Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me with Allie Goertz

Written By Bart Simpson

Hey, that gum you like is finally back in style. That’s right! We’re kicking off another season of the Springfield Googolplex with the thrilling conclusion of “Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two” (S7E1) and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). Plus, we have a uniquely qualified guest to guide us through the Venn diagram of The Simpsons and Twin Peaks, the multitalented musician, writer and podcaster Allie Goertz! 

Also in this episode:

  • Is Fire Walk with Me the ultimate test of how expectations shape the movie experience?

  • Which Springfieldians would we cast as the various denizens of Twin Peaks?

  • Can we crack the symbolism of Twin Peaks, or does it even matter?

  • Our secret favorite movies that we always have to justify to people

Next time, Adam and Nate will catch up with Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (1985) on its 40th anniversary, alongside its parody in “Bart Sells His Soul” (S7E4).

Featuring “The Becoming“ by Allie Goertz from her latest album, Peeled Back. For more of Allie’s work, check out the complete runs of her two podcasts, Round Springfield and Fire Talk With Me.

For more Simpsons movie parody content, follow us @simpsonsfilmpod on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, YouTube, and Letterboxd. Discover more great podcasts on the That Shelf Podcast Network.

Every Simpsons Reference to Twin Peaks

By our count, Twin Peaks and its feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me have been directly referenced 2 times in the first 13 seasons of The Simpsons. The first reference appears in “Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)” (S7E1) from 1995, 4 years after the end of the series and 3 years after the release of the movie.

Scene References

Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two) (S7E1): When Chief Wiggum drinks some warm cream, he falls asleep and has a Dale Cooper-like dream in Twin Peaks’s famous Red Room, including a backwards talking Lisa giving him cryptic clues to solve the mystery.

While the Red Room and the Man from Another Place are both critical pieces of Twin Peaks mythology that appear in Fire Walk with Me, this scene is mostly modeled on “Episode 2” AKA “Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer” (S1E3) of the TV series, which includes the first appearance of the Red Room.

The parody includes some great attention to detail, including a flying shadow on the red curtain behind Lisa and Chief Wiggum, which wasn’t in the original script and was added by the animators instead.

Even Chief Wiggum’s hairdo when he wakes up is a reference to Dale Cooper’s look after waking up from his first encounter with Red Room on the show.

Lisa's Sax (S9E4): In a flashback to 1990, Homer watches an episode of Twin Peaks on TV. Rather than parodying a specific scene, the imagery shown mashes up several of the show’s most surreal elements, including the Giant and the Pale Horse, the latter also appearing in Fire Walk with Me.

The traffic light may be a less familiar symbol, even to fans of Twin Peaks. While not as supernatural, stoplights are a recurring visual motif in the series. This includes a scene in Fire Walk with Me where James waits for a traffic light to turn red before speeding through an intersection, which James also described in the pilot of the TV series. Notably, a giant red traffic light, apparently swinging in the wind, also appears on the VHS for the pilot movie.

Small References

New • Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie (S4E7): When Marge imagines Bart's future, his stripper name is "Bang Bang Bart," which could be an allusion to the Bang Bang Bar (AKA the Roadhouse) in the Twin Peaks series and movie.

The Twin Peaks series ended June 10, 1991 and the film was released August 28, 1992, meaning it may have been top of mind during the writing of this episode, which was released November 3, 1992. (unconfirmed)

Bonus: Audrey’s Cherry Stem Knot Mystery

Selma’s Choice (S4E13) & The Sweetest Apu (S13E19): When did tying a cherry stem into a knot in your mouth become a thing? Certainly, Audrey Horne performing this trick in the Twin Peaks “Episode 6” AKA “Realization Time” (S1E7) must have been many people’s introduction to it.

Whether or not it’s a reference to Audrey, Selma demonstrates this trick with a cigarette in her video for a dating service, and later, Annette the Squishee Lady tops both of them by spelling “do me” with red licorice for Apu. The first instance on The Simpsons took place in 1993, three years after the Twin Peaks episode and two years before Brooke Shields would further popularize this trick on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

So what do you think? Is this an actual reference to Twin Peaks or just something that was in the zeitgeist at the time?

Extra Credit

Looking for more like this or an interesting double feature? Here are our recommendations.

Further Reading & Viewing

Bart Simpson
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Lobby Chat • The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Bonus)