I posted this earlier today on Dugpa's board, but I don't think anyone has posted it here yet. It's an article from the Chicago Tribune from this past weekend, and in it Mark Frost confirms the much rumored "Complete Mystery" set is coming within a year. Here's the whole article:

Return to 'Twin Peaks

By Web Behrens
Special to the Tribune
Published April 22, 2007


Diane. The strangest thing has happened.

"After a very busy night going undercover at One-Eyed Jacks in pursuit of one of the men we suspect for the murder of Laura Palmer, I've awoken in a hospital bed. Somewhat-hazy memories have begun to float back to my conscious mind: Before retiring for the night, I had ordered a glass of warm milk from the Great Northern's ever-reliable room service; yet upon answering the knock at my door, I did not discover that soothing beverage and its promise of a sweet, dream-filled slumberland. Instead I discovered a masked assailant with a gun. Three shots rang out and everything went black; I still don't have a clear sense of how long I was gone.





"I don't think I have to tell you, Diane, that the coffee here at the hospital can't compare to the cup Norma pours at the Double R. But not even this weakly caffeinated cafeteria disappointment can explain my inability to make any sense of the time frame: Sheriff Truman tells me I've only been out for a few hours, but it feels like five years!"

That odd sense of returning from a timeless void probably isn't unique to Special Agent Dale Cooper, the fictional FBI hero from "Twin Peaks," the seminal TV show that elevated the medium's potential. Armed with ace detecting skills, powerful intuition and his trusty micro-cassette recorder (which he used to file audio memos to his unseen assistant, Diane), the upstanding, delightfully quirky Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan) became one of the most beloved characters on a show that briefly enthralled a nation when it debuted in March 1990. When three shots were fired into Coop's midsection at the end of that first bracing season, millions were left buzzing for an entire summer. In addition to our special agent, about half the cast were left dangling in some sort of peril.

But the four long months those characters (and their fans) waited for resolution is nothing compared to the DVD limbo they've endured. That initial seven-episode season of "Twin Peaks" appeared on disc in December 2001; ever since, fans have been waiting for the digital release of that second, final season. This month, they get their wish. "There were a lot of cliffhangers at the end of Season One. That was actually part of my strategy to try to get us picked up for the second season," admits co-creator Mark Frost with a chuckle. "[But] I didn't anticipate there'd be a five-year gap between people seeing that and picking up the DVDs for the second season."


Revelatory show

It might be hard for a "Peaks" virgin in 2007 to imagine how revelatory the show felt. The brainchild of writer Frost (who'd previously worked on "Hill Street Blues") and film director David Lynch (who'd impressed art-house moviegoers and Oscar voters with 1986's "Blue Velvet"), it quickly ignited in the nation's consciousness from the opening minutes, when one character found by water's edge the corpse of homecoming queen Laura, wrapped in plastic. Too avant garde to last in 1990, the show flamed out one year later.

Still, its legacy lingers. With its slow, studied depictions of a cozy burg in Washington state and its offbeat denizens' inner lives, the alternate-reality soaper influenced other whimsical ensemble dramas such as "Northern Exposure" and "Picket Fences." But there also was an unsettling, otherworldly element to "Peaks" that paved the way for "The X-Files" and "Lost" to develop their own complex mythologies. Finally, it embraced a cinematic visual language and employed stage and silver-screen actors in defiance of typical TV convention of the time -- years before "The Sopranos" and others.

"It was so zeitgeist-y," says Damon Lindelof, co-creator of "Lost," one of the show's direct descendants. He fondly recalls watching every episode with his father, who kept a binder of detailed notes and clues. "Everyone was talking about Cooper and the Log Lady and apple pie," Lindelof says. "Everything was so fresh . . . The vibe David Lynch and Mark Frost created was new and exciting."


Renegade storytelling

Though "Twin Peaks" had quickly warned less-adventurous viewers away with its renegade storytelling, the show committed more fully to its singular path in Season Two, which took its time in revealing Laura's killer. Viewers had to realize, sooner or later, that the murder mystery was just one huge MacGuffin, an excuse to build an atmospheric playground. It managed to be hilarious and horrific, uplifting and dark, absurd and spot-on, often all at once.

