In “The Autobiography of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes,” author Scott Frost establishes that Coop has been fascinated by tape recorders since he was a child. As any viewer of the series can attest, this checks out. Throughout Twin Peaks, Dale Cooper uses a total of three different micro cassette recorders. Here is a closer look at his collection.
DALE COOPER’S PANASONIC RN-105
The first and main recorder we see onscreen is the Panasonic RN-105, produced in 1988.
This is also the model pictured on the cover Cooper’s aforementioned fictional autobiography, photographed by Paula K. Shimatsu-U.
The Panasonic tape recorder is featured in many of the show’s memorable publicity shots, such as this one found on The Mauve Zone website. Cooper is standing on the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department set at Occidental Studios (formerly City Studios) in Van Nuys, California.
Though this won’t be an exhaustive list of the RN-105’s onscreen appearances, a brief highlight reel is due. Here it is during Cooper’s iconic entrance into the town of Twin Peaks in the pilot episode.
Coop turns the recorder toward the camera in episode 1005 when he is awakened by singing Icelanders.
Its vertical blue stripe makes it easy to identify, and in episode 2.016, you can faintly see the blacked out Panasonic logo.
The RN-105 is such an important accessory to our special agent that it received its own Star Pics trading card.
The Star Pics card references Cooper’s childhood fascination with recorders as mentioned in the Autobiography, stating that “he was forced to carry a heavy, two-reel tape recorder on his back. He was grateful when the pocket-sized recorder was developed.” However, the RN-105 was a still a bit clunky and couldn’t always fill the show’s production needs.
DALE COOPER’S REALISTIC MICRO-26
Episode 1.006 calls for a close up on the recorder as Waldo the myna bird triggers the voice activation function.
The RN-105 does not have this feature.
Therefore, Cooper’s regular recorder is swapped out for the sleeker Realistic Micro-26 for the duration of this episode.
Note that the Realistic logo is covered with black tape in this shot.
You may remember that Realistic is the RadioShack brand that also produced Donna Hayward’s tape player.
IS IT FUTURE OR IS IT PAST?
Before moving on to the next recorder, we must jump back to episode 1.002. David Lynch was absent from the set during much of Twin Peaks‘ first season as he was busy working on Wild At Heart (yes, you read that correctly – he was away during the first season, not the second).
To accommodate his schedule, this Lynch-directed episode was filmed out of sequence. Episode 1006 was the first script that called for a voice activated recorder, but the Micro-26 debuts in episode 1002 because the prop was already on hand when Lynch returned to the director’s chair to shoot this early episode later in the process.
This particular scene with Dale Cooper was shot on December 14, 1989.
We briefly see Cooper’s recorder on his nightstand as he turns off the light. Unlike the tinted Panasonic recorder, the cassette is visible through the window. The reflective stripe to the right of the window goes down about halfway from the top whereas the Panasonic’s blue stripe would go all the way to the bottom.
When Cooper wakes up from his dream, there is a clear shot of the recorder from the side, revealing that it is much slimmer than the Panasonic, confirming my suspicion that this is the same Micro-26 seen in episode 1.006.
DALE COOPER’S REALISTIC MICRO-27
The Panasonic recorder returns in the season one finale as Cooper sets it on the table in his hotel room after his undercover mission at One Eyed Jacks.
However, we find in episode 2.001 that Cooper turned on the voice activation function just before he was shot, so the recorder is again switched out for close ups in this scene. The slightly newer Realistic Micro-27 is used this time.
Interestingly, the master shot of Cooper on the floor with the table in sight shows the Panasonic again. We only see the Panasonic RN-105 for the remainder of the series.
Finally, there is a great sunlit shot of Cooper dictating a message into the Panasonic on the banks of Wind River in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. This is the last we see of Agent Cooper’s tape recorders, though I would love to have seen him enter an electronics store to check out the new models in the 2017 continuation.
