Time for another installment of Ask Alan, as I take your questions about the past, present, and future of TV.
First up this week is talk of Twin Peaks: The Return, which I’ve been discussing every week with Keith Phipps (or this week with Josh Kurp), but which definitely hasn’t had the pop cultural footprint of the original series. The ABC seasons were among the most influential drama years ever made — many current showrunners like Damon Lindelof talk about original Peaks being a huge inspiration on their careers — but will new Peaks have any appreciable impact on TV shows going forward?
From there, my use of “Not great, Bob!” in my latest Game of Thrones review prompted a question about where that famous Mad Men lines ranks among TV quotes with utility in our daily lives.
And we close things out with a fascinating alt-universe question: in a world with no original series on cable or streaming, what network shows from this season would have gotten lots of Emmy nominations? This proved, unsurprisingly, much easier to do with comedies than with dramas.
As always, you can email me questions at askalan@uproxx.com, or tweet at me with the hashtag #AskAlanDay.