David Lynch's Influence on Mad Men

Saying goodbye to "Jimmy Stewart From Mars"

Great artists change how we view the world. Our lives would feel incomplete without their vision. Mad Men is a vision continued and it began with one man.

Filmmaker David Lynch passed away this week and I will not be posting an episode breakdown or special subscriber article out of respect for the creator of modern TV. Mad Men would not be the same show without the groundbreaking foundation laid by his work on Twin Peaks (1990-1991).

Lynch with his “boys” five Woody Woodpeckers named Chucko, Buster, Pete, Bob, and Dan. (© UK Telegraph)

It always made sense to me that Lynch was a fan of Mad Men because the very core of his beliefs echo throughout each season.

Twin Peaks character Donna Hayward reflects on the good things in her life despite living in the aftermath of her best friend Laura Palmer’s murder. (© TPP)

The lure of the past is fascinating and dangerous. Horrific yet comforting. Any attempt to explain it fully feels impossible.

Mad Men and Twin Peaks capture a slice of the American experience.

The life of the ad executive with the big salary and beautiful wife is not what it seems.

The death of the beloved small-town prom queen is not what it seems.

Twin Peaks actress Mädchen Amick stars in the Mad Men episode “Mystery Date” as a former lover of Don’s who is murdered in a fever dream. (© AMC/Lionsgate)

Through this unreal horror, beauty escapes in small moments that become eternal.

Twin Peaks showed TV writers how to balance light and dark. This balance made the fun moments even more charming. (© AMC/Lionsgate)

Television owes a debt to Lynch’s work on Twin Peaks working off of the soap opera mold and showing what more could be done with the medium.

I look at these moments from Mad Men and feel the language Twin Peaks established speaking to me.

(© AMC/Lionsgate)

(© AMC/Lionsgate)

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(© AMC/Lionsgate)

A past remembered.

Not as it was exactly but certainly as it felt.

That was the blueprint David Lynch gave us to create new visions, not in imitation but by opening a door in your mind and inviting you to step through.

Mad Men is a vision of the America that David Lynch shined a light on.

The last video of Laura Palmer before her death, already nostalgic and beautiful to watch. A world that no longer exists and perhaps never did. (© TPP)

Don’s famous “Carousel” pitch shows photos from his past. “Nostalgia, it’s delicate but potent.” (© AMC/Lionsgate)

RIP to a man but not to his vision. Everyone go have a cup of damn fine coffee and some cherry pie too.

(© TPP)