Magazines, News and Interviews #26

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http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/In...69F992D86CE%7D

Thursday, February 22, 2007
Marissa Dies! Chrismukkah Lives!
TV Guide Remembers The O.C.'s Greatest Moments
by Damian Holbrook


After four seasons and countless fistfights, the Newport group is hanging it up with a finale that executive producer Josh Schwartz promises will "offer real closure." So what better way to say goodbye to The O.C. (Thursdays at 9 pm/ET) than a look back at the Fox serial's best moments?
1. "Welcome to the O.C., Bitch!" — "Premiere," 8/5/03
Luke's bon mot to new punching bag in town Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) quickly became the signature line of the series. Says Schwartz, "Kids from Orange County say they're from ‘the O.C.' like it's ‘the Ukraine.' I always found it funny so I gave Luke that line."

2. Marissa Dies — "The Graduates," 5/18/06
Marissa (Mischa Barton) died in Ryan's arms after being run off the road by her bad-boy ex Volchok in Season 3's shocking finale. De*spite what the rumor mill would have you think, Schwartz contends that the tragedy was not dictated by anyone's off-set antics: "Losing Marissa — and Mischa — was a big loss for the show."

3. Julie's Affair with Luke — "The Telenovela," 2/25/04
Jaws dropped — and temperatures soared — when Julie (Melinda Clarke) bedded her teenage daughter's ex-beau (Chris Carmack) while also romancing her best friend's father, Caleb. Talk about multitasking.

4. Chrismukkah Is Born — "The Best Chrismukkah Ever," 12/3/03
Seth's Festivus-like mixed-faith holiday was almost called something else. "A lot of names were tossed around," recalls Schwartz. "Han-umas being one of them." Oy to the world!

5. Marissa Goes Lesbian — "The Lonely Hearts Club," 2/10/05
Coop's sapphic fling with Bait Shop babe Alex (Olivia Wilde) was too hot to handle — at least by Fox standards. "It was post-Janet Jackson/Super Bowl FCC time," Schwartz says. "And we were forced to end the story line much sooner."

6. Seth and Summer's Spider-Man Kiss — "Rainy Day Women," 2/24/05
Ever the pop-culture avatar, The O.C. scored with this cinematic nod to beauties and their comic book-fan boy toys everywhere. "After the epi*sode aired, we got calls from then-Marvel head Avi Arad and Spider-Man director Sam Raimi saying how much they loved it," Schwartz says.

7. Marissa ODs in Tijuana — "The Escape," 9/16/03
The kids' ill-fated run for the border stands as one of Schwartz's favorite eps. "It sums up what I think the show was capable of: feeling real, heightened, funny and, at times, operatically tragic," he says.

8. Oliver Goes Nuts — "The Links," 1/14/04
Although Schwartz calls Marissa's friendship with the unhinged interloper (played by Taylor Handley) "the single most passionately hated story line," he gives the kid props for being creatively crazy. "C'mon, people! He broke a plate, then punched himself in the head — twice!"

9. Sandy Serenades Kirsten on Their 20th Anniversary — "The Power of Love," 1/13/05
Solomon Burke's "Don't Give Up on Me" never sounded so sweet. "It embodies their crazy love for each other," remembers Schwartz. Plus, "after Peter Gallagher serenaded Kelly Rowan, he got a record deal out of it."

10. Cage-fighting Ryan Falls for Taylor Townsend — "The Sleeping Beauty," 11/30/06
"Like a lot of people, I originally thought it was an odd pairing," Autumn Reeser reveals of the romance that juiced the lighter, quirkier final season. It also — finally! — gave Ryan (the best thing to happen to muscle tees since Marlon Brando) a reason to smile. And that's the happiest ending we could ask for.

_____________

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/zap-theoc-j...,3531401.story


'O.C.' Creator Reflects on the Show's End
On the even of the finale, Schwartz shares some thoughts
Daniel Fienberg
Zap2It.com

February 22 2007

It's the final night of shooting on FOX's "The O.C." and Josh Schwartz, the show's creator, doesn't have time to cry.

"Just stop it," Schwartz says, when I toss out the idea that tears might flow.

He pauses, getting a bit serious.

"You know, it's like I can't even absorb what's going on. It's overwhelming. It's like graduation day. We have a lot of work to do to get everything done today, because there ain't no reshootin', so I think everybody's just trying to keep their wits about them and get their work done and I'm sure that around nine o'clock tonight, it'll get very emotional."

After a tumultuous four years that saw it transition from guilty pleasure to pop culture phenomenon to slumping punchline to brilliant-but-cancelled, "The O.C." ends on Thursday (Feb. 22) night with an episode titled "The End's Not Near, It's Here." Down in the Nielsen dumps this season against the dueling behemoths of "Grey's Anatomy" and "CSI," "The O.C." will probably welcome more than its averaged 4.05 million viewers due to a mixture of both finale curiosity and the kind of robust lead-in it's been denied all season, a little competitive show called "American Idol." Schwartz has been toyed with enough this season.

"That will be nice," he says of the "Idol" boost. "I'm sure at the last minute it'll be switched out for two encore episodes of 'Stacked.'"

The fourth season launched in November without magazine covers and with minimal promotion. Instead, there came a steady stream of reviews suggesting that the series was the best it had been in years. Nobody watched. After recovering from their grief, many fans agreed that the death of Mischa Barton's Marissa, a damning loss for certain viewers, actually revitalized several storylines and opened the door for breakout co-star Autumn Reeser. Nobody watched. The show's writers experimented with the format and delivered episodes that were fresh and creative. Nobody watched and it became immediately clear that the season, already shorted to 16 episodes, would be the last.

"If I had to choose, I'd rather do this -- I'd rather make a show that I'm incredibly proud of that's getting the living daylights beaten out of it, than make a show that a lot of people are watching that I don't want to put my name on," Schwartz insists.

Along the way there were questions of whether a different lead-in ("Happy Hour," "'Til Death" repeats and "The War at Home" each did their damage) or a different time period might help, but FOX didn't budge. Although he felt frustration at the time, Schwartz gives FOX some credit.

"Look, I've certainly shared my dissatisfaction with how a lot of things went down with the network, but one thing I will say is that they ordered us for 16 episodes and we did 16 episodes and they let us do them on our terms. And for that, I'm grateful."

Schwartz isn't giving anything away when it comes to the finale, with follows last week's emotional "Night Moves," in which the core characters survived a major earthquake that shook Newport Beach and leveled the Cohen family's abode. Given that the show began with the Cohens giving a home to delinquent Ryan (Ben McKenzie), it's easy to see the resonance building.

"It certainly doesn't feel like another episode of 'The O.C.,'" Schwartz promises. "I think it feels really big. Hopefully it will feel fun and satisfying and everyone will feel a real sense of closure... and a sense of satisfaction that you've gone on a journey with these characters, that you're sad to see them go, but excited for their futures."

Schwartz didn't get any downtime after production wrapped on "The O.C." He has a pair of pilots -- NBC's "Chuck" and The CW's "Gossip Girls" -- to keep him busy.

"That's better for me. I think if I had to stop and reflect, I would just become overwhelmed with emotion and collapse. I think it's better that I just keep looking forward and don't look back."

___________

Test Your OC Knowledge

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http://www.twincities.com/mld/twinci...t/16751589.htm

Posted on Thu, Feb. 22, 2007

L Y B Farewell to 'The OC'

ESLIE GRAY STREETER
Cox News Service

Television history has proved that the value or influence of a show is not necessarily equivalent to the number of seasons it ran. Joss Whedon's space cowboy fantasy "Firefly," for instance, lasted one season but inspired a major motion picture and an international cult of weirdly obsessed yet endearing fans, while the lasting legacy of "Coach's" mind-boggling nine-season run seems to be the pitchman career of Jerry Van Dyke and a shining example of how a laugh track doesn't mean something's funny.

But when the tony denizens of Fox's "The OC" take their last jaunt around Newport Beach tonight they can be confident of the pop cultural importance of the show's relatively short four seasons of witty quips, pool parties and monied angst.

It's responsible for the mass launching of relatively obscure indie bands, a lot of the fashion trends flowing out of Forever 21 (those tiny ruffled skirts) and other juniors clothing meccas, some inspired catch phrases ("Welcome to the OC, b——!") and the devotion of both trendy youths and their parents to the same TV show.

Josh Schwartz's soapy creation wasn't perfect — it sometimes faltered under the weight of its own preciousness, lost steam with extraneous characters like crazy kid Oliver and Jeri Ryan's villainous rehab roomie that stole attention and momentum from characters and relationships we cared about.

Still, even after Ryan, Summer, the Cohens and that deliciously heinous Julie Cooper head off into the balmy sunset of cancellation, their effect will be felt because of the following:

1. It reinvented the nighttime soap: Yeah, yeah, so there are some similarities between "The OC" and its teen drama predecessor "Beverly Hills 90210" — chino thug Ryan Atwood's fish-out-of-water immersion into the casually-worn wealth of his new home in Newport Beach might have mirrored those perky Walsh twins' conversion from Minnesota fresh-faced to Rodeo Drive chic. But Schwartz also borrowed from the boardroom shenanigans of "Dynasty" and "Melrose Place," the neighborly goings-on of "Knots Landing" and the midlife marital crisis of "thirtysomething," stripping them down and turning them into something referential but still current.

And its fearlessness in creating shocking plot twists, like the death of reigning troubled teen Marissa Cooper is a soap staple, except that "The OC" had the guts not to have her show up later alive and happily soaping up in the shower.

2. It was about family relationships — twisted, pain-ridden family relationships, but family relationships, nonetheless: The biggest secret to "The OC's" cross-generational appeal was the way it gave parents and children equal focus in its storylines, and treated the impact of the characters' decisions on each other as important.

3. It became a televised jukebox without descending into cheese (mostly): Fictional television shows have been platform for bands ever since Ricky Nelson played a couple of tunes for the cool kids on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet." But while Ozzie artfully shilled its own hot star, and "Beverly Hills 90210's" musical interludes at the Peach Pit After Dark were usually awkwardly product placement tidbits that were extraneous to the plot, the Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, Interpol and Bright Eyes songs featured on "The OC" were usually woven into the plot and character development of cute geek Seth Cohen. We cared about Seth, so we cared about the music that fed him. Tunes and television have seldom combined this seamlessly.

