Today I have my first of many in depth stories from the set of Veronica Mars
. Since we are a week and a half away from the next episode and over a month from the first new one, I thought I would start off with a story that really doesn’t pertain to the show itself. Just a little back story, the first time I watched the show and saw that the show was created by Rob Thomas I thought to myself, “this is from the same dude who wrote 3AM?” I came to realize that they were two separate guys, so when we sat down to lunch I though I’d break the ice with a softball question by asking Rob, “How much do you hate Matchbox Twenty jokes?” Here's his response (Thanks to Magnolia for help with transcribing):
I don't really get that many jokes, actually. The only annoying thing about it is showing up places and realizing that they're disappointed that it's you; checking into hotels, you know they've been looking at that reservation and hoping, or stewardesses on airplanes. But I actually got a note from the other Rob Thomas because people were going on the Matchbox Twenty website and talking about his books and the show. And this would have been a while back he was friend with somebody at 20th Century Fox when I had a deal there and he sent me a note on a wedding napkin that said ‘Rob, if people come up to you and say that your band sucks, it's all yours, but if they say you're great, let them know it's me.’ So I liked him more for that note.
Check back later for even more tales from the set of Veronica Mars including a Scooter McGavin exclusive that you won’t see anywhere else. But next up I will regale you with a story about the infamous Shelly Pomroy so look out for that. And don’t forget to check out for an all new Veronica Mars on March 15th.
There are two things that without them, it wouldn’t seem like March, first are Shamrock Shakes, the other being this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame, Denis Leary’s No Cure for Cancer. The ultimate Irishman of my generation released the album during my formative years and me and my friends had the whole thing memorized for years to come. And you just have to play Traditional Irish Folk Song every St. Patrick’s Day. In fact the song was the inspiration on my answering machine my freshman year with the lines,
We drink and we sing
And we drink and we sing
Hey!
We drink and we drive
And we puke and we drink
Hey!
We drink and we fight
And we bleed and we cry
Hey!
We puke and we smoke
And we drink and we die
Hey!
Then we finished things off with Leary’s “Thank you for calling. Thank you for calling” from the stand up portion of the album.
I can also thank Leary for keeping me off drugs. After blaming his bell bottoms and other poor judgments on weed I knew I should stay away from the stuff. As Leary once said “never do a drug named after your own (expletive deleted).” Plus I also learned from him at an early age that the bet drugs are the legal ones. I always look forwards to cold season so I can start taking NyQuil and sing “NyQuil, NyQuil, Nyquil, we love you, you giant (expletive deleted) Q.” And I would never have learned about whippits had it not been for Leary. And thanks to his soliloquy on meat, I didn’t eat a salad until about three years ago.
Even though he’s best known for drugs and smoking, I think the best part of the album was when he went on his musical diatribe:
Explain it to me. Heavy Metal bands on trial because kids commit suicide? What's that about? Judas Priest on trial because “my kid bought the record, and listened to the lyrics .....” Well that's great! That sets a legal precedent. Does that mean I can sue Dan Folgerberg for making me into a (expletive deleted) in the mid-70's. Is that possible, huh? Huh?! "Your honor, between him and James Taylor, I didn't get a (expletive deleted) 'till I was 27 years old. I was in Colorado wearing hiking boots eating granola."
But thanks to the uber-depressing grunge music, I typically change it to Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain while in Seattle wearing flannels shirts and drinking cappuccinos to fit my experience. And whenever election time rolls around and I debate on whether I should vote I think of two things Joe (expletive deleted) Walsh.
So with St. Patrick’s Day quickly approaching, stop by McDonalds, pick up a Shamrock Shake and throw on some Leary and sing along to the Traditional Irish Folk Song.
Let me start this week’s Toss Up at the end of Lost: what was up with Eko’s beard trim? I’ve seen all the Lost faithful rave about last night’s episode yet none of them mentioned the whole scene. Lost has had a bunch of head scratching moments throughout its run, but the Eko scene wins the most odd award. So let me get this straight, Eko takes out his knife that makes us think he’s going to kill the Other (and yes he was an Other, more on that later), but then puts the knife to his own neck making us think he was going to repent by taking his own life, only just to chop of the weird goatee thing you would normally see at a Phish concert. Yeah right.
