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vinni2 · 02-22-2007, 03:32 AM

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/16750411.htm

Farewell, 'O.C.' - and sweet Seth

By ERIN WHITE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Way back in 2003, the Fox network billed a soapy pilot called The O.C. as the next 90210.

But it was even better: a smart, hip, funny and often touching show that assumed young people got the joke instead of making them the joke with condescending story lines about the dangers of premarital sex or family conflicts. Within a matter of weeks, I went from rolling my eyes at the promo to yelling "Why are you calling me right now? You know I don't take phone calls when The O.C. is on!" at friends and family.

Not that the show didn't have its low points (we no longer speak of Oliver or Volchuk), but after tonight's series finale, I'm going to miss it.

Here are five reasons television lovers, even those who didn't watch the show, should mourn its parting.

1. It showed that geeky boys can be hot. Seriously, on what other show would you get a Seth Cohen? Played with adorable dorkiness by Adam Brody, Seth loves comic books and animé, but he also has the kind of self-deprecating sense of humor that women can not resist when it comes with a set of doe eyes. Not since Dawson's Creek's Pacey Witter has a socially awkward teenager captured the hearts of so many young women. It was nice to see the kind of guy those of us who weren't dating the basketball team crushed on in high school and college.

2. It was a great way to learn about below-the-radar bands. For a moderately informed Top 40 fan like me, The O.C. was educational, musically speaking. Right after Modest Mouse was on the show for the first time, way before they got any face time on MTV Hits, I bought the CD. Then I made all of my friends listen to it, and they stopped making fun of my Beyonce obsession for several minutes because this time, I had discovered the cool new band. Thanks to Seth and his indie obsession, I was in the loop when my friends dropped the Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie and Phantom Planet into casual conversation. Now I have to rely on Grey's Anatomy to hear new bands. Except the artists Grey's loves, like Regina Spektor and the Fray, I've usually stumbled across on my own.

3. It captured the self-absorption and self-awareness of Gen Y. (Full disclosure: I know this because I just turned 26.) As Summer, one of the show's female leads, so concisely and accurately explained: "I'm sorry. I don't get references before 1990."

4. It also mined that hyper-awareness for humor.

The show acknowledged its melodrama/camp factor with the running joke about The Valley, a fictional TV show watched by The O.C.'s characters about rich kids lamenting their princess problems in beautiful, sunny SoCal.

The meta references ( like when Summer told Seth that his counterpoint on The Valley was "so funny. I hear he, like, improvises all his own scenes") reflected the attitude of the media-savvy, self-obsessed generation that loved it. (Brody, who plays Seth, is famous for his ad-libbing skills.)

5. And it showed that hyper self-awareness can lead to understanding broader pop-culture movements

In 2004's Chrismukkah episode, for example, Seth tells his family, "If my sense of the cultural zeitgeist is accurate -- and I believe it is -- this is the year Chrismukkah sweeps the nation." Cue media outlets across the nation, even those as serious as The New York Times, who were suddenly writing feverishly about Chrismukkah. Excellent.

They even, this season, managed to make fun of their own imminent demise with a cheeky reference to ratings juggernaut Grey's Anatomy, which airs opposite The O.C. Summer's dad was sent off to work at "that quirky hospital up in Seattle."

Hmmm. Maybe Seattle Grace could find a place for Adam Brody?

The O.C. series finale

8 tonight

KDFW/Channel 4

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/enter...oll=orl-caltop

Juicy 'O.C.' just runs dry
Hal Boedeker
Sentinel Television Critic

February 22, 2007

A beloved character's possible death will transfix a mammoth television audience tonight. A once-hot drama's demise won't.

Such are the fast-changing ways of television. Nearly 25.8 million watched last week as doctors rushed to save Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) on Grey's Anatomy. In the same time slot, Californians struggled after an earthquake hit The O.C., and just 3.7 million viewers followed the recovery.

A glass shard lodged in the back of Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), and he delayed going to the hospital. Still, he quickly recovered.

No such luck for his show. It is limping off the air at 9 tonight on WOFL-Channel 35. The saga of The O.C. illustrates how a promising series can go wrong.

The show, set in posh Orange County, Calif., debuted in August 2003 to admiring reviews for its impassioned acting, emotional punch and witty dialogue. In copycat television, The O.C. was something different.

Creator Josh Schwartz dubbed his series "a soapedy" for its mixture of soap opera, romantic comedy and family drama. Schwartz pushed his storytelling beyond the melodrama of Dallas and the gloss of Beverly Hills, 90210.

