Locations in Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars is an American television series created by Rob Thomas. The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during UPN's last two years, and ended its original run on May 22, 2007, after a season on UPN's successor, The CW Television Network. It was later continued with a film released on March 14, 2014, and by an eight-episode fourth season. Set in the fictional town of Neptune, the series starred Kristen Bell as the title character, a student who progressed from high school to college during the series while moonlighting as a private investigator under the wing of her detective father.
Neptune
Neptune, California, is the series' fictional setting, a town in California inspired by Orange County. The town is described as experiencing class tension especially through its high school, with the wealthy upperclass inflating the prices of housing and services out of the reach of the poorer classes.Geography
Neptune is a coastal community located between San Diego and Los Angeles on the route of California's Pacific Coast Highway. Many locations in California are named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, including the Balboa Peninsula section of Newport Beach in Orange County and San Diego's Balboa Park. In reality, State Route 1 does not run south of Orange County. In season 1, it is implied that Neptune is about 85 miles from San Diego. Series creator Rob Thomas stated in an interview that Neptune is located near San Juan Capistrano in Orange County.Neptune scenes are generally filmed in San Diego County, and exteriors of all of the show's most notable locations are found there. For example, exteriors of the Mars residence are filmed in Point Loma, and exteriors of Mars Investigations are filmed on Adams Avenue in Normal Heights. Oceanside High School in Oceanside, California, doubles as the fictional Neptune High, and San Diego State University, University of California, San Diego and the University of San Diego are portrayed as the fictional Hearst College. Qualcomm Stadium represents Shark Field, a fictitious stadium in Balboa County that is demolished in the second season.
The closest real ZIP Codes to 90909 are 90899, which belongs to Long Beach, California, 91001 which belongs to Altadena, California, and 92009 which belongs to Carlsbad, California. 909xx series ZIP Codes are an unassigned series in the greater Los Angeles zipspace.
Politics
All aspects of Neptune, including its politics, are controlled by the "09ers". Neptune is the county seat of Balboa, containing the county's main Sheriff's Office and the County Supervisor's Office. When the series begins, the sheriff is Don Lamb. Lamb is more concerned with the bureaucratic side of his job rather than proper and thorough police work. He gained his office in an emergency recall election, after the ousting of his former boss Keith Mars. Lamb has consistently displayed significant favoritism toward 09ers, such as allowing Jake Kane to avoid having his daughter Lilly's car impounded for unpaid parking tickets.A county supervisor, informally referred to as the "Mayor" of Neptune, was seen during the season one episode "Silence of the Lamb", but his name was not given. At the start of season two, baseball team owner Woody Goodman ran for and won the position of county supervisor, holding the position until fleeing Neptune after being accused of blowing up the school bus at the start of the season. Besides being eventually exposed as a pedophile child molester, Goodman was murdered by Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas, the son of a wealthy "09er" family who had been sexually abused by Goodman when he was younger. As of the third season, no word has been given as to how Goodman's death would be handled in terms of naming a successor to the position of "county supervisor".
The second season explored these political elements with plotlines involving an election for the offices of sheriff and county supervisor, with Keith Mars trying to get his old job as sheriff back by running against Don Lamb. While Keith lost his bid to reclaim his old job, Goodman won his election. Afterwards, he showed his ambitious side by launching a campaign to incorporate Neptune, which would lead to the town having an official mayor and its own police department, with the municipal boundaries only including the "09er" sections of town. Those outside this incorporation area came under risk of lower property values and even further reduction in government response and effectiveness. The incorporation would also have gutted the powerbase of Sheriff Lamb, as the local sheriff's office is located outside the "09er" section of the town, effectively leaving Lamb on the outside looking in. This led to much speculation as to why Goodman aligned himself politically with Keith Mars, a plot point that was not explored during the season.
