'Best. Show. Ever.': Who Killed Veronica Mars?

Home , Rob Thomas (writer), Veronica Mars, Veronica Mars (season 1), Veronica Mars (season 2), Veronica Mars (season 3), Veronica Mars (season 4)

JPTV 1 (1) pp. 39–52 Intellect Limited 2013

Matthew Paproth Georgia Gwinnett College

‘Best. Show. Ever.’: Who killed Veronica Mars?

Abstract Keywords In this article, I argue that Veronica Mars is a fruitful site for critical analysis as Veronica Mars a result of its position between cult and mainstream fandom. As a result of network audience pressure, writer-creator Rob Thomas made significant changes to both the show’s cult television structure and content; simultaneously, he positioned it as a cult-television haven for Buffy the Vampire fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which had recently gone off the air. This deliber- Slayer ate positioning, coupled with Thomas’s openness about the process and the surpris- ing willingness of cult fans to cooperate, makes it a unique case study in the business of popular television.

My peeps and I just finished a crazed Veronica Marsathon, and I can 1. CW came about as no longer restrain myself. Best. Show. Ever. Seriously, I’ve never gotten a result of a merger between the owners more wrapped up in a show I wasn’t making, and maybe even more of UPN (Time-Warner) than those. and CBS, with the first letters of CBS and (Joss Whedon, Whedonesque blog, August 2005) Warner joining to form the CW moniker. The Between 2004 and 2007, Veronica Mars (2004–07) aired 64 episodes over first two seasons of Veronica Mars aired three seasons on the United Paramount Network (UPN) and then the CW on UPN, with the third Television Network (CW), a remarkably long run given the incredibly low airing on CW. Because ratings it garnered;1 in its first season, the show was the lowest rated on the of the nature of this rebranding, the change UPN, averaging only 2.68 million viewers per episode and ranking 148 out of in network likely had 156 among all major network shows (Wikipedia 2012). In its second season, very little impact on the show’s ratings.

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 39 2/8/13 3:30:28 PM Matthew Paproth

it averaged only 2.54 million viewers, and in its third season, at the fledgling CW, it averaged 2.65 million (Wikipedia 2012). Throughout its peristaltic run, amidst a constant threat of cancellation, writer-creator Rob Thomas significantly and repeatedly altered the show to meet the demands of the network, stating in an interview that ‘we just want to survive and get to make more’ (quoted in Ramos 2007). This admission is typical of Thomas’s attitude regarding his motives and his decisions regarding the show, and it engen- dered a similar response by legions of its cult fans, many of whom took it upon themselves to keep the show on the air by reaching both other cult fans and the mainstream audience. However, Thomas’s openness to implement- ing these changes to appease network executives, in conjunction with his willingness to admit publicly to these changes, makes him atypical among cult auteurs. Surprisingly, cult fans of Veronica Mars rallied behind Thomas in his attempts to market the show to mainstream fans and to increase the show’s Nielson ratings and its popularity among the general viewing audience. As a result, the three-season text bears the marks of this tension in fascinating ways, as Thomas’s network-related compromises fundamentally altered the characters and the show. Ultimately, then, through its appropria- tion of extratextual elements into the diegetic world of the show and through its creator’s discussion of those elements in the promotion and interviews surrounding the show, Veronica Mars attempts to carve out a position as both model-network TV show and subversive cult television, blurring the lines between textual and extratextual worlds, as well as between its cult and mainstream audiences. The series revolves around plucky outsider Veronica Mars, whose father is the former sheriff of Neptune, the fictional California town in which nearly every scene takes place. Together Veronica and Keith run Mars Investigations, as Veronica ably juggles life as an outsider in high school and her after-school duties working with her father, who lost both his marriage and his position as sheriff during the murder investigation of Lilly Kane, Veronica’s best friend and daughter of Jake Kane, the software developer whose company employs most of the town. Like Twin Peaks’s ‘Who Killed Laura Palmer?’ (1990–91), the question of who killed Lilly Kane provides the central mystery around which the show is constructed, and its investigation and eventual solution comprise Veronica Mars’s first season. In the second season, Thomas again creates a season-long mystery arc, this time surrounding Veronica’s search for the mastermind behind a bus crash that killed eight fellow students at Neptune High. In an attempt to appease network criticism that the show had become too convoluted for mainstream viewers, the third season breaks from the show’s initial format to focus on three smaller mystery arcs; the first features a rapist on the campus of Hearst College, the fictional college that Veronica and the other characters attend upon graduating from high school; the second finds Veronica investigating the murder of the college’s dean. When the show failed to improve its ratings, Thomas abandoned the final mystery arc in favour of a ‘trial balloon’ of stand-alone episodes (quoted in Ramos 2007). In the years since its cancellation, scholars and critics have not been kind to Veronica Mars. While its first season is almost universally praised, the second and especially the third seasons have been derided for a variety of reasons. In their introduction to Investigating Veronica Mars, editors Rhonda V. Wilcox and Sue Turnbull (2011: 15) make a case for the canon- ization of the series, though they conclude that the third season ‘does

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 40 2/8/13 3:30:29 PM ‘Best. Show. Ever.’

not match the quality of the first two’. They suggest a variety of possi- ble reasons, including ‘statistical improbabilities’ (of several storylines), ‘pressure from the network for ratings’ and ‘misjudgment on the part of the unquestionably stressed writer-producers’ (Wilcox and Turnbull 2011: 14–15). In her essay ‘”Nothing Hurts the Cause More Than That”: Veronica Mars and the Business of Backlash’, Rosalind Sibielski (2010: 322) discusses the third season’s shift in narrative style, in conjunction with a markedly anti-feminist agenda:

... in its final season the show’s political allegiances appear to shift from an investment in supporting feminist values (albeit indirectly) to vilifying those values, embarking upon a virulent attach on US feminism that extends across the first nine episodes the season.

