I’m not sure what kind of mind says, “Let’s do an hour-long parody of a twenty-year old short lived cult series that the majority of the 18-to-34 audience for our series never saw.” But apparently that’s who’s running “Psych,” and God bless ’em.
Last Wednesday saw the debut of “Dual Spires,” in which heroes Sean and Gus are summoned through mysterious emails to the titular small town that’s suffused with weirdness on all sides. And over the next hour, familiar face after familiar face from the most surreal TV series ever–the immortal “Twin Peaks”–comes wandering through the “Psych” landscape as Sean and Gus find themselves pulled into a murder mystery surrounding a young girl who is found dead, wrapped in plastic.
I don’t want to go into detail since the fun is in discovering all the seriously twisted ways they managed to throw in nod after nod to a TV series that no one ever quite knew what to make of, including (I suspect) the people who actually made it. It would be cruel of me to bring it up if you didn’t still have a chance to see it and, good news: You do. It’s being repeated on its home, the USA network, at 9 AM Sunday, 11 PM Tuesday, and 9 AM Wednesday.
Give yourself a present.
PAD
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I skipped this episode because while I’m vaguely aware of what Twin Peaks was in the sense I know, or I think I know it was a show about a strange town, I have no actual reference, knowledge or connection to the show. Does it hold up as a regular Pysch episode or is it not worth my time as a “Twin what now?” kinda guy/gal?
Oh, it definitely holds up on its own if you’ve never seen “Twin Peaks.” Hëll, we were just going along with the strangeness of it until the girl showed up dead, wrapped in plastic (the famous way in which murder victim Laura Palmer showed up) and only then did we say, “Oh my God.” But it might well prompt you to want to seek out the original series on DVD.
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PAD
Still my favorite TV series to this day. I keep coming back to “I’ll see you again in 25 years” and imagine a continuation of the show in 2015, though I know it almost certainly won’t happen. 🙁
And for those of you who haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you rent the DVD’s.
Oh, it definitely holds up on its own if you’ve never seen “Twin Peaks.”
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I’ve never seen an episode of “Twin Peaks,” and you’re right, the “Dual Spires” episode of “Psych” holds up just fine on its own. I found it extremely entertaining.
It didn’t click when you first see the “Dual Spires” signpost? I never saw an episode of Twin peaks, but was waiting for them to order a dámņ fine cup of cider as soon as they walked into the diner.
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Wow, faster than PAD on recognizing a pop culture reference. I think that’s a first.
The folks who made TWIN PEAKS did know what to make of the show — but they were forced to take it where they didn’t want to go. From what I’ve read, David Lynch (no relation) never wanted to solve the mystery of Laura Palmer’s death, but the folks at ABC made them reveal it. That may be why the show went in a, er, weirder tangent (evil Bob! chess and murder parallel!) after Laura’s killer was revealed.
And for my favorite reference joke from a show *older* than TWIN PEAKS, here’s one that hearkens back to the final episode of MASH. On 30 ROCK they had Alan Alda playing Jack Donneghy(sic)’s long-lost father. (I forget his character name, so I’ll call him Alan.) In the episode Tracy Jordan realizes he wasn’t popular back at high school and was bullied, leading to this breakdown:
TRACY: I wasn’t cool! I was a chicken! I’m just a big baby!
At which point we see Alan standing behind him, and he makes this priceless comment:
ALAN: A grown man crying about a chicken and a baby? I thought this was supposed to be a comedy show.
That is great, although my favorite is still on St. Elsewhere when Mark Craig (played by William Daniels, John Adams in the original Broadway cast and movie version of 1776) visited his alma mater, Penn State, and talked about how being back in Philadelphia always makes him feel like singing.
In a similar vein, one of my fave callback references was an episode of NCIS, where the younger agents are wondering what the coroner, played by David McCallum, was like as a younger man and what he even looked like back then. Team leader Mark Harmon replies “Illya Kuryakin”–and the younger characters pretty clearly don’t get the MAN FROM UNCLE reference.
Actually the scene you’re describing happened while he and his wife were walking around in Independence Square. Not only did he say it made him feel like singing, but he then promptly sang, “And it’s hot as hëll in Philadelphia!” He even commented that in medical school he was “obnoxious and disliked.”
