Subject: Re: Finally saw "The Movie" (European release?)
From: boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com (The fox so cunning and free)
Date: 1992-02-13, 03:56
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <11126@umd5.umd.edu>, jblum@lucy.umd.edu (Jon Blum) writes...

} In article <1992Feb6.095007.19869@ryn.mro4.dec.com> boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com (The fox so cunning and free) writes:

}} I think you're a bit confused here. The pilot movie was originally filmed
}} as it was broadcast on TV as part of the series. The American ABC network
}} had already committed to a series, so there wasn't really a question of
}} it never getting off the ground.

} I don't think so -- standard practice is for a series commitment to wait
} until after the network has seen a pilot.

Yes, that's the *standard* practice, but it isn't necessarily so. It depends
on who's doing it. NBC committed to two years' worth of AMAZING STORIES
based solely on Spielberg's reputation, for example.

Nevertheless, I don't see why ABC seeing the pilot before committing to a
series necessarily means that the pilot that they viewed had to be self-
contained. They could've decided after seeing the pilot that they didn't
want the series, but still said, "But if you work up some resolution for
the story in the movie, we'll buy it as a one-shot movie."

} Besides, if that had really been the case, and there was a series
} commitment, then why would they have bothered shooting the additional
} scenes at all? The Europeans would probably have wanted to release the
} additional episodes of the series as well -- more videotapes, more sales
} -- and they wouldn't have wanted the quick-and-dirty wrap-up.

"Would probably have wanted" -- maybe. But the fact is that the series
itself wasn't considered for foreign markets until *after* it was a hit
in the US.

Standard practice is for 2-hour pilot films for US series to be marketted
as one-shot films in Europe. And so it was with TWIN PEAKS. The only thing
that made it a bit problematic for TP was that things weren't resolved in
the pilot (as they were in, say, CHINA BEACH or THE FLASH). Thus the added
footage.

}} So the home video version was an after-the-fact creation, and not
}} planned from the start.

} How could that be? The ending scenes were shot in Snoqualmie, with the
} same crew as the pilot. As far as I can tell, the morgue used in the
} additional scenes is the location one used in the pilot, not the later
} studio re-creation, and Coop's bedroom looks different from the studio
} version too. I think the ending was definitely tacked-on, but it was
} tacked-on pretty early on.

Yes, "pretty early on" is correct. That's obvious. For one thing, it's
obvious that the footage of Mike and Bob were shot for the Euroversion,
and edited to be a part of Cooper's dream in Episode #2, rather than the
other way around. Secondly, in the episode *after* that, Cooper describes
his dream to Harry and Lucy, and it follows events from the Euroversion,
not the dream as we saw it in the previous episode.

But that doesn't change what I said. The pilot was originally filmed in
its broadcast version. The extra footage in the Euroversion was filmed
and added *after* the pilot had been shot and edited together.

The scenario that the person I was responding to had in mind was something
like this:

(1) Lynch films the pilot as a self-contained movie with the resolution
to the mystery.
(2) ABC looks at it and says, "OK, great, make a series out of it."
(3) Lynch then re-structures the pilot so that it's open-ended.
(4) Series begins production.
(5) Original self-contained pilot is released in Europe on video.

What I'm saying is that the scenario is like this:

(1) Lynch films the pilot, which sets up the mystery to be resolved in the
    series.
(2) ABC looks at it and says, "OK, great, make a series out of it."
(3) Series goes into pre-production.
(4) Plans are to market the pilot as a one-shot in Europe, so Lynch has
    to work up a resolution.
(5) Pilot is re-edited with additional footage and released in Europe
    while the series debuts in the US.

-- "They say the best things in life are free." "Free!? Hamton, this is the 90's. Take out a loan and buy a clue." --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA) boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com