In the pilot episode, we learn that Veronica was drugged and date-raped, and throughout the first season the show treats the subject with nuance, as Veronica is marginalized yet empowered by the attack. In the third season, however, Veronica investigates a series of rapes on a college campus, where she meets resistance from a group of feminist members of the Lilith House:

Far from being aided by the members of the Lilith House, though, who in their role as advocates for the women who have been attacked would seem to be obvious allies, Veronica finds her investigation stymied by them at several points. (Sibielski 2010: 327)

Sibielski contrasts the first two seasons, which she argues ‘may have been motivated on a network level by a desire to capitalize upon the recent media market for girl power texts’ (Sibielski 2010: 332), with the problematic anti- feminist storylines in the final season:

... because the series’s [sic] repudiation of feminism coincides with pressure placed upon the show’s creators to increase its profitability, it can also be read as reflective of the TV industry’s belief that such a repudiation is necessary to make television programming palatable for mass market consumption. (Sibielski 2010: 333)

Whether the rape storyline is lazy, misguided or a calculated anti-feminist business decision, it certainly coincides with the less-demanding narrative structure and the generally less satisfying show. To combat the show’s poor ratings, Thomas continually bowed to network pressure, incorporating significant changes to both the show’s structure, seen in the unsuccessful shift from serial to series, and its content, seen in, for example, the stunt casting of several contestants from America’s Next Top Model (2003–), the UPN’s highest-rated show and the lead-in during Veronica Mars’s second season. About the change in format, Thomas admits, ‘If we had huge ratings, I’d probably still be doing a 22-episode mystery’ (quoted in Jensen 2006). About the stunt casting of Kristin Cavalleri and others, Thomas says, ‘They [network executives] ask for certain things. We have Kristin Cavalleri, the girl from Laguna Beach, who had some show on UPN, do a little guest spot. I think we’ve had three different top models

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 41 2/8/13 10:03:58 AM Matthew Paproth

have little bits and pieces’ (quoted in Cortez 2006). In both instances, Thomas demonstrates a willingness to expose the network politics that resulted in these changes to his show. At the same time, these admissions, often made in web interviews and sometimes prior to airing, create a cult audience that understands and that is more willing to be tolerant of these sorts of network concessions. Even as he was altering the structure of Veronica Mars to attract mainstream viewers, Thomas carefully positioned the show as the post-Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) destination for fans of cult television; these seemingly contradictory positions result in a compelling tension that perme- ates the show. For example, in a scene from ‘Rat Saw God’ (2006), Veronica attempts to find the whereabouts of a car rented by a missing woman whom she is trying to track down. The scene unfolds in two parts; in the first, she tries to solicit the information from Douglas, a rental-car manager played by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy. Douglas, the ‘Employee of the Month’ at the Lariat Car Rental Agency (a reference to Whedon’s work at that time on the film version of Wonder Woman), falls prey to Veronica’s charms, eventually providing her with the make and model of the car for which she is looking. Unable to pry any further information from him, Veronica returns minutes later (now ‘disguised’ in glasses and a different jacket) and speaks with Stacy, played by Kim Stolz, a contestant on that season’s American’s Next Top Model, who won the role as a prize on the episode that aired earlier that evening. Using the rift between the laidback employee and the uptight manager, Veronica quickly convinces Stacy to use the vehicle’s navigation system to pinpoint its location for her. The scene ends as she leaves the rental-car office, having procured the information, joking to Stacy that: ‘I hope your boss gets canned.’ The scene in the Lariat Car Rental Agency stages the tension between cult and mainstream audiences that makes Veronica Mars a fruitful site for critical analysis. Veronica succeeds as a private investigator by manipulat- ing the space between the opposing sides, carving out a privileged position somewhere in the middle. In addition, the scene is typical of how Thomas approaches the dual tasks of attracting both mainstream and cult audiences, putting on various disguises to meet the competing desires of these different sets of viewers. Fans of Top Model, who had been alerted to Stolz’s appear- ance by numerous network ads, were intended to sample the show to see the cameo and hopefully become regular viewers. Fans of cult television were intended to recognize Whedon, who had recently endorsed the show on his website after a marathon viewing of the first season. He describes his reaction:

Crazy crisp dialogue. Incredibly tight plotting. Big emotion, I mean BIG, and charismatic actors and I was just DYING from the mystery and the relationships and PAIN, this show knows from pain and no, I don’t care, laugh all you want, I had to share this. These guys know what they’re doing on a level that intimidates me. It’s the Harry Potter of shows. (Whedon 2005)

Whedon’s reaction (calling it the ‘Best. Show. Ever.’ itself a reference to another cult TV staple) exemplifies the enthusiasm of the cult fan trying to persuade other cult fans to consume a text, and his meta-cameo is appropri- ate for enticing a cult viewership looking for in-jokes in every frame. Like the

