Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

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Jonah
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

Post by Jonah »

I'm not sure that it suggested there was more (supernaturally anyway) to Bob at that point. Maybe the writers were suggesting it in interviews, but the show itself seemed to just imply he was a drifter (similar to the international pilot where it was confirmed and whom a lot of the viewers had probably seen), that he and the One Armed Man had worked/lived together, and later revealed that Leland recognised him as a man who lived across from him when he was a boy (both being hints maybe of the ageless/supernatural element).

Other than that, and the fact that the investigation was ongoing, were there any other hints? I get that viewers probably felt there was "more" to the story - or maybe they assumed Bob was some sort of red herring, but by the end of Episode 8 he was shown killing Laura (the more I think of it it is odd that a murder mystery revealed a killer/strong suspect early on, then switched the reveal with a supernatural twist), so at that point viewers could either assume a supernatural explanation or that someone like Ben Horne or someone else hired Bob to kill her.

I'm curious what people were really thinking, guess I'll have to check out the usenet thread, unless someone else here (Mr. Reindeer?) has already read those posts.

And does anyone remember their own thoughts on who/what Bob was when they saw it themselves? I don't think he was revealed to be supernatural until Epiode 14.
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

Post by eyeboogers »

The VHS of the european pilot had been out since late 1989, and the one armed man had a thing or two to say about the nature of Bob. I understand that this was pre-www, but still, most likely enough people knew, for rumours to get around that this man was more than a drifter.
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

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I stll don't think it indicated he was supernatural though. Even the international pilot just had him as a drifter (who had killed with Mike) and was living in the basement of the hospital. There was no indication the convenience store or anything else was supernatural. There may have been hints - Sarah's visions, Cooper's dream of the red room etc. - but the text still seemed to indicate he was a drifter/serial killer. So it's just odd that people were still complaining about the murder being unsolved, when Episode 8 essentially confirmed that it was Bob and Lynch said people would see the killer. I mean, I know 14 then pulled the big reveal. but I wonder if a lot of casual viewers just assumed Bob was the killer, that the show had revealed it. Sure, I'm guessing a lot of people as I said above thought there was "more" to it. But until 14 and Mike sniffing people in the Great Northen, was there an indication he was a supernatural presence other than the fact that Leland remembered him from his childhood when he presumably looked the same age? Did people think Bob wasn't the killer and was just a red herring? Did they think he was hired by someone? That there was a conspiracy? Or did most people just assumed he was a supernatural presence long before 14? (I vaguely remember there was talk about him having a new face or host by Mike, but pretty sure that didn't happen until after the reveal episode.)
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

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I’ve also speculated that Frost could have been annoyed by some kind-of shitty statements about Frost being jealous of Lynch during the original run, in the book Room to Dream. This was Tony Krantz speaking, but Lynch read all those chapters and had approval over the material. Krantz blames Frost for the breakdown of the L/F relationship, saying, “his ego got in the way of it.”

Frost claims he never read Room to Dream (despite being interviewed for it as well), but it’s certainly possible someone else read it and told him about that quote, and it annoyed him that Lynch let it in. Hell, I’d be annoyed. The whole chapter (edited ny McKenna from various interviews) really comes off as St. David, with Mark at worst ruining the second season, at best being a good second banana, depending on who’s speaking. Kimmy refers to him as Lynch’s “librarian.”
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

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I picked up Room to Dream off a shelf, flipped through it for five minutes and knew it was a puff piece to build the myth of Lynch and gaslight certain things he resents. So much misinformation in the TP chapters, I had to laugh. Also -- calling Frost Lynch's "librarian" is pretty bad. He is, to my estimation, 80% responsible for TP's s1 brilliance that followed the pilot.
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

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I enjoyed RtD as a Lynch fan. Lots of new anecdotes, stories about his personal life, quotes from many collaborators. But that first TP chapter was absolutely awful. McKenna gets even basic facts wrong, one senses that she never really watched the show, and the quotes are indeed slanted toward making Lynch the maestro despite his relatively limited involvement. The chapter admits that Lynch’s involvement in S1 was minimal, but then blames S2’s failure on him not being around! David Bushman read that Kimmy quote to Mark and his reaction was to laugh, then say something like, “That sounds like Kimmy. But if that’s true, why was season 1 acclaimed when David was hardly involved?”
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

Post by Mr. Reindeer »

Sorry, those last couple posts were in response to the wrong thread! Sorry! Meant to respond to this post from Jonah and the preceding ones: http://www.dugpa.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 69#p129369
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

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No worries. I copied and pasted your comments and Brad's via quote into the other thread. To go back to what was being discussed on the previous page of this thread, Mr. Reindeer - did you read any relevant passages about Bob pre-Episode 14's reveal but when he was revealed as killing Laura in Episode 8 to give an idea of what people were thinking and what there theories were about him. Or, Brad, do you remember from back in the day?

I'm guessing the only options were - Bob is a drifter who killed her but there's more to it, maybe someone hired him, maybe he didn't kill her and he's a red herring (even though the flashback at the end of 8 showed him). Or was anyone thinking supernatural possession/hosts before the show revealed it? How much of a reveal was 14 - just who the host was or the whole possession thing itself or had that been guessed already?
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

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Mr. Reindeer wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 10:47 am I enjoyed RtD as a Lynch fan. Lots of new anecdotes, stories about his personal life, quotes from many collaborators. But that first TP chapter was absolutely awful. McKenna gets even basic facts wrong, one senses that she never really watched the show, and the quotes are indeed slanted toward making Lynch the maestro despite his relatively limited involvement. The chapter admits that Lynch’s involvement in S1 was minimal, but then blames S2’s failure on him not being around! David Bushman read that Kimmy quote to Mark and his reaction was to laugh, then say something like, “That sounds like Kimmy. But if that’s true, why was season 1 acclaimed when David was hardly involved?”
Interesting. I read Room to Dream but didn’t notice any of that. Any other examples of bias or mistakes from that chapter? Really enjoyed the book overall, although Brad’s book was obviously more comprehensive when it came to the Peak stuff.
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

Post by Brad D »

I suppose, given that BOB had only existed in dreams and drawings, that viewers didnt know what to think. It was a terrifying scene, as much as it was obtuse. There was so little context to BOB, that I could see it would be frustrating if you watched the episode with the expectation "this mystery will be wrapped up".

