Then David Lynch dropped a movie-length pilot for a show that would become a beacon of artistic audacity for TV creators in the boom years to come. Among them: David Chase, whose brainchild “The Sopranos” would follow in 1999.

“Twin Peaks” was his ultimate portrait of a land of terror and beauty.

David Lynch, the four-time Oscar-nominee behind ‘Blue Velvet,’ ‘Mulholland Drive’ and ‘The Elephant Man’ who also created TV's ‘Twin Peaks,’ has died at 78.