4. It included familiar character types... then let them be anything but typical: Anyone watching "The OC's" premiere episode would have been forgiven for rolling their eyes at what initially seemed like stock characters. The comic geek with the crush on the snotty, clique-conscious pretty girl? The former thug in love with the lovely, pouty princess? Been there. The princess' fight-starting blond jock boyfriend? Done that. But actually putting the geek and the snot together without either one getting a major makeover, acknowledging the princess' darker tendencies without excusing them, or having the jock boyfriend be surprisingly moral, if not altogether bright? That's different. And then having the jock start an affair with the princess' mother? Never been there! And we like it!

5. It made religion, sexual identity and culture a part of the story while sparing us the Very Special Episode: Newport Beach was a fairly WASPy place, and Schwartz didn't shy away from divisions that would, quite realistically, be apparent in such a place. Kirsten and Sandy Cohen were presented quite clearly as a loving, interfaith couple who celebrate an inclusive holiday for their son (Chrismukkah, anyone?) but whose relationship still showed their differences.

— the disapproval that Kirsten's country club father had for Sandy was very likely not just about his working class background and bleeding heart-ism but his Jewishness.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/304...tml?source=rss

On TV: 'O.C.' fans, before the end, let's reminisce

By MELANIE McFARLAND
P-I TELEVISION CRITIC

Coolness has A limited shelf life, a bitter truth fans of "The O.C." have come to accept. Predecessors such as "Beverly Hills, 90210" lasted for 10 seasons, and "Dawson's Creek" traipsed along for six, while Fox's one-time "it" thing washed up after four seasons, the last of them a shortened, 16-episode run.

Viewers still keeping up with fictional Newport know the place is not looking good. An earthquake shattered everything, conveniently resolving a number of problems between characters. The emotionally closed-off Ryan handed his heart to the girl his late lover had mixed emotions about and, right on cue, a large piece of glass lodged itself in his back. The Cohens are moving away. Summer and Taylor had to rush Summer's pet bunny Pancakes to the vet.

There goes the neighborhood.

As "The O.C." comes to a conclusion Thursday at 9 on KCPQ/13, perhaps we shouldn't contemplate where it's ending as deeply as where it began. It came onto our screens during one of the worst TV seasons in recent memory, in the same fall class as "The Handler," "Whoopi," "Luis" and a list of flameouts too long to print. "The O.C." was fresh air, cocktails on the beach, the end of the drought kicked off by the cancellation of "Melrose Place," "90210" and our other guilty pleasures.

We embraced it because nothing else was worth our time, and why not? No other series on TV had a rich blond boy delivering the line, "Welcome to the O.C., bitch."

Obviously, it was not going to be the standard teeny-bopper fling. "The O.C." targeted adolescents, but a large share of it fan base consisted of adults. Creator Josh Schwartz's writing came off like a light, sharp javelin, funny and wicked in all the right spots, and the cast was charismatic perfection.

Lacking talent like his, there was no way we would have bought the beginning of the adventures of Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson), Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) and Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton).

Let's review: Bleeding-heart public defender Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher) put up his client Ryan, a kid with a high I.Q., a neglectful mother and rotten luck, in his massive mansion's pool house. Barely batting an eye as the boy from Chino frolicked with his geeky son Seth, Sandy and his wife, Kirsten (Kelly Rowan), looked on as he wooed Marissa, the ravishing party girl next door, encouraging Seth to sidle up to Marissa's shallow best friend Summer.

That setup was the start of a terrifically fun 1 1/2 seasons. The tales of Newport's rich and poutiful kids -- as well as their materialistic parents, the black-tie events they enjoyed and the fistfights at the drop of a joint -- attracted an audience of 10 million viewers in year one.

The Cohens' solid, loving relationship provided strong moorings to which the neighbors' extravagant theatrics could attach. With a dragon lady such as Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke) living next door, Seth's family might as well have been the Waltons.

It also helped that Ryan, the classic misunderstood bad boy with a chivalrous heart, filled out a wife-beater T-shirt smashingly, and Marissa looked like a model. "The O.C." had other hooks too, including a trend-setting fashion sense and an impeccable soundtrack culled by Alexandra Patsavas, one of the most sought-after music supervisors in the business. Patsavas gave Seth extraordinary taste in music, leading to guest appearances by bands such as Death Cab for Cutie, Rooney and The Killers, leaving another legacy for the series in the form of several respectable compilation CDs.

Sadly, those first season thrills didn't last. Kirsten developed a drinking problem, Sandy's permissiveness grew tiresome, and Julie Cooper began to sprout a conscience and maternal instincts. Most of that happened long after the beginning of season two, but more than a quarter of the viewers did not return then, anyway.

Even fewer showed up regularly for "The O.C.'s" slump of a third year. "The O.C." lost its balance between camp and angst, which began with Kirsten fresh out of rehab and ended with Marissa falling in with one bad crowd after another, finally dying in a car crash. The thing was a straight-up bummer, "My So-Called Life" without a brain, a soul or a tether to reality. And Ryan's new romance with Marissa's former goody-two-shoes rival Taylor Townsend (Autumn Reeser) was tough to swallow.

This year, the Fox drama scraped by with an anorexic audience of around 4 million -- a shame, because creatively speaking, "The O.C." restored the balance of silliness and angst that once made it required viewing.

But The CW's "One Tree Hill" was better bait in its two seasons. Not as much as MTV's "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County," which featured actual rich kids and their "real" daily dramas, and would not exist without the Fox series. You can't say "The O.C." wasn't influential. Other series leaped for its coattails and missed -- Fox's "North Shore," The WB's "The Mountain" and ABC's "Life as We Know It."

Another ABC show probably accelerated "The O.C.'s" early demise: "Desperate Housewives." "The O.C." proved there was still an audience for prime-time soaps, but the Housewives' writing had wider appeal and was smarter.

Then this season, Fox put "The O.C." in competition with shows tens of millions watch religiously each week -- "CSI," "Grey's Anatomy" and a revitalized Thursday night comedy slate on NBC. When previous fans didn't stick with it, Fox's series was, to use "Laguna" speak, dunzo.

But "The O.C.'s" cancellation after 92 episodes does not mark the end of an era. You know the way of the world: One affluent community crumbles, another rises to replace it. Soon you can look for its twin on The CW, in a series written by Kevin Williamson ("Dawson's Creek"), directed by Scott Winant ("My So-Called Life") and called "Hidden Palms." The premise? A troubled boy moves to an exclusive neighborhood in Palm Springs, where the opulent homes hide dark secrets.

"Welcome to the P.S., bitch" doesn't have the same ring, but the kids might pick it up in a pinch.


http://media.www.columbiaspectator.c...-2735759.shtml

O.C. Dies, Follows Marissa Into Hell
Andrew Martin
Posted: 2/22/07

Based on recent developments on The O.C., maybe Mischa Barton was right.

For those who haven't heard Barton's horrendous blasphemy, after being asked if she was surprised that her former show was being cancelled, she reportedly replied: "No. They killed me off." Yes, Barton may be just another privileged Hollywood starlet with too many designer bags and illegal drugs at her disposal, but she does have a point. Marissa Cooper may go down in history as the television character with the most personal problems. Her drunken nights in Tijuana, lesbian sexplorations, and public school adventures were the core plot lines, and all other characters were somehow linked to her. With her death, the absence of her alarmingly small body left a huge void in the drama.

To fill said void, writers have relied on pushing every other character to the extremes of their personality. Ryan Atwood may be from the wrong side of the tracks, but did he really need to become a cage fighter? As the writers have struggled to create conflict, they've also created new characters Che and Kaitlin and revamped the Taylor Townsend character into a girl capable of running up a higher therapist bill than most. With these unrealistic characters, the fourth season of The O.C. has quickly become more of a laughingstock than a relatable drama. As sad as it sounds, the golden era of The O.C. was mercilessly beaten to a pulp.

Since news broke of the mid-season cancellation, however, the remaining episodes have been surprisingly well done. The series' third-to-last episode had many characteristics that a prime-time television show should have. The characters were layered-Ryan showed his softer side, Seth dealt with his previously unacknowledged lack of motivation, and Sandy and Kirsten contemplated leaving the paradise that is Newport Beach. In addition to these developments, the last seconds of the episode showed us the terrifying earthquake-a cliffhanger that left all viewers wondering who would survive.

Last Thursday's episode held the lives of not one, but two characters hanging in the balance. Ryan forewent getting immediate help for the menacing piece of glass lodged into his back in order to spare Taylor the discomfort of seeing blood. Also, Kirsten and Sandy's unborn child was feared dead or injured after the shake-up.

Despite the initial uncertainty of the aftermath, it seems that all loose ends have already been tied up. The baby is a girl, Taylor and Ryan are alive and staying together, and Julie Cooper seems to have finally created a stable family. So why even have another episode?

Most great teenage dramas, like Dawson's Creek or Beverly Hills, 90210, have left something to the imagination in their final episodes. Dawson's, for example, chose to focus on answering only one of the viewers burning questions*-who would Joey choose? Despite The O.C.'s cancellation, Fox is still advertising the finale ad nauseum, trying to milk the ratings for all they're worth. And in doing so, they're placing so much emphasis on the resolution of the show-and showing us so much of what it looks like-that there's little reason to even watch the episode.

From the ads, Thursday's episode seems like it will be predictable in far too many ways. Set six months after its predecessor, the kids are ready to go back to school, and Kirsten should be ready to pop. With any luck all the kids will actually make it out of Newport this time around. With a destroyed house and a fresh start ahead of them, it wouldn't be surprising if Kirsten and Sandy followed their children out of town.

Fox could, however, prove its naysayers wrong and deviate from the drama-less, neatly resolved finale that they're advertising. One possible shocker could be how Summer and Seth decide to part ways. No one knows whether Summer has really found her "Sandy Cohen" (as one episode somewhat creepily referred to one's soulmate), and with Summer's new environmental advocacy career, Seth may be traveling to Providence without the girl he decided to go there for.