But beside that whole sequence last night was up there with the Hurley and Eko episodes, but then again that’s not saying much. Now back to Dorothy’s uncle (get it Henry Gale, oh never mind) it became obvious that he was an Other with the comment he made to Locke about Jack being the leader. This is you classic divide and conquer plan. I don’t think some random billionaire would think of this quickly after being torture or would even think that doing it would help him.
Speaking of the Others, it seemed my theory of two opposite tribes that habitated the island pre-crash, a group of Others and a group of Them (see it in depth: Toss Up). Basically it stated that Ethan was separate from Zeke but as we saw in the Claire flashback that the two are working together, and I didn’t even need to see Kate discover the fake beard to know that was Zeke who summoned Ethan because his voice was very distinctive. But this just begs the question why is Zeke, and presumable his homies, dressing up like an extra from Deliverance?
Then we have our very first flashbacks that took place exclusively on the island (and I’m not counting The Other 48 Days because that was a recap, not a flashback to get technical). They did a really good job with the first couple flashbacks making the audience wonder if it were in fact a flashback or just Claire’s mind playing tricks on her. They also made us assume that we also got our first glimpse of Alex, Rousseau’s kid, but I’m not to quick to assume that.
Back in present day, the chicks found, presumable, the third bunker mention in the orientation film. Although I was a little disappointed that we didn’t run into Michael or Desmond (remember them?) inside the bunker. And with the entire bunker stripped bare, why would Zeke leave the Deliverance outfit there. Since it’s only been a couple of days since the confrontation with Locke, Sawyer, and Jack, it means he’s been back there recently, so why take everything, but continue to stash you beard there? Just another question in the long list of questions that the show still needs to answer.
Veronica Mars aired its last repeat of the season yesterday and now we get all new ones starting March 15th (America's Next Top Model gets a two hour premier next week). Then we are moving into what Rob Thomas call the best stretch of episodes (this is paraphrased) in the show’s history capped off with episode 18 (the one we sat in on) which Rob said is up there with A Trip to the Dentist, his all time favorite episode not to mention the inaugural winner of the Best Episode awards at the Scooter Television Awards. I hope Rob wasn’t too disappointed that I didn’t have a trophy for him.
I’m hoping to have my picture problems solved by the weekend, and I’ll also sort through my taped interviews and transcribe a few of them this weekend too. Until then, for those interesting in what’s upcoming on the show, all I’ll say is I (heart) Dick. Stay tuned this weekend for more.
I was going to throw some pictures of the Veronica Mars Blogger Press Day except I seem to be running into some problems. For the trip, I borrowed my mom’s digital camera so I wouldn’t have change film plus I upload the pictures to my computer right away without having to get film developed. As Tony from Pardon the Interruption would ask, “How’s that working out for ya?” The answer is an obvious not very well as you can tell by the lack of pictures.
First it took her until today to find the cord that connects the camera to the computer. Then when I connected the camera to my computer it said the hardware was not compatible with XP. This officially sucks massively. Tomorrow I’m going to try to download the pictures to my mom’s computer and e-mail and hopefully that works. If you are itching to see some on-set pictures there are plenty up from the other people on the trip. The links are at the bottom of the previous post. Hopefully I will have some pictures along with my weekly round up of Lost and Veronica Mars. And without a new Veronica Mars last night and there won’t be another one until the Ides of March, I may regale you with an in-depth story from the set.
And since I spent most of the day unpacking and fooling around with the camera I didn’t have time for this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame (I knew I should have wrote that before I left for San Diego). So with my usual Toss Up tomorrow, I will save the induction for Friday.
Finally woke up, but still a little drowsy so I’m just going to give you all a run down of what happened yesterday on the set of Veronica Mars (some things may be out of order due to lack of sleep, but I think this is everything) and fill in the details in the days and weeks to come.
