Credit: Netflix, ShowtimeBob Iger shares his thoughts on the passing of David Lynch.
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Prior to becoming head of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, Bob Iger spent several years as an executive in the television industry. Iger first joined the American Broadcast Company (ABC) in 1974 as a physical laborer. By 1988, Iger was made senior program executive for the Calgary Winter Olympics, a sporting event that put ABC on the map in terms of both viewership and notoriety.
This was great news for Iger, who was named head of ABC the following year due to the program’s success. Iger remained chairman of ABC following Disney’s acquisition of the company from 1995 until 1999. During his time at ABC, Iger made several key decisions and oversaw the release of world-famous projects, though none would compare to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.
Twin Peaks, the mysterious, somewhat confusing drama show set in a sleepy Washington state town of the same name, allured viewers with its unorthodox plot and core cast of characters each week during its initial run.
Bob Iger was instrumental in the show’s success and is credited with championing Twin Peaks and helping the show get picked up as a series. Given David Lynch’s previous work in film, Twin Peaks, which he co-created with Mark Frost, was an enormous gamble, especially for a broadcast company like ABC, but the bet paid off big time, as the show would eventually become one of the quintessential American television series.
Iger, now CEO of The Walt Disney Company, remembers David Lynch following his death and shares his thoughts on the infamous storyteller.
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“David Lynch was a brilliant filmmaker,” reads a post from Bob Iger on Instagram. “[He] taught me the value of taking big artistic risks when he created Twin Peaks for ABC. He was also utterly original and I will forever respect and admire his creative courage and the breadth and depth of his talent.”
Lynch passed away on January 16, marking not just one of the biggest creative losses of the year but possibly of all time. The director, writer, and creator reached legendary status through his mind-bending work, which includes Twin Peaks.
Twin Peaks was a notable departure for Lynch, who had spent most of his career creating mystifying films. However, the show proved to be a hit for ABC, with its first season earning a whopping 14 Emmy nominations.
The rest is history, with Twin Peaks becoming synonymous with ABC and American television as a whole. The question, “Who killed Laura Palmer?” would haunt both the characters of Twin Peaks as well as fans of the show, with the mystery slowly unraveling and rewinding itself wth each new episode.
The world of Twin Peaks lived on through side projects and a feature-length film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, in 1992.
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It’s hard to imagine a world without Lynch, as the filmmaker has been captivating and surprising audiences for decades. Lynch’s debut film, Eraserhead (1977), continues to be seen as a marvel of filmmaking all these years later. Following the success of this film and 1980’s The Elephant Man, Lynch was eventually given a shot at making a screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel Dune in 1984.
Lynch eventually “returned” to the eerie world of Twin Peaks in 2017 with a limited-run season backed by Showtime. This season ended the ever-unraveling plot threads and character arcs fans had watched for the last two decades.
Lynch’s last two theatrical-length films, Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006) remain the filmmaker’s most prominent and captivating work for many, with each offering a blend of nightmarish visuals and dream-like story beats, all held together by performances from industry icons like Naomi Watts, Laura Dern, and Justin Theroux.
Mulholland Drive specifically has become one of the defining films of the last century and continues to live on in infamy today, with many labeling the complex and nontraditional film a masterpiece.
What is your favorite David Lynch film?