TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS #6 w/ Murder at Teal's Pond author Mark Givens (YouTube & extended PATREON)

Last September, I spoke to David Bushman, co-author of Murder at Teal's Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks. Although our conversation focused more on his earlier book Conversations with Mark Frost, we did discuss his true crime page-turner which at the time had yet to be released. Now that I've read Murder at Teal's Pond and found it riveting, it's time to talk about the book again with its other author, Mark Givens. I've followed Mark's work for years, since he debuted the podcast Deer Meadow Radio in 2016. That's where he first begin to dig into the century-old murder of Hazel Drew, a young woman living in upstate New York whose unsolved mystery inspired Mark Frost to invent Laura Palmer (Frost's grandmother used to tell him ghost stories about the victim, who supposedly haunted passerby near the pond where she was discovered). After years of extensive research, Mark and David (Givens and Bushman, not Frost and Lynch) uncovered a fascinating portrait not just of Hazel but of the very different worlds where she grew up and traveled between in her final days: the bustling, corrupt city of Troy and the remote, rural community around the Taberton woods. They even drew some conclusions about who might have killed her and why some avenues went unexplored back in 1908. Although the simple idea of a dead girl discovered by a body of water was what got Twin Peaks rolling, it turns out there are many other coincidental similarities, which Mark and I discuss.

The public portion of our conversation, running about thirty-five minutes after my usual introduction/update, is entirely focused on the book's rich texture and how it came together (including disagreements and different areas of interest between the two authors, and how those factored into the final text):

PART 1 on YouTube

The second part, longer than the first (as always) at fifty-five minutes and exclusive to $5/month patrons, continues this focus by discussing the detectives who ultimately came up short in their investigations, the politics of Troy, and other aspects of the book, before concluding with questions about season three, possibilities for future Twin Peaks, and even the early nineties Wiseguy tribute to Peaks, which both Mark and I have covered on our own.

Listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

Purchase Mark's book Murder at Teal's Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks

Also listen to Deer Meadow Radio: episodes on Hazel Drew (from before the book was written) + Marilyn Monroe & Wiseguy

Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter 34 (seasons 1 & 2 collaborators): A Candle in Every Window (my video including clips from Wiseguy)

My Patreon coverage of Wiseguy

Twin Peaks Unwrapped interview w/ Mark Givens & David Bushman on Murder at Teal's Pond (audio-only video)

TWIN PEAKS CONVERSATIONS #2 w/ David Bushman, author of Conversations with Mark Frost & Murder at Teal's Pond (YouTube & extended PATREON)

Update for yesterday's Lost in Twin Peaks podcast: the episode went up in the afternoon, but the illustrated companion is not yet finished - it should be complete within a few hours.

In those fateful days just before the pandemic hit, I tore through David Bushman's book Conversations with Mark Frost in anticipation of my upcoming video work on the Peaks co-creator. Later in 2020, I'd begin work on "The Bookhouse Boy" and this book would serve in many ways as a Bible for that project (by far my most time-consuming, and perhaps my most complex, video essay). I'd already spent much of 2019 reading Frost's book, watching his film and TV work, and discovering surprising connections to Twin Peaks. Now here was Frost discussing his own career in his own words, for the first time in such depth, as well as his own fascinating life and philosophy. Bushman provides a brilliant guide through this terrain, asking probing questions and follow-ups (including about the ongoing mysteries of Twin Peaks and particularly The Return) and bringing to bear his own extensive knowledge of television history and Frost's role in it, from his twenty-five years at the Paley Center for Media (as well as, I learned in this conversation, programming the cable network TV Land). Bushman has been immersed in the Peaks world since co-authoring Twin Peaks FAQ with Arthur Smith in 2016, spending the bulk of his time on the upcoming Murder at Teal's Pond - a true crime investigation into the case that inspired Frost to create Peaks in the first place. After introducing Bushman, we spend the first part of our conversation on that topic before moving onto Frost...

PART 1 on YouTube

(Embedded videos are having difficulty right now - you can jump here for this one.)

In the second, longer part of the conversation - over a half-hour of Frost/Peaks/TV-focused content - we hone in on the dynamic and complicated Lynch/Frost relationship and how it plays out in season three. We ponder why the TV era that Frost sharpened his teeth on has largely been forgotten, tease out some lingering Peaks mysteries, and whether a united vision is even possible given the different visions of the co-creators.

And listen to...

PART 2 on Patreon

This new series kicked off with a bonus episode last week (an interview with the authors/hosts of Twin Peaks Unwrapped) but from now on it will be monthly, so expect the next conversation in October...

Purchase Conversations with Mark Frost & Twin Peaks FAQ & pre-order Murder at Teal's Pond