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 42 2/8/13 10:03:58 AM ‘Best. Show. Ever.’

series, this scene caters both to cult fans and to mainstream viewers, doing so 2. Although Mark T. Conard does not in ways that continually draw upon information from the real world, outside discuss Veronica the boundaries of Neptune and the diegetic world in which the show other- Mars in his book The wise operates. Philosophy of Neo- Noir, the show clearly Umberto Eco argues that a cult text fits his definition, as he writes that film ... must provide a completely furnished world so that its fans can quote noir is characterized by ‘the inversion of characters and episodes as if they were aspects of the fans’ private traditional values sectarian world, a world about which one can make up quizzes and play (bad guys as heroes, traditional good guys trivia games so that the adepts of the sect recognize each other through like cops doing bad a shared expertise. things) and a kind of (Eco 1990: 189) moral ambivalence [...]; there’s also the feeling of alienation, paranoia, The insular world of Neptune is typical for cult television, though Thomas and pessimism; continuously disrupts that insularity by incorporating elements from other themes of crime and violence abound; and mainstream and cult texts. While Neptune is appropriately ‘furnished’, the movies attempt to Thomas creates a web of connections between Veronica Mars and other cult disorient the spectator [...]. The term neo-noir and mainstream texts that, while providing sites for audience interaction, also describes any film forces the audience to interact with the real world in compelling and unusual coming after the ways. For example, the show regularly references its noir and detective roots, classic noir period that contains noir themes mentioning characters such as Philip Marlowe, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and the noir sensibility’ Sam Spade and Scooby Doo, suggesting an intertextuality that is far from the (Conard 2007: 1–2). ‘private sectarian world’ described by Eco and seen in cult TV shows such as These qualities abound in the show, from the 2 The X-Files (1993–2002) and Twin Peaks. impossibly malicious In his book Fan Cultures, Matt Hills (2002: 137) defines cult texts through a and misguided sheriff to the painful number of common characteristics, including the creation of hyperdiegesis, ‘the flashbacks that plague creation of a vast and detailed narrative space, only a fraction of which is ever Veronica (including directly seen or encountered within the text, but which nevertheless appears to her own rape, her best 3 friend’s murder and her operate according to principles of internal logic and extension’. While Veronica mother abandoning Mars certainly creates a hyperdiegetic narrative space, Thomas positions the her). Furthermore, show firmly in both the diegetic noir-verse in which it takes place and in the Conard argues that ‘neo-noir filmmakers real world, forcing viewers to bring information from outside of Neptune into are quite aware of the the diegetic world of the show. For instance, the scene in the rental-car office meaning of noir and are quite consciously can be understood without the information about Whedon and Stolz, as it working within the demonstrates Veronica’s canniness and progresses the mystery-of-the-week. noir framework and However, with the knowledge about the actors playing the roles, the scene adding to the noir canon’ (Conard 2007: 2). becomes (for its cult audience) a complex metaphor for how the series deals Veronica Mars regularly with a divided audience and (for its mainstream audience) an opportunity to references other noir judge how well an aspiring model is able to act. Similarly, cameos by Paris and neo-noir texts, engaging in the kind of Hilton (as a spoiled rich girl), Kevin Smith (as a gas-station clerk) and Patty self-referential qualities Hearst (as an heiress who is abducted) rely on the actors’ relationships to the that Conard links with real world to be fully appreciated.4 neo-noir texts. The deliberate connection to Buffy, which grew more prominent through- 3. Hills’s other criteria include auteurism out the three seasons, is especially interesting to consider in this context. In his (which I discuss later essay ‘Rob Thomas and Television Creativity’, David Lavery (2011) discusses in this essay) and the relationship forged between Veronica Mars and Buffy: endlessly deferred narrative: ‘The cult form [...] typically Both set in the Golden State, both in their early years unsparing focuses its endlessly depictions of caste and class in an American high school, both wonderful deferred narrative around a singular amalgams of exciting narrative and pop culture-savvy wit, both question or related set very adult in their themes and their very naughty double-entendres, of questions’ (Hills 2002: both adept at mixing standalone episodes with season-long (and 134). Hills goes on to

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 43 2/8/13 10:03:59 AM Matthew Paproth