First off the plane ride to San Diego was fun in a driving over potholes for four hours kind of way. On my connecting flight I sat next to a dude who must have been one pound under the limit under the weight limit where they make to buy two seats. Then after a hour and a half in Atlanta, where I ate lunch at the dirtiest table I’ve ever seen, I was going back to Cali. The plane ride was a little bumpy as the fasten seat belt light was only off for about a half an hour. I saw Walk the Line, and by saw, I mean as I was on a window seat, the overhead compartment blocked about a fourth of the screen. And I don’t think the dude beside me was too happy that I continually kept leaning over.
Upon arrival I hopped into a taxi but my driver wasn’t exactly sure where my hotel is. It’s never a good sign when your driver asks you for directions. And it didn’t really help that I couldn’t understand half the things the dude said or him with me. Luckily he guessed right and I then took a long shower, met up with my contacts from the show, and had dinner. Then I settled in for the night and caught the Closing Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics which including a performance from Avril Lavigne. Um, yeah, okay.
Unfortunately my inner clock woke me up at four AM PST, but luckily I was able to get back to sleep until 6:30. I had a nice buffet for breakfast, and headed back to the room for a shower. Then after bleeding profusely after thirty minutes after using the razor the hotel provided for me, I met up with the other bloggers on the trip. But after everything that went wrong up to that point (does anyone have fun traveling?) what came next totally made up for all of that.
We started out the day with a limo ride to the set, yes a limo. There were about nine of us in total including a reporter doing an article on the even and an official UPN photographer taking pictures of us throughout the day. We were guided around by a couple of nice ladies from the studio and network, one whom which gave me my daily "Has anyone told you you look like the dude from The Notebook" comment. Needless to say I busted out my usually, "Yeah, now if only I can hook up with a chick as hot as the chick from The Notebook." I never get tired of this. Unfortunately though, no one involved was looking for a dude from The Notebook type for an upcoming project. But anyways.
When we arrived on the set, they took us right into the courtyard set where the characters eat lunch which actually doubles as the front of the school. We walked in during rehearsal involving Beaver and Veronica. We got a seat off set about twenty feet away from the action and when they offered one of us headphones to listen in on the action I jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately they made me pass them around, but as soon as they came back around to me I claimed a monopoly on them for the rest of the visit.
We then made it inside the school and wandered around the hallway with the hall leading to the school’s office, a classroom, and the infamous bathroom, where the stall still has “Jackie is a …” written on the door that was inscribed during the last episode.
Back in our seats, I saw Ryan Hansen, or as I like to refer to him as Little Dick, come around the corner, and once he saw us he made a B-line to us and say hi. He even mention another Dickism that he just said earlier that day, and you will have to wait until the show to hear it (barring it not getting it past Standards and Practices) but I’ll just say it’s classic Dick. And who doesn’t love Dick? He even stuck around to make an extra apperence as an extra in the scene that was filming that may or may not make it into the show.
Later show creator Rob Thomas (not the dude from Matchbox Twenty, great story coming later this week on that) stopped over to quickly say hi and producer Dan Etheridge also stopped by to welcome us. They ran through the scene we watched about six times and changed the camera angle. While the moved the camera, Kyle Gallner, a.k.a. Beaver who was extremely tired came over to say hello. Then the girl of the hour herself, Kristen Bell came over to chat. Unfortunately she had to go once the cameras were set and I was unable to ask my number one burning question. Hopefully I’ll get another chance to ask that at a later date. But when it comes down to it, it was nice that the namesake of the show was able to devote anytime for us.
Once the scene was wrapped, it seemed Kyle (his grogginess in no way showed up on what I saw on the monitors) finally woke up and he and Ryan spent a couple minutes goofing around with each other, spent some more time talking to us, and took a lot of pictures with us.
Then came our tour of the sets that included Java the Hut, which looked very different in person, but that may have been due to the little lighting that they had. Then we went around to Mars Investigation then to the apartment including Veronica’s bedroom (I totally forgot to see if the Lost numbers were still around to take a picture), the little seen Keith bedroom, and the Living Room, where Rob met back up with us and then took over the tour. He then took us the police station (guess who Deputy Sacks has a file on), the penthouse suite and then took us to the new PCH hangout that will be utilized in future episodes, but I believe we saw in the scene where Weevil was kicked out of the gang.