"Instead of just saying, 'Oh, [so-and-so] killed Laura Palmer' -- which is the way 'Dynasty' or 'Dallas' or 'Falcon Crest' would approach the mystery -- 'Twin Peaks' went into this other realm. That certainly, in a positive way, inspires a fair degree of our storytelling [on 'Lost']," Lindelof says.

Contrary to popular opinion, the determinedly weird material didn't come from Lynch's brain alone. The sense of foreboding evil is also a hallmark of Frost's page-turning first novel, "The List of Seven." That sort of outre storytelling, combined with slow pacing, caused ratings to drop, and ABC sealed the deal with suicidal scheduling choices. Too avant garde for 1990, the show didn't have the benefit of Tivo and the Internet, which can fuel a rabid fan base into a much greater fire.

Although its creators have long since moved on, the show continues to cast its spell. Frost confirms that a comprehensive DVD boxed set of the entire run, including the pilot, will be released "within a year." Thus, like any telegenic creature that captured the country's imagination and disappeared too soon, "Twin Peaks" endures.

Frost says with a grin, "We lived fast, died young and left a good-looking corpse." Just like Laura Palmer.

- - -

Character studies

Many fans felt "Twin Peaks" lost its way before it died, but we'll even endure broody biker-boy James on the run (the series' low point) if that's the price for these gems from Season Two:

Show tune-singing Leland. Teetering ever more precariously on the brink of insanity, Laura's grieving father suddenly begins belting sunny show tunes. Amid a stellar ensemble cast, actor Ray Wise rises to the top.

Cheerleader Nadine. Long before "Heroes" made super cheerleaders cool, "Twin Peaks" sent its super strong amnesiac housewife (Chicago actor Wendy Robie) back to school in the show's funniest post-Laura plotline.

Secret Asian man. Of the second season's many new characters, Tojamura, the taciturn Japanese businessman, is the most inspired. Why does he lurk around the Great Northern? The answer to the show's second-best mystery is a special treat in the new DVD.

-- Web Behrens

----------

ctc-arts@tribune.com

Hmmm....

I was hoping for a more "complete" quote from Frost. As far as I'm concerned this is still just hearsay. It's possible the person who talked to Frost didn't understand him fully. It could be he was only refering to the German set.

 I had a newspaper article written about me once that was chock full of misquotes and inaccuracies, which is what writers can be depended on for.

"Do you see creamed corn on that plate?"

http://tinyurl.com/yqwurw

I appreciate that the author of the article cites "brooding biker boy James" as the series' low point, but I'm bewildered by the fact that he also seems to have enjoyed the Nadine Hurley saga.  Then again some people actually like Josie.
 

Actually it's kind of amazing how many of the characters annoy the hell out of me, yet I still love the show.
 

But as for the box set, I don't think any of us can be blamed for our skepticism.  Jesus has been scheduled to return more times than this set. 

I liked Josie and Nadine (all scenes). It's too bad Balthazar Getty (from Lost HIghway) didn't play James - but I don't have major issues with James except for the whole Evelyn thing.

I read somewhere that Lynch specifically told the actor who plays James to think of himself as James Dean.  But the result is just a horrible, terrible embarrassment.  Even the actual James Dean is a little hard to watch nowadays, because the standards of "rebellion" have changed so much that it's hard to keep yourself from laughing - it's like when the "gangs" in West Side Story do pirouettes.  But James on the show...make it stop, make it stop.  The famous "song" makes me regret the fact of my birth. 

Good films noir - Double Indemnity, of course, The Big Sleep, Out of the Past, Gilda, The Maltese Falcon, and, drum roll, Laura.  If you watch a lot of these old films you start to notice how jam-packed TP is with "cute" references to them.  E.g. Maddy Ferguson - in Hitchcock's Vertigo, the woman who kills herself as a blonde and then reappears as a brunette is named Madeline, and the detective who trails her is Scottie Ferguson.  And so on - I swear every single character on TP is a reference.