argue that the collapse season-contained) story arcs, [...] Buffy and Veronica also had in common of these narratives often marks the decline a failure to secure the sort of large audiences their networks hoped for. of the cult text: ‘Cult (Lavery 2011: 25) shows win most of their popularity with audiences while they Veronica Mars’s position as heir apparent to Buffy was cemented when exist in the phase of Whedon gushed about the show on Whedonesque.com, and he subsequently directed and focused reviewed the show for Entertainment Weekly. In addition, Buffy alumni Alyson narrative enigma: the survival rate beyond Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter were cast as recurring characters in the this is limited, as Twin show’s second season.5 Like Buffy, Veronica Mars constantly engages with the Peaks discovered to its cost’ (Hills 2002: 136–37). other cult TV shows which it uses as palimpsests; however, where it separates This tension can be from Buffy is in Thomas’s willingness to comply with network demands and seen within Veronica his insistence on sharing that information in various media outlets. The show Mars in the change in format throughout has directly referenced Buffy (a client looking for Veronica asks for ‘Buffy, the series. While the Tiffany, whatever her name is’), Lost (2004–10) (the numbers 4-8-15-16- (not-exactly-endlessly) 23-42 appear in a fortune cookie message given to Veronica by her boyfriend), deferred narrative of ‘Who Killed Lilly Battlestar Galactica (2004–09) (Veronica becomes obsessed with the word Kane?’ was replaced ‘frack’ after watching the show), The Simpsons (1989–) (Veronica commonly in the second season by ‘Who Crashed the refers to people by the names of various minor Simpsons characters) and Bus?’, the movement Arrested Development (2003–06) (actors Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat, who away from these played George Michael and Maeby, were cast as students attending the same deferred narratives in the third season college as Veronica), among others. marks an attempt by The constant evocation of its influences is another indication of Veronica Thomas to move away Mars’s resistance to creating the ‘private sectarian world’ typically identified from the show’s cult roots, towards an easily with cult television. Where Buffy creates a space that is rigorously isolated digestible mainstream from the world of ratings and scheduling and contract negotiations (which existence. has led to the term ‘Whedonverses’, for the spaces in which his shows are 4. In addition to these set), Veronica Mars situates its exploration of neo-noir in our world, constantly cameos, the show is heavily allusive, alluding to the sources from which it is built, as well as the circumstances constantly referencing surrounding its own creation and reception. In addition to these cult and noir both cult and texts, the show commonly references a wide range of pop culture sources, mainstream texts; a listing of cultural running the gamut from high culture to low, including everything from references in Veronica James Joyce to The Jerry Springer Show (1991–). The point here is that the writ- Mars, found on ers do not attempt to seclude the diegetic world in which Veronica Mars takes Marsinvestigations. net, a site dedicated place; instead, the show creates an intertextual field that is recognizable by to ‘investigating’ both its cult and its mainstream audiences, infusing the secluded noir-verse the episodes of the show with the with pop culture references that make it impossible for any viewers to escape same diligence that completely the extratextual world. Veronica investigates In his book Living Room Wars, Ien Ang (1995) discusses the various levels her cases, lists over eighty television shows at which television series operate: alluded to in various episodes. An analysis of televisual discourse as a whole might prove to be more 5. At one point Veronica fruitful if we look for the real tensions in it, for the contradictions in jokes to Kendall the appeals it attempts to create for its viewers. We should analyse the Casablancas, the character played by different positions offered to viewers in relation to televisual discourse, Carpenter, that ‘I didn’t and the ways in which these positions are inscribed within different know you could come out during daylight parts or levels of TV programming. hours.’ (Ang 1995: 26)

Each of the different television audiences described by Ang has its own agenda for the viewing experience and strategy for choosing which shows it will watch, and Thomas creates tensions between these audiences in the structure of a typical episode. Each episode is composed of a mystery-of-the-week,

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 44 2/8/13 10:03:59 AM ‘Best. Show. Ever.’

which Veronica investigates and resolves by the end of the episode; in addition, clues about the season-long mystery are revealed, inviting cult viewers to look back at earlier episodes and work together to move towards a solution to the overarching mystery. For casual viewers, the tidy conclusion to the weekly mystery provides a sufficient sense of resolution; for cult viewers, the show demands continual re-viewing and discussion on wikis and in chatrooms, encouraging them to use YouTube, DVRs, digital downloads and websites that provide scene-by-scene recaps and analysis to stay up to date with the investigation. Ang goes on to discuss the tenuous division between mainstream and cult fandoms:

The relationship between ‘critical’ and ‘mainstream’ is not a fixed one; it does not concern two mutually exclusive, antagonistic sets of knowledge. [...] For example, the basic assertion that the audience is ‘active’ (rather than passive) and that watching television is a social (rather than an individual) practice is currently accepted in both perspectives. (Ang 1995: 40–41)

Trying to draw clear lines between two types of fans or two types of watching is inaccurate and unproductive, and it is important to note Thomas’s reluc- tance to belittle casual fans, or to give in completely to the show’s cult fans:

... the thing we always have to remember is that the posters on TV Without Pity are not the majority of our audience. [...] Most people aren’t hardcore – they watch, they flip channels and find what’s on, and if it’s appealing to them, they stay and watch it. (quoted in Ramos 2007)

Ultimately it is this awareness – manifesting itself both on the screen and in the interviews of the writers and the stars – that drives the show forward, just as it propels Veronica forward in the scene at the Lariat Car Rental Agency. In the third season premiere, in a new timeslot following Gilmore Girls (2000–07), which Thomas describes as ‘a beginner’s guide to Veronica Mars’, he made perhaps his most direct textual attempt to court mainstream viewers:

I’m trying, in those first three acts, to say to the Gilmore Girls audience, ‘Hey look, we have fun, fast banter. We have a great parent–daughter relationship. Watch us too!’ Then sort of the last ten minutes it turns back into the Veronica Mars people are used to, and it really does reintroduce Veronica as a detective. (quoted in Ryan 2006)

Thomas obviously plays an important and complex role in the reception of Veronica Mars; the complicated position that authors hold in relation to their texts is the subject of Michel Foucault’s landmark essay ‘What is an Author?’ (1979), wherein he discusses the problematic relationship between the author and any secondary engagement with a text:

