JPTV 1 (1) pp. 39–52 Intellect Limited 2013 Journal of Popular Television Volume 1 Number 1 © 2013 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/jptv.1.1.39_1 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. 39 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 signifi- cantly 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 audi- ence. 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 vari- ety 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 40 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 pres- sure 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 repu- diation 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 41 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 main- stream 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.