TVSquad

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a taping of The Sound of Young America at Santa Monica's Westside Eclectic Theater. There was music and merriment and a fart orchestra that I won't bother explaining, but the centerpiece of the show was an interview between host Jesse Thorn and Veronica Mars creator and Miss/Guided showrunner Rob Thomas.

I learned many important things about Rob Thomas that night.

1. He's still "not over" the early demise of Veronica Mars. (You and 90% of our readership, Rob.)

2. He'd love to do a Veronica Mars comic book and has been approached by DC to do it. However, with a new show to run, he won't have the kind of time to put into it that he wants to so that project is on the back burner for now.

3. He wrote for Dawson's Creek at the tail end of the era in Hollywood in which they gave anyone who could string together a sentence a million dollar contract. (For more on that era, I recommend his colleague Jeffrey Stepakoff's Billion Dollar Kiss.)

4. At the end of the original Veronica Mars pilot, Veronica discovered that her dad was hiding letters from her mom. Thus began a season-long relationship of distrust. No Veronica and Keith closeness in Thomas' original vision. It was a network note that forced his hand. The network felt like poor, beleaguered Veronica had to have, at least, one person she could trust. That person turned out to be dear old dad. That relationship became not just the heart of the show, but a model for how Thomas, himself, hopes to behave with his own young daughter - except for the part where he lets her go out on stake-outs and stuff.

5. Rob Thomas was not a dork in high school. In fact, he was a football player. This is completely unfair on just about every level I can think of. He tried to dig himself out of it by saying that he intentionally ostracized himself in his first year of college by joining a rock band. Whatever, Rob. Basically, the guy's been on top of the popularity heap his whole life. How this guy then writes Veronica Mars may have something to do with his years teaching high school English, but come on, I thought the meek and socially marginalized in high school were supposed to inherit the earth. It's just never that easy, is it? Sadly, it's really hard to hate the guy who created Veronica Mars for any reason.

For more Rob Thomas revelations, you can now listen to The Sound of Young America taping yourself via podcast. (I mean, Ira Glass is getting a little long in the tooth. Isn't it about time you let another public radio man into your life?) You can also check out photos from the taping at Lee Meredith's Flickr stream. It's almost like being there without the beer.