The author is [...] the principle of a certain unity of writing – all differences having to be resolved at least in part, by the principles of evolu- tion, maturation, or influence. The author also serves to neutralize

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 45 2/8/13 10:04:00 AM Matthew Paproth

the contradictions that may emerge in a series of texts: there must be – at a certain level of his thought or desire, of his consciousness or unconscious – a point where contradictions are resolved, where incom- patible elements are at last tied together. (Foucault 1979: 111)

For Foucault, our desire to bring everything back to the author limits our understanding of the forces at work in writing, allowing us to smooth over the tensions and complexities that arise when viewing a text. Hills (2002) discusses this issue in relation to cult texts, demonstrating the importance of creator-auteur figures in cult fans’ interaction with these texts, arguing that ‘the auteur [...] acts as a point of coherence and continuity in relation to the world of the media cult’ (Hills 2002: 132). Citing such figures as Chris Carter, Gene Roddenberry and David Lynch – and I would add Whedon for both Buffy and Firefly (2002–03) – Hills argues that cult texts need these auteurs because:

Auteurism brings with it an ideology of quality: if much mass culture is supposedly unauthored – supposedly being generated according to formulaic industrial guidelines – then ‘high culture’ reading strategies intrude on this space through the recuperation of the trusted Creator. [...] This recurring construction of the auteur indicates the indivisibility of romantic ideologies of authorship and the inscription of cult status. (Hills 2002: 133)

Because of these romantic ideologies, cult television fans identify strongly with the creators of these shows, and, like Foucault’s author-function, the auteur becomes an easy figure around which fans cluster information and to whom they attribute everything associated with the show. In Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television, John Thornton Caldwell (2008) advocates for the study of ‘critical industrial practices’ when analysing film and television. He defines these as ‘self-ethnographic’ statements by film and video workers as ‘trade methods and conventions involving interpretive schemes (the “critical” dimension) that are deployed within specific institutional contexts and relationships (the “industrial” environment) when such activities are manifest during technical production tasks or professional interactions (labor and “practice”)’ (Caldwell 2008: 5–6). Under this rubric, Caldwell includes a variety of discourse surrounding the production of a text, including ‘the general framing paradigms that writers and producers use to conceptualize and develop screen content for film and television’ and the ‘incremental forms of analysis that directors and editors stage and deploy over time during the production or postproduction process’ (Caldwell 2008: 6). As auteur, Thomas was remarkably open about the process of creating, writing and operating the show, including the necessity to compromise the quality to meet the network’s requests. One such compromise was the use of a voice-over – what fans call VMVOs (Veronica Mars voice-overs); throughout the series, often against Thomas’s wishes, VMVOs were used to explain things that would make sense to cult fans but perhaps not to mainstream viewers. About this, Thomas says:

You’ll hear a lot of voice-overs that are strictly network. ‘We don’t understand why Veronica went to the lumberyard.’ And then you get

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 46 2/8/13 10:04:00 AM ‘Best. Show. Ever.’

that painful voice-over of ‘I’m going to the lumberyard because ...’ We 6. Sue Turnbull’s ‘Veronica Mars’ entry try to write it so you don’t need verbal exposition. in The Essential Cult (quoted in Ramos 2005) TV Reader describes the original opening sequence: ‘Creator Thomas commonly discussed the network’s impositions in interviews, which writer, and executive had the effect of creating a cult audience that was willing to make compro- producer Rob mises of their own, to look past what was on the screen and to understand Thomas intended to introduce his teen the complicated position that Thomas was in, caught between the competing hero, Veronica Mars [...] wishes and pressures of his core group of fans and the network. with a Chandleresque voice-over [...]. It’s Another way in which Thomas impelled cult viewers to rewrite or an exquisite noir reimagine what appears on screen was through interview descriptions of moment that, happily, what had to be cut either because of the constraints of the network, the is restored on the DVD of season 1’ (Turnbull censors and the budget. During the later seasons of Veronica Mars, Thomas 2011: 314). Contrasting regularly posted on Television Without Pity, and he conducted lengthy and Thomas’s original revealing interviews with them, as well as a number of other entertainment opening scene with the eventual one used websites and online magazines. Thomas often laid out potential alternative in the pilot, Turnbull storylines or plot developments that he would have liked to include but, for describes the show’s ‘genre hybridity’: ‘On one reason or another, was unable to. Many of the unaired scenes, including the one hand, it’s a an extended pilot episode, which is notably darker in tone, are presented noirish case-driven to viewers in the DVDs and on file-sharing sites such as YouTube.6 When mystery show with a prematurely world- asked for their favourite line from the series, both Thomas and Kristen Bell weary female private (the actress who portrayed Veronica) cited one that was cut by the censors investigator. On the and that can only be found in the original pilot script posted on Thomas’s other hand (the one the network wanted 7 website. Thus cult viewers are asked to overlook what appears on screen Thomas to push), and imagine what the show could have looked like, discussing it in the it’s a coming-of-age melodrama set against private spaces of the many fan sites on which they can post their thoughts, a background of voice their complaints and present their revisions in the numerous fan- haves and have-nots’ fiction threads, where many of the darker themes edited out of the show (Turnbull 2011: 315). are explored. 7. In the original pilot Another way in which the show’s tenuous position between cult and script, after Veronica gets Logan into mainstream fans manifests itself is in Thomas’s openness about the presence trouble by planting of various cast members throughout the season, outlining upcoming stories a bong (which was and contract-dictated character disappearances. As creator of a show that originally intended to be shaped like a operated largely through mysteries, Thomas was surprisingly non-mysterious penis) in his locker, about the details of writing, producing and airing it. He even co-edited Neptune she utters the line: ‘I’m pretty sure you won’t Noir (2006), a collection of essays about the series, in addition to providing his be getting your cock own essay as well as writing notes and responses to each of the other essays. bong back.’ Thomas has Just as he did within the show itself, in interviews Thomas drew attention to quoted this line in a number of interviews, the line between the real world and diegetic worlds, demonstrating a fasci- including the audio nation with exploring the confines of the network-dictated existence of his commentary for the show by publicly describing the ongoing budget problems that forced him to show’s pilot episode (which is accessible on reduce the episode orders for much of the show’s cast. In an interview during his personal website, the show’s first season, Thomas described the reasons why characters often http://www.slaverats. disappeared from the show: com).

