Flashback Friday: Twin Peaks On Kid’s Shows
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Damn fine coffee! The owls are not what they seem! That gum you like is going to come back in style!
We’re going to do things a little differently this week in honor of the return of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks to television. Being across the pond, I haven’t seen the new episodes yet but the reviews are giving me confidence that Lynch is still Lynch after all these years.
Some of you may have memories of watching Twin Peaks when it was on television when it aired from 1990-91. I did not, and neither did the adults in my immediate family, so I discovered the show as an adult with a completely blank slate. Somehow I had missed all the references to the show that popped up in all the entertainment marketed to kids in the 90’s. Which apparently, there was a lot of.
Sesame Street, “Twin Beaks” (1991)
In 1991, Cookie Monster travels to a small town in the North West to discover the mystery of why the town is called Twin Beaks. He meets David Finch, Laura, Log Bird, and eats a darn fine cherry pie.
Darkwing Duck, “Twin Beaks” (1991)
In this animated Disney cartoon, a gang of crime fighting ducks travels to Twin Beaks (yes, again). Someone gets tossed into the river wrapped in plastic and Launchpad talks to a log that tells him where to get pie and coffee.
The Simpsons (1995 + 1997)
The writer’s on the Simpsons actually parodied Twin Peaks twice. Once in their two-part mystery “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”…
And again with the episode “Lisa’s Sax”, where we flashback to a 1990 Homer.
For more background on how these references came to be worked in to the show, check out this recent Esquire article.
Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated, “Stand and Deliver” (2013)
This one aired well after I stopped watching children’s shows, and a few years before the reboot was announced. But it shows that the creators behind kid’s shows were still mining Twin Peaks for ideas well after the 90’s. The dancing man is even voiced by the original Twin Peaks actor, Michael J. Anderson.
Surprise!, 2013
If you’re an adult who managed to make it all the way to the end of this post, here’s a special music flashback just for you. Kyle McLachlan doing a Twin Peaks “Harlem Shake” video.
