I totally disagree with the Lynch references. Speaking as someone eleven years older than Sampiro (and therefore alive and conscious at a time when this reference was more contemporaneous), regardless of what the novel itself referred to, the cultural concept of Peyton Place was much closer to that of Wisteria Lane, or the TV shows Dallas or Dynasty than Twin Peaks. Say Twin Peaks today, and people think of weird quirkiness and really eerie, scary, even supernatural stuff, while Blue Velvet is just more of David Lynch’s crazy-person twisted stuff.
Fairview, the town from Desperate Housewives, is much closer to what people thought of when they thought of Peyton Place (which comparatively few people would have actually read). Lovely and quiet on the outside, and all sorts of goings on under the surface.
I never saw nor read Peyton Place, but I can say with some certainty that the cultural reference (as opposed to what it was actually about) of Peyton Place, as referenced in Harper Valley PTA, was implying well-concealed underlying scandal, primarily of a sexual nature. I can’t think of a single contemporary cultural reference that would be widely understood equivalently, but Biggirl’s idea of Real Housewives probably comes closest.