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St. Elsewhere did stuff like that all the time. Although I love “1776” (having been in several productions) my favorite SE meta moment was when they had a mental patient (played by Oliver Clark, I think) who was convinced that he was Mary Richards. Not Mary Tyler Moore, mind you, but the character she played. Meanwhile in another plot line entirely, Betty White showed up as another character. And at one point the plot lines crossed as the Clark character ran into her and excitedly identified her as Sue Ann Nivens. And White’s character said, “I think you have me confused with someone else” and walked away, leaving him utterly bewildered.
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PAD
I recall his saying he was obnoxious and disliked, but not the actual singing. I need to re-watch that episode.
Sadly, since they only released the first season on DVD, that means I’m going to have to figure out which tape that’s on from when I recorded them all off TV Land.
I recall his saying he was obnoxious and disliked, but not the actual singing.
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Oh yes. He sings the line and then turns to his wife and says, “Don’t say I never sang for you.” Something like that.
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I have NO idea which episode it was in, though. Let me know if you find out.
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PAD
It was a great episode! I enjoyed the theme song. All the crying.. the Log Lady makes a cameo! Lodge Blackman!!
It is also available streaming on the USA website. That might be the best place to watch it. The episodes they are showing now are missing 7 minutes that were only seen on the first showing. Its worth watching twice just to see the stuff you might have missed the first time around.
I think most folks that hadn’t seen Twin Peaks enjoyed the episode, but they didn’t like the theme music. Just know that its there for a reason.
That was freaking HILARIOUS!!! Just watched it on Hulu. I was busting up constantly!
Man oh man, I hope David Lynch watched and enjoyed.
So many fun and obscure TWIN PEAKS references in this episode. Some of my favorites were one-eyed Jack, Ray Wise’s hair turning white, Sherilyn Fenn sipping from a can of Cherry Coke and the ceiling fan shots.
And just think, only five more years to go until Laura Palmer sees Dale Cooper again…
OH wow.. didn’t get the One-Eyed Jack.
Kristen, I always thought St. Elsewhere was number one in terms of in-jokes, including the classic White Shadow gag, or the time one of the mental patients recognized Betty White’s character as Sue Ann from the Mary Tyler Moore show. I used to hate that sort of thing but it never bothered me on St. Elsewhere.
James Roday who plays Shawn is a big Twin Peaks fan and co-wrote the episode. The references started almost from the start with a chocolate bunny and a discussion about a woman in Washington who invented silent drapes back in the 90s.
What was the classic White Shadow gag? I was a (very) late come to St Elsewhere, but saw more episodes of the White Shadow.
I also loved the fact that the name of the murdered girl (Paula Merral) is a perfect anagram of the name of the original Twin Peaks murder victim (Laura Palmer). If you’re gonna homage, homage big.
Loved TWIN PEAKS back in the day, even if (in my opinion) the second season just became “weird for weirds’ sake.”
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For some reason PSYCH just doesn’t click with me but I’ve enjoyed some of their other ‘tributes’ enough that I’ll definitely try and catch this one.
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(heck, any show that makes a MIDDLEMAN ref is okay in my book)
I had to watch the Twin Peaks pilot again to catch some of the Psych references because there were so many. I spotted one of the students doing that sideways dance in the background in the hallway of the high school. I hadn’t remembered that.
On the topic of references to earlier shows, my favorite was when Nathan Fillion in a Halloween episode of Castle dressed up in his old Firefly costume. His character’s daughter made comments about it being “so five years ago” and “shouldn’t he move on.” (I’m undoubtedly paraphrasing here.)
How about the more recent episode where Castle surprised Beckett with his knowledge of Chinese and credited it to an old TV show he liked?
Wait, are you guys implying that St. Elsewhere and Twin Peaks are DIFFERENT shows?
My first wife loved “Twin Peaks” – i was working nights at the time, so she taped it for me.
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I made it through the first episode (maybe the second) and gave up. (I think that that was the season that i stopped watching “Hill Street Blues”, too, when new people took it over and it promptly jumped the shark.)
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And i’ve never managed a full episode of “Psych”.
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Guess i just have no taste…
It was a fun episode, I wasn’t aware that it was suppose to a parody until my wife said this episode was odd and then I remembered the title of the episode and said – Duh, it’s Twin Peaks. The Psych guys done done something like this before I remember a whole episode devoted to Hitchcock that was also a lot of fun.
