Kristin's Take on the TCA (Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls)

More information that you would care about. Courtesy of Kristin V of E!Online:

I'm in a super rush as The CW red carpet is about to start, so please forgive the mass of information and how it's laid out below... just wanted to make sure you were informed about everything that transpired today. Enjoy:

New Showrunner David Rosenthal, Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel

The Gilmore Girls session started off with my frienemy Michael Ausiello and another TCA reporter duking it out to ask the first question. It was quite funny. They both had mics and were talking over each other at the same time. Lauren was going 'Hi Mike, Hi Mike,' not surprised by his enthusiasm. But the other reporter would not back down. Anyway, Ausiello eventually conceded. And he had to settle for Q #2... which was how do you feel about the fan sentiment which is so against the current storyline. He said he's never seen so many angry viewers, etc. Lauren laughed at that. David Rosenthal said Amy certainly left them with a full plate, but that's the stuff of good drama and they're looking forward to having it play out.

Lauren was then asked if she hated last season's Lorelai and if she ever went to Amy and Dan to say 'Stop making Lorelai such a wuss!' She admitted it wasn't her favorite stuff to be dictated to by Luke, and ultimately that is not who Lorelai is, which is why things ended up the way they did. Re: fan anger, she said if everything went the way the fans wanted, I'd just be calling Rory up all the time and asking 'What're you doing tonight?'

David Rosenthal said he is not approaching this as the last season of Gilmore. Just looking to do 22 great episodes. Hopefully it will continue.

Lauren and Alexis were asked about the rumor that they are not interested in returning for another season and the response was actually interesting. It sounds as if Lauren is very excited about the fact that David Rosenthal is running the show very differently than Amy and Dan did. It is more collaborative, allowing her the opportunity to have more input. She said she's read the first script and she loves it. She hopes they have such a great season that it warrants more, but at the same time, she doesn't want to be the actor that she feels sorry for. She's seen lots of actors in the position of being on the show that is ready to end, but it goes on anyway, and she doesn't want that. Also, their legal contracts are up after this season, so we'll see. But she said she wouldn't want to approach these next 22 episodes as if it was the end, because that would mean she didn't support David, and that's not the case. She very much supports David.
She made it clear that yes, so far it seems that the process will be far more collaborative than it was in years past, but if any reporters write anything that makes it sound as if she said something negative about Amy and Dan, she'll be really upset. She said she's a huge fan of Amy and Dan's. They gave her an amazing opportunity and wrote some of her favorite scenes and favorite work, but she is very open to the fact that as good as that was, this new situation could be good too. Amy and Dan ran the show in a very specific way, which was very hands-on and they did everything themselves and wanted everything a certain way. In this new situation, the writing staff is bigger, they are getting scripts ahead of time, and it's going to be different. The tone that Amy and Dan set was very specific, but it's also been established over six seasons and the new writers that David has brought in are coming in as fans, who are very familiar with the tone, really excited and enthusiastic, and there may be room for their new, fresh perspective. Also, she said that she and Alexis are, at this point, very familiar with the characters and have creative input and will know if the tone was off or something wasn't right...

Lauren admitted she is not a fan of working with the dog Paul Anka. She's not into doggy humor, although she loves dogs.

Other interesting facts: Christopher will be back as a semi-regular. There will be new recurring characters, especially since Logan has moved to London and Rory will have to make new friends. Rory and Logan, however, will attempt to have a long-distance relationship.

Oh, and yes, one reporter did ask about David Rosenthal's past () and how that makes him a strange choice to run this female-centric show. He responded by saying his personal life is irrelevant and he wouldn't discuss it. When the reporter persisted, Lauren was very quick to re-iterate "That has nothing to do with anything. Next question."

Again, in a super rush to get to The CW red carpet, which starts now! Here's what you need to know from the Veronica session:

Rob Thomas, Veronica Mars

As I told you before, the season will be split up into three mysteries. The first mystery will last nine episodes, the second mystery will last for seven and the third will last for six. They will each play out in uninterrupted blocks, with no repeats and no preemptions. The personal character arcs however are not going to be split up, of course. They won't stop and start according to the mysteries. The personal storylines, such as the relationship between Logan and Veronica, will play out as usual throughout the course of the whole season.

Tina Majorino (Mac) will be a series regular, although she won't appear in all the episodes. She will be attending Hearst College along with Veronica, Wallace, Logan and ****! There will be an explanation of how Logan and **** ended up at Hearst. Veronica will continue to live at home with Keith. There will be two new series regulars, as we reported before: Piz and Parker. ("Piz" is named after the director of the Veronica Mars pilot, Mark Piznarski!) Parker will be Mac's roommate and she is everything that Mac is not, bubbly and effervescent. At first they won't have anything in common, but Parker has a heart of gold and will probably win Mac over...

Interesting fact: after Stephen King's high praise of Veronica Mars, Rob did attempt to get Stephen on the show (just as he did with Kevin Smith), but received a very polite decline, saying he was already booked, but to keep him in mind for stuff in the future.

Charisma Carpenter will be back for "at least one episode." But Rob didn't want to give away more than that on that subject. He said the whole briefcase thing does not have to do with the first 9 episode mystery, and will be wrapped up in episode two.

Re: Teddy Dunn, he is not returning to the show this year. That decision was really made by fan response to Veronica's two possible love interests. One of the love interests seemed to get much more attention, and seemed to really win out...