In the opening credits of season three of VERONICA MARS, Michael Muhney wants to poll how many people want his character Sheriff Lamb shirtless. He’s pretty certain that he’ll actually be in the credits in uniform, but the guy likes to tease fans.

"I think we should take a poll and see who wants to see a clip of Sheriff Lamb in the credits in his sheriff’s uniform, or in the gym without his shirt working out," muses Muhney. "I’d go for a happy medium and have a tee shirt and jeans, but that’s not going to happen. I’ll put my money on the sheriff’s uniform in the office, because they’ll have to establish for the new viewers who Lamb is on the show."

Muhney has been with MARS since the pilot, and portrays the Sheriff who is more often than not a thorn in young Veronica’s side. In between the final shooting days for this second season Muhney gave iF MAGAZINE an exclusive interview concerning talking about gifts from fans, his take on each season’s finale, and working with BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER star Amber Benson.

iF MAGAZINE: How have your fan experiences been?

MICAHEL MUHNEY: If there is energy behind the show and it makes peoples’ imaginations run wild, then great! Let your imaginations run wild. I know I look like a different person than I am on the outside. I’m a weirdo. I’m a techie geeky nerdy guy inside through and through. Nothing that has been sent to me has been weird, and nothing in the extremes has been too much for me. If I ever found someone hiding in the bushes outside of my house looking in the window or calling my home number; then I would feel that someone has crossed the line.

All of these wonderful gifts and things that people create and send to me are great. I love it and embrace it all. I’ve gotten some chocolates in the shape of handcuffs and my sheriff’s badge. I’ve received tons and tons of music videos that people make of me. I’ve received all sizes and shapes of lambs. They’re from key chains up to larger stuffed lambs. People have given me gifts to give to my wife like earrings. I had a guy from France take his sweater off of his back at the MARSATHON, because I had walked by and commented on it. He took it off and gave it to me, and I still have it. I made a point to wear it later on at the panel.

iF: Being a fan of the show how close do your theories about season finales come to the final product?

MUHNEY: I spoke to a producer before I got the season two finale script and I would say I was right on about nine out of ten things that I thought would happen. They might not have been carried out in the exact way that I thought they would, but certain stories came to an end or came to fruition in sort of the way that I called it. They were really shocked that I had things so figured out. [Laughs] You have to be smart to play a guy like Lamb, and not have him be one-dimensionally stupid. He has to be a guy who makes mistakes not just because of his ineptitude.

The producers were really pressing into me asking who had leaked the script? I swore to them that I had figured out. But, to put it in perspective, last season I was so far off with how I thought the first season would end that it’s an even shake. The reason I was so far off last season was I didn’t know [creator] Rob [Thomas] and his style of being flashy at the end of a season. I went a little too far and a little too “comic book wild” with my ending. Then when season one ended, it didn’t end in such an insanely spectacular way as I had thought it would. I was wrong about who did what and why and how. Now knowing Rob and being in twenty-five episodes, I feel like I can get an idea of what’s coming.

iF: How certain is the future of the series?

MUHNEY: This is breaking news that I haven’t given anybody. Warner Bros. has approached my agency to begin talks to buy me out for next season. It isn’t official, and anything can go wrong and things can happen, but at least formally it is something that has moved onto the next level. Warner Bros. lawyers have contacted my agency and are beginning to sketch out a deal. Sheriff Lamb will be in the credits next year if everything goes the way we all would like it to go.

Even if I sign a contract for season three, half way through or even earlier on, I could get killed off. To keep me employed they might keep the contract going through a series of flashbacks and dream sequences. I’m not saying to what capacity I will be around, but if the negotiations go well, I will be around.

iF: What can you tell me about the film you did with Amber Benson last year?

MUHNEY: I have to say I was really impressed with the cut of the movie in comparison to the rough cut I had seen earlier. I’m pretty enthusiastic about this movie making it out to film festivals, and being on the shelf at Blockbuster Video. In the movie LOVERS, LIARS, AND LUNATICS I play a sort of a green thief who takes his piece of crap car and his not-so-bright girlfriend to a supposedly empty house where there is a large amount of cash hidden. We’re supposed to take the money and get out, and that is not what happens. Instead an entire evening of craziness ensues, and Amber Benson plays my girlfriend in the movie. Things in the robbery don’t go our way and hostages are taken and hilarity follows.

Then Amber Benson came to Chicago and did a cameo on a film I was starring in. I co-wrote and produced a film that shot in Chicago last summer, which is currently called ANGST. We had people in it like Amber, and she was fantastic. It was Pat Morita’s final movie. Frank Nicotero, the well-known stand up comedian in Los Angeles, was in the picture and he is hilarious. Eddie Jones, the acclaimed character actor is in it. He’s been in every other movie that people have seen like SEABISCUIT and THE TERMINAL.

I love the independent film world, and if I could I would do at least two independent films during the summer hiatus. I would do them for next-to-nothing, because it’s like going back and doing theatre. It’s a gamble, and you never know which film will pop.

Amber and I have worked together twice, and I’ve name-dropped her to the producers of VERONICA MARS. Since they’ve had Alyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter, and even Joss Whedon, why not get Amber on the series?