Hopefully, though, that will be one ending that remains happy and predictable. After all, everyone knows that Captain Oats loves Princess Sparkle.

[vinni2]

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/.

[vinni2]

http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/184458

What killed The O.C.?
Tonight marks end of the rich-kid angst

February 22, 2007
Jim Bawden
Television Columnist

They sat on a sofa in a downtown Toronto hotel room, key cast members of The O.C., including Canadian actor Kelly Rowan, Tate Donovan and creator Josh Schwartz. All had a right to look self-satisfied that day in 2004. After all, their soapera (as Schwartz called it) had rocketed to a Top 20 position after less than a season.

The O.C. cagily debuted in August 2003 before that season's onslaught of new shows from other networks. It instantly caught a kind of teen wave of enthusiasm, a chronicle of impossibly beautiful young things cavorting in the sun and sand of Calilfornia's status-obsessed Orange County. The houses were huge, the kids lived lives of luxury. Heck, even the parents were good looking.

When I met with the cast they seemed overwhelmed by the huge success and confidently predicted the series would run on and on. It had become one of TV's finer guilty pleasures. Not being taken seriously was one of its biggest selling points.

So what happened?

First, let's look back at when it began. The young actors in the show became icons of a way of life most of us would never know, despite the fact they were playing teens well into their 20s, whereas the parents were played by actors under 40. Schwartz told me he had auditioned real teens only to find them too innocent in the sexual situations.

Part of the fun was Schwartz's writing style. He was just 26, the youngest TV executive producer in Fox's history. He told me he wanted to give us the experience of peering in on a lifestyle where people had too much money.

Troubled teen Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) became TV's new bad boy. He was from – gasp – blue-collar Chino, taken in by liberal-minded Jewish attorney Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher), a public defender. Mom Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) was prettier than some of the bikini-clad young things down on the beach.

The Cohens' son Seth was spoiled and petulant and wished he could be as tough as Ryan. And the girls were drop-dead gorgeous, headed by Mischa Barton as party animal Marissa Cooper, Autumn Reeser as Taylor Townsend and Rachel Bilson as Summer Roberts.

And now it's over (the last show airs tonight on Fox at 9, on CTV.ca at 7, and repeats on CTV Saturday at 7 p.m.).

I say success killed off The O.C. before its time. Those magazine covers of Ryan all snarly in his leather jacket turned into instant camp. Every episode just had to have a fight scene with Ryan bashing anybody who dared oppose him.

The series used up three times as much plot as any other drama around. It burned through whole arcs of character development in one episode and started repeating itself.

When Ryan's gal pal Marissa, who'd become increasingly promiscuous, died at the end of Season 3, it angered many viewers.

And how many times did Seth and Summer part only to reunite? Ryan was with Marissa one show, without her the next. Life in Newport Beach was becoming very claustrophobic and just a tad boring.

Even the dialogue wilted. One sample I saved: "Of course I'm screwed up," Barton's character said. "I'm the daughter of a thief and a slut."

The O.C. got bounced all over the schedule and lost viewers. It was off for a while as fans drifted to the reality series Laguna Beach, which was set among the same crowd – only these self-indulgent kids were for real.

This season, its fourth, Fox ran it against CSI and Grey's Anatomy, two shows usually duelling for the first two ratings spots.

When I talked to Schwartz in 2004 he was already thinking about closure, saying "I'm not sure that shows like this are destined to run forever, but just to be a blast while they're on."

He was right on as we sit back to enjoy the last episode tonight, program No. 92. With all the plots exhausted, what's a producer to do for a grand finale? How about an earthquake?


Here's a look at The O.C.'s legacy:

It reinvented the night-time soap and brought adolescent angst – Beverly Hills 90210 with a dash of Dynasty and Melrose Place – back to TV.

It put a focus on family relationships, giving parents and children equal time in its storylines. Flashes of this formula now appear on One Tree Hill and Veronica Mars, for instance.

It became a televised jukebox: Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, Interpol and Bright Eyes songs were woven into the plot and character development. Tunes and television have seldom combined this seamlessly, but current hot show Grey's Anatomy has taken on the mantle.

Every episode seemed to create a new catchphrase, beginning with the iconic "Welcome to the O.C., bitch" and including "Chrismukkah," the Cohens' interfaith holiday.

It inspired reality TV: MTV's Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and Bravo!'s The Real Housewives of Orange County.

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainme...970.xml&coll=2


TELEVISION
The O.C.' wipes out with hardly a splash
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Mark Dawidziak
Plain Dealer Television Critic
The sun is setting on "The O.C.," Fox's fun and frothy mix of surf and soap. The final episode airs at 9 tonight on WJW Channel 8.

And maybe, just maybe, the sun also is setting on the teen soap opera, a genre that has been a formidable pop-culture presence ever since Fox's "Beverly Hills 90210" all but created the prime-time form in 1990. First, though, let's set up the last wave for "The O.C."

It wasn't a long run. The beach-community drama's seasons in the sun numbered only four.

Why is Fox closing down the neighborhood so quickly and with so little fanfare? May, after all, is the traditional month for fond farewells, and here's the network giving "The O.C." the heave-ho in the dead of winter.

It seems like a pretty cold move, all right, particularly because they're calling it quits with an abbreviated 16-episode fourth season. The Newport gang never had less than a 24-episode order for each of the previous three seasons.

Ratings, of course, have a great deal to do with Fox's eagerness to put this ocean-side community in the rearview mirror. "The O.C." isn't making the top 50 this season. Check that. It doesn't make the top 100. Wait, it's not making the top 130.

In ratings and surfing terms, that's called a wipeout. About the only thing behind it are CW shows.

Now, competition has a great deal to do with this season-four fiasco.

"Why wouldn't America be fascinated with the lives and loves of Orange County's rich and glamorous?" Julie (Melinda Clarke) once asked. "We're all beautiful and we're all dysfunctional."

I've got two reasons. "The O.C." has been trying to stay afloat against a pair of top-10 heavyweights: CBS' "CSI" and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." They are television's highest-rated dramas. Together, they're averaging about 40 million viewers at 9-10 p.m. Thursday. Against this devastating one-two punch, "The O.C." is averaging a paltry 4 million viewers.

Here's more good news. Tonight's final episode of "The O.C." is scheduled against the "Grey's Anatomy" episode that reveals whether Meredith Grey lives or dies. You might as well change the show's title to "The No See."

Advertisements for this final episode of "The O.C." use a phrase that has a hint of desperation to it: "The series finale everyone will be talking about." If that were even remotely true, the series wouldn't be going off the air.

Well, the Fox show's standing must improve significantly when you just consider the ratings for younger viewers, right? It does, but not as dramatically as you might expect. For the ratings week of Feb. 5-11, "The O.C." ranked 42nd with teens.

So what is the teen audience watching this season? They're watching what everybody else is watching. The No. 1 and 2 shows with teens are the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of Fox's "American Idol."

The NBC comic-book rookie, "Heroes," also makes the top 10 with the teen crowd, as do three of Fox's Sunday animation hits: "Family Guy," "The Simpsons" and "American Dad." And of the three, "Family Guy" is the highest rated with young viewers.

When you factor in all viewers, "Family Guy" isn't making the top 60 for the season. But with teens, it's a regular ratings juggernaut.

Those advertisements for tonight's final episode of "The O.C." also use the phrase, "It's the end of an era." For once, a bit of promotional puffery might be right on target.

This could be the end of an era ushered in by "Beverly Hills 90210." At that point in TV history, the audience was moving full-scale into the fragmentation process. The very presence of Fox as a fourth network was a symbol of how much and how rapidly the prime-time world was evolving from the long-standing three-network model.

Executive producer Aaron Spelling, who had scored a major hit in the early '80s with "Dynasty," wondered if he could take the elements of the prime-time soap opera and reshape them for a teen audience.

It was a clever gamble that perfectly suited the time and the young network. Cable channels were starting to grab more and more of the networks' audience with original programming targeted at narrowly defined audiences. Spelling realized that broadcasting was becoming less broad in its appeal. He went after the teens, and he got them.

"Beverly Hills 90210" was followed by such soapy successors as "Dawson's Creek," "Felicity" and "The O.C."

By the time "The O.C." premiered in 2003, however, the pop-culture landscape had shifted, and the teen soap bubble popped. Does that mean young viewers no longer are interested in soap-opera entertainment? Not at all.

The teen viewer is getting the soap fix from dreams-can-come-true drama that "American Idol" offers in the second half of its season. The teen viewer is getting a continued-next-week buzz from genre shows, which explains why "Heroes" is flying so high in the ratings this season.

The good news for Fox in this post-"O.C." television world is that it still controls the teen audience. During the '90s, it managed this trick with a combination of teen soap and animation (led by "The Simpsons"). This season, it's the combination of "American Idol" and animation (led by "Family Guy").

While the competition was fierce for "The O.C.," the series was more a victim of bad timing. It caught the teen soap wave long after it had crested, so the ride was destined to be brief.

Premiering 13 years after "Beverly Hills 90210," "The O.C." managed to make its share of noise with the fads, the phrases, the fashions, the guest stars, the music, the Chrismukkah observations. And it managed to last four seasons. All in all, not too bad.

Now, competition has a great deal to do with this season-four fiasco.

"Why wouldn't America be fascinated with the lives and loves of Orange County's rich and glamorous?" Julie (Melinda Clarke) once asked. "We're all beautiful and we're all dysfunctional."

I've got two reasons. "The O.C." has been trying to stay afloat against a pair of top-10 heavyweights: CBS' "CSI" and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." They are television's highest-rated dramas. Together, they're averaging about 40 million viewers at 9-10 p.m. Thursday. Against this devastating one-two punch, "The O.C." is averaging a paltry 4 million viewers.

Here's more good news. Tonight's final episode of "The O.C." is scheduled against the "Grey's Anatomy" episode that reveals whether Meredith Grey lives or dies. You might as well change the show's title to "The No See."

