Rob Thomas is an American TV screenwriter, best known for creating the crime dramas Veronica Mars (2004-2007) and iZombie (2015-2017). He first began writing novels such as Rat Saw God (1996) and Satellite Down (1998) before turning to screenwriting in 1998 when he created the television show Cupid. His first writing credit was on the TV show Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1996) for the episode 'Explode'.
Veronica Mars (2004-2007)
Summary:
Daughter of the former county sheriff, Veronica Mars commits herself to solving crimes after her father accuses the wrong man of her best friend's murder.
According to the book creator Rob Thomas wrote, Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations into Veronica Mars, this show originally started as a young adult detective novel called "Untitled Rob Thomas Teen Detective" with a male protagonist, Keith Mars, who was about to start helping out in his father's private detective business. However, he decided to change this as, according to an article, he thought, 'a noir piece told from a female point of view is more interesting and unique.'
Veronica Mars aired on UPN for the network's final two years before later moving to it's predecessor, The CW. Over the three years the show aired, there were 64 episodes over 3 seasons.
Veronica Mars aired on UPN for the network's final two years before later moving to it's predecessor, The CW. Over the three years the show aired, there were 64 episodes over 3 seasons.
iZOMBiE (2015-2017)
Summary:
After attending a party and finding she has been turned into a zombie, Liv Moore must work out how to use her new skills, such as eating brains, to assist the police without them discovering she is a zombie.A loose adaptation of a comic book series published by Vertigo, iZombie airs on the American television network The CW and, as of 27th June 2017, 48 episodes had aired over three seasons and the show had already been renewed for a fourth.
Compared to Veronica Mars, this is a different type of show for Rob Thomas as he has said, it is "the first time I got to play around in a genre with special effects, makeup and routine violence." The CW wanted Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright (co-creator of the series) to come up with "the next badass female hero", which is how the series began to develop.
Influence on my work:
A theme that features heavily in both of these works is the main character's struggle for acceptance because each of them are different compared to the people around them as Veronica is a teenage private eye while Liv is a zombie.
For example, at the beginning of Veronica Mars, Veronica is the outsider at her high school and pretends that she doesn't care about being alone. She focuses all of her attention on getting justice in the case of her best friend's murder and on solving each of the smaller cases presented to her during each episode. However, after becoming friends with the new kid in school, Veronica can't help but notice other's opinions of her, making her realize she would like to be accepted. If she continues accusing people of crimes, she knows this is never going to happen, but she must do her job in order to keep her home town safe. When Veronica graduates, she sees her classmates have changed her opinion of her because of how she helped them solve their own personal mysteries. She finally gains acceptance from her peers at high school, only to have to move on to university and a whole new group people.
The situation in iZombie is similar to Veronica's as Liv isolates herself in the pilot episode from everyone she knows, including her family, friends, and even breaks up with her fiance, as she thinks the risk of them finding out her secret and not accepting her because of it, or worse her also accidentally turning them into zombies, is too high. The only person who knows Liv is a zombie is her co-worker at the morgue, Ravi. Eventually, whilst coming to terms with her identity, Liv decides to reveal her existence as a zombie, and therefore the existence of all zombies, to the public after realizing she no longer wants to hide but would rather be accepted for who she is.
This made me think of the theme of acceptance in my own screenplay idea and how accepting people are to what they are not used to. The main characters in my work, Diana and Ida, must learn to accept each other if they are going to sit on the same park bench together each day. Therefore, each of them must redefine their opinion of something, technology for Diana and nature for Ida, even though at the beginning they are both skeptical of the unknown. By thinking about this, it helped me to come up with the ending and therefore change in the narrative as I decided that each of the characters should put their change of opinion into action to show exactly how much they have changed throughout the story because of what they have learned, not only about each other, but also of the world around them.
References:
http://www.imdb.com/
Thomas, R. and Wilson, L. (2007). Neptune noir. Dallas, Tex: BenBella Books, p.4.
Bryne, B. (2004). Clash of cultures drives 'Veronica Mars'. [online] ocregister. Available at: http://archive.li/VH4CD [Accessed on 1 Oct. 2017].
Lowry, Brian. "iZombie." Variety, 10 Mar. 2015, p. 92. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=ucca&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA407668137&it=r&asid=8c46a356da5509dc5282be38a6ac1621. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
Truitt, Brian. "'iZombie' serves gray matter with relish." USA Today, 16 Mar. 2015, p. 10B. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=ucca&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA405547185&it=r&asid=0e7fef32aaf5a04af482cd7008431d90. Accessed 1 Oct. 2017.
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