ABC Executives Grew to Regret Urging “Twin Peaks”' David Lynch and Mark Frost to Solve Laura Palmer’s Murder
ABC Executives Grew to Regret Urging “Twin Peaks”' David Lynch and Mark Frost to Solve Laura Palmer’s Murder
Angela AndaloroWed, May 13, 2026 at 7:12 PM UTC
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David Lynch and Mark Frost (left), Kyle Maclachlan as Special Agent Dale Cooper
Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic; ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
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Twin Peaks viewers were vocal about their desire to find out who Laura Palmer's killer was throughout the show's first season
The season two reveal brought mixed feelings among the fans, but posed some logistical issues for writers and the network as they figured out the season
Scott Meslow discusses factors that led the hit to fizzle out in his book, A Place Both Wonderful and Strange: The Extraordinary Untold History of Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks fans wanted to find out who killed Laura Palmer.
Feeling pressure from the niche show's quickly-expanding fanbase, ABC urged showrunners and co-creators David Lynch and Mark Frost to share an answer to the mystery at the heart of the crime drama. Without that heart, however, some feared the show could be lifeless.
Bob Iger ultimately shared, "Looking back on it now, I'm not convinced I was right [about the timing of the reveal]."
"Deep down, I felt David was frustrating the audience, but it may be that my demands for an answer to the question of who killed Laura Palmer threw the show into another kind of narrative disarray," Scott Meslow quotes in his book, A Place Both Wonderful and Strange: The Extraordinary Untold History of Twin Peaks.
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Kyle Maclachlan as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper in season two of "Twin Peaks"
Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
Frost felt that the show ultimately “paid a big price for it,” adding, "You know, that was something that contributed as much as anything to the momentum falling apart."
"Especially network television—when you're dealing with twenty-two episodes, and the production monster's chasing you, you don't really have any other choice," Frost added.
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David Lynch was quoted as directly declaring, "That killed Twin Peaks. Totally dead. Over. Finished.”
Another element that led to a decline in interest was ABC's inability to air the season as it normally would. Frost noted that the show was preempted for six out of eight weeks of airing as the network turned its attention to the Gulf War.
“Every night, everybody was watching reporters standing in front of bombs falling in Baghdad, and this was not a show that benefited from people not seeing it for six weeks," Frost said.
The episodes returned, but would continue to air inconsistently, with one in late March, one in mid-April and the final pair in June. Once again, the show would be left with a compelling cliffhanger. This time, however, ABC opted against bringing the show back.
The conversations about a season three had, at least, begun. Frost revealed, "It would have looked at least in part like [Twin Peaks: The Return], because I had already come up with the battle between the good and the evil Cooper and how that was going to play."
He continued, "I think I even mentioned that to ABC as the place that we would go, which I thought would have really revitalized their audience engagement. But it was clear that they already sort of moved on. They were looking for another dopamine hit.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