Advertisements for this final episode of "The O.C." use a phrase that has a hint of desperation to it: "The series finale everyone will be talking about." If that were even remotely true, the series wouldn't be going off the air.

Well, the Fox show's standing must improve significantly when you just consider the ratings for younger viewers, right? It does, but not as dramatically as you might expect. For the ratings week of Feb. 5-11, "The O.C." ranked 42nd with teens.

So what is the teen audience watching this season? They're watching what everybody else is watching. The No. 1 and 2 shows with teens are the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of Fox's "American Idol."

The NBC comic-book rookie, "Heroes," also makes the top 10 with the teen crowd, as do three of Fox's Sunday animation hits: "Family Guy," "The Simpsons" and "American Dad." And of the three, "Family Guy" is the highest rated with young viewers.

When you factor in all viewers, "Family Guy" isn't making the top 60 for the season. But with teens, it's a regular ratings juggernaut.

Those advertisements for tonight's final episode of "The O.C." also use the phrase, "It's the end of an era." For once, a bit of promotional puffery might be right on target.

This could be the end of an era ushered in by "Beverly Hills 90210." At that point in TV history, the audience was moving full-scale into the fragmentation process. The very presence of Fox as a fourth network was a symbol of how much and how rapidly the prime-time world was evolving from the long-standing three-network model.

Executive producer Aaron Spelling, who had scored a major hit in the early '80s with "Dynasty," wondered if he could take the elements of the prime-time soap opera and reshape them for a teen audience.

It was a clever gamble that perfectly suited the time and the young network. Cable channels were starting to grab more and more of the networks' audience with original programming targeted at narrowly defined audiences. Spelling realized that broadcasting was becoming less broad in its appeal. He went after the teens, and he got them.

"Beverly Hills 90210" was followed by such soapy successors as "Dawson's Creek," "Felicity" and "The O.C."

By the time "The O.C." premiered in 2003, however, the pop-culture landscape had shifted, and the teen soap bubble popped. Does that mean young viewers no longer are interested in soap-opera entertainment? Not at all.

The teen viewer is getting the soap fix from dreams-can-come-true drama that "American Idol" offers in the second half of its season. The teen viewer is getting a continued-next-week buzz from genre shows, which explains why "Heroes" is flying so high in the ratings this season.

The good news for Fox in this post-"O.C." television world is that it still controls the teen audience. During the '90s, it managed this trick with a combination of teen soap and animation (led by "The Simpsons"). This season, it's the combination of "American Idol" and animation (led by "Family Guy").

While the competition was fierce for "The O.C.," the series was more a victim of bad timing. It caught the teen soap wave long after it had crested, so the ride was destined to be brief.

Premiering 13 years after "Beverly Hills 90210," "The O.C." managed to make its share of noise with the fads, the phrases, the fashions, the guest stars, the music, the Chrismukkah observations. And it managed to last four seasons. All in all, not too bad.

[vinni2]

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20012523,00.html

Television Commentary
Good-bye, 'O.C.'

As Fox's teen soap ends tonight (Feb. 22), a devoted fan remembers the little things she'll miss the most

NEWPORT LIVING
Order takeout and try to focus as hard as the Cohen men on tonight's series finale




I'm sitting here at work, chomping on Seth Cohen's favorite takeout and mine (shrimp pad thai) and listening to ''Hallelujah'' and ''Hide and Seek'' on a repeating loop, just to set the mood. The season 1 DVDs are sitting to the right of my mouse, so that every time I reach over to use it, I can see Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) on the back of the case. He's seated, hunched forward, with clasped hands and the absolute saddest Ryan Eyes in the entire worldwide database of Ryan Eyes. Why? he pleads. I don't know, Ryan, I laser-beam back to him. I miss you in that hoodie.

But you know what? I'm not devastated. The O.C. was what it was, when it was — and that's enough. It wasn't perfect, but so often, particularly with anything that involved throwaway banter, the Cohen family dynamic, or shotguns, it came close. I'm so sick of reading articles about its cancellation that want to know ''What went wrong?'' and make cute bulleted lists of every misguided plot direction or casting choice. Really? Who cares? The show ends tonight; I don't care what or who's to blame. All I ever wanted to do was enjoy it.

So if you're like me, you're being a happy wallower right now, remembering the highs and lows of your personal O.C. journey. Like that time Marissa (Mischa Barton) wore a sweatshirt. That was huge for me. Or when ''The Return of the Nana'' episode was thwarted by some stupid President Bush news conference-y thing. (Ew!) Or when I realized Marissa's brief lesbian flame Alex (Olivia Wilde) was the spitting image of a My Little Pony. Hallelujah, indeed.

In that spirit — and because you can read about the top five kisses or brawls elsewhere — I'm going to list some of the subtleties of the show that amused me the most. Go ahead and add to the list by posting your own below.

10 Little Things I'll Miss About The O.C.

Singing the theme song. Whenever two or more people are in the room, you must belt out the final ''Californ-yaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.'' And if you have better-trained lungs than your friends, and they happen to take breaths during the long note, and you're still sitting there screaming "AAAAAH!'' by yourself? Well, that's just too bad.

Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke). Everything she's ever said, in the exact way she's said it. Okay, this is so not a ''little thing.'' But over the years, I've become unnaturally obsessed with Julie's character. Like, I'm in love with her. But I'd never want to meet her. I just want her to continue to exist on my screen. Spin-off?!

How effortless school is. Harbor High was basically a glorified coffee shop, and I loved it for that. Like I need a rehash of how much homework sucks. Summer's (actually, Taylor's) mermaid poem was probably the most challenging assignment the gang ever got, and the most academic-sounding line in the series may have been when Ryan told Sandy (Peter Gallagher) and Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) he had to do a report on ''the history of agriculture in 20th-century California,'' and that was a lie. Not to mention, by the end of The O.C.: The College Semester, no one except Kaitlin was even enrolled in school. I just love the blatant disregard.

The super stylings of Marissa. I'll say it. I absolutely love staring at Mischa Barton wearing clothes. It's most fun when I'm in my jammies, looking as disgusting as possible so as to go for the ''antithesis'' thing. I used to rewind the scenes she was in, just to check out how well (or not — remember all those fashion hats?) she pulled everything off, like hell YEAH I'm gonna wear this enormous Chanel necklace at my new trashy public school! (I apparently get this bordering-on-creepy trait from my mom, who calls me every time she passes a Bebe store: ''Hey, bunny, just wanted to tell you there are new Mischa pics up in the store! I went in and walked up to all of them, even though I don't like all those outfits in there. Very skanky!'')

All that self-deprecation. There was usually at least one zinger per episode, and if you caught it, you knew you were a true fan. And I loved that there were some lines specifically for the fans. One of my faves was from Summer (Rachel Bilson), about the Bait Shop: ''The tickets are always plentiful and the bands never too loud to talk over.'' Ha! We certainly noticed as well!

Pointless parties designed to round everyone up. The launch of Newport Living? NewMatch? Taylor's birthday? Throw a gala! No, don't worry — the Cohens would totally love to host it. Bring friends and, if you've got one, a stripper, so that Julie and Hailey can end up wrestling each other into the infinity pool.

Major props. Sandy's beloved bagel slicer is my favorite prop ever (I'm trying to mention it at least 10 times this season, so someone from the show will send it to me), and I love that ''Bistro'' sign in the kitchen, which rarely is the site of any actual cooking. Remember Kiki's bottles of ''Pure'' vodka? Also: Sandy's surfboard (we never got to see him use it; I smell a spin-off called Sandy Beach), Marissa's lifeguard shack, Ryan's wristband, the Mermaid Inn...

They're such kids at heart. ...Captain Oats, Princess Sparkle, and Marissa's Share Bear. It could be that the characters just whine a lot, but this show has a childlike quality I could just lick straight off a plate. Constant 1980s pop culture references also help.

The emergence of Ryan. I wrote about this two weeks ago, but I am loving how Ryan has really come into his own (rippling muscles) this season. He is peaking, I tell you! Just in time for the ax. Sniff.

Music montages. Again, not a ''little thing,'' because music on The O.C. is all some people ever hear about. The show often gets a pass on how cheesy music montages can be, just because it picks way better tunes. You hear a song on this show and you download it — it's really that simple. In fact, it won't even matter if I like the actual tune on tonight's finale. All I'll remember, as I listen to it 200 times in a row on my iPod, is that it was the last song on The O.C.

I love you, O.C.

Don't you dare say ''Thank you.''

[ThePetriDishKid]

Die Fox Die.

Who knows maybe Fox is digging their own graves. My only regret is that The OC had to be sacrificed for that to happen.

[vinni2]

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....ursdays_a.html


MAUREEN RYAN
The Watcher
A Chicago Tribune Web log

Our Thursdays are less Seth-y: Goodbye to 'The O.C.'

Going forward,' Thursday nights will be a little less quippy, a little less pop-culture-obsessed, a little less Seth-y. And, sure, a little less sexy.

“The O.C.,” the indelible teen soap of the oughts (what are we calling this decade, anyway?), is going away for good; the show’s series finale airs Thursday. Fox didn’t send out the last episode for review, which is fine, because I’d rather not know in advance what happens.

The series always has had more than its share of ups and downs, but I have every hope they’ll pull out all the stops and make the finale a valentine to the fans that have stuck with the self-referential, soap-parodying soap.

Well, OK, to be honest, I was a little fickle over the years and gave up on the show during several especially preposterous patches (many of the show’s fans did, too, judging by “The O.C.’s” falling ratings). But I still live in hope that “The O.C.” brain trust will give Seth, Summer, Ryan, Julie, Kirsten and Sandy the send-off they deserve.

In honor of the series finale, here’s a list of lists celebrating the Fox show’s four-season career.

