Alyson Hannigan

New life on Mars

On Tuesday, Feb. 22, Alyson Hannigan, who spent the final two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s seven seasons on UPN, returns to the network in the first of two episodes of UPN’s teen-mystery series Veronica Mars.

Although Hannigan began acting in commercials at age 4, she still had a bout of nerves when she arrived on the Mars sets in San Diego.

"I am a huge fan of the show," she says, "and when they asked me to do it, it was a little too hard to say no. But I got so nervous, I couldn’t even speak. It was as if I’d never, ever done any work before. It was very strange to me. I had total stage fright.

"I messed up most of my first scene. I thought, ’I just bombed.’ It was interesting, but odd."

Hannigan plays Trina Echolls, half-sister of Logan (Jason Dohring), a high-school nemesis of sleuth Veronica (Kristen Bell). Of late, Logan and Veronica have struck up a truce, as she helps him answer questions he has about the supposed suicide of his mother, Lynn Echolls (Lisa Rinna), wife of movie star Aaron Echolls (Harry Hamlin, Rinna’s real-life spouse).

"She’s a Hollywood brat," says Hannigan of Trina. "She’s a poor little rich girl. She’s got rich parents, so she’s spoiled, but trying to be an actress in her own right, but that’s not going well.

"She’s a party girl, likes to spend money that isn’t hers. It was fun, because it was a complete departure from the other parts I’ve been playing for the last seven years."

Some consider Veronica Mars, with its spunky female lead, to be a worthy successor to Buffy.

"(The show’s creators) were talking about being compared to Buffy, which I’m sure is annoying for them, but it’s actually a good thing," Hannigan says. "There’s always going to be some sort of comparisons, and at least it’s a show that was also critically acclaimed, instead of some sort of bad show. I would hope that Buffy fans would watch it."

Hannigan is in San Diego shooting her second episode, called Hot Dog, currently scheduled to air on April 19.

Hannigan has had a couple of comedy pilots, one for NBC and one for ABC, not survive to air, so right now, she’s just happy to be on Mars.

"Hopefully they’ll get picked up for a second season, and there’ll be more of a big arc for my character. Call me optimistic, but if UPN wants to have good shows on the network, I would think they’d keep the ones they have.

"They need to keep Veronica Mars, because it’s such a good show. I don’t understand why people aren’t watching it."