The O.C. started at a difficult juncture. Attorney Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher) opened his lavish home to impoverished client Ryan.

"A smart kid like you -- you gotta have a plan, some kind of dream," Sandy warned Ryan.

Brooding, handsome Ryan changed everyone near him. He bonded with Seth (Adam Brody), Sandy's awkward son, and brought out the maternal instincts in Kirsten (Kelly Rowan), Sandy's uneasy wife.

"Dude, you're a Cohen now," Seth told Ryan. "Welcome to a world of insecurity and paralyzing self-doubt."

And Ryan bowled over Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), the troubled girl next door. In the premiere, she asked who he was. He responded, "Whoever you want me to be." Oh, that Ryan.

The O.C. will be remembered for several storytelling feats. The most entertaining was making Seth a dashing geek and tracing his rocky romance with Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson).

One reason Seth stood out: He was the alter ego of creator Schwartz. "There's a lot of myself in Seth," Schwartz said in 2004. "It's a true collaboration between Adam and me."

In self-important television, the show blithely poked fun at itself through "The Valley," a teen drama within the teen drama. But unlike Beverly Hills, 90210, The O.C. made the parents as compelling as the children and gave the adults a fair share of screen time. Sandy was especially refreshing -- a smart, sensible father in a medium that usually shortchanges dads.

Music was crucial to the show's appeal. The series expertly used rock and pop to heighten emotions and reach young viewers. That approach bolstered acts, notably Death Cab for Cutie, and spawned six soundtracks.

Everything was going so right, but The O.C. is calling it quits after just four seasons and 92 episodes.

What went wrong?

1. Not enough nurturing by Fox. A longer time in the slot behind American Idol would have built a bigger audience. Look at what has happened to House. But Fox forced The O.C. to fend for itself.

2. A killer time slot. The network sent The O.C. on a thankless mission this fall by pitting it against Grey's Anatomy, an ABC drama that mixes comedy and drama in a style reminiscent of the early O.C. The ratings nose-dived for the Fox drama, which produced only 16 episodes this season. In its first three seasons, The O.C. made 27, 24 and 25.

3. Doing away with the show's lead female character. At last season's end, Marissa died in a car accident. That plot was supposed to shake up the show. Instead, the twist turned off many fans, and it was a bad move to lose magazine cover-girl Barton.

4. A downbeat start to the fourth season. Marissa's death sent a gloom over the show this fall. Ryan was in a funk. Who could blame him? But not many wanted to watch him.

He will remain with us in reruns. Soapnet will start airing them in April. Fans can chart how The O.C. gained its juice -- and lost it so quickly.

A show that was special in the beginning became just another casualty of the TV grind.

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles...oh_so_quickly/

Ironic and fun 'O.C.' died oh so quickly

By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff | February 22, 2007

What did "The O.C." have that no other angsty teen soap with an emo soundtrack had? What caused this Fox series, which airs its final episode tonight, to immediately render every other "Dawson's Creek" knockoff unbearably turgid and so 1990s?

Seth Cohen .

Seth was the embodiment of pop cultural awareness and TV meta-humor. Perfectly inhabited by Adam Brody , Seth made "The O.C." into ' ' 'The O.C.,' " with comic air-quotes around every melodrama that hit the denizens of Newport Beach, most of them spoiled and beautiful. Through the sarcastic Seth, show creator Josh Schwartz was able to turn "The O.C." into a peanut-gallery commentary on itself. Seth was a one-man "Mystery Science Theater 3000," making fun of "The O.C." while living through its cliches and absurdities.

While Benjamin McKenzie's mopey Ryan was the more conventional "O.C." hero, Seth was the alternative geek-hero, keeping it real for the other characters -- and, most importantly, for the viewers. "You guys really wouldn't hurt me, because that would be so cliched ," he once said as bullies began to go after him, quickly adding, "I guess you're fans of the cliche ." Bullies, 0; Seth, 1. When tormented lovers Marissa (Mischa Barton ) and Ryan had a happy moment, Seth voiced what we were all thinking: "No, she's supposed to be crying and he's supposed to be brooding. That's how it works!"

Seth made the show's portrayal of the impossibly superficial Orange County -- personified by the character of Marissa and Barton's thin acting -- not just bearable, but an ironic wonderland. Seth was even there for viewers as we grappled with the sheer furry-osity of Peter Gallagher's eyebrows: "Dad, those eyebrows are out of control," he once said in one the show's many references to its fans' observations.