Most undervalued supporting cast member:

Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows
Peter Gallagher as Sandy Cohen
Princess Sparkle
Captain Oats
Melinda Clarke as the unstoppable Julie Cooper-Nichol
Chris Pratt as the crunchy environmental guy Ché
Alan Dale as the sketchy billionaire Caleb Nichol
Most irritating supporting cast members:

Kaitlin Cooper
Oliver
Volchok (arrrgh!)
A few favorite random things:

Jimmy Cooper’s genial irresponsibility
Marissa’s lesbian flirtations with Alex (Olivia Wilde). It was actually handled well, considering it occurred on a Fox show during sweeps.
A guy from Julie’s past threatening to publicize her long-ago foray into adult films
Summer’s rage blackouts
The inevitable fights at every “O.C.” party
Best “O.C.” inventions:

The “coma lite”
Chrismukkah (in its early days, anyway)
“The Valley,” the fake soap that the “O.C.” characters were obsessed with
Ryan Atwood’s fists of fury
“The O.C.’s” soundtrack CDs, which helped launch an array of excellent bands
Biggest bungles:

Oliver with a gun
The arrival of Ryan’s brother
Marissa’s death (a season too late)
Mischa Barton (Marissa) spilling news of her character’s death days before it aired
Each season’s mid-season plot muddle
Kirsten’s sudden-onset alcoholism
Lindsay’s sudden-onset paternity issues and even more sudden exit
George Lucas’ guest spot. The man just can’t act, sorry
And in closing, here are just a few memorable lines (there are way more here):

Luke to Ryan: “Welcome to the O.C., [expletive].”
Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) to Marissa: “I wouldn’t have done it any differently. Except maybe Oliver.”
Summer (Rachel Bilson) to Marissa: “God, he loves you. He got in a fight and burnt down a house for you. That’s hot.”
Summer on Death Cab for Cutie: “It’s like one guitar and a whole lot of complaining.”
Seth (Adam Brody) on Ryan: “My friend Ryan, he’s really cool, OK? He’s very anti-establishment. He enjoys sunset walks on the beach, punching people and not smiling.”
Sandy to Julie: “So you started with a porn director and ended up with Caleb. I’d consider that a lateral move.”
Summer to Ché: “Ché, just shut up, OK, before I tie you up with hemp rope, set you on fire and get high off of the fumes from your burning flesh.”
Seth to Ryan in last week’s episode: “It’s too bad. If we could have turned this into a body-swap comedy, we could have squeezed another year or two out of this.”

Minor articles:

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/sto...date=2/22/2007

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/...TS15/702220308

[vinni2]

There are three articles on the OC in the Hollywood Reporter.




http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/..._id=1003547878

Fox's 'O.C.' leaving stamp on pop-culture radar
By Ray Richmond
Feb 21, 2007


There aren't too many TV series that can introduce an entirely new holiday into the lexicon of American pop culture, but Fox's "The O.C." can lay claim to that very unique achievement. The notion of Christmakuh -- that marriage of Christmas and Hannukah invented by hyperarticulate hipster teen Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) -- might represent one of the show's more enduring legacies, but when the angsty primetime soap concludes its 92-episode run Thursday night, it will leave behind a fairly significant legacy.

"O.C." not only proved that networks could launch a hit series during the dog days of summer, but it gave the TV business a youthful new voice in creator/executive producer Josh Schwartz. Just 27 at the time the series debuted in August 2003, the USC grad became the heir apparent to the Joss Whedon school of clever and can claim almost sole credit for catapulting alternative rockers Death Cab for Cutie and their most ardent fan Seth into the mainstream consciousness.

And, of course, Schwartz forever altered the moniker of a sizable portion of Southern California geography with one simple article.

Even as he faces wrapping up the adventures of Newport Beach's well-heeled populace, Schwartz seems to display a pragmatism beyond his years, conceding that perhaps burning brightly for a shorter time is better than overstaying one's welcome. "It seems like the right time to be leaving the air," he says. "Every show has a natural life to it. Some get extended beyond that life, and you can tell. We suffered no artificial enhancement. Getting canceled certainly wasn't a surprise, though. We'd kind of planned for it from the beginning of the season. Our eyes were wide open."

What Schwartz is referring to is "O.C.'s" slumping ratings. The series was a success right out of the gate, averaging an 18% share of teens ages 12-17 and a 14% share of adults 18-34 during its first seven episodes in August and September 2003, and those figures climbed to a 21 share of teens during the remainder of that first season after Fox moved the show from its original Tuesday night berth to Wednesdays at 9 p.m.

Once Season 2 began and Fox moved the show again -- this time to Thursday night -- the numbers started to tumble. "O.C." only managed a 13 share of teens and a 12 share of adults in the 18-34 demographic, before dropping to 9 (teens) and 10 (adults) for Season 3. And the numbers slipped still further during the current fourth season, averaging a mere 6% share in both demos through Feb. 8.

Why did the show fall from grace with such seeming swiftness? While some fans complained about the series' loss of creative focus, the changing time slots certainly didn't help matters, according to Jordan Levin, former CEO of the WB Network who is now a founding partner in Generate, a multiplatform production, talent management and media consulting company.

"I'm not sure Fox always knew what to do with 'The O.C.'" Levin offers. "Soon after the show premiered, they started moving away from younger-skewing drama and focused their hour business around shows more targeted to the 18-49 demo like 'House' and 'Bones.' That made 'The O.C.' a bit of an anomaly on the schedule.

"But I'll tell you what," Levin continues, "when Fox launched it, the summer rollout was really smart. They locked up that teen demo quickly because there was something very aspirational about the show that teenagers immediately responded to."

No kidding. Just as Fox's then-groundbreaking series "Beverly Hills, 90210" had back in the early 1990s, "O.C." became the new barometer of cool for a generation of tweens and teens weaned on dozens of iterations of MTV and reality-TV programming. Ultraslim stars Mischa Barton and Rachel Bilson became fashion icons, while Brody and his brooding bad-boy counterpart, Benjamin McKenzie, each appealed to their own subset of fandom (the Luke Skywalker/Han Solo paradigm, if you will). Before long, even "Star Wars" guru himself, George Lucas, opted to make a cameo on the show.

"It immediately galvanized the audience," adds Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television, producer of "O.C." "Then Fox put us behind 'American Idol' that following January. It was a brilliant strategy. Those were good times."

Those times might have been destined to end quickly just by virtue of the fact that the show's most rabid fans belong to a demographic famous for its short attention span. But Schwartz says that it was actually beneficial to know that "O.C." was living on borrowed time. "When we originally came on the air, there was a lot of pressure to anchor a new night after we got successful out of the gate," he recalls. "We basically had to hold the fort on our own with increasing competition. But once we got moved and the expectations disappeared, it suddenly became fun again for the writers and the actors. We'd already come to terms with getting beaten up in the ratings. So, we all just let loose and had a great time, and I think that resulted in our greatest season creatively."

While it's a bittersweet time for Schwartz, he's already forging ahead on the next phase of his career with two series pilots in production: "Chuck," a one-hour action-comedy about spies for NBC, and "Gossip Girl," a CW drama Schwartz is crafting with Stephanie Savage based on the best-selling teen book series by author Cecily Von Ziegesar.

But "O.C." always will have special meaning for Schwartz as the vehicle that allowed him to make the inevitable rookie mistakes on a particularly high-exposure canvas. "I learned an incredible amount doing this show," he says. "But the thing I'm proudest of is having put out a show that parents were able to watch with their kids and hang together."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...c7e0b81b71fcc1

"Music key character in Fox's OC"

By Ray Richmond
Feb 21, 2007


If it seemed as if the music spotlighted on Fox's "The O.C." throughout its run played like more than mere background to the soap opera unfolding onscreen, that was hardly an accident. In fact, the soundtrack was designed from the outset to be a character in itself, confirms the show's music supervisor, Alex Patsavas.

"The marching orders from ('O.C.' creator/executive producer Josh Schwartz) was to focus it with a signature sound," Patsavas says. "We had a very healthy music budget. I mean, we featured nine bands in Season 2 alone. Quite a few of those were on-camera performances. For me, it wasn't unlike booking a live concert -- which I'd had some experience doing back in college."

Patsavas adds that she chooses at least six songs per episode, the majority inspired by alternative college radio. The exposure helped to break some previously unknown bands including the All-American Rejects, Block Party, the Roots, Soul Kid #1 and the Walkmen, as well as more-established artists such as Death Cab for Cutie, Franz Ferdinand and Liz Phair. In addition, Phantom Planet, for which actor Jason Schwartzman plays drums, performs the show's theme song, "California."

"Right from the pilot, we wanted to be sure that the music was used to define moments and express the inner lives of the characters," Schwartz emphasizes. "It needed to be a direct reflection of their thoughts and feelings, and the music had to tell us that all of these characters were outsiders. As such, we wanted to reflect the sound of Orange County. And Alex was a godsend for us. She was able to (steer) viewers on to a lot of great music."

For her part, Patsavas notes that several songs were created specifically for "O.C.," and as the series became successful, it grew easier to entice bands to want to appear on camera "as a way to help them with licensing opportunities and their fan base." The show has put out six soundtracks throughout its run.
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It was with legendary filmmaker Roger Corman that Patsavas began her Hollywood music career in 1995, working on films with titles such as "Caged Heat" and "A Bucket of Blood." She broke into supervising TV series music in 1999 with the WB Network's "Roswell" and has since worked on ABC's "Boston Public" and "Grey's Anatomy," CBS' "Criminal Minds" and "Without a Trace" and FX's "Rescue Me."

"I had a lot of fun with Josh because he's such a total music fan," she says. "We worked pretty closely together to find a sound, and it helps when your producer is as knowledgeable as he is. And I have to say, thank God there is an Internet to help with the process. It allows someone like me to find bands and tracks internationally without having to make 3,000 phone calls."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...0c331a8e0feda5

Drama Club

Its characters might have experienced plenty of angst, but Fox's 'The O.C.' has brought its cast members nothing but joy.

by Ray Richmond
Feb. 20, 2007

Mischa Barton (Marissa Cooper)
Barton's role as the troubled Marissa Cooper catapulted the model-actress to a new level of celebrity, and the decision to write out her character at the end of Season 3 was a significant blow to a show whose popularity already was on the wane. "Marissa had already been through so much, there was really nowhere else for her to go," she says. Even so, adds Barton, "This show made my career, and I'll always be grateful for that." The 21-year-old actress has been busy since her departure, starring in several feature films that, as of yet, have no U.S. distribution, including "Closing the Ring," "Don't Fade Away" and "Malice in Sunderland." She also appears in MGM/the Weinstein Co.'s "Virgin Territory," due for release later this year.

