Does Frost not get the credit he deserves? (I'm assuming he does deserve it)

It seems most on this board, certainly including me, discuss TP and TP regarding Lynch's involvment and contribution. This is probably because we don't know as much about Frost and his work. Can anyone say what they think was Frost's contribution to the show. I'd definitely be interested to know and not having teh Gold Box I don't know if this is alluded to on the extras.

In the beginning, it was a 50/50 collaboration. Frost has the tv/police drama experience, DL had the abstract ideas. They used to have writing brainstorm sessions together, and they shared common interests and had good creative dynamics.

When DL took off from TP to do WAH, Frost got miffed. He said "There were times [he was gone] when I was doing almost all the work on Twin Peaks. but everyone wants to belive the auteur theory, that it all somehow springs from one person, and David had a much higher profile."

Kimmy also said at the 96 Fest that DL left and "never set foot in the office" and Catherine called him and tried to get him involved, and once he realized how things were falling apart, he went on Carson and "begged everybody to write letters, but it was too late." (The Complete Lynch, by David Lavery p 106-7)

So I guess we can owe TP to the Lynch/Frost union, and can blame the crappy part on Frost. j/k

What 12rainbow said.

A lot of what I like about Twin Peaks has little to do with Lynch. Lynch wasn't around at all for episode 3-7, all of which are some of my favourite episodes. Those are all pieces of Frost greatness, aided by some brilliant ideas by Harley Peyton (the cherry stem, for instance). Note that when Lynch is away Bob is mentioned only once or twice. It's telling that no new spirit characters appear in any episode not directed by Lynch. When Lynch returns for the second season, not only Bob, but Mike, the Giant and the Tremonds appear. I think it's safe to say that I prefer Mark Frost's (and Harley Peyton's) both funny and moving dialogue to the idea of a giant, even though he's a lot of fun.

In short, Frost could write a traditional soap opera narrative much better than Lynch, and he wrote the kind of snappy dialogue Lynch really can't write. I don't see Albert as a Lynch character at all. He's Frostian. Also note how Cooper is often less likeable in episodes directed by Lynch - the "freshly squeezed" comment, his grin when browsing through Fleshworld, "get your mind off Shelly - for a moment" (not in Frost's script) - something I think was a mistake. Cooper needs to be likeable to an unrealistic degree for the series to work. Peyton also really understood this and wrote some great Cooper lines.

I don't think Frost faltered until episode 16. Too much Dick Tremayne, perhaps, but still everything there is watchable. It's telling that it's the resolution to the Bob plot - Lynch's thing - is what seems hokey in retrospect. I think Lynch should have written that himself. Frost was less involved from episode 17-23. And after that Lynch also seemed to return. The chess game was Frost's idea, but he seems to have been absent for the actual writing of it. That was a big mistake. Also, leaving Donna without a plot after James leaves was an even bigger mistake than Evelyn Marsh (but those two things are probably Peyton and Engels's fault).

(Please correct me if I have my facts wrong. This is all from memory.)

"What credit card do you want to put that on?"
"Caash, prease."

In the case of Cooper, I'm not sure realistic is better. But I actually think he's perfect the way he is, because now he's other-worldly and not always nice in the first three episodes when he's getting acquainted with the town; then nice, even "perfect" like Audrey says; then strange again in the last episode when he's approaching darkness ("intriguing, isn't it?" (spooky grin)). (Which doesn't mean that the weirdness is all Lynch's doing either. He didn't write the bleak ending, for one.) Cooper's strangeness in the Lynch episodes work because they are few and far between. With Lynch always at the helm, I'm not certain this would have happened. Then again, it seems Lynch and Frost were on the same page about this. Lynch has Cooper merrily twisting Truman's nose in episode 2. Of course, that's both nice and weird at the same time.

