Subject: TP - Visualize Tibet - Visualize New Episodes of TP
From: duane@thismoment.EBay.Sun.COM (Duane Day)
Date: 1991-05-23, 00:28
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks,rec.arts.tv

Visualize Tibet...returned to the control of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans!  

Hold that thought for a moment...and then bring that same purpose of vision
to bringing about a way to keep Twin Peaks alive as long as Lynch, Frost,
Peyton, Engels, Frost and almost certainly MacLachlan are interested in
continuing to produce it, without needing to pander to the lowest common
denominator mentality of any of the American television networks - or even
the average skittish advertiser or moralistic boycott organizer.

Subscription video television.  The problem with Twin Peaks on network
TV is that the majority of people flat out *don't begin to get it*.  You
can resent them for their lack of perception - but, who knows - perhaps
they would accuse you of a lack of perception for not appreciating the
subtleties of, say, Vanilla Ice.  But I digress...

There probably aren't going to be 20 or 30 million people ready to get
involved with Peaks.  But there might well be 100,000 or so people who
enjoy and admire the show enough that they'd pay, say, $10 or $12
apiece, via subscription, for high-quality video cassettes, each 
containing a new Twin Peaks episode, sent to their home 15 to 20 times a 
year.  Add to that the inevitable 50,000 or so video stores who'd buy
at least one copy per episode to rent out, and you've immediately raised
the $1,500,000 each episode supposedly costs.  Instant break-even, and
then profit comes in from sales of broadcast rights in Europe and
elsewhere - countries in which sufficient numbers *do* watch the show
to satisfy advertisers and network execs.

They could even sell a couple brief commercial spots if they wanted to,
since Lynch has expressed an admiration for the constraints placed by
commercial interruptions on the storytelling.  These could be specially
produced commercials, perhaps for companies and products which do not
advertise on broadcast or cable TV.  This would further lower the
breakeven point or raise the profits.  The advertisers would be accepting
a challenge; to present their message in an intriguing enough way to hold
the interest of Peaks fans.  Perhaps Lynch and some of Twin Peaks' other
better directors would even agree to produce and direct some of these,
in an effort to give the advertiser the best chance of holding the
viewer's attention *even though the ad is on videotape*, and in an effort
to attenuate viewer frustration with having ads on their videotapes.
(A minute or a minute and a half, total, would be enough to provide the
brief pacing breaks required to maintain the structure and I feel wouldn't
be that big a drag to have on these fabulous collectors items.)

Everybody wins.  BOB Iger frees up another hour each week for such
satisfying shows as "America's Funniest People".  The vast majority of
the people who depend on network TV for entertainment get the kind of
shows that vast majorities in America tend to like.  And the tens or
hundreds of thousands of us who had a brand new part of our minds lit
up by "Twin Peaks" continue to get new episodes of the show, secure in
the knowledge that BOB Iger, Donald Wildmon, or the intellectually 
lazy at large no longer have any part in the decision to continue or 
terminate production of this wonderful show.

I don't see a single good reason that this couldn't happen, and I 
hope there is sufficient interest here to get the word somehow to 
those who could actually begin to *make it happen*.

Oh, yeah - and let's not forget that Tibet for the Tibetans
visualization thing, either.

Thoughts?