TV Guide's Veronica Mars Page, with TV Listings,  Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.

Backup - Peachy-cream colored pit bull featured on the detective drama VERONICA MARS/UPN/2004+. Backup is the pet of Veronica Mars (Kristin Bell), a slender, petite, blonde 17-year-old who attends Neptune High School in Southern California. Her father Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni) is a full-time detective and Veronica helps run his office and occasionally investigates cases on her own. When Veronica leaves the house, her father often reminds her to "take her Backup."

Backup's personal traits were revealed during a phone conversation between Veronica and her father, when she said to Keith that she would be safe at home "with the only sane member of the Mars family." To which Keith replied "The one who eats from the garbage and keeps bringing me dead birds?"

Although formidable looking, Backup is a pleasant pooch who willingly does the bidding of his mistress. Well almost. Once when
Veronica's ex-boyfriend, Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn) approached her while she was walking the dog, she told him to stay back or she would sick Backup on him. But ol' Backup sensed no danger from Duncan and happily wagged his tail and tongue, much to Veronica's chagrin.

However, if Backup did sense danger he was on top of things immediately, like the time Veronica was on stakeout in her LeBaron at the Camelot Motel and Weevil (Francis Capra) and his biker friends tried to threaten her. As one of the bikers reached through the window, Backup charged the assailant and bite at his arm, while Veronica dispatched another with her trusty little taser gun.

Backup later helped nab Aaron Echolls (Harry Hamlin), the killer of Lilly Kane (Veronica's best friend) when he tried to steal Keith Mars car. What Echolles didn't know was that Backup was inside the car. Startled and foiled by the snarling canine, Echolls stumbled into the nearby highway and was hit by a flower delivery van.

Veronica and Backup (1)

TRIVIA NOTE: There have been two Backups on the show. The original Backup (referred to as 1.0 and seen in the pilot and early episodes) was a white and brown 2.5 year American bulldog named Gordo trained by Omar von Muller of All Stars Kennel. Unfortunately, the first Backup was replaced when he didn't live up to the expectation of the show's creator, Rob Thomas. Here is an excerpt from an interview which explains the reason the dog was replaced:

RT: I couldn't deal with his trainer. I loved the original Backup -- he was such a beautiful dog. But his trainer had a month and a half to get him ready for the scene in the pilot, and he didn't do it. He needed to fly out of the car, and he just couldn't -- he sort of slid down the window. So a stuntman had to pull him out on his arm. Then, to make it look good, he was supposed to attack the biker, who was wearing protective padding, but he wouldn't do that either. We had to cut together all this footage and loop in growling. It was just a mess, and the trainer blamed us! So rather than strangle the guy, I recast Backup.

The replacement Backup was called Lefty. He made his first appearance in episode No. 4 "The Wrath of Con" as Veronica, her father, Keith Mars and Backup the dog visit the campus of San Diego State while on a case. Lefty's movie credits include the film Alpha Dog (2006) as Adolph, Johnny Truelove's dog.

There is also a Backup 1.5. This is the name given to the stuffed brown toy dog found in Veronica Mars' bedroom.

"Logan, I don’t need you to protect me. I have a pit bull."
	--- Veronica, Veronica Mars

Back to Top