To actually answer the question in your first post... No, Frost doesn't get the credit he deserves. And, yes, he deserves a lot of credit. Juggling the insane amount of plots in the first season, producing, writing most of the scripts, directing an episode, and still keeping the standards at such an amazingly high level, takes skill, dedication and possibly even brilliance. That he lost some of his magic touch in the second season is only natural, and that's where Lynch should have stepped in and taken over.

"What credit card do you want to put that on?"
"Caash, prease."

I rread on the net tthat frost wanted to contibution in 2004 with naem "twin peaks and 1000 angles".

He was talking with Kyle and kyle gave a green light.

I'm sure before or later we have to have contribution of twin peaks as we have to have new gunsnroses album before or later

http://www.twinpeaks.org/faqfrost.htm

Found this addressing DL and Frost's collaboration.

Reading Frost's novel "The List of Seven" (see question M5)
reveals that much of the supernatural/mystical aspects of
the show attributed to Lynch probably came from Frost. 

According to Lynch in his book, Bob and the Red Room were his ideas.

Maybe he's lying, but I don't buy it. Mark Frost's episode #7 is one of the most down to earth of TP

episodes. If he had his way, I'm guessing the show would be like that all the time. Now, it is a good episode

but if the show were like that all the time I would find a hard time still caring about it.

I'm not saying they ruined it but I'd say the Red Room was a little bit more exciting & mysterious when it was just this strange place in Cooper's dream, not a gateway to other dimension somewhere in the woods. It's the same thing with BOB. First the character was really very abstract and then he slowly turned into a "spirit". It's almost kind of a shame that the Red Room turned into the Black Lodge - but at the same time it's the perfect choice, BL of the original ep. 29 script is just horrible.

"What credit card do you want to put that on?"
"Caash, prease."

I don't think the series had to come apart because they had to reveal the killer. Frost doesn't seem to mind that too much either. The problem is how they did it. There's no reason to think they should solve the mystery within one and a half day after we know the killer's identity. It could have been stretched out at least for three or four episodes giving the new stories time to kick in. Also, several avenues were left unexplored: Do the townspeople think Leland raped and killed his only daughter (and Maddy)? What happens to Harold Smith - couldn't Donna have gone to his funeral? The missing page of the diary could have come to Donna later to have Laura speak from the grave after her murder has been solved. In fact, Donna could just have been given something - anything - to do after James leaves and it would have helped. What happened to the Bookhouse Boys? Why not have James do work for them instead of meeting Evelyn? We don't see Sarah - or Mike - for 12 episodes, was that a smart move? And don't get me started on Lana or Owl Cave (although that came later).

Of course, Lara and Kyle didn't exactly help things with their inane "I'm a star, I write the plot" nonsense (by far my favourite Friends episode is when the producers of Days of Our Lives kill Joey's character because he says in an interview that he writes his own lines). How many crap plots had to be written to replace the Audrey/Cooper storyline? I don't want to know.

"What credit card do you want to put that on?"
"Caash, prease."

So we're saying that Frost is responsible for all the hokey mumbo jumbo about the black lodge? Ok, I'll grant him that. The actual presentation of the lodge, visually and sonically, is all Lynch. He cowrote an intro song for the place, it has red curtains. He completely rewrote the script that dealt with the BL. Apparently, Frost was not happy about that, but it's the best thing in the series.

I will admit that Frost provided some plot cohesion that is missing from say...Inland Empire, but that extra thing, that special thing that makes TP a great show, and not just a good one, is all Lynch, I think.

Separating them like that is a red herring, as David Lynch would be the first to claim. Frost wrote most of the show, and Lynch contributed mood and look and in addition he was the one who collaborated with Badalamenti. That was their modus operandi. The giant anecdote illustrates this: (1) David gets strange idea; (2) Mark writes a script of the strange idea, inserts some of his own and integrate all in the continuity. Twin Peaks without the sharp writing and soap opera elements would be a weaker version of Blue Velvet. I need Albert in my life, not just Ben and Frank (and BOB).

"What credit card do you want to put that on?"
"Caash, prease."

"What credit card do you want to put that on?"
"Caash, prease."