Scott Ryan is an Author
Managing Editor of Blue Rose Magazine
Co-Creator of The Red Room Podcast
Co-Owner of Fayetville Mafia Press Publisher
When I met Josh Minton in 2009, we immediately bonded over our shared love for television. Best Star Trek? The Next Generation. Check. Best version of Larry David? Curb Your Enthusiasm. Check. And you love Twin Peaks? Twin… what? Somewhere a cherry pie hit the floor.
I am not a judgmental person. I accept everyone. But how could someone claim to be a true television connoisseur and never have seen Twin Peaks? There are some things I just can’t accept. I set up what we affectionately called “TV night.” Every Thursday night at 8:00 for 29 weeks, we watched one episode of Twin Peaks. He asked, “Why not just watch 2 or 3 each week to finish it quickly?” I explained, “Twin Peaks is something you don’t rush.” Twin Peaks happens when you are NOT watching it. It seeps into your soul, your mind, and, of course, your dreams. That doesn’t happen in a month. He is lucky I didn’t make him wait 4 months between Season 1 and 2 like I had to back in 1990.
This routine led us to create The Red Room Podcast. Josh came up with the idea of the two of us discussing television on a podcast. We would explore and combine my strict view of television with his loose view. We launched and have been talking about TV as art ever since. It was through that podcast that I finally got to contribute to the world of Twin Peaks. It led me to make my documentary, A Voyage To Twin Peaks, and co-creating The Blue Rose Magazine with John Thorne. So, I may have introduced Josh to Twin Peaks, but he introduced me to the world at large. This was how it played out from 2010 to the spring of 2017 when Twin Peaks: The Return hit Showtime. Suddenly, everything switched.
Josh was saying things like, “You can’t just binge these episodes.” Or, “You have to have the sound perfect to watch Part 8. You need to hear that bomb explode. You need to feel Nine Inch Nails.” His study was just beginning. After each part, he was experiencing what I had experienced back in 1990. Twin Peaks was not just something he was watching, but something that was changing him when he wasn’t watching it.
His path was as magical to him as Cooper’s path out of The Black Lodge. So what else could he do but share his own path with the world? That is what this book is. It is basically Josh’s rules for enjoying, processing, and feeling Twin Peaks Season 3. David Lynch is a master at creating art that makes artists want to create their own art. Art that makes you want to create art is what has kept the Twin Peaks community going strong for close to thirty years.
The other part of the show that I love is the fact that there are no answers. Later in this book, Josh will provide his answers. They aren’t ones I agree with. Today, that means I should never speak to him again. I should block him and burn his books, while I roast a smoked cheese pig over them. This is the beauty of Twin Peaks; everyone has a theory. Listening, arguing, and disagreeing make it (and us) better. I am proud that Josh has come up with something that no one else has. I disagree, but I respectfully disagree. I am excited that in a time of divisiveness we are standing brother-in-law to brother-In-law. I proudly sign my name to this theory, and his book, in complete and public support of his idea.
Yours Truly,
Alan Smithee
Consider picking up these books, written by Scott Ryan:
Fire Walk With Me: Your Laura Disappeared (BUY)
The book features Interviews with cowriter Bob Engels, editor Mary Sweeney, DP Ron Garcia, lead actress Sheryl Lee, lead actor Ray Wise, and other cast members, as well as Ryan’s essays covering the different iterations of the script, Angelo Badalamenti’s superb score, the fandom, and the lore of The Missing Pieces (the feature-length compilation of deleted scenes that went unseen for over twenty years before premiering at the Vista Theatre in Los Angeles on July 16, 2014, followed by a Blu-ray release as a component of Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery).
Last Days Of Letterman (BUY)
Author Scott Ryan conducted over twenty interviews with the staffers of David Letterman. Most of the participants had never given interviews before. The writers, directors, producers, and stage managers offer a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like to work on these shows. Find out what it takes to write a Top Ten list and book a president for a guest spot, and what it was like working at the Ed Sullivan Theater.
Long-time Letterman writer Bill Scheft penned the foreword for the book. Included are over 100 color photos from staffers’ personal collections, as well as publicity photos from the show. Get the first truly inside look at creating an episode of Late Show.
Moonlighting: An Oral History (Buy)
In the spring of 1987, over sixty million viewers tuned in to watch Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) and David Addison (Bruce Willis) “get together” in one of the most famously controversial scenes in television history on Moonlighting, ABC’s groundbreaking series about an epically mismatched pair of private detectives. Two years later, the show was canceled due to low ratings. What happened? In Moonlighting: An Oral History, author Scott Ryan (The Last Days of Letterman) interviews over twenty members of the cast and creative team to get to the bottom of this perplexing mystery, uncovering hilarious, provocative, poignant, and sometimes flat-out crazy never-before-told stories about what went on behind the scenes during production of this unforgettable series. Cybill Shepherd, Allyce Beasley, Curtis Armstrong, creator Glenn Gordon Caron, producer Jay Daniel, writers, directors, editors, and more—they’re all here, piecing together the incredible story of late scripts, backstage fights, pregnancies, and broken bones, all told for the first time. Enjoy the cases, the chases, and all the conversations in Moonlighting: An Oral History.
Chapter 3: Foreword By Scott Ryan