Rachel Bilson (Summer Roberts)
For 25-year-old Bilson, "The O.C." was a valuable opportunity to "get comfortable with the camera" and live with the responsibility of a regular job. "I especially loved that I was able to have moments that were personally embarrassing for me -- like the show where I went to the prom and got really drunk and fell off the stage," she says. Bilson already has moved to the big screen with roles in director Tony Goldwyn's 2006 Zach Braff starrer "The Last Kiss" and Fox's planned 2008 release "Jumper" with Samuel L. Jackson, Hayden Christensen and Diane Lane. But she's still mourning the passing of a show -- and a job -- that she loved. "It changed me as a person," she says.

Adam Brody (Seth Cohen)
While "The O.C." is disappearing, Brody is not. He has roles in three indie movies due out this year: Warner Independent's "In the Land of Women," First Look's "Smiley Face" and ThinkFilm's "The Ten." Yet, he now describes himself as "an unemployed film actor" awaiting the next phone call after having left behind his days as a regular on a show that was "a grind" but "a memorable experience." Adds Brody: "If this is the top of the heap for me, I could live with that. I'm 27, I own my own home and I'm able to work in my chosen profession. But for now, I'm looking forward to not having to shave."

Melinda Clarke (Julie Cooper-Nichol-Roberts)
Clarke had appeared in scads of TV series prior to landing the role of Julie on "The O.C.," her first regular recurring role and, at 36, a coup that helped her move her career up. Although the character originally had been slated to only appear in the series pilot, the Orange County native worked her way into a steady opportunity. "The character just grew and grew as the show went on, and I felt like I had a part in that," she says. As for the future, Clarke has a part in director Jon Avnet's upcoming feature "88 Minutes" along with "O.C." co-star Benjamin McKenzie, as well as a role in Paramount's remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic "When Worlds Collide," tentatively set for a 2008 release.

Peter Gallagher (Sandy Cohen)
As his first-ever regular acting gig in a TV drama, "The O.C." introduced acting vet Gallagher, 51, to an entirely new audience. Gallagher, of course, had carved out a film career that has included roles in 1989's "sex, lies, and videotape," 1992's "The Player" and 1999's "American Beauty," but accepting the role of Sandy required the actor to face a new challenge, namely moving his family out to the West Coast from New York. "The experience was extraordinary," Gallagher says. "I loved every second of it -- well, except for some of the third season, which was tough. But the humor returned to the scripts in Season 4, and we're able to leave with our heads held high. For me, personally, it was terrific playing a good guy with a sense of humor who was also a good father. I don't get to play many role models."
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Benjamin McKenzie (Ryan Atwood)
Then-24-year-old McKenzie was a complete unknown when "The O.C." launched in 2003. Now, he has a four-year TV series under his belt and roles in the 2005 feature "Junebug" and the upcoming thriller "88 Minutes" on his resume. Perhaps more importantly, though, McKenzie says he has the confidence that comes with the "tremendous blessing" of having held down a steady gig that put him on the acting map. "I've had a blast," McKenzie says. "I learned a lot about how the business works. I got a regular paycheck. I made a lot of great friends. It was fun to play a brooding teenage bad boy when I'm, in reality, a nonbrooding 28-year-old."

Autumn Reeser (Taylor Townsend)
While Reeser has worked steadily enough to make a living as an actress since 2000, the 26-year-old enjoyed what was easily her highest-profile job in joining "The O.C." during the show's third season -- she became a series regular during the fourth and final season. Of all the cast members, Reeser has to be the sorriest to see the show go, having arrived so late in the run. In keeping with California-set projects, Reeser next stars in director Brad Leong's dramedy "Palo Alto."

Kelly Rowan (Kirsten Cohen)
Rowan has been there for all 92 episodes of "The O.C.," portraying wife and mother Kirsten Cohen. And while it was her first regular role on a long-running series, Rowan, 41, has never had a problem finding work and, in fact, has started to move into production, executive producing two Lifetime dramas: 2006's "Eight Days to Live" and this year's "In God's Country." A little-known fact about Rowan is that she also had a three-episode stint on "Dallas" back in 1991 -- the same year she made her feature debut as Peter Pan's mother in Steven Spielberg's "Hook." Later this year, the Canada-born actress will be seen in the romantic comedy "Jack and Jill vs. the World," starring Freddie Prinze Jr.

[vinni2]

Alan Sepinwall blog
The OC: Josh says goodbye




http://sepinwall.blogspot.com/2007/0...s-goodbye.html

Today's column is an interview with Josh Schwartz about the end of "The O.C.," the beginning, and lots of things in between:

"The O.C." creator Josh Schwartz was in the middle of a storyline last season involving Johnny, an angst-ridden new character, when he got a note from his bosses at Fox.

"It was fairly indicative of the POV there (at the time): 'This is Fox, not Fox Searchlight,' " he says, referring to the boutique independent film division. "Thus, Johnny was hit by a car."

(Later, Johnny fell off a cliff and died.)

The Johnny memo was just one of many clashes Schwartz had with the network that year. He and the producers had already outlined the season's first six or seven episodes when they got an order to go back to the beginning and insert a femme fatale character, who was played by Jeri Ryan.

"It was tonally wrong, and we probably should have been focused on things like not making the Johnny storyline (stink)," he says.


To read the full column -- including Josh listing his favorite musical moments from the series -- click here. If you have a whole lot of time on your hands, the full transcript (or close to it) follows after the jump.

So, what can you tell me about the finale?

Nothing -- especially since the Fox promos did such a good job of giving almost everything away in the final act. (He sighs.) It definitely brings real closure to the series, it's almost like last week was the finale, and this week was almost a pilot for the future, as long as one's being pretentious

Will "The Valley" be canceled?

You'll have to watch and see, won't you? The fate of "The Valley" will be decided.

Now that you're done, how do you feel about these 16 episodes?

I'm immensely pleased with these 16. We went into this season with a real point of view about the kind of show we wanted to do, and I feel like we did that.

Is there anything you would have done differently if you knew going on that this would definitely be the final season?

What do you mean, "if"?

When we talked before the season, you were at least pretending to be hopeful.

We knew. You always want to have hope. You don't want to go into a season going, "It's over." But I think we knew.

So knowing that, what did you specifically want to accomplish with the last year?

It was really about, I felt at times last year, in the need for trying to deliver ratings, the storylines got a little overcooked, we lost some of the humor and some of the heart of the show, and it was forsaken for the spectacle of a promotable moment. Our show has always had to walk this line between melodrama, an operatic level of melodrama, and also this character-based romantic comedy. You ask a bunch of different people what they watched the show for and who they watch the show for, and you get a bunch of different answers. It was a fine line that the show had to walk, and I think this year, we decided if we were going to fall off the balance beam, we were going to fall more on the romantic comedy side, and that was the decision we made. You weren't having cliffhanger endings every week.

And no one literally fell off a cliff.

In our best episodes, even in this season, we were able to do both, and in every season. Our decision was, well, if we're not going to have the crazy story points, we're going to have to make it really funny.

Getting back to something we talked a little about at the beginning of the season, Taylor's really the only character you added after the beginning who stuck.

Well, there's also Kaitlin.

Technically, she was there at the beginning. You just recast her.

Touche.

So why did Taylor fit when, say, Alex or Zach or the others didn't?

First and foremost, it's Autumn Reeser. She's just tremendously talented and delightful to work with, and she wanted to be on the show and work really hard, and that came through. But also, when the show started, I'd never really done it before, I'd never watched "90210" or "Dynasty" or "Dallas," so the whole idea of introducing new characters, that was something I had to learn as I went. We never introduced any of those characters in season two with the intention of keeping them around. As much as I loved having Olivia Wilde on the show -- and we were forced to wrap up that storyline quicker than we wanted to because of what was going with the FCC -- even her, we never planned on keeping any of these characters long-term. When we introduced Taylor, we wanted to plant some characters to stick around for more than a season.

So you never planned for Lindsay or anyone else to be around long-term?

We never planned for it that way, and one of the things I've learned over the run of the show is that an expansive ensemble takes some of the weight off your principal characters, an ensemble that feels like it's part of the show. When you don't have your crisis of the week and it's just the relationships that sustains your show, it's good to have a wide gallery of characters and we created some characters that weren't intended for more than we used them.

In retrospect, is there anyone you wish you had kept?

I always loved having Luke on the show, and he may have quickly gone soft. We rehabilitated him very quickly, it wasn't long before he was strumming a guitar being a goofball, though I loved that part of him. I think there was room for him to stick around. Who knows about the great Luke/Anna love story? Now you can only find out about that in fanfics?

Why did Haylie keep vanishing?

Fox kept giving Amanda Righetti series regular jobs, she kept appearing in other Fox shows, and we weren't ready to commit to making her a series regular to keep her to ourselves.

Let's go back to the genesis for a minute. I know you've said that the pitch was "'The Karate Kid' without the karate'...

Or "'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' minus the wacky graffiti," take your pick. The genesis of it was, I had gone in for a general meeting at McG's company when Stephanie Savage was still working for his company, now she's a full-time producer on the show. We started talking and she mentioned Orange County as sort of a world, and she said they were open to any take. One of the suggestions was, "What about extreme sports cops, '21 Jump Street'-style?" I said, "Let me come back to you with characters." I didn't know extreme sports or cops, but I had gone to USC, been around these Newport kids, being a Jewish kid from Rhode Island, and being around all those Orange County kids, I felt extremely Jewish and extremely 5'9" and not buoyant in water. But I also knew it was really a seductive place and would have loved to have dated one of those girls.