Does anyone know who the actor who played the blind photographer Jack is?
Never mind, I found it: Ryan McDonald. He wasn’t listed on the show credits or imdb, though.
And then, just to muddy the waters, one of the characters turns out to be named Randy Jackson and might have killed someone named Paula.
PAD, was “Twin Peaks” especially big in the Marvel office back in the day? I remember Todd McFarlane worked a few references of the show into his adjectivel-ess “Spider-Man” book (e.g. Spidey noting that he had to set his VCR to tape “Twin Peaks” for when he was out web-swinging).
PAD himself works “she’s dead, wrapped in plastic” into one his first issues of X-Factor, and an issue of Hulk as well.
My favorite moment of synchronicity occurred during a scene from 3rd Rock From the Sun, when William Shatner did his first turn as The Big Giant Head. Upon arriving in town via airplane (his ship landed in the wrong town), he mentioned that his flight was terrible, as “there was some…thing on the wing” that was trying to wreck the plane.
At which point, Ðìçk (played by John Lithgow) replied “the same thing happened to me!”
No one else in the room knew why I was laughing so hard.
That’s awesome.
Same thing happened to me. Took me a few moments to finish laughing and explain to the others.
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I always wonder if the folks in the writing room feel when they realize they’ve got a great little bit like that.
I have the DVD sets, and I’ve re-watched TWIN PEAKS fairly recently.
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While the second season rarely approaches the first season’s quality, it’s still better than 90% of what you’ll ever see in television.
I’ve re-watched the show on DVD fairly recently too. The second season has a pretty horrible midsection, but the first and last thirds are dámņ fine. The documentary on the (Definitive Gold Edition) DVD is pretty candid when it comes to the shortcomings of the second season. I don’t think the resolution of Laura’s murder a third into season 2 was the problem. I think the biggest crime of the second season was a) the proliferation of too-zany plotlines, and b) introducing a bunch of annoying new characters, when the show already had a terrific roster of characters to explore.
I’ve also re-watched “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” a film which definitely improves on repeated viewing.
I agree.
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Billy Zane’s character, and the whole thing with Andy, the goofy policeman and his love life. Some of the weakest scenes in the series.
That was great. I’ve never seen this show before. Is it always this good?
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I loved all the little details they included, even down to having Julee Cruise do the theme song. Definitely the most thorough Twin Peaks parody I’ve seen. I remember Northern Exposure did one, too, but it was only at the end of an episode, and not as well done.
My wife and I have been watching Psych the past couple of seasons now, and it’s now available streaming on Netflix.
Both USA and TNT have been doing incredible work with their original programming. USA has Monk, Psych, and Burn Notice, and TNT has The Closer, Saving Grace, and Memphis Beat. Any of these shows holds up quite well against the so-called “mainstream” networks.
Having never watched “Twin Peaks” (I’m not entirely convinced I ever even saw commercials for it, but I’m sure I did…) I’m sure 98% of the in-jokes went waaaaaay over my head (I suspect if I hadn’t KNOWN it was a Twin Peaks homage, I would’ve missed the “Dual Spires” bit entirely…). But I still highly enjoyed the ep.
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I’m guessing the re-done theme song and the background music was “Twin Peaks”-ish. I love that “Psych” has absolutely no problems changing up the theme music or the font in the credits for any reason whatsoever. “Christmas ep? Let’s make it snow during the titles! Oh, this musician has a cameo? Let’s get him to sing the theme!”
Great episode!
Loved the Julee Cruise version of the “Psych” theme.
As far as shows referencing other shows, Carl Reiner played Alan Brady on “Mad About You”.
I also remember Buster Crabbe guesting on “Buck Rogers” as a retired fighter pilot who is recruited for one last mission and delivering a line to Buck/Gil Gerard that he “had been doing this (piloting space craft) since before he (Buck) was born”, not knowing that Buck was a man out of time, but funny since the Buck Rogers serials were made presumably before Gerard had been born!
My husband is watching this right now. I told him to watch it without telling him why, but he got it right away with the silent drape reference. Now he’s pointing out references every twenty seconds and laughing hysterically and having a ball, like a kid in a candy store. This show brings joy to so many.