The role of the fearsome “Bob”, the ghostly serial killer who was responsible for the murder of Laura Palmer, was played to perfection by the late Frank Silva, who was seemingly born to play it. Mr. Silva looked like he literally jumped out of everyone’s nightmares and onto our television sets. Obviously, he was initially chosen to play the murderous “Bob” from the beginning, right?
Actually, Mr. Silva was the set dresser for the “Twin Peaks” pilot, which meant he was responsible for setting up the furniture and props. Perhaps he got the role because producer David Lynch saw him and instantly realized he could play a frightening serial killer? Nope, it was all dumb luck. You see, in the closing scene of the pilot, Laura Palmer’s mother was supposed to be sitting in her living room alone, until she looks off to her left and screams. Everything went according to plan until someone noticed that set dresser Frank Silva had inadvertently stood in the wrong place and could be seen reflected in a mirror behind the actress’ head. A terrible mistake that might have cost a set dresser his job.
Of course, David Lynch thought about it and saw that the scary looking Frank Silva was the perfect person to play the evil “Bob”. The scene would air as filmed, only now it foretold the appearance of pure evil, and not the mistake of a Hollywood set dresser who should have known better. And that was how television history (and nightmare fuel) was made.
What happens when a network is desperate to get ratings from the latest toy related fad, but the toy is an inanimate object? You get ABC’s short-lived Saturday Morning Television show Rubik, the Amazing Cube. The only "amazing" thing about the show is how lax the FCC was back then, because surely such an amalgam of children’s programming and crass consumerism would never be permitted these days.
So how did the show’s producers bring life to an inanimate object? They made him an alien from outer space that fell off some old man’s horse and carriage and into the lives of a generic Latino family. Little Rubik had a creepy looking head and got extra powers when he was “solved”. The slightest vibration, perfectly timed to occur at the worst possible moments would make him lose these “powers” when his colors became scrambled. If that wasn’t bizarre enough, the Latino teeny bopper musical group “Menudo” sang the theme song to the cartoon.
“I'm not interested in your explanations, Kramer! Sure, I bet you've got a million of 'em. Maybe your mother didn't love you enough, maybe the teacher didn't call on you in school when you had your little hand raised, maybe the pervert in the park had a present in his pants, huh?”
-Lieutenant Martell on Seinfeld
