It was inevitable that David Lynch’s death would prompt re-engagement with his now completed body of work. In the UK at least, this has been facilitated by cinemas – including major chains – offering retrospectives of his films. Some have even thrown in much of his TV work, but one title has been absent everywhere: the most obscure item in the Lynch canon, 1992 sitcom On The Air.
On The Air is set in 1957, towards the end of what many described as the ‘golden age’ of American television; the period when it was broadcast live out of New York, and partially the purview of theatre people, before Hollywood took over and it became a fiefdom of movie studios, with all that that entails. More specifically, it’s set during rehearsals and recordings for The Lester Guy Show, the flagship series of ZBC, a fictional New York TV network months away from disappearing forever. Lynch came up with the idea while dubbing an episode of Twin Peaks that he had only executive produced, and neither written nor directed. Feeding the weekly television machine was so difficult, he thought, with so many things to go wrong. Imagine what live television must have been like.
On The Air’s pilot was written by Lynch and Twin Peaks’ other creator Mark Frost, with the intention that Lynch direct. It was commissioned by ABC, the station airing Twin Peaks, and shot in March 1991 with a cast and crew mostly culled from Lynch and Frost’s recent associates. Twin Peaks’ actors including Miguel Ferrer and Ian Buchanan starred, editing was by Lynch’s domestic and creative partner Mary Sweeney, and Angelo Badalamenti supplied the music. “I had a blast making the pilot. And it was like… the greatest group of people. They were just happy being with each other,” Lynch told critic David Hughes.
ABC liked the pilot, so six more episodes were commissioned, but by the time production began Twin Peaks was dead as a network television series, and Lynch and Frost’s relationship with them had soured. Lynch, busy making Fire Walk With Me, a cinematic Twin Peaks prequel funded by French company Ciby 2000 without any involvement by ABC, did not direct any more episodes of On The Air. Instead, the new instalments were divided between TV writers and directors Lynch or Frost had worked with before, and Lynch’s childhood friend, the three times Oscar nominated production designer (and Mr Sissy Spacek) Jack Fisk.
Lynch continued to oversee the series as an executive producer and write (with Frost) a final episode for the season, to be directed by Fisk. Once completed, On The Air sat unloved on a shelf for over a year, and was then flung out as summer stock, scheduled at 21:30 on Saturdays, when the young adults it was aimed at were out…
