Chatting with Rob Thomas and Tina Majorino

Last night I participating in another Veronica Mars press conference this time Tina Majorino (Mac) joined creator Rob Thomas (see No, Not That Rob Thomas if you’re thinking the dude from Matchbox Twenty). Much like the last one, I got two questions in so here are the transcripts of my questions. Now there are some very minor spoilers so proceed with caution if you completely avoid all spoilers. I also sprinkled some pictures from the season premiere which you can watch right now on MSN unfortunately Tuesdays are bad for me so I’ll may have to wait until tomorrow to watch).


Scooter McGavin: One of the things I really like about the show is how some of the characters show up again and again, like with Mac, for instance you saw her one time and she would come back. I was just wondering going into college, are we going to see any other of Neptune Alum show up at Hearst College and along those lines for Tina would you like to see the Mac-Butters relationship continue into college?

Rob Thomas: Butter is supposed to be still in high school, he was a junior last year, he won’t be in college, no plans on bring Butters back right now. We are finding that whenever there is somebody we really like we just keep using them and using them again and again. Last year in one of the episodes when Veronica and Wallace visited Hearst College we met the president of the Phi Sig fraternity Chip Diller and he’s in a bunch of episodes this year. We just cast a couple of guys, one plays an expert on everything dating [I think that’s what he said] in college that we’re really digging using so I have a feeling he’ll pop up from time to time. The best example of it would be Ryan Hansen who plays Dick Casablancas, he was guy who had one word in the pilot which was, “Logan” and then two words in his next episode which were, “all fours,” and we just fell in love with the guy and now he’s a very key player on the show. When we find an actor character we like we tend to just go back to them.

Tina Majorino: As far as Butters goes, I think it was really fun to play with the actor who plays Butters. But think they way that Mac feels about Butters that he is very strange and annoying (Rob laughs) so I don’t think that that relationship will work out but I think that there was a lot of good comedy with Butters [something inaudible].


SM: I remember from last season Logan was interest in having Tom Welling [from Smallville] play him in the Aaron Echols Story. I was just wondering now that you are on the same network would you be interested in giving him a call to do a guest spot?

RT: Well it’s interesting because Diane Ruggiero since the CW, who’s one of the writers here and now the only female left on the writing staff, has been begging for that crossover since we had the CW launch party and she saw him in person and I’m not sure she started breathing again. It would be so tough to do; it would be like someone asking Kristen Bell to guest star on their show. We work Kristen so hard and her free time is so valuable to her I imagine the same is true for Tom. The network would love it, they would adore it but I don’t think they would go to Tom as say, “please do Veronica Mars” just because they know just how hard he has to work on his own show. My wife and Al Gough’s [Smallville creator/producer/writer] wife are friends we actually have dinner from time to time and I may actually send a test buoy out on that particular question because I think it would be great for us. But I wouldn’t hold my breath on that.

SM: As a follow up, Tom Welling aside, if the CW came to you and you could have a pick of the litter of any actors on any show to do a cross-over, who would you pick?

RT: For me, it would be personally mercenary, who would get the most people watching our show? If we could get Lorelai (Lauren Graham) from Gilmore Girls on our show, that would be fantastic. That would be a crossover I would bend backwards to happen.

TM: I like her too, she’s fantastic.

SM: Would you be willing to send your actors out, like you like to see Lamb and Logan go at it in a steel cage match on Smackdown?

RT: (Laughs) Well I would love that, I would absolutely love that.


Some other comments of note:

- The friendship with Veronica is one of Tina’s favorite part of the whole show.

- Once again Ducky wanted to know if more gay homosexuals would be worked into the show. I’m beginning to think that what he really wants to know if the would incorporate a gay dude who goes by the name of Ducky into the show.

- Rob mentioned that fans ripped apart Deputy Leo and Hannah, but I have to say, Leo is my favorite Ronnie beau, c’mon, he picked her up while dressed like Crokett and their first dance was to the Spandau Ballet’s True. Ad Hannah was just the cutest thing ever.