It was with the help of Seth's charm that "The O.C." was able to create what has become one of its enduring legacies: Chrismukkah. Not only was Seth the sardonic one in a sea of bikinis and consumption, he was the half-Jewish one. He couldn't help but make references to his Jewish side, the side he most identified with, and rib his mother, Kirsten (Kelly Rowan ) , for being "Waspy McWasp." With Chrismukkah, Seth turned what is a fraught season for many interfaith families into a light-hearted American holiday, a pop-cultural salve.

The strangest thing about the death of "The O.C.," tonight at 9 on Channel 25, is the speed of its rise and fall. In less than four years, "The O.C." went from the hip, addictive savior of Teen TV, with Seth Cohen as its mascot, to a has-been in ratings disgrace with only about 4 million viewers per week.

The plunge was partly the result of Fox's bad decision to move the series from Wednesdays to Thursdays for season two, a night when the other networks have already claimed viewers young and old. "The O.C." dropped from an average of 9.7 million viewers per episode to 7 million in season two, and then down to 5.6 million in season three. Fan devotion is a fragile thing these days, as ABC is now learning with "Lost," whose ratings have fallen with a move from 9 to 10 p.m.

But "The O.C." also lost its originality as the familiar soap operatic conventions -- adultery, addiction, sudden deaths -- began to triumph over smartly amusing dialogue. "Desperate Housewives" has gotten caught in the same trap, as flip comic elements strain against the need to engage the audience in the storylines. When it began, "The O.C." was a teen melodrama for people who were tired of teen melodramas, but it evolved into yet another teen melodrama, more or less.

The "O.C." plots began to blur together much as they had on "Dawson's Creek" and "Beverly Hills 90210," as Seth and Summer went back and forth and Ryan and Marissa went up and down. The flailing may have hit a nadir when Schwartz and his writers sought media attention by having Marissa engage in bi-curious behavior during season two. Diehard fans of the show are now saying that the writing is better this season, although the ratings have not reflected any improvement.

And so the fickle tastes of TV viewers and the rigors of serial storytelling claim another victim. Schwartz is moving on to another teen soap called "Gossip Girl," this time for the CW, and he's planning a spy comedy for NBC. As Seth might say, yet another zeitgeist bites the dust.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. For more on TV, visit boston.com/ae/tv/blog/.

