It’s all about the bunnies this Easter weekend! I’m taking a closer look at boxes of chocolate bunnies from the Pilot Episode and Part 3 in Season 3 on Showtime.
In the Pilot Episode, Special Agent Dale Cooper examines Laura Palmer’s diary with Sheriff Harry Truman at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department. After reviewing the contents, he picks up a pink box and says his now iconic line into his handheld recorder, “Diane, I’m holding in my hand a small box of chocolate bunnies.”
But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the box of chocolate bunnies in this episode.
Earlier in the Pilot, Deputy Hawk is with Leland Palmer in Laura Palmer’s bedroom. While looking at the contents of Laura’s desk, Hawk places his hand on a pink box. That box closely resembles the box of chocolate bunnies seen later in the episode with Cooper and Truman.
I attempted to identify who made the bunnies. It appears to be a box of four chocolate bunnies wrapped in gold foil that might have been available for purchase. The packaging also appears to show ingredients on the side panel, and there is a bar code on the back of the box.
Once Cooper picks up the box, there is one small detail that I never noticed until writing this article. It’s a box of marshmallow chocolate bunnies! While I couldn’t find a clearer image of the packaging, the letters on the side of the box look like, “MARSHMAL.” There is a logo resembling a small blue penguin or bird next to this text.
I performed a variety of searches (“Chocolate Company with Blue Bird Logo,” “Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Bunnies,” “Box of Four Chocolate Bunnies”), yet I’ve been unable to determine the manufacturer. I even tried searching eBay for vintage candy packaging but still no luck. I’m assuming this particular box is no longer offered since the Pilot Episode was made in the late 1980s.
Flash forward to Twin Peaks Part 3 on Showtime where the box of chocolate bunnies makes another appearance. This time it’s a different box from the one used in the Pilot Episode.
Like other packaged food items seen in Season 3 (e.g. Beef Jerky), I believe this box was created especially for the show. A manufacturer’s name is not shown on the front of the packaging when typically a name would be prominently featured.
I love the “Ears in the making” tagline on the top and side of the box as it’s true – it took 25 years to see this box again.
While the box may have been created for the show, the chocolate bunnies inside are a real thing. The blue colored tuft of hair on the bunny was the clue. I searched for “chocolate bunnies in foil” and found a match. Compare the image on the left above with the image on the right above.
The chocolate crisp bunny was made by the R.M. Palmer(!!) Company and is part of a three bunny set. Most likely, the prop team created the box and added two of the Double Crisp bunnies to it. The image of the bunny on the front of the box was stylized – it’s close to the Palmer bunny design but not an exact match.
UPDATE – DECEMBER 10, 2019
Thanks to the incredible Behind the Curtain extras on the Twin Peaks – From Z to A set, I can now confirm that the crew used chocolate bunnies from the R.M. Palmer Company. You can see the boxes next to the prop box made for the scene.
RM Palmer? As if you said the letter R then make the m sound it sounds like you said “Arm.” Is this the first appearance to an arm reference? As if lynch was eating bunnies when he came up with the idea of twin peaks and referred to his source/inspirational material. Or it’s all probably coincidental and I love pointing it out because it’s silly.