MONDO EXTRAS

CB: Yeah. I thought Ryan Devlin was really great.

RT: By the way, here's a fun fact I don't think I've told anyone. The Moe character, before scheduling conflicts made it impossible, was supposed to be Michael Cera.

CB: Ah! A lot of posters wondered about that.

RT: I don't believe I've ever come out and confirmed it.

CB: That would have been great. Even in the one episode he did, his character seemed just a little off.

RT: But that kid is really amazing. I can't really say enough about him.

CB: So as I understand it, before the decision was made to bring back Veronica Mars for a third season, you were offered the showrunning position on Friday Night Lights. That must have been very gratifying. Were you tempted to take it?

RT: Very. I really liked the pilot, and it was set in my hometown of Austin. NBC told me that if I accepted, they would definitely pick it up. I was very torn, and I went to the network and asked if they could guarantee that Veronica Mars was going to be renewed. They said they couldn't, but that they could tell me that if I left, it definitely wouldn't come back. Renewal felt to me about a 70% shot, so Friday Night Lights was the bird in hand, and if it had been some show I was only moderately interested in or I didn't think was cool...I really loved the way it looked. I haven't watched it all year, kinda because it's a little painful, but I've been TiVoing it, and I finally watched a couple of episodes. I think it's interesting the way it's shot and the way it's acted, so that's a regret, but Jason Katims is doing a great job with it.

CB: Speaking of life beyond Veronica Mars, what do you want to do when the show's over, whenever that may be?

RT: You know, I love television. I love the rhythm of it, I love writing something and seeing it on the air, I love going to work each day; four years and a development deal, it was miserable. In a way, sometimes a month of that sounds really good, just sitting at home doodling on your pilot script would be nice, as opposed to having scripts in production, scripts in post-production, breaking episodes -- it's a crazy job, but there's no better job in show business. I get pretty much final say on script and cut and cast and music, and I really dig what I do. I often get really frustrated, and there are good days and bad days, but overall, there isn't anything I would want to trade it for. Certainly even if you offered me the same amount of money to be a feature writer and work a fifth or a tenth of the hours that I work now, I wouldn't trade it. Twenty-two hours of produced material on air as opposed to working all year and hoping -- I mean, you can make a good living as a feature writer without ever getting anything made. So I certainly dig movies and would love to have my name on a movie that I thought was great, but I think I'm more naturally a television writer.