02-22-2007, 03:32 AM	#123 (permalink)
vinni2 Daytime Soap Star Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 1,533	http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/16750411.htm Farewell, 'O.C.' - and sweet Seth By ERIN WHITE STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER Way back in 2003, the Fox network billed a soapy pilot called The O.C. as the next 90210. But it was even better: a smart, hip, funny and often touching show that assumed young people got the joke instead of making them the joke with condescending story lines about the dangers of premarital sex or family conflicts. Within a matter of weeks, I went from rolling my eyes at the promo to yelling "Why are you calling me right now? You know I don't take phone calls when The O.C. is on!" at friends and family. Not that the show didn't have its low points (we no longer speak of Oliver or Volchuk), but after tonight's series finale, I'm going to miss it. Here are five reasons television lovers, even those who didn't watch the show, should mourn its parting. 1. It showed that geeky boys can be hot. Seriously, on what other show would you get a Seth Cohen? Played with adorable dorkiness by Adam Brody, Seth loves comic books and animé, but he also has the kind of self-deprecating sense of humor that women can not resist when it comes with a set of doe eyes. Not since Dawson's Creek's Pacey Witter has a socially awkward teenager captured the hearts of so many young women. It was nice to see the kind of guy those of us who weren't dating the basketball team crushed on in high school and college. 2. It was a great way to learn about below-the-radar bands. For a moderately informed Top 40 fan like me, The O.C. was educational, musically speaking. Right after Modest Mouse was on the show for the first time, way before they got any face time on MTV Hits, I bought the CD. Then I made all of my friends listen to it, and they stopped making fun of my Beyonce obsession for several minutes because this time, I had discovered the cool new band. Thanks to Seth and his indie obsession, I was in the loop when my friends dropped the Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie and Phantom Planet into casual conversation. Now I have to rely on Grey's Anatomy to hear new bands. Except the artists Grey's loves, like Regina Spektor and the Fray, I've usually stumbled across on my own. 3. It captured the self-absorption and self-awareness of Gen Y. (Full disclosure: I know this because I just turned 26.) As Summer, one of the show's female leads, so concisely and accurately explained: "I'm sorry. I don't get references before 1990." 4. It also mined that hyper-awareness for humor. The show acknowledged its melodrama/camp factor with the running joke about The Valley, a fictional TV show watched by The O.C.'s characters about rich kids lamenting their princess problems in beautiful, sunny SoCal. The meta references ( like when Summer told Seth that his counterpoint on The Valley was "so funny. I hear he, like, improvises all his own scenes") reflected the attitude of the media-savvy, self-obsessed generation that loved it. (Brody, who plays Seth, is famous for his ad-libbing skills.) 5. And it showed that hyper self-awareness can lead to understanding broader pop-culture movements In 2004's Chrismukkah episode, for example, Seth tells his family, "If my sense of the cultural zeitgeist is accurate -- and I believe it is -- this is the year Chrismukkah sweeps the nation." Cue media outlets across the nation, even those as serious as The New York Times, who were suddenly writing feverishly about Chrismukkah. Excellent. They even, this season, managed to make fun of their own imminent demise with a cheeky reference to ratings juggernaut Grey's Anatomy, which airs opposite The O.C. Summer's dad was sent off to work at "that quirky hospital up in Seattle." Hmmm. Maybe Seattle Grace could find a place for Adam Brody? The O.C. series finale 8 tonight KDFW/Channel 4 http://www.orlandosentinel.com/enter...oll=orl-caltop Juicy 'O.C.' just runs dry Hal Boedeker Sentinel Television Critic February 22, 2007 A beloved character's possible death will transfix a mammoth television audience tonight. A once-hot drama's demise won't. Such are the fast-changing ways of television. Nearly 25.8 million watched last week as doctors rushed to save Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) on Grey's Anatomy. In the same time slot, Californians struggled after an earthquake hit The O.C., and just 3.7 million viewers followed the recovery. A glass shard lodged in the back of Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), and he delayed going to the hospital. Still, he quickly recovered. No such luck for his show. It is limping off the air at 9 tonight on WOFL-Channel 35. The saga of The O.C. illustrates how a promising series can go wrong. The show, set in posh Orange County, Calif., debuted in August 2003 to admiring reviews for its impassioned acting, emotional punch and witty dialogue. In copycat television, The O.C. was something different. Creator Josh Schwartz dubbed his series "a soapedy" for its mixture of soap opera, romantic comedy and family drama. Schwartz pushed his storytelling beyond the melodrama of Dallas and the gloss of Beverly Hills, 90210. The O.C. started at a difficult juncture. Attorney Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher) opened his lavish home to impoverished client Ryan. "A smart kid like you -- you gotta have a plan, some kind of dream," Sandy warned Ryan. Brooding, handsome Ryan changed everyone near him. He bonded with Seth (Adam Brody), Sandy's awkward son, and brought out the maternal instincts in Kirsten (Kelly Rowan), Sandy's uneasy wife. "Dude, you're a Cohen now," Seth told Ryan. "Welcome to a world of insecurity and paralyzing self-doubt." And Ryan bowled over Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), the troubled girl next door. In the premiere, she asked who he was. He responded, "Whoever you want me to be." Oh, that Ryan. The O.C. will be remembered for several storytelling feats. The most entertaining was making Seth a dashing geek and tracing his rocky romance with Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson). One reason Seth stood out: He was the alter ego of creator Schwartz. "There's a lot of myself in Seth," Schwartz said in 2004. "It's a true collaboration between Adam and me." In self-important television, the show blithely poked fun at itself through "The Valley," a teen drama within the teen drama. But unlike Beverly Hills, 90210, The O.C. made the parents as compelling as the children and gave the adults a fair share of screen time. Sandy was especially refreshing -- a smart, sensible father in a medium that usually shortchanges dads. Music was crucial to the show's appeal. The series expertly used rock and pop to heighten emotions and reach young viewers. That approach bolstered acts, notably Death Cab for Cutie, and spawned six soundtracks. Everything was going so right, but The O.C. is calling it quits after just four seasons and 92 episodes. What went wrong? 