Then came lunch with Rob where I luckily got to sit right across from him. The food was really good as I had some pasta and chicken. While eating Percy Daggs (Wallace) stopped by to pick up lunch and even chatted for us along with his mom, who is equally as nice.
After lunch we stopped by the wardrobe truck and had a chat with the Salvador, the costume designer. This is the point where Rob had to go. After hanging out at the courtyard again, we made a pit-stop at the make-up trailer which had a bunch of pictures of actors that have been on the show which was the only time they told us we were not allowed to take pictures of throughout the whole day aside when they were filming. Then I saw Jason Dohring pass by the door and then we got to go outside the trailer and have a chat with him. This got everyone else on the trip all really excited (all day all I heard was I hope we get to meet Jason, oh I was the only person there who liked chicks). After some questions and pictures it was time to leave.
We headed back to the airport, but I had to wait about six hours until the planed boarded and they wouldn’t even let me check in for another hour or so. Luckily there were a couple other people on the trip who shared my flight. So we hung out, had a couple drinks, some dinner and talked about how our wait was similar to Tam Hanks in The Terminal. On the way back to Atlanta they showed Elizabethtown and even though I watched the whole time I really can’t remember much of it. Then I said bye to my fellow travelers upon arrival as they were both from Atlanta and had to wait another hour before making it back to Ohio.
Now a wise man once said “There’s nothing wrong with Ohio except the snow and the rain,” and there was plenty of the latter on the ground when I got home. Oddly enough while watching the news in San Diego they talked about a Winter Storm that was coming but apparently a Winter Storm in California just rain. I was offended that they would call rain a Winter Storm, Winter Storms included either sleet, snow or freezing rain.
I will go into more detail including interviews and pictures in the days and weeks to come including my exclusive content. I would like to thank everyone involve in creating this set visit as well as the cast and crew who were great hosts and I hope this becomes a common occurrence especially I didn’t get to ask Kristen any questions and even though I got most of the questions asked I thought up before the visit for Rob, I’ve since thought of even more. Plus since we missed them yesterday, it would be nice to meet Keith, Weevil, Jackie or even some of the bit players like Mac, Lamb, or Clemmons. For more on the visit check out these sites that were also with me:
The Attractive Nuisance
DuckyXDale
Give Me My Remote
Magnolia
Pass the Remote
Random Acts of Television
siklilgrl
The Vast Wasteland
Oh, and one more thing, I love Dick, um, I mean REE-chard.
Just back back from the Veronica Mars set, but since I've been up since 6AM PST (and I'm way too tired to figure out what that is on the east coast) on Monday, I'm getting somw sleep. As soon as I get up I'll share some things with everyone, as I have enough material to last a couple weeks. And I may even have some Scooter McGavin exclusives. In fact I may have something so exclusive, that you won't even see it on Veronica Mars itself. But you'll have to wait a little bit for that. But anyways, Dick rules.
I am currently heading out the door to catch my plane to San Diego for my Veronica Mars set visit. As I type this it is 19 degrees here in Ohio, and according to the weather channel, it will be 61 by the time I step off the plane in Cali (LA? I don't think so). Unfortunately this warning is on the San Diego page:
...A STRONG PACIFIC STORM WILL AFFECT SOUTHWEST CALIFORNIA MONDAY AND TUESDAY...
That could put a damper on things. Hopefully I'll be back in the airport by the time that hits. So I won't be posting anything tomorrow and depending if I get any sleep on the Red Eye (hopefully I get to sit next to Rachel McAdams and not Cillian Murphy) I may post something about my trip when I get home Tuesday. If I need some sleep, I may not put something up until the evening. Until then feel free to go deep into the archives (I hear 07/10/2005 - 07/16/2005 was particularly a good week) or check out the highly recommend blogs in my sidebar.