'Pilot Episode' (Story Code '1000') by Mark Frost and David Lynch

When the dead body of a young girl named Laura Palmer is discovered wrapped in plastic and washed up on a riverbank, the peace and tranquillity of northwest American town Twin Peaks is abruptly shattered. A second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is found wandering in the woods in her underwear in a state of shock, before she falls into a coma. F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate. Joining forces with the town’s sheriff, Harry S. Truman, Cooper finds a small piece of paper inscribed with the letter ‘R’ under Laura's fingernail – linking her death to that of Theresa Banks, another girl murdered exactly one year previously, the letter ‘T’ hidden in a similar fashion on her corpse. Meanwhile, the beautiful but rebellious Audrey Horne disrupts her father's business meeting with a party of Norwegians. Sheriff Truman arrests Laura's boyfriend, Bobby Briggs, under suspicion of murder; Bobby is actually involved with Shelly, waitress at the Double R diner, a fact that her husband, bad-tempered truck-driver Leo Johnson is unaware of. Laura's real boyfriend, James Hurley, discovers that he shares a mutual attraction with Laura’s best friend, Donna Hayward. The eccentric townsfolk struggle to cope with the shock of Laura’s murder, and the knowledge that her killer is still at large in Twin Peaks…

Kyle MacLachlan (Special Agent Dale Cooper), Michael Ontkean (Sheriff Harry S. Truman), Madchen Amick (Shelly Johnson), Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs), Richard Beymer (Benjamin Horne), Lara Flynn Boyle (Donna Marie Hayward), Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne), Warren Frost (Doctor William Hayward), Peggy Lipton (Norma Jennings), James Marshall (James Hurley), Everett McGill (Ed Hurley), Jack Nance (Pete Martell), Ray Wise (Leland Palmer), Joan Chen (Jocelyn ‘Josie’ Packard), Piper Laurie (Katherine Martell)*, Russ Tamblyn (Doctor Lawrence Jacoby), Eric Da Re (Leo Johnson), Mary Jo Deschanel (Eileen Hayward), Harry Goaz (Deputy Andy Brennan), Eric Da Re (Deputy Andy Brennan), Gary Hershberger (Mike ‘Snake’ Nelson), Michael Horse (Deputy Tommy ‘Hawk’ Hill), Grace Zabriskie (Sarah Palmer), Troy Evans (George Wolchezk), John Boylan (Dwayne Milford), Rodney Harvey (Biker Scotty), Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer), Robert Davenport (Johnny Horne), Jan D'Arcy (Sylvia Horne), Kimmy Robertson (Lucy Morgan)*, Jessica Wallenfels (Harriet Hayward), Wendy Robie (Nadine Hurley), Don Davis (Major Briggs), Charlotte Stewart (Betty Briggs), Roberta Maguire (Maria Pulaski), Phoebe Augustine (Ronnette Pulaski), Frank Roberts (Father Hutchings), Brett Vadset (Joey), David Wasman (Gilman White), Jane Jones (Margaret Honeycutt), Tawnya Pettiford-Waites (Doctor Shelvy), Shelly Henning (Alice Brady), Dorothy Roberts (Mrs. Jackson), Julee Cruise (Girl Singer), Arnie Stenseth (Sven Jorgenson), Andrea Hays (Heidi), Rick Tutor (Janek Pulaski), Margorie Nelson (Janice Hogan), Ben DiGregorio (Max Hartman), Diane Caldwell (Hotel Employee), Catherine Coulson (Margaret Lanterman [Log Lady]), Al Strobel (One-Armed Man)
*[sic]

Directed by David Lynch
Produced by David J. Latt
Executive Producers Mark Frost and David Lynch

TX:
US TX - 8th April 1990

Notes:
*Introducing FBI Agent Dale Cooper, Sheriff Harry S. Truman and the townsfolk of Twin Peaks

*Due to a contractual obligation, David Lynch had to shoot an alternate ending to the pilot episode, which wrapped-up the storyline early. In this version, the One-Armed Man contacts Agent Cooper and leads him to Laura Palmer’s killer, Bob, who is hiding out in a dark, candle-lit basement. Bob confesses to committing the murder, and is then killed by the One-Armed Man. Twenty-five years later, we see Agent Cooper in a mysterious Red Room, together with Laura Palmer and a strange dwarf…

*This alternate version was released on VHS in Europe, and later in the US and Japan.

*Footage from the alternate ending can be seen in Episode Two, during Agent Cooper’s dream