I am very much a product of my pop culture influences, and so is Stephanie, so we were going to have one toe in the 80s teen movies of my youth and also a nod to all the "Rebel Without A Cause" and Douglas Sirk '50s melodramas as well. Aside from pop culture references, we wanted it grounded in a real family that was the only normal haven in this world. The wish-fulfillment of the show wasn't being given the keys to the kingdom, but was being adopted by this family that anyone would want to be a part of.

The Seth in the pilot wasn't really recognizable from who he became. How much of that transformation was getting to know Brody? And talk a little about how the show went from Ryan's story to Ryan and Seth's story.

It's Ryan's story again in the finale. Even if it didn't always seem that way, Ryan's story was the framework for the show. But one of the pleasures of working in a television show is getting to know your actors. Seth was always going to be a prominent part of the show, but there was a lot of fear in the beginning about having too comic a character in that role. We kept hearing from the network after we cast Ben, "Now that you've got Luke Perry, who's your Jason Priestley?" And we kept going, "That's not the model!" When Brody walked in the room to audition, he was also good-looking enough that people felt comfortable he could be a leading man, but if you go back and look at all the launch posters, he wasn't on them. They put Luke on instead of him.

I thought Seth's line last week about how turning their story into a body-switching comedy might get another couple of years out of it was the most self-aware line he's ever had.

He's got a couple more coming up…

Was there a struggle early on with you and the network over how funny the show should be?

Initially, it was okay. There were a few times -- the episode where we went to LA and followed Grady Bridges around, we had some rants taken out, and probably rightfully so. It was a balancing act, and I think maybe last year we went away from it. I think in time, the Gail Berman regime came to embrace the comdic elements of the show, but it certainly wasn't what anyone focused on initially. At the end of the day, we had to serve the melodrama part.

So it was Peter Liguori who was pushing you away from the comedy last year?

I'm not going to say anything bad about the guy.

Hey, you're off the air in a few days. What's he going to do?

Yeah, what's he going to do? Put us in a terrible timeslot and not promote us? No, seriously, he's a good guy, and he let us do the season this year that we really wanted to do, and do all 16 episodes, so I appreciated that a lot.

You know the Jeri Ryan story, right?

I've heard bits and pieces second-hand, but what's your version?

The third season got off to a weird and wacky start. After we'd already broken the first six or seven episodes -- which I'm not saying, by any means, were genius -- we were told we had to go bck and insert a new femme fatale in the show, from the first episode, and that the model was, if she was available, Nicolette Sheridan. And it was like, "Oh boy, where do we go from here?" Third seasons are tricky and I think maybe it became a little bit trickier, and we got a little bit thrown off balance.

It didn't seem like the kind of story you guys did.

It was tonally wrong, and we probably should have been focused on things like not making the Johnny storyline suck. All of a sudden you're scrambling, and I was not as focused as I probably should have been.

How could you have made the Johnny storyline not suck?

What it was intended to do initially was one thing, I don't remember anymore, but I've learned that if you're in a storyline that's not going well, end it fast.

(Later, Schwartz e-mails me to add, A note we got last year which was fairly indicative of the POV there was: "This is FOX, not FOX Searchlight." Thus, Johnny was hit by a car.)

I was surprised that, after you finally rid yourself of Johnny, you kept Volchok around, even into this season.

The show always needed the sort of harder-edged storytelling spine to it, that was a little more laced with melodrama, you need antagonistic energy. I think it worked the most successfully with Trey, and Volchok brought a little bit of that dangerous bad boy energy into the show. Ryan needs somebody to punch.

In season two, you had Sandy and Kirsten flirting with Kim Delaney and Billy Campbell, in season three there was Jeri Ryan and the hospital storyline; how hard was it to write interesting material for what's supposed to be an extremely happy, functional married couple?

It was a challenge. We were really lucky that we had great actors with great chemistry. The initial impulse was, let's keep them happy, but happy people in a happy marriage is a tricky thing to write in a nighttime serialized drama for Fox, so you start trying to trouble the marriage in ways that hopefully makes it stronger in the end. This season they've been strengthened and really fun and those perfect parents again. You want to service the actors in storylines, but the principal audience was a young adult audience, and I don't know how much they cared about the state of their marriage.

Well, getting back to what you said before about different parts of the audience watching for different reasons, what sense do you have of the effect Marissa's death had on that young adult audience?

It's so hard to tell. Quite honestly, the show was struggling last year in the ratings. I've been very upfront about the fact that I wasn't as focused on the show as I was in the past or the fickleness of the teenage audience. But I feel like any story that gets written about the show, it gets frustrating. You can't write it without talking about the scheduling. At its height, without the benefit of "Idol," had 7 and a half to 8 milion viewers -- even only 10 million with "Idol." It was never this huge across the board smash hit, and with every timeslot move, we lost 20 percent of our audience. There are big shows that start with 20 million viewers and get moved and lose 20 percent of their audience, and they can afford that. When you start with 7 and a half million viewers and you move, you're in trouble.

It's impossible to extrapolate what creatively cost us with viewers. Outside of the scheduling, it's so hard. I'm sure some people stopped watching because (Marissa) wasn't on the show. It was a risk of us making a move like that in an attempt to reinvigorate the show, but you can't say that that's the whole enchilada.

To rehash, your reasons for killing Marissa?

It felt like you can get locked into a little bit of a formula, dynamics that start to get predictable. To a lot of the audience, the Ryan and Marissa romance felt like it had played itself out, short of a happy ending, and that we had done everything with Marissa that was conceivable, including redemption, which is where she was at the end. She never struck me as the sort of character who would sail happily into the sunset, going back to her first appearance passed out drunk at the door to her house. It felt like the most fitting end for her.

If you had to pick an episode to show someone what "The O.C." is about, what would it be? "The Escape"?

That's a perfect example, because it did all the things that the show did, when it was firing on all cylinders. It was fun, it was dramatic, also real at times, sometimes silly. I also look at other episodes: the Valentine's Day episode from season one, the season one finale, "The Rainy Day Women."

Getting back to some other absent faces, did Tate Donovan want to leave, or did you run out of things to do with Jimmy?

Again, we're trying to tell enough kid stories and make sure we service Sandy and Kirsten, and at a certain point, something's gotta give. We felt like we couldn't service Jimmy.

And Caleb's death?

Similar type of thing. This was a character who we didn't think would be a part of the show and he became a major part of the show for two seasons. We felt his death would have major repercussions. It sent Kirsten into decline, made Julie single and poor.

Whatever happened to the Kaitlin spin-off where she was in boarding school?

I was about 17 episodes into the first season, and I was asked to go up into Rupert Murdoch's boardroom. Rupert wasn't there but all the head honchos at Fox were there, and I was asked, with a fair amount of pressure, to do another show. I was shown a schedule where, if I did this, "The O.C." would remain on Wednesdays at 9 and the new show would be on Tuesdays at 9 after "Idol." Who wouldn't want to do that? It wasn't wise of me to do that, I had plenty to learn about the TV business, but I said, "Okay, I don't want it to be a spin-off." I was worried about cannibalizing the show too soon, and spin-offs usually fail. Everyone signed off on that fact, I went off and worked on a pilot called "Athens." It was a big honor, it was going to keep "The O.C" behind "American Idol." Then I turned in the script and everyone said, "So how do we turn it into a spin-off?" It became a protracted battle not to make it a spin-off. Then I arrived at the upfronts to announce the new show and they said "The O.C." was moving to Thursdays, that was a perfect storm of its own. When it felt that was the only version of the pilot that was going to move forward was one I didn't believe in, I said, maybe as a compromise, we'd have discussions about a Kaitlin boarding school drama, and then Gail Berman went to Paramount, and those discussions ended.

After the show became so successful breaking bands, you introduced the Bait Shop in season two, and then it went away. What happened?

We used it for two years. I don't know, at the end of the day, if it was as interesting to the people at home to watch bands play as it was for me, but it was a good destination, and we got a lot of mileage out of it. I'm sort of restless, we do a storyline and I'm, "Okay, let's move on." That wasn't the only thing we dropped after a while.

Well, my thesis on the show -- and feel free to shoot holes in it -- has always been that your restlessness was what made the first season so great, and what made you struggle later on. You did the Seth/Anna/Summer triangle in, like, three episodes, where another show would have dragged it out for a year and a half, and that was great, but it meant that you had used a whole lot of material by the time season two began.

All the things that made the show a blast also meant that it was going to burn really really bright and really really fast. That's appropriate. I think four years for a young adult drama is a good amount of time. I don't believe shows should run forever and ever and ever. I have two pilots now, and if we're talking in four years, I'll be a very happy man.

The rate of speed of pop culture today makes it so it's not a necessity for shows to run forever. Some of my favorite shows about young people -- "My So-Called Life," "Freaks and Geeks," "Undeclared" -- didn't even run for a full season.

So we burned through a lot of stories, that was a lot of fun, but going into the second season, our attitude was, six episodes into the first season, we already had a drinking game, the rules of the show had been codified. And I thought, "Let's go into season two and change it up, let's not have Ryan hit anybody, split up our couples and surprise people by moving the show in a new direction." We tried so many new things at once, and we may have overthought it. I'm proud of that choice, but it was a lesson to be learned in that crash course in television.

Do you feel like you've learned enough that you'll be in better shape if either or both of your pilots go?

Famous last words, right? I'm sure there are new mistakes for me to make that I have even yet to know exist. It's been an amazing sort of on the job training, and to be able to do that while working on a show that was able to have the impact it had on the audience while it was on was amazing. We were shooting the finale, in Pasadena, on location, and there were all these kids gathered at the bottom of the street, crying, begging the cast for pictures, and I thought, how remarkable that there's still this passionate audience on the next to last day of filming.

What are you going to be doing on Thursday night?

Watching the show. It'll be a last celebration, I'm really proud of the episode. It'll be really satisfying. When it goes off the air, I'll make myself not read about the show anymore, and look back on it for the amazing experience that it was.


Note: I posted the text of the Alan Sepinwall article a few pages back. It's also in the magazine/news thread.

