The Bicks Pod

"For a millennium, the space for the hotel room existed undefined. Mankind captured it, gave it shape and passed through. And sometimes in passing through, they found themselves brushing up against the secret names of truth."

Thus we enter the world of David Lynch's Hotel Room, a series that jumps between times but remains always behind the door of Room 603 of the Railroad Hotel in New York City.

Lynch's first foray into the then-fledgling world of cable television is fascinating and strange, pushing the boundaries of the medium in its exploration of love, loss, and possibly even more...

Starring: Crispin Glover, Glenn Headley, Alicia Witt

Notes:

• Watch the original series here

Rain-soaked streets...moss and wisteria...bad guys in the bayou. This is the setting for Mark Frost's 1992 film Storyville, a courtroom drama/thriller mixed with elements of the police procedural Frost knew all too well from his years on Hill Street Blues, a dose of Vietnamese underworld intrigue, and all filmed at the intersection of Deep South corruption and 1990s social conscience. It's messy at times and highly entertaining in others.

If nothing else, watch it for James Spader and Jason Robards ("...don't forget the final courtroom fight scene!" Aidan adds.)

Starring: James Spader, Joanne Whalley

After The Return to Twin Peaks, we've returned to Fire Walk With Me for another look at the David Lynch film, with an eye on the big picture. What connections are there between the film and the 2017 TV series? What new theories and ideas did it spark? And where does it rank in the list of Twin Peaks filmed projects? Join us for a discussion and a look both forward and back as the lynchpin of Twin Peaks comes back for further study.

Starring: Sheryl Lee, Kyle MacLachlan

Fasten your seatbelts, we're goin' for a ride!

1990s Wild at Heart is an adaptation, yes, but it's filled with Lynchian quirkiness and oddities and the unshakable sensation that nothing you see is quite as it seems. While neither of us can call this our favourite Lynch film, we tried our best to see past the goofy madness and over-the-top qualities to get to the (wild) heart of it all...

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe

Notes:

Auteur Theory: 'Wild at Heart' Deleted Scenes

Let's take it back.

Way back.

It's the Summer of 1992. The viewing public had long since learned the answer to the question of "Who Killed Laura Palmer?"; Twin Peaks had been off the air for a year, and all hope for a revival and answers to the plethora of questions raised by the Season 2 finale had been thoroughly and hopelessly dashed (or piqued even further) by Fire Walk With Me.

For some bewildering reason, the suits at ABC entrusted Lynch and Frost to come up with another TV show. A sitcom. Based on the mid-century variety shows that had long gone out of favour, and the hilarious hijinks going on backstage at the fictional Zoblotnick Broadcasting Company. Predating 30 Rock and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip by a good dozen or more years, On the Air was a baffling collection of 7 episodes (3 of which aired between late June/early July on ABC before the show was cancelled).

It's surreal. It's bizarre. It's utterly weirdly fantastic. And it's the subject of this week's Bickering Peaks. (Recorded in early 2017, re-released with a new intro. We hope you enjoy!)

The Bicks had the golden opportunity to sit down with Andrew Grevas to celebrate the first birthday of Andrew's legendary Twin Peaks site, 25 Years Later...and we couldn't pass it up!

So here, in the space we'd normally talk about Twin Peaks in the chronological cataloguing of the Lynch/Frost professional oeuvre, permit us a moment to talk shop with our partner in publishing! Whether discussing the first time he entered the town of Twin Peaks or extolling the virtues of the amazing team of people who make the site what it is or lapsing into interview mode and asking US questions instead of the other way around, Andrew was a tremendous good sport and we had a lovely chat.

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it!

Happy Birthday, 25YL!!!

25YL Site

Like you, we were a little surprised to find this gem in the memory banks at Lynch/Frost HQ. The second Lynch/Frost production to actually be produced, this short-lived slice of Americana: Documented, is a treat. We talk about the nouveau approach to documentary filmmaking on display, the breadth and tone of the topics discussed, and how it fits in with Twin Peaks, and the larger canon of Lynch and Frost works. This Mark Frost created project is a unique one, so don't miss out on our discussion, or the chance to watch it yourself.

Starring: Richard Dreyfuss (narrator)

Notes:

Pilot (Farewell to the Flesh)

The elevator pitch for this film would have included: a secret government installation; a small town in Kansas; a cast of wacky characters; and an errant laser beam.

It is baffling to imagine this film having actually been greenlit and even though it was never actually made, here we are 30 years on reading the screenplay of the first Lynch/Frost production. Come with us as we meet proto-Dougie and explore some of the early themes from Twin Peaks: The Return! We've brought enough Beefy Cheese Louises for all!

Notes

• The screenplay - http://www.lynchnet.com/osbscript.html

1987 was the time when David Lynch & Mark Frost first met and started to collaborate - so what exactly was Mark Frost up to right before that time?

Two semi-psychological thrillers that shared enough similarities we're discussing them as one.

"African" mysticism, single parents, curses, psychiatry, and a dash of 80s moral concern come up in both Scared Stiff and The Believers. We comb through these similarities to try and pick apart what interests, thoughts, and concerns were bubbling with Mark Frost as he and David Lynch began their collaboration on a number of projects that would culminate in Twin Peaks. We also finally take a stand and support what David Lynch has been saying for years: that Lynch/Frost productions really do have more than a healthy dose of Frostianism to them, a statement we feel comfortable making after working through Frost's pre-Peaks works.

Scared Stiff

The Believers

Notes

• Scared Stiff is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Eiy06dregg

A young man, a severed ear, and a dark mystery in the heart of small-town America. One of David Lynch's most iconic films is also one of his most accessible, and most beloved. We talk the imagery, themes, and Lynchian elements embedded throughout the film, as well as the way they pave the path towards Twin Peaks.

Also! David Foster Wallace makes (another) appearance. We talk the deleted scenes from this film. And we decide that Heineken is clearly the superior beer (not really PBR fans, don't worry).

Hope you join us for another jump into David Lynch's world of odd and beautiful Americana with Blue Velvet.

Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern

Notes:

• Wallace on Blue Velvet