Question: Your Rob Thomas ...

Question: Your Rob Thomas interview was great. Spoiler-y and enlightening — just what I like in your columns. Now how about that scoop on the Veronica DVD? — Tracy

Ausiello: OK, which do you want first — the good news, the bad news or the really bad news? The good news? OK. Warner Bros. is putting out Veronica Mars: The Complete First Season. Now for the bad news: It drops Oct. 11 — three weeks after Season 2 debuts. And now for the really bad news: The extras kinda-sorta blow. In addition to the never-before-seen alternate pilot, all you'll get are some deleted scenes and bloopers. So why is a cool show like Mars being so cheap on the bonus features? Allow exec producer Rob Thomas — aka The Coolest TV Producer on the Planet (Next to J.J. Abrams) — to explain:

"This is kind of a sad story. A couple of months ago, Warner Home Video gave us an option. They said, 'If you wanna do it up right with the bells and whistles and the commentaries, we can release it in January '06. If you wanna just get it down and dirty and just get the episodes out and do a few bloopers and some deleted scenes, we can get that out before the season starts.' Well, [exec producer] Joel [Silver] and I talked about it and we felt it was important to get the DVD out before the season started. That way, people who didn't watch it last year can catch up. So we made the decision to go with the early release — without the bells and whistles. We were hoping for the second week of September since we're returning in the third or fourth week of September. Anyway, they just told us [the DVD] is going to be out the second week of October, and it's because The O.C. and Desperate Housewives are coming out in September, and they just didn't want to fight that battle. But now I feel like we didn't get either of the things we wanted: We don't have the bells and whistles and we're not coming out before the season started. I'm not happy about that." Me neither. Sigh...