According to our actor deals, only Kristen, Percy, and Rico are in all the shows produced. Francis and Jason and Teddy are all [contracted to appear in] seven of nine, or seven of nine in the back and ten of thirteen in the front. So we don’t use them in some episodes not because we don’t want to, but because contractually we don’t have them. (quoted in Ramos 2005)

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 47 2/8/13 10:04:01 AM Matthew Paproth

8. Their continuum, from As Veronica Mars progressed, Thomas became less interested in even address- left (series) to right (serial), consists of The ing these disappearances within the show – Percy Daggs, who played Simpsons, Murder She Veronica’s best friend Wallace, was only contracted to appear in sixteen Wrote, Ally McBeal, episodes for the second season of the show, and even fewer for the third. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files and the second season, Thomas developed a storyline in which Wallace gets in a soap operas (Allrath, fight with Veronica and subsequently visits his father in Chicago for several Gymnich and Surkamp months, explaining his disappearance within the show’s diegetic world; 2005: 6). however, in the third season, Wallace simply disappeared for several episodes 9. In some ways, though, at a time with no explanation, apart from Thomas’s continual reminders in the first two seasons of Veronica Mars lie closer various interviews that, due to budgetary constraints, his contract was further to the definition of a reduced for that season. serial than The X-Files, as in nearly every The lack of explanation regarding Wallace’s absence is one of many ways episode some sort in which the show, throughout its three seasons, increasingly bore the marks of progress is made of its production; this movement in the show can perhaps best be seen in its towards the eventual resolution of the larger drastic change in narrative strategy. In the third season, Thomas was forced mystery arc. Unlike to restructure the show’s basic narrative format, going from the season-long The X-Files’s clear mysteries of the first two seasons to three shorter ‘mystery arcs’, an idea which distinction between mythology episodes Thomas attributes to network executives and, after the failure of the first two and individual mystery- mystery arcs, resulted in the show abandoning the serial format altogether. of-the-week episodes, Veronica Mars blends In her essay ‘Narrative Theory and Television’, Sarah Kozloff (1992) discusses the two in almost every the differences between series and serials: ‘Series refers to those shows whose episode. characters and setting are recycled, but the story concludes in each individual episode. By contrast, in a serial the story and discourse do not come to a conclusion during an episode, and the threads are picked up again after a given hiatus’ (Kozloff 1992: 91). Building upon Kozloff’s distinction in the introduction to their book Narrative Strategies in Television Series, Gaby Allrath and Marion Gymnich construct a ‘series-serial continuum’ to demonstrate the differences between the strategies at work in different shows (Allrath, Gymnich and Surkamp 2005: 6).8 On the far left of this continuum is The Simpsons, in which each episode is a self-contained entity – to the point where the characters do not age and little that happens has any sense of perma- nence. On the far right are soap operas, where storylines extend sometimes over decades; also near that end is The X-Files, wherein the aspects of the ongoing mythology (the search for Mulder’s sister, the alien colonization and the government cover-up) extend throughout the entire run of the show.9 While the first two seasons of Veronica Mars would fall near the far right of this continuum, similar to Buffy in their development of season-long story arcs (each with its own ‘Big Bad’, to use Whedon’s term for the villain in each season), the third season of the show would fall near the middle, or even towards the left, as the show’s basic tension between the individual mysteries and the larger one was completely abandoned. About this decision, Thomas stated,

It really is, for the network and for us, a trial balloon. It’s going to be dictated by ratings and response. I mean, I’ll write the show either way. [...] We would try to say, okay, if you come to Veronica Mars, you get the whole show – if you’re a random viewer, you don’t have to have watched the previous six episodes – you can tune in this week and know what’s going on. (quoted in Ramos 2007)

However, after this trial balloon failed to secure the promise of a fourth season, Thomas took another step; near the end of the third season (as the

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 48 2/8/13 10:04:01 AM ‘Best. Show. Ever.’