- When asked about more bands being on the show Rob, said “Right now I’m writing the episode nine, there is definitely a space for a band. I’’m gonna direct the episode as well and should I try and get a “name” band? If you get too big of a band like you have Radiohead play a frat part at Hearst College it doesn’t make sense. Having a band adds five shooting hours, which really slows us down in an already jam packed already. Last year we wanted to do it a lot more, that plan was to have over twenty-two episodes, six different artists and have them do karaoke but what we found is that it so production down so much we really couldn’t afford to do it.”

- The Tube-Talk Girl asked about the three story arcs and if he had planned them out yet to which Rob replied, “We do know what the three mysteries are going to be. I can tell you that they’re all three going to have a different feel. I think most people know because I’ve been willing to share the first one is the ongoing mystery of the Hearst serial rapist. I want the second one to surprise people. You’ll get introduced to the second mystery in the last episode of the first mystery. I’ll tell you a little about the inspiration for, which will only make sense if you see what it is. But Steven Soderbergh did a low budget digital video murder mystery called Bubble. There are pieces of it, a way that’s it’s set up that I really like. I wanted to have a mystery, in which for the first time on Veronica Mars where we start seeing the build-up to it, as opposed to being introduced to the crime after it.

- The good people over at GMMR asked Tina about the difference between TV and film, Tina responded, “Working on TV, you get a chance to be so much closer to everyone that’s been working on the show because you’re working with them for a whole nine months; you get to see everyone everyday and you get a little more familiar with them. With film it’s 3 months and then it’s over with. It’s also nice knowing that you get to go to work everyday it’s a little more consistent. It’s nice to know where I’ll be going each day.”

- The TV Addict asked about if Rob was consciously changing things because of the new network and the Gilmore Girls lead-in, Rob had to say, “In the first episode I will freely admit that I think the first episode is Veronica Mars for beginners. The case is pretty straight ahead it’s not high incident case, it’s a case used largely to meet our new characters. I’ve tried to really front load the episodes with fun breezy banter that would play nicely with the Gilmore Girls audience, and sort of inviting them into the show. The episode starts feeling more like our show in the final five minutes; it’s not a huge departure for the first forty. The second episode which honestly ranks with some of our best ever, is Veronica Mars at its best.

- Tina will continue to guest on Big Love in its next season.

- Siklilgrl asked if Rob checked out Gilmore Girls yet, which he hasn’t just because his wife says it’s too girly for him but saw a chunk of one when the GG’s Logan was filming an episode of VM.

- The CW execs are thrilled by what they have filmed so far according to Rob.

- As for the music he picks for specific scenes, Rob explained, “The studio/network hates when I talk about it. One of the reasons we didn’t do a soundtrack this year is that when we’re over budget, the first place we have to make a cut is in music. In year one we were getting in 4 or 5 songs per episode, this year the number went down to 2 or 3. There’s been less music in the show which is something I’m not happy about. I tend to write with songs in mind. I sit there with iTunes open, as I’m writing and songs are occurring to me I put them in a playlist for that episode and keep that on play for hours while I write. I write to music a lot I think I’m the only writer here who does that and the post-production people always know when it’s my script because I’ve written all my songs into it. For the episodes I don’t write the editors tend to temp music that I will sometimes replace. One of our editors has just fantastic musical tastes; maybe it’s not fantastic maybe I think it is because it is kind of the same as mine. When he places music it tends to stay in the show. We also have a great music supervisor from Warner Bros. where I can say ‘I need a song for a sorority party what are the kids dancing to at sorority parties these days’ and she’ll send me a disk with fifteen songs of new artists who are breaking and fit the budget and I’ll drive along in my car for a few days and pick the songs that way.”


So there you have it, again if you want to check out the first episode of the season head over to MSN to do so or just turn into the CW next Tuesday at 9:00. I’ll be doing both. And since both Veronica Mars and Lost start op next week, next Thursday will be my first Toss Up of the season, but before that, make sure to check back Thursday for a season two Toss Up of the show to gear up for their third season premieres.