The pilot episode of the mystery drama television series Twin Peaks, also known as "Northwest Passage", premiered on the ABC Network on Sunday, April 8, 1990.

The small northwest town of Twin Peaks, Washington is shaken when the body of Laura Palmer is discovered washed up on a riverbank, wrapped in plastic.

FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) is called in when Ronnette Pulaski, who attended the same high school as Palmer, is found wandering on a bridge before lapsing into a coma.

The American version ends with the above events, concluded by Sarah Palmer's nightmare of a hand digging into the ground and grabbing James's half of a necklace that belonged to Laura.

The international version was filmed with 20 extra minutes of footage in case the series was not picked up by the networks, rather allowing them to release it as a television movie.

David Lynch and Mark Frost pitched the idea to ABC during the time of the Writers Guild of America, East strike in 1988 in a ten-minute meeting with the network's drama head, Chad Hoffman, with nothing more than this image and a concept.

They filmed the pilot for $1.8 million[5] with an agreement with ABC that they would shoot an additional "ending" to it so that it could be sold directly to video in Europe as a feature if the TV show was not picked up.

Iger suggested showing it to a more diverse, younger group, who liked it, and the executive subsequently convinced ABC to buy seven episodes at $1.1 million apiece.

The camera operator insisted that Lynch do another take because of the mistake, but he liked it so much he kept it in the show, and cast Silva as Killer BOB, the mysterious tormentor of Laura Palmer.

[9] During the filming of the scene in which Dale Cooper first examines Laura's body, a malfunctioning fluorescent light above the table flickered constantly, but Lynch decided not to replace it, since he liked the disconcerting effect that it created.

Sun-Sentinel writer Robert Hurlburt wrote: "the Lynchian sense of impending danger and kinky sexual undercurrents, coupled with excellent music, makes the Twin Peaks pilot work almost too well.

But the series may lay an egg on television because of its drawn-out and deliberate pacing, brutality, sex with violence and a hint of something else ... something deadly, yet unseen and probably repulsive.

Initially, the show's Thursday night time slot was not a good one for soap operas as both Dynasty and its short-lived spin-off The Colbys did poorly.

Mr. Lynch clearly savors the standard ingredients...but then the director adds his own peculiar touches, small passing details that suddenly, and often hilariously, thrust the commonplace out of kilter.

[27] Michael Ontkean later recalled, Paul Newman, who was my friend, missed the broadcast of the original Twin Peaks pilot on television and was well aware of the avalanche of positive reviews.

Both versions of the pilot are included in the Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition DVD set, released in the US on October 30, 2007.

[29] Lynch was so pleased with the footage shot for the European ending that he later incorporated some of it into Cooper's dream sequences that aired in the subsequent acclaimed Episode 2.