show’s fate began to look doomed), he filmed and then screened a trailer 10. The thread ‘Hope Springs Eternal: Ratings for network executives that jumped the series forward four years, showing and Scheduling’ Veronica training for the FBI, and surrounding her with an entirely different has more views and cast. Here Thomas essentially suggested the creation of a different show, replies than any other thread about with the same writers, lead character and production team, but with an the show, including entirely different tone, set of ancillary characters, narrative structure and threads discussing the target audience. characters and the ongoing mysteries. The various radical changes in narrative strategy that Thomas employed demonstrate the extent to which he was willing to rework, revise and over- haul the basic show structure in an attempt to make Veronica Mars palatable for casual viewers. Surprisingly, Thomas’s willingness to embrace the need for mainstream viewers was echoed throughout its tumultuous three seasons by many of Veronica Mars’s cult fans. Organized and generally well informed about the ways of network decision-making, they used inventive and savvy methods to influence the network’s decision and to appeal to mainstream viewers. A thread on Television Without Pity devoted to a discussion of the show’s ratings and scheduling has over ten thousand comments, as well as over one and a half million views.10 In her thoughtful discussion of the reaction of Veronica Mars’s cult fans, Tanya R. Cochran compares the language of the series’s fans and its heroine:

In considering the language that some online Veronica Mars fans have used to articulate the stages of their grief, a striking metaphor presents itself, a metaphor that, consciously or unconsciously employed, suggests that some fans sympathize so deeply with Veronica that they borrow the language of her victimization. (Cochran 2011: 168)

Cochran notes that, in much the same way that Firefly fans have used meta- phors of war and resistance to voice their displeasure at its untimely cancellation, fans of Veronica Mars use the language of victimization to discuss their interaction with the series: ‘Though they “consent” to a relationship with Veronica Mars when they turn on the television, their perceived victimization and actual grief emerge from their belief that they have been taken advantage of by the network’ (Cochran 2011: 180). Cochran goes on to note that, ‘Unlike Veronica, however, they do not neces- sarily give up on their search for revenge’ (Cochran 2011: 180). There were, and indeed still are, an amazing number of campaigns and petitions to save the show (including dozens of websites devoted solely to that task), perhaps the most outrageous being a group who hired a plane to fly over the office of UPN executives with a banner reading: ‘Don’t Be a Dope: Renew Veronica Mars.’ Fans (still!) fighting to keep the show on the air (or, at this point, to return as a feature film) now go by the collective name ‘Cloud Watchers’, as a result of that particular campaign. Furthermore, in response to the network’s poor promotion for the show, many fans posted their own advertisements on YouTube (which, at the time, was a novel idea); one such advertisement was shown at the 2006 Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego. Thousands of dollars-worth of gift baskets were sent to network executives with letters begging them to renew the show for a third season (which worked) and a fourth season (which did not). Another campaign asked fans to donate first-season DVD sets to libraries in the largest 100 Nielson markets; over 500 sets were donated in these markets. Finally, after the series was cancelled and

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 49 2/8/13 10:04:01 AM Matthew Paproth

as a response to a successful campaign to save CBS’s Jericho (2006–08) by send- ing peanuts to the network, fans sent in thousands of Mars Bars to the CW hoping to convince them to renew the recently cancelled series. Significantly, the goal of many of these campaigns was not only to raise public awareness of the show but also to seek out the ways in which shows are kept on the air, targeting specific network executives and specific Nielson markets rather than working towards a general awareness of the show’s quality. The legacy of Veronica Mars continues to be written, through DVD viewership, syndicated airings on SOAPNet, scholarly essays and books, web-boards operated by Cloud Watchers and other fan communities, and statements by Thomas and other members of the cast and crew. It remains to be seen whether, like its titular heroine, the series will be relegated to the margins as a result of inferior later seasons and network interventions or whether it will join the ranks of canonical cult television series. Throughout its three seasons, Veronica Mars continually engaged in a dialogue with various members of its diverse audiences, as both within and without the show, Thomas continually responded to the exigencies of his situation by blurring the boundaries between the textual world of Neptune and the real world of its viewers. Caught between the competing desires and priorities of cult audiences and network executives, Thomas created a show that courted both mainstream and cult audiences, positioning itself in a real world where its mainstream viewers could look forward to seeing recognizable faces from America’s Next Top Model, The Simple Life (2003–07), Laguna Beach (2004–06) or Gilmore Girls, and where cult fans were able to conduct their own investigations to uncover the many in-jokes and extratextual references while piecing together the clues of the ongoing mystery.

References Allrath, G., Gymnich, M. and Surkamp, C. (2005), ‘Introduction: Towards a Narratology of TV Series’, in G. Allrath and M. Gymnich (eds), Narrative Strategies in Television Series, New York: Macmillan, pp. 1–46. Ang, I. (1995), Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences for a Postmodern World, New York: Routledge. Caldwell, J.T. (2008), Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television, Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Cochran, T.R. (2011), ‘Neptune (Non-)Consensual: The Risky Business of Television Fandom, Falling in Love, and Playing the Victim’, in R.V. Wilcox and S. Turnbull (eds), Investigating Veronica Mars: Essays on the Teen Detective Series, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 167–88. Conard, M.T. (2007), The Philosophy of Neo-Noir, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Cortez, C. (2006), ‘Veronica Mars Creator Rob Thomas Talks Season Two’, iFMagazine, http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=1432. Accessed 1 October 2008 [no longer available, but cited interview accessible as of 8 January 2013 at http://www.fanbolt.com/forums/storage- room/28458-veronica-mars-spoilers-speculations-13-a-10.html]. Eco, U. (1990), Travels in Hyperreality, New York: Harvest. Foucault, M. (1979), ‘What is an Author?’, in P. Rabinow (ed.) (1984), The Foucault Reader, New York: Pantheon, pp. 101–20. Havrilesky, H. (2005), ‘The Man behind Veronica Mars’, Salon.com, http:// www.salon.com/2005/03/29/rob_thomas/. Accessed 8 November 2012.

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 50 2/8/13 10:04:02 AM ‘Best. Show. Ever.’

Hills, M. (2002), Fan Cultures, New York: Routledge. ‘Hope Springs Eternal: Ratings and Scheduling’ (2007), Television Without Pity, http://forums-test-qw.televisionwithoutpity.com/index. php?showtopic=3119077. Accessed 8 November 2012. Jensen, J. (2006), ‘Job Insecurity’, Entertainment Weekly, http://www.ew.com/ ew/article/0,,1549635,00.html. Accessed 8 November 2012. Kaveney, R. (2006), Teen Dreams: Reading Teen Film and Television from Heathers to Veronica Mars, New York: I.B. Tauris. Kozloff, S. (1992), ‘Narrative Theory and Television’, in R.C. Allen (ed.), Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism, New York: Routledge, pp. 67–100. Kristine, D. (2007), ‘Rob Thomas on Banff, Veronica Mars, and Life after the Show’s Death’, http://blogcritics.org/video/article/rob-thomas-on-banff- veronica-mars. Accessed 8 November 2012. Lavery, D. (2011), ‘Rob Thomas and Television Creativity’, in R.V. Wilcox and S. Turnbull (eds), Investigating Veronica Mars: Essays on the Teen Detective Series, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 23–34. Ramos, J. (2005), ‘”Veronica Mars” Just Rolls off the Tongue’, Part 2’, Television Without Pity, 8 March, http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/veronica-mars/the-rob-thomas-interview-part.php. Accessed 8 November 2012. —— (2007), ‘The Word “Coma” Bugs The Hell Out Of Me’, Television Without Pity, 17 January, http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/veronica- mars/the-second-rob-thomas-intervie.php. Accessed 8 November 2012. Ryan, M. (2006), ‘A Sneak Peek at Season Three of Veronica Mars’, Chicago Tribune, http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/ 09/a_sneak_peek_at.html. Accessed 8 November 2012. Sibielski, R. (2010), ‘”Nothing Hurts the Cause More Than That”: Veronica Mars and the Business of Backlash’, Feminist Media Studies, 10: 3, pp. 321–34. Thomas, R. (2006), Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations into Veronica Mars, Dallas: Ben Bella. Thomas, R. (2007), ‘The Origins of Veronica Mars’, http://www.slaverats.com/. Accessed 8 November 2012. Turnbull, S. (2011), ‘Veronica Mars’, in D. Lavery (ed.), The Essential Cult TV Reader, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, pp. 314–22. Wikipedia, ‘Veronica Mars’, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_mars. Accessed 8 November 2012. Whedon, J. (2005), ‘Joss Luvs Veronica’, http://whedonesque.com/comments/ 7502. Accessed 8 November 2012. Wilcox, R.V. and Turnbull, S. (2011), ‘Canonical Veronica: Veronica Mars and Vintage Television’, in R.V. Wilcox and S. Turnbull (eds), Investigating Veronica Mars: Essays on the Teen Detective Series, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, pp. 1–22.

Television programmes (all United States) America’s Next Top Model (2003–, UPN/CW) Arrested Development (2003–06, Fox) Battlestar Galactica (2004–09, Sci-fi) Firefly (2002–03, Fox) Gilmore Girls (2000–07, UPN/CW) Jericho (2006–08, CBS) Laguna Beach (2004–06, MTV)

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 51 2/8/13 10:04:02 AM Matthew Paproth

Lost (2004–10, ABC) The Jerry Springer Show (1991–, Syndicated) The Simple Life (2003–07, Fox/E!) The Simpsons (1989–, Fox) The X-Files (1993–2002, Fox) Twin Peaks (1990–91, ABC) Veronica Mars (2004–07, UPN/CW)

Suggested citation Paproth, M. (2013), ‘‘Best. Show. Ever.’: Who killed Veronica Mars?’, Journal of Popular Television, 1: 1, pp. 39–52, doi: 10.1386/jptv.1.1.39_1

Contributor details Matthew Paproth received his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2006 and worked as a Marion L. Brittain postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Tech from 2007 to 2010. In 2010, he joined the faculty at Georgia Gwinnett College as an assistant professor of English, where he teaches composition and British literature courses. His thematic composition courses have covered topics such as writing rock and roll, eating ethically, post- modernist revision and James Joyce’s Ulysses. He has published essays on the writing of Samuel Beckett and Zadie Smith; and has delivered confer- ence presentations on Irish rock music, the TV series The Wire, the writing of Jonathan Safran Foer and the films Once, Beckett on Film, and U2:3D. He posts on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MattPaproth and blogs on http:// mattpaproth.wordpress.com/. E-mail: [email protected]

Matthew Paproth has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

JPTV_1.1_Paproth_39-52.indd 52 2/8/13 10:04:03 AM