In hindsight, with a fresh season - it really was time to introduce a huge thread that could live alongside WKLP, and surpass it. I have always felt the mystery of "who shot Cooper" got lost pretty quickly. Watching it in real time, that's what I was super keen on finding out, and I think could have been a great macguffin to chase.
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

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Yeah, the whole Who Shot Cooper? thing was meant to emulate the Who Shot JR? thing on Dallas, but I don't think it ever took off much, did it? Were people waiting all summer to find that out? They probbaly should have revealed that much earlier in Season 2, if not the killer, as by the time it's finally wrapped up in Episode 23 it feels like an afterthought and something possibly forgotten by many people. We discussed it recently actually (in the Epiosde 7 thread, Edit - here: http://www.dugpa.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 7&start=30). Maybe they should have revealed it while it was still fairly fresh in those first batch of Season 2 episodes, somewhere between 8 and 14. I think people wrre still too focused on the Laura episode, but it's weird how it fell by the wayside for so long, it almost feels like a Lost mystery - something introduced and not touched upon again for a long stretch (and it feels like the reveal comes more than 23 episodes later, it almost feels like 2 or 3 seasons later given the killer reveal, the wrap up of the Palmer storyline/s, and the bulk of the weak stretch of Season 2 had all transpired in between.
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

Post by eyeboogers »

Jonah wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 10:00 am I stll don't think it indicated he was supernatural though. Even the international pilot just had him as a drifter (who had killed with Mike) and was living in the basement of the hospital. There was no indication the convenience store or anything else was supernatural.
I don't know if I agree with there being "no indication". This is Mike's monologue from the pilot:

"Through the darkness of future's past, the magician longs to see. One chants out between two worlds... "Fire... walk with me." We lived among the people. I think you say, convenience store. We lived above it. I mean it like it is... like it sounds. I too have been touched by the devilish one. Tattoo on the left shoulder... Oh, but when I saw the face of God, I was changed. I took the entire arm off. My name is Mike. His name is Bob."

Then there was the whole humming sound thing, the circle of candles...It doesn't sound like the behavior of the average TV serial-killing-drifter to me.
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

Post by Jonah »

I had thought of Mike's monologue, from the international pilot and Episode 2. But it never really indicated that it was supernatural (until Episode 15 or so). I mean, maybe a little with "lived among the people" but even then it sounds more like they were serial killers, not supernatural. Even all the stuff about a magician and "two worlds", I mean, it sounds more lyrical than literal, like he's reciting a poem. The convenience store just sounded like a regular one. I don't think there's a strong indication of a supernatural origin in that speech - at that time at least, until later revelations.

The circle of candles and all the rest, the basement etc., was very standard serial killer tropes of the day in my opinon, and could all be dismissed as crazy behaviour and atmosphere, etc. Viewing it strictly in the context of those episodes, I mean - of course, once we see a clearer picture in later episodes, all of this stuff can be viewed differently, but at the time those revelations weren't there to paint those scenes n a supernatural lense. (Even the red room itself was pretty firmly ensconced as being "just a dream". The narrative even had Cooper experiencing it all as a dream - not the international pilot, but Episode 2.) Leland recognising the man from the picture yet no indication of aging might have given some pause - but then again maybe not, plus Leland was mostly being dismissed as pretty crazy at this point anyway, so he was very much an unreliable character.
I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

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enumbs wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 11:58 am
Mr. Reindeer wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 10:47 am I enjoyed RtD as a Lynch fan. Lots of new anecdotes, stories about his personal life, quotes from many collaborators. But that first TP chapter was absolutely awful. McKenna gets even basic facts wrong, one senses that she never really watched the show, and the quotes are indeed slanted toward making Lynch the maestro despite his relatively limited involvement. The chapter admits that Lynch’s involvement in S1 was minimal, but then blames S2’s failure on him not being around! David Bushman read that Kimmy quote to Mark and his reaction was to laugh, then say something like, “That sounds like Kimmy. But if that’s true, why was season 1 acclaimed when David was hardly involved?”
Interesting. I read Room to Dream but didn’t notice any of that. Any other examples of bias or mistakes from that chapter? Really enjoyed the book overall, although Brad’s book was obviously more comprehensive when it came to the Peak stuff.
The inaccuracy that I specifically remember was her saying that the show was put on hiatus after the fifteenth episode of S2 aired on June 10, 1991...this was actually the day the series finale aired, of course, and the two hiatuses occurred much earlier. I believe there was some other basic fact-checking stuff like that that I probably noted in the thread on the book when it came out. In general, the chapter is essentially entirely about the Pilot, as well as other Lynch projects/life events at that time, with even the revolutionary E29 not really being covered, just getting a cursory mention. It’s essentially just all the cast members saying Lynch is brilliant, with the occasional dig at Mark. The rest of the book is mostly great and insightful, but the TP chapter is essentially the book equivalent of an EPK.
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Re: Why exactly did ABC treat the show so badly?

Post by Jonah »

EPK? Lots of acronyms abound tonight.

Edit - Google suggests Electronic Press Kit?
I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.
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