[vinni2]

This article from zap2it.com has already been posted.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/zap-theoc-j...,3531401.story


But I checked back again and there's a second article.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/zap-joshsch...,6933695.story

Schwartz Shares 'O.C.' Highlights and Lowlights
Creator loved Chrismukkah, hates Johnny

By Daniel Fienberg
February 22, 2007


Although his mind may have been occupied by the pending finale of "The O.C.," Josh Schwartz was willing to hop into the Wayback Machine to reflect on his show's four season run.

What were some of his favorite episodes?

"The pilot, just because I wrote it in my boxer shorts and I had no idea what would come of it and there was just that purity to it," Schwartz responds quickly.

He continues, "The Tijuana episode, episode seven, because for me it summarized the spirit of the show, that it could be funny and real and also operatically tragic. You had a Luke and Holly Jager-shot grind-out on the dancer floor, a club-wide brawl, a 'Sure Thing'-style road trip sequence, Ryan and Marissa fighting over Ding-Dongs and cheese sticks at the vending machine at the dive motel, Seth and Summer realizing they hate each other but they're an old married couple and then you had Marissa's O.D. It encapsulated the spirit of the show and hit all the notes."

He also salutes "The Rainy Day Women" from season two and "The Summer Bummer" from season four, as well as show's various episodes celebrating Thanksgivings, Easters and, of course, Chrismukkah.

"I always loved our holiday episodes. I think we did holidays really well. We didn't get to Sukkoth, which is a great regret of mine, or Yom Kippur, but who wants to watch people atone for an hour?"

Asked for least favorite episodes or story arcs, he's a bit more pragmatic.

"There are no episodes where we leaned too much on the comedy that I really regret, but there are some maybe the melodrama overtook the show," he hedges. "There's certainly the Johnny run from season three. That's probably the one I'd like to have back."

And what important lessons has he learned since beginning his run as an inexperienced twentysomething network showrunner?

"We had a great extended cast of characters and lot of those people we let go and tried bring in newer characters and tried to keep the world fresh and turning, and I think there was a lot of potential to be tapped in some of those characters that left the show early. I'm thinking of Anna and Luke and Haley and Jimmy and Caleb, though Caleb had a good run."

Were there any storylines that Schwartz wished they'd been able to pursue?

"There's very little, story-wise, that I think we left untapped," he says, after a couple seconds thought. "The thing we never did was mix and match our couples. You never saw Seth end up with Marissa and Ryan's dating Anna while Summer's with Luke. We never went that version. I think it would have been interesting. That ties in with my earlier point that if you have a canvas of characters that people are really responding to, you keep them around and figure it out."

With two pilots -- The CW's "Gossip Girls" and NBC's "Chuck" -- in the mix this spring, what has Schwartz learned about dealing with networks?

"That if you don't believe in something, say 'No,' because if you do something they ask you to do and it doesn't work, they don't really remember that they asked you," he says. "Just try to make the best show possible and not worry about the other stuff -- the numbers, the ratings, the other stuff -- but that's not gonna make a good show."

"The O.C." series finale airs Thursday (Feb. 22) night on FOX.

[vinni2]

http://media.www.dailycampus.com/med...-2736840.shtml

The Sun Finally Sets On The OC
Katie Uhlan
Posted: 2/22/07

Newport is no longer just a city in Southern California. "California," by Phantom Planet is no longer just a song. Adam Brody is no longer just an actor and Mischa Barton and Rachel Bilson are no longer just pretty faces. Water polo is no longer just a sport. And "The O.C.," is not just a county or a hit show on Fox.

"The O.C." is a pop culture superstar, and a show that will be a defining memory in the lives of anyone who tuned in on Thursday nights, or Tuesday nights before that, anyone who bought the DVDs or has said the words, "Can you believe what happened on 'The O.C.'?"

After four roller coaster rides of seasons "The O.C." has been cancelled and the final episode will air on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 9 p.m.

"The O.C." introduced the bands Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, Imogen Heap, Rooney and so many more into the mainstream vocabulary.

Through a device in the show, a indie music club called the Baitshop, real life musicians came onto the scene to perform working to both boost the careers of these musicians and something for the characters in the show to do for entertainment. Rooney was the first band to appear, and this episode was so popular they continued the trend by bringing in musicians Jem, The Walkmen, The Killers, Modest Mouse, The Thrills, Rachel Yamagata, Death Cab for Cutie, T.I., The Subways and Tom Vek.

Besides it's influence on the indie music scene, "The O.C." has also had an impact on other TV shows.

MTV's uber-popular reality show "Laguna Beach" is called "The Real O.C.," which has now had three successful seasons and one spin-off, called "The Hills." Another recent MTV release is "Maui Fever," which is basically "Laguna Beach," in Hawaii.

Throughout it's time on air "The O.C." has had it's ups and its downs. From it's first episode, aired on Aug. 5, 2003 the main cast has had a bit of a change.

The following is in a few sentences the high and low moments of the show: Marissa and Ryan meet eyes for the first time at the end of Marissa's driveway, they share a cigarette and tension that can be cut with a knife. Ryan and Seth crash a beach party where they get into a huge fight and Ryan gets welcomed to the county in a not-so-friendly way, by macho water polo player Luke, who also happens to be Marissa's boyfriend. Flash forward to Seth, in love with Summer since third grade, who now has hair under his thumb, but wait, there is the adorable Anna who shares his love of comic books.

Then there is the infamous Oliver, the psychopath Marissa meets while in rehab and befriends, who then tries to kill her and himself, but Ryan comes to the rescue. Marissa nearly overdoses in Mexico, becomes a lesbian for five seconds, gets involved with bad boy Volchick and then dies tragically in Ryan's arms after a car accident.

Seth smokes pot, lies to Summer about Brown University, burns down the Newport Group, asks Summer to marry him and then gets a job at a comic book store. Ryan starts as a cage fighter and now he's dating the preppiest girl in Newport. Summer goes all hippy, environmental and rejects Seth's proposal, and is about to take a job talking to college students across America.

The message boards and blogs are all a-buzz with how they are going to end it. The series finale is called "The End's Not Near, It's Here," and according to discussion on tv.com predictions are being made about the future of Ryan and Taylor, "I obviously want to see Ryan happy, as well, but I was such a big Ryan and Marissa fan that its hard to see him with someone else," said TheOCIsLove. "It is sad knowing that at any moment, if he found out Marissa were alive, he would ditch Taylor."

Another message posting "was what are we going to do now?" One fan, Lois-Lane didn't really know what to do with herself, "The O.C. is one of the best shows I know and I know its a TV show but damn its going to be hard getting over it … What will be nice is that after few years they make a movie on how things turned out, that would be awesome."

However, the show turns out, or how hard it will be to get over it, just know there will always be the boxed sets. The fourth season is already in production, to be release May 22 for about $50.

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...icle_10322.asp

medialifemagazine.com

TV This Week
One last sigh: 'The O.C.' says so long
By Diego Vasquez
Feb 22, 2007, 01:00

Like Marissa Cooper, the show’s ill-fated heroine, “The O.C.” burned bright and died young. And like Cooper, who was killed last year after her ex-boyfriend ran her current boyfriend’s car off the road, the cause of death for “O.C.,” which ends its four-year run tonight at 9 p.m. on Fox, was fickle teenagehood.

The show debuted in 2003 as an afterthought, part of the network’s brief and ill-fated summer programming strategy. But it quickly grew into a hit, and when it returned in winter 2004, paired with “American Idol,” “The O.C.” became one of broadcast’s top shows among teenagers.

"O.C." also did decently with young adults, but it found a real following among high school and college-age kids, who became its core audience. The kids on screen dealt with real-life problems like pregnancy and parents with a dry, sarcastic edge that so many angsty teen shows lack.

Alas, “O.C.” may have been done in part by its own creative ambitions. Plotlines became dark and complicated, relationships had too many stops and starts, and Marissa’s death sent many fans fleeing.

A move from Wednesday to Thursday in season two hurt, too. Viewership began to fall, then plummeted this year when ABC’s mega-hit “Grey’s Anatomy” moved into its timeslot. "O.C.'s" penultimate episode last week drew a sickly 3.65 million total viewers, 1.24 million fewer than watched a repeat of “Grey’s” last Friday night.

That total may rise tonight as sentimental viewers return for one last look, but it probably won’t rise that much. “O.C.” airs opposite the climax of a “Grey’s” three-parter and of course CBS’s still-solid “CSI.”

But “O.C.” will have a lasting legacy. It was one of the few really clever TV shows about teens, and you can see its influence in shows that came after, like “Supernatural” and even “Friday Night Lights.”

Adding:

http://dracutweblog.blogspot.com/200...y-knew_22.html

http://blog.netscape.com/2007/02/22/goodbye-to-the-o-c/

http://blog.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/?p=54

[jillian]

thanks for the article flood.

[vinni2]

http://digital.nationalpost.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

This is how they did it in the O.C.
Leslie Gray Streeter, Cox News Service

When the tony denizens of The O.C. take their last jaunt around Newport Beach tonight, they can be confident that the cultural impact of the show’s relatively short four seasons of witty quips, pool parties and monied angst will be felt because of the following: 1. It reinvented the nighttime soap Yeah, so there are similarities between The O.C. and its teen drama predecessor Beverly Hills, 90210 — Chino thug Ryan Atwood’s immersion into the wealth of his new home in Newport Beach mirrored those perky Walsh twins’ conversion from Minnesota fresh-faced to Rodeo Drive chic. But creator Josh Schwartz also borrowed from the boardroom shenanigans of Dynasty, the neighbourly goings-on of Knots Landing and the mid-life crises of thirtysomething, turning them into something referential but still current. 2. It was about family relationships — twisted, pain-ridden family relationships, but family relationships nonetheless The secret to The O.C.’ cross-generational appeal was the way it gave parents and children equal focus in its storylines, and treated the impact of the characters’ decisions on each other as important. For instance, social climber Julie Cooper’s trampiness deepened beyond farce or two-dimensional villainy when you remembered she was somebody’s mother. 3. It became a televised jukebox without descending into cheese Fictional television shows have been platforms for bands ever since Ricky Nelson played for the cool kids on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. But while Ozzie shilled its own hot star, and Beverly Hills, 90210’ s musical