European pilot wasn't a spoiler or an alternate solution to the mystery but just the full version of Cooper's dream.
If the TV show had never happened and only the European pilot existed, the tacked on ending would have made me feel like putting my foot through through the TV screen, the same as the ending Mulholland Dr does! ;) That said, the first time I saw the European pilot on VHS, like you, I was riveted. It's a shame the full dream sequence wasn't tacked on to the end of episode two for general use elsewhere.
I watched the entire series in maybe two weeks, alone in the middle of the night in my parents' house in the living room after everyone had gone to bed. Probably the ideal time and location for getting into Lynch's horrific/comedic small-town mystery.
I remember I rewatched the pilot and entire first season in one day during the BBC 's break between seasons one and two over Christmas that year of the show's broadcast. It was at that point I realised how dramatically everything changed between the pilot and episode one. I received the diary for Christmas. I reckon Laura Palmer was my first real teenage crush (other than Helen Slater's Supergirl!)
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sherbertmachine
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by sherbertmachine »

I first watched it on Netflix several years ago, it was my first viewing of anything Lynch. Since then I watched most of his other movies out of hope they were anything like Twin Peaks. :D
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Soolsma
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Soolsma »

sherbertmachine wrote: Since then I watched most of his other movies out of hope they were anything like Twin Peaks. :D
A bunch of them are right?
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Harry Dean Lynch
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by Harry Dean Lynch »

None of those options actually fit me. I first watched the show about 2000 sort of time on Channel 5 of all places here in the UK. In a strange twist I ACTUALLY SAW THE FILM FIRST! :oops: Saw it on filmfour probably a year or two before I first watched the show. I got the first season of the show for Christmas 2003 which is roundabout when it got released over here. Got the film too and have re-watched it many times. Saw a screening of it at the ICA in London about twelve years back. That was mind blowing!
IcedOver
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Re: Twin Peaks Poll - First Time

Post by IcedOver »

I watched the show when it originally aired. I was 13 when it premiered and had caught the mysterious promos in the weeks before. Then I read a review from the TV writer for the city newspaper who said something to the effect that the show was "so good it doesn't even feel like TV." That made me tune in, and I was hooked. At the time, I was semi-unaware of Lynch even though growing up I loved "The Elephant Man". The show got me into him. Then I watched the show as it aired, some episodes on tape. Episode 16/17 (the Hunter episode) was postponed in my area because of a local telethon, so it aired one morning.
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