AMERICA IN PRIMETIME: TWIN PEAKS

The video clip above is from a recent episode of the PBS Series America in Primetime titled The Misfit. Several respected TV creators and showrunners were interviewed about David Lynch's seminal TV program Twin Peaks (1990-91) and its influence on them when it first aired. The segment features David Lynch, James Manos Jr. (The Sopranos / Dexter), Matthew Weiner (Mad Men), Diablo Cody (Juno / United States of Tara), David Chase (The Sopranos), Alan Ball (Six Feet Under / True Blood), and Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad).

At the end of the segment, David Lynch makes a powerful statement about one thing that sets apart the medium of television from other forms of entertainment: "There's something about a shared experience. You use to know that millions of other people were watching the same thing. And there's something kind of cosmic about that. You feel a deeper thing and you know that deeper thing." Lynch hits on an important principle we discussed in our newly developed IntroCast Index. In the cyber age when we can choose from hundreds of HD channels, DVD/Blu-Ray, and video on demand / streaming media, the greater number of options equates to fewer joint cultural experiences on TV. What can we do to counteract this increasing sense of isolation? One option is a virtual book club of sorts, called an Introductory Podcast or IntroCast.

Twin Peaks (1990-91) IntroCast

Carnivàle (2003-05) IntroCast

When fans of a TV Series form a spoiler free online community in the form of a book club, mixed with elements of a talk show, and then presented via podcast, then an IntroCast is born. The author of this article was invited to participate as a guest in a few IntroCasts and found the experience rewarding. Fans and interested newcomers interact and discuss a show in detail, episode by episode, until they finish it together. Now that viewing options seem virtually unlimited, fewer personal acquaintances watch the exact same shows you watch at the same time you do. So IntroCasts provide a simple way for people to reconnect with that sense of a shared viewing experience even when watching something that's been off the air for decades.

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TWIN PEAKS: PATH TO THE WHITE LODGE

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