1. Not enough nurturing by Fox. A longer time in the slot behind American Idol would have built a bigger audience. Look at what has happened to House. But Fox forced The O.C. to fend for itself. 2. A killer time slot. The network sent The O.C. on a thankless mission this fall by pitting it against Grey's Anatomy, an ABC drama that mixes comedy and drama in a style reminiscent of the early O.C. The ratings nose-dived for the Fox drama, which produced only 16 episodes this season. In its first three seasons, The O.C. made 27, 24 and 25. 3. Doing away with the show's lead female character. At last season's end, Marissa died in a car accident. That plot was supposed to shake up the show. Instead, the twist turned off many fans, and it was a bad move to lose magazine cover-girl Barton. 4. A downbeat start to the fourth season. Marissa's death sent a gloom over the show this fall. Ryan was in a funk. Who could blame him? But not many wanted to watch him. He will remain with us in reruns. Soapnet will start airing them in April. Fans can chart how The O.C. gained its juice -- and lost it so quickly. A show that was special in the beginning became just another casualty of the TV grind. http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles...oh_so_quickly/ Ironic and fun 'O.C.' died oh so quickly By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff \| February 22, 2007 What did "The O.C." have that no other angsty teen soap with an emo soundtrack had? What caused this Fox series, which airs its final episode tonight, to immediately render every other "Dawson's Creek" knockoff unbearably turgid and so 1990s? Seth Cohen . Seth was the embodiment of pop cultural awareness and TV meta-humor. Perfectly inhabited by Adam Brody , Seth made "The O.C." into ' ' 'The O.C.,' " with comic air-quotes around every melodrama that hit the denizens of Newport Beach, most of them spoiled and beautiful. Through the sarcastic Seth, show creator Josh Schwartz was able to turn "The O.C." into a peanut-gallery commentary on itself. Seth was a one-man "Mystery Science Theater 3000," making fun of "The O.C." while living through its cliches and absurdities. While Benjamin McKenzie's mopey Ryan was the more conventional "O.C." hero, Seth was the alternative geek-hero, keeping it real for the other characters -- and, most importantly, for the viewers. "You guys really wouldn't hurt me, because that would be so cliched ," he once said as bullies began to go after him, quickly adding, "I guess you're fans of the cliche ." Bullies, 0; Seth, 1. When tormented lovers Marissa (Mischa Barton ) and Ryan had a happy moment, Seth voiced what we were all thinking: "No, she's supposed to be crying and he's supposed to be brooding. That's how it works!" Seth made the show's portrayal of the impossibly superficial Orange County -- personified by the character of Marissa and Barton's thin acting -- not just bearable, but an ironic wonderland. Seth was even there for viewers as we grappled with the sheer furry-osity of Peter Gallagher's eyebrows: "Dad, those eyebrows are out of control," he once said in one the show's many references to its fans' observations. It was with the help of Seth's charm that "The O.C." was able to create what has become one of its enduring legacies: Chrismukkah. Not only was Seth the sardonic one in a sea of bikinis and consumption, he was the half-Jewish one. He couldn't help but make references to his Jewish side, the side he most identified with, and rib his mother, Kirsten (Kelly Rowan ) , for being "Waspy McWasp." With Chrismukkah, Seth turned what is a fraught season for many interfaith families into a light-hearted American holiday, a pop-cultural salve. The strangest thing about the death of "The O.C.," tonight at 9 on Channel 25, is the speed of its rise and fall. In less than four years, "The O.C." went from the hip, addictive savior of Teen TV, with Seth Cohen as its mascot, to a has-been in ratings disgrace with only about 4 million viewers per week. The plunge was partly the result of Fox's bad decision to move the series from Wednesdays to Thursdays for season two, a night when the other networks have already claimed viewers young and old. "The O.C." dropped from an average of 9.7 million viewers per episode to 7 million in season two, and then down to 5.6 million in season three. Fan devotion is a fragile thing these days, as ABC is now learning with "Lost," whose ratings have fallen with a move from 9 to 10 p.m. But "The O.C." also lost its originality as the familiar soap operatic conventions -- adultery, addiction, sudden deaths -- began to triumph over smartly amusing dialogue. "Desperate Housewives" has gotten caught in the same trap, as flip comic elements strain against the need to engage the audience in the storylines. When it began, "The O.C." was a teen melodrama for people who were tired of teen melodramas, but it evolved into yet another teen melodrama, more or less. The "O.C." plots began to blur together much as they had on "Dawson's Creek" and "Beverly Hills 90210," as Seth and Summer went back and forth and Ryan and Marissa went up and down. The flailing may have hit a nadir when Schwartz and his writers sought media attention by having Marissa engage in bi-curious behavior during season two. Diehard fans of the show are now saying that the writing is better this season, although the ratings have not reflected any improvement. And so the fickle tastes of TV viewers and the rigors of serial storytelling claim another victim. Schwartz is moving on to another teen soap called "Gossip Girl," this time for the CW, and he's planning a spy comedy for NBC. As Seth might say, yet another zeitgeist bites the dust. Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. For more on TV, visit boston.com/ae/tv/blog/. Last edited by vinni2; 02-22-2007 at 03:39 AM.