Rob Thomas on Banff, Veronica Mars, and Life After the Show's Death
Published June 13, 2007
You had three seasons and you hoped for more obviously. Was the FBI scenario your creative decision, or was it a response to the network's pressures?
We could see the writing on the wall. We started to feel pretty certain that we would not be back in our current form. Dawn (Ostroff, president of The CW) had talked to me about doing a first year cop show, aside from Veronica Mars, so I came back and said, how about we put Veronica into a first year cop show. By "first year cop" I mean surrounded by other rookie cops. It was our Hail Mary pass to try to get another season or two out of the show. When we went in and pitched it to them, Dawn loved it. The Hollywood Reporter even reported "Veronica Mars back on the air, nearing a season four."
The impression I got was someone, probably Les Moonves (president of CBS, the C of The CW), just said "are you kidding, we've given this show three seasons," and killed it. We went from dead to back on the air to dead again very quickly. Our Hail Mary pass came very close to working but didn't quite get past all the filters it needed to.
The show was such a cult fan and critical darling. Why do you think it didn't get a bigger audience?
There are a whole bunch of theories. My favourite theory, the one I say the most, is that I wouldn't watch it either, from the logline.
It's funny, because certainly I loved the show and I'm incredibly proud of the show but as a 40-year-old guy, would I tune into a show about a teen detective? It needed people to sample it. I feel like we did a pretty good job of getting people, if they sampled the show, to turn into viewers. But being on UPN, a network no one I knew personally watched unless they were flipping through channels, it was hard getting people to watch a logline that most adults thought, well, there's a bubble gum show. It's a one-liner you hear and you don't think, I've got to watch that show. Combined with being on a network that wouldn't be watched by the people who could have gotten into the show.
I think had we been on, say, ABC and gotten the promotion that would have given us a big sampling of people, we would have either very quickly been a hit or very quickly died, because they wouldn't have let us linger for three years. That was the upside and the downside of being on UPN, because we got a lot of time but we didn't get enough eyeballs on it.
Diane is a publications manager who's addicted to television, movies, and books and justifies her pop culture obsessions by writing about them for Blogcritics. She also runs the TV, Eh? website, a compilation of news and information about Canadian television series.
- Rob Thomas on Banff, Veronica Mars, and Life After the Show's Death
- Published: June 13, 2007
- Type: Interview
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Interviews, Video: Television
- Part of a feature: Banff World Television Festival
- Writer: Diane Kristine
- Diane Kristine's BC Writer page
- Diane Kristine's personal site
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i wish veronica mars was still on. i would have loved for it to continue..it was aunique show and it deserves to keep on playin!
I've have been waiting forever to see if veronica mars would have a 4th season. I had finally got the 2nd and 3rd season, to complete my collection, for christmas this year, and I had hopes that there was for sure going to be a 4th season. I wish that the plot wasn't her being in the FBI yet, but no matter what i was happy there was going to be a 4th season. Today I was curious as to of when that season was going to start, and now there's not going to be one. That truely disappoints me. There was more to that show than any other show I had ever watched. I was into ever single aspect of that show. It was funny, the people seemed so real, the plots were so out there, I just felt like everything about that show as perfect and made a person want to keep watching it. It was kind of like a good book you don't want to put down, except more. I had never heard of the t.v. network UPN until one day there was nothing to watch and i was flipping through every channel and i was thankful to come across a great show that hooked me from the first episode. There are so many curcumstances of as of why VM didn't get as many viewers as it should've. At the time there were other shows people had already become into when VM was aired, nobody really watched upn, and when it started airing on the cw well it was the 3rd season already (but i'm sure those who had started watching it then wanted to see the first and second seasons also). I think if Rob Thomas fought to have it air from the beginning to the end, on a more popular channel, and gave it advertisement, it could become the big hit it should be. There are still so many things a fourth season could go on, of vm being in college still. It could go on whatever happened to Kendall Casablancas, who won sheriff, what will become of the Fitzpatricks, will Duncan ever return, will the Castle ever be publicized, and what will become of the best love hate relationship i've ever seen between Logan and Veronica. I would hope my words are read thoroughly and passed on the the big guys. I'd email them to if i knew how to communicate with them.
I'd also have to say i'm not one to actually email someone for how much i love a show, but veronica mars is the best show i had ever seen and i dont want it to end. 3 seasons is too short, i speak for many about this show when i say it must go on.
Sorry Abby, this article is half a year old - the series is as dead as dead can be and everyone involved has moved on. You might see it in a comic book, though, when the strike's over.
I definetly agree i have never bought complete seasons of any show but i had to of veronica mars. i finished the entire 3rd season in a matter of 4 days. the show is addicting and i cat believe they are cutting it off. im very disappointed. No one cares about these dumb reality tv shows like the pussycat dolls. i for one would rather watch veronica mars any day of the week. i just wish there was a chance that they would reconsider a season 4.
DUDE PLIZ GET VERONICA MARS BACK = ITS LIEK THE BEST TV SHOW EVR!!!
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Rob Thomas is God to me for creating VM. Seriously, Rob, please don't shoot for Lost. That show is all ratings and the substance was gone long ago. 1,000 years from now, when this civilization is long-gone, people will dig up old VM dvds and think, "What the hell was wrong with CBS for canceling this awesome show?!?!"