Classic TV Intro 7

Twin Peaks

If you have never seen Twin Peaks, you should. When the first episode aired in 1990 it was one of those TV moments which people couldn't wait to talk about the next day. What was that all about? It was good wasn't it? Weren't the cast great? Wasn't the script weird - funny and tense. It soon built a huge following, and was, for a while, the best thing on television. Set on sequential days in 1989, the story traces the discovery of the body of homecoming queen Laura Palmer, and the hunt for her killer. The twists and turns are many, and the at times the story is brilliantly unsettling. Which makes the opening credits all the better for being so measured and calming. Perhaps settling the viewer before messing with his mind.

First, we see a small bird - a thrush - on the branch of a pine tree. At this point we hear the opening base notes of Angelo Badalamenti's haunting theme music.

Next, smoke rises from what looks to be a lumber mill. We are in lumber country! OK.

We are next taken inside the lumber mill, for a shot of a huge grinder making showers of sparks as it sharpens the teeth on a massive saw.

The sparks are then seen from another angle, and blur slightly as the opening credits roll: TWIN PEAKS

The same shot is held as more credits roll: KYLE MacLACHLAN . . . MICAHEL ONTKEAN

Then we cut to a still of a huge section of felled redwood on what looks to be a wheeled carriage

This shot then cuts to a shot of a roadside sign with the legend WELCOME TO TWIN PEAKS, POPULATION 33,201, a misty mountain can be seen in the distance

More credits fade in and out as we cut to a waterfall, and finally we track away from the waterfall to a calm, brown river water. The fginal credit fades in: music by ANGELO BADALAMENTI, and, briefly, very breifly, we see two tiny ducks in the distance making their way to shore.

The effect of this intro is, at first, calming as I say. But as the weeks go on it changes. The music becomes less calming, more haunting. The landscape become less bucolic, more eerie and much darker. The sparks and the sharpening blade become sinister. Even the fleetingly seen ducks become vulnerable rather than adorable.

You have to watch Twin Peaks. Why not just buy it? The first series is fantastic, the second slghtly less so.