Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars is an American teen noir mystery drama television series created by screenwriter Rob Thomas. The series is set in the fictional town of Neptune, California, and stars Kristen Bell as the eponymous character. The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during television network UPN's final two years, and ended on May 22, 2007, after a season on UPN's successor, The CW, airing for three seasons total. Veronica Mars was produced by Warner Bros. Television, Silver Pictures Television, Stu Segall Productions, and Rob Thomas Productions.[1] Joel Silver and Thomas were executive producers for the entire run of the series, while Diane Ruggiero was promoted in the third season.[2]
This article is about the television series. For the character, see Veronica Mars (character). For the film, see Veronica Mars (film).Veronica Mars
Kristen Bell (as Veronica Mars)
Josh Kramon
United States
English
4
72 (list of episodes)
- Joel Silver
- Rob Thomas
- Diane Ruggiero
- Jennifer Gwartz
- Danielle Stokdyk
- Kristen Bell
- 42 minutes (seasons 1–3)
- 48–54 minutes (season 4)
- Stu Segall Productions
- Silver Pictures Television (seasons 1–3)
- Rob Thomas Productions (seasons 1–3)
- Spondoolie Productions (season 4)
- Warner Bros. Television
September 22, 2004 –
May 9, 2006
October 3, 2006 –
May 22, 2007
July 19, 2019
The character Veronica Mars is a student who progresses from high school to college while moonlighting as a private investigator under the tutelage of her detective father. In each episode, Veronica solves a different stand-alone case while working to solve a more complex mystery. The first two seasons of the series each had a season-long mystery arc, introduced in the first episode of the season and solved in the season finale. The third season took a different format, focusing on smaller mystery arcs that would last several episodes.
Thomas initially wrote Veronica Mars as a young adult novel, which featured a male protagonist; he changed this because he thought a noir piece told from a female point of view would be more interesting and original. Filming began in March 2004,[3] and the series premiered in September to 2.49 million American viewers.[4] The critically acclaimed first season's run of 22 episodes garnered an average of 2.5 million viewers per episode in the United States. The series appeared on several fall television best lists and garnered awards and nominations. During the series' run, it was nominated for two Satellite Awards, four Saturn Awards, five Teen Choice Awards and was featured on AFI's TV Programs of the Year for 2005.
The show was cancelled after its third season, and Thomas wrote a feature film script continuing the series. Warner Bros. opted not to fund the project at the time. On March 13, 2013, Bell and Thomas launched a fundraising campaign to produce the film through Kickstarter and attained the $2 million goal in less than 11 hours.[5] They accumulated over $5.7 million on Kickstarter.[6][7] The film was released on March 14, 2014.[8] An eight-episode fourth season was released on July 19, 2019 on Hulu.[9][10][11]
In November 2019, it was announced that there were no plans for Hulu to order a fifth season.[12]
Production[edit]
Conception[edit]
Rob Thomas originally wrote Veronica Mars as a young adult novel for publishing company Simon & Schuster. Before his first television job on Dawson's Creek, Thomas sold two novel ideas. One of these was provisionally titled Untitled Rob Thomas Teen Detective Novel, which formed the series's basis. The novel had many elements similar to Veronica Mars, though the protagonist was male. Thomas's father was a vice-principal at Westlake High School near Austin, Texas, and the main character attended a "thinly disguised version" of the school. As Thomas had begun writing for film and television, he did not resume his teen detective idea for several years. Writing a novel could take months for Thomas, whereas a television script only took several weeks. Knowing that television scripts paid more, Thomas wrote the teen detective project's television version as a spec script before it became a novel. Since no studio or network had asked him to write it, and he would not get paid unless it sold, Thomas said that "it was never a very pressing project for me." Tinkering with it from time to time, Thomas wrote project notes a year before writing the television script. Most of his original ideas made it into the script, but some changed drastically. Thomas wanted to use flashbacks, and he had to shorten the timeline so that the murder could happen in a recent time.[22] Thomas changed the gender of the protagonist because he thought a noir piece told from a female point of view would be more interesting and unique.[23]
Other media[edit]
Novels[edit]
A series of novels, written by series creator Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham, continue the story after the events of the Veronica Mars film and also feature Logan, Mac, Wallace, and Dick. The first novel, Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, was released by Random House on March 25, 2014, as a Vintage Books trade paperback (ISBN 978-0-8041-7070-3), an eBook (ISBN 978-0-8041-7071-0), and an unabridged audiobook read by Kristen Bell (ISBN 978-0-8041-9351-1).[65][66][67] It featured the return of Veronica's mother, Lianne Mars. The second novel, Veronica Mars: Mr. Kiss and Tell, also published by Vintage Books, was released on January 20, 2015.[68] Thomas has said in interviews that the novels are canon, and would not be negated by a future film.[69]
Reception[edit]
Ratings[edit]
Below, "rank" refers to how well Veronica Mars rated compared to other television series which aired during primetime hours of the corresponding television season. The television season begins in September of any given year and ends during the May of the following year. "Viewers" refers to the average number of viewers for all original episodes broadcast during the television season in the series' regular timeslot. "Rank" is shown with the total number of series airing on the six/five major English-language networks in a given season. The "season premiere" is the date that the first episode of the season aired. Similarly, the "season finale" is the date that the final episode of the season aired.
Distribution[edit]
International[edit]
The CTV Television Network began airing Veronica Mars in Canada as a mid-season replacement on May 30, 2005.[127] CTV decided not to pick up the second season, which began broadcast by Sun TV on July 18, 2006.[128] The third season was initially only available through American border stations. The fourth season premiered in Canada on the Crave streaming service (owned by the same company as CTV) within a few hours of its U.S. release on Hulu on July 19, 2019.[129]
Subscription channel Living began showing the series in the United Kingdom in October 2005,[130] averaging 50,000 viewers per episode for its first season.[131] The channel began airing the second season on June 8, 2006,[132] airing one episode per week rather than showing one every night as they did in the first season.[133] Despite low ratings in the second season, Living decided to air the series' third season.[134] It was syndicated through the Living TV Group platform, airing on the now defunct channel Trouble just before its closure. Free-to-air channel E4 began broadcasting the series from July 16, 2009.[135]
Veronica Mars premiered in Australia by Network Ten on November 28, 2005, where the series saw erratic airings.[136][137] TV2 began showing the series in New Zealand on July 15, 2005.[138]
Home media[edit]
The first season of Veronica Mars was released in region 1 as a widescreen six-disc DVD box set on October 11, 2005.[139] In addition to all the episodes that had been aired, DVD extras included an extended "Pilot" episode (through the inclusion of an unaired opening sequence) and over 20 minutes of unaired scenes.[28] The same set was released on May 16, 2008 in Region 2,[140] and on June 4, 2008 in Region 4.[141]
The second season was released in region 1 as a widescreen six-disc DVD box set on August 22, 2006,[142] Region 2 on August 15, 2008,[143] and Region 4 on September 8, 2008.[144] In addition to all the aired episodes, DVD extras included two featurettes: "A Day on the Set with Veronica Mars" and "Veronica Mars: Not Your Average Teen Detective", a gag reel, a promo trailer for the third season and additional scenes, including an alternate ending to "My Mother, the Fiend".[17]
The third season was released in region 1 as a widescreen six-disc DVD box set on October 23, 2007,[145] Region 2 on December 12, 2008,[146] and Region 4 on February 11, 2009.[147] In addition to all the aired episodes, DVD extras included "Pitching Season 4", an interview with Rob Thomas discussing a new direction for the series that picks up years later, with Veronica as a rookie FBI agent; "Going Undercover with Rob Thomas"; webisode gallery with cast interviews and various set tours; unaired scenes with introductions by Rob Thomas; and a gag reel.[148]
In the United Kingdom, Veronica Mars: The Complete Collection was released on May 12, 2014. The set contains all three seasons and the film in an 18-disc set.[149] This is the first time the series received a release in the UK, as the seasons were not released individually.