In the end, Goodman's incorporation scheme failed due to a blackmail scheme orchestrated by his former child molestation victim Cassidy Casablancas. With help from his stepmother Kendall Casablancas, Cassidy had purchased a great deal of property outside the incorporation zone at bargain-basement prices and sought to make a profit on them by killing incorporation, driving their prices back up to their original values. Threatening to go public regarding the child molestation charges, Cassidy forced Goodman to manufacture a sex scandal which implicated Keith Mars. Cassidy knew that Keith would fight Goodman to clear his name, and would ensure as a result that the public would think of Goodman as an adulterous politician. This 'backfiring' scandal would then cause Neptune residents to vote against Goodman and incorporation. Following the plan, incorporation lost at the ballot box—though Cassidy would not live to reap the rewards of his scheme for himself, as he committed suicide after Veronica revealed that Cassidy had murdered several of his classmates in order to keep said classmates from exposing Goodman as a pedophile child molester before Cassidy's blackmail/real estate scheme could be carried out.
Economy
Neptune has a huge gap between the rich "09ers" and those who work for them either directly or through service industry businesses. In Veronica's words, if you are young and live in Neptune, "either your parents are millionaires, or your parents work for millionaires". In the pilot episode and other season one episodes, it was implied that the Mars family existed on the fringes of the "09er" society and that most of their social standing came from Keith Mars's job as sheriff and Veronica's friendship with the children of software mogul Jake Kane.The largest and most successful business in the community, Kane Software is run and operated by Jake Kane, father of Duncan Kane and Lilly Kane. The company holds the patent on streaming video over the Internet, and according to Veronica is responsible for the huge boom in the local economy. When the patent was approved, many people in the community became rich overnight. Other "09ers" choose to live in Neptune due to its warm climate and its beaches, thus contributing even more to its economy. A few residents have become rich through service businesses in the boom created by the other "09ers".
The Mars residence
The Mars' apartment building, as shown in the pilot episode, is The Inn at Sunset Cliffs on Point Loma, 1370 Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, in San Diego. This area of Point Loma has a reputation as a beautiful place to watch the sunset and waves crashing below, as well as being a favorite surfing spot.Mars Investigations
The exterior shot of the building where Veronica's dad's private investigation agency is housed is the Cabrillo Academy of the Sword along 3339 Adams Avenue 92116 in Normal Heights. For reference, the popular Lestat's Coffee House is next to where Mars Investigations would be.Most of the scenes filmed inside the office of Mars Investigations are, of course, on a set at the Stu Segall lot.
Across the street and on the same block as Mars Investigations is the car wash often seen in Season One flashbacks with Lilly Kane. It is the Adams Avenue Car Wash on Adams Avenue.
Neptune High
Neptune High is a high-school in the fictional seaside city of Neptune, California, attended by Veronica in the first two seasons. The school is divided into two groups, the "09ers" in one group, and everyone else in the other, including the PCH Bike Club. Neptune's main rival is Pan High, who are known to perform pranks on each other every year. The former principal, Alan Moorehead, was exposed to have had an affair with one of his students and have hid the baby that resulted from the affair in the girls' bathroom. Moorehead was subsequently replaced by Principal Van Clemmons. Mr. Rooks was also found to have had an affair with one of his students, Susan Knight. Ms. Hauser, the health teacher, was caught taking money from the Senior Trip.Neptune High also had a policy of "Pirate Points", where students who were involved in certain activities, like sports, student council, and cheerleading, were allowed extra privileges. Duncan Kane, upon becoming student council president, restructured the Pirates Points system to allow those in band, the school newspaper, school plays, on the honor roll, or those in vocational trades receive points as well. Neptune High was also home to a secret society called the Tritons. Those who were chosen to become Tritons had to go through various hazing rituals, such as streaking through the school, performing karaoke, or speaking entirely in pangrams.
During the filming of the pilot, producer Paul Kurta said that much of the filming would take place in Oceanside, California. Kurta liked that it was "a seaside town that still feels like middle-class people live there... Most of the seaside towns feel resort driven." The setting of Neptune High, which was featured in the first two seasons, was also located in Oceanside. The school, Oceanside High School, was paid $7,750 by Stu Segall Productions for the use of the campus and extras.