Filmmaker David Lynch’s first foray into television, 1990’s Twin Peaks, broke all the rules about what you can do with the television format, paving the way for much of the groundbreaking work still being done on the small screen.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, three of the stars and a producer from the original series will come to The Suffolk in Riverhead to talk about the show, which spawned a prequel feature film and a new series in 2017.
Twin Peaks is ostensibly the story of a murder in the small Pacific Northwest town of Twin Peaks, and the efforts of an FBI agent who comes to town to work with local cops to solve the mystery. But it’s anything but your standard police procedural. As with David Lynch’s feature films, it has its feet in a dream world that cannot be described in conventional terms.
At “Twin Peaks: Conversation with the Stars,” Sheryl Lee, who played murder victim Laura Palmer; Ray Wise, who played her father, LeLand Palmer, the unwitting host of the malicious spirit Bob; and Michael Horse, who played Sheriff’s Deputy Tommy “Hawk” Hill, will talk about the show with producer Sabrina Sutherland.
Mr. Horse, who was friends with David Lynch before the original series began, said he’s delighted to participate in this event, which is touring the country with a rotating cast of characters.
“Fans of Twin Peaks are very, very special. It’s not about fame. It’s about sharing David’s world,” he told The Beacon this week. “A lot of young people come. The pace of the show is very slow, and these kids don’t have attention spans, but you can’t multitask and watch Twin Peaks. It’s a new experience for them. A lot of families say ‘we bonded over Twin Peaks.”
He added that David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, has credited Twin Peaks for enabling him to also make groundbreaking TV.
Clockwise from left: Sheryll Lee as Laura Palmer, Ray Wise as Leland Palmer and Michael Horse as Deputy Tommy “Hawk” Hill.
Mr. Horse, 76, a native painter who told us he’s half Swedish, half Yaqui, with some Mescalero Apache blood, grew up in a family of artists.
He was renting a studio from an agent in the late 1970s who asked him if he would play Tonto in a new film about The Lone Ranger. A former native activist involved with the American Indian Movement, he was initially horrified, but ended up taking the part. The movie bombed, but somehow it got him into the industry, and to a place where he’s become a role model for younger native actors.
“In Twin Peaks, Hawk is the only one who really understands what’s going on,” he said. “He knew there was an entity there that was messing with everyone. He was an interesting native character — one of the the first that lived in both worlds. Twin Peaks also had a sense of humor — all tribal ceremonies that I’ve been around always have sacred clowns. That’s part of the human condition. David had that understanding.”
“A lot of my contemporaries who are native artists are big fans of David’s work,” he added. “Like us, he understands that the dream world is just as real as the world we’re living in, and the forest is a living entity. We know now that’s a fact. Trees communicate with each other, with animals, and with you if you will listen. There’s things going on in that forest.”
The Log Lady, a woman who carried a log everywhere and insisted it was telling her things people in town needed to hear, is also a Twin Peaks character Mr. Horse said should be listened to.
He added that the series’ co-creator, Mark Frost, also knew a lot about indigenous spiritual ideas — perhaps more than David Lynch did.
When the show first launched, it was the talk around water coolers throughout the country (back when offices had water coolers), as the nation sat on the edge of its seat waiting to find out who killed Laura Palmer. But the show didn’t offer tidy answers, and it didn’t offer tidy scripts either.
“Shooting was a very organic process — we all knew we were doing something special. We liked each other, and we still talk to each other,” said Mr. Horse.
He added that, in the 25 years since the original show, Kyle MacLachlan, who played FBI agent Dale Cooper, had become a big star, but when he returned for “Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series” in 2017, he warmly embraced being back with the cast of the show that also built his own career.
Mr. Lynch, who died in 2025, was a painter as well as a filmmaker.
“We would have long discussions about how a single image, no matter how abstract, will evoke powerful emotions,” said Mr. Horse. ” People ask me if he was a dark person. No! He was full of love and wonder. He just knows the human condition has all these things involved in it. I miss him dearly. He was an exceptional person and a really good friend. If I never worked again, just to be involved with an artistic endeavor like Twin Peaks would be enough for me.”
Twin Peaks: Conversation with the Stars will be held on Sunday, Sept. 20 at The Suffolk, 118 East Main Street in Riverhead at 7:30 p.m. Tickets range from $49 to $89, plus applicable fees, with VIP meet & greet packages available. Tickets are available online at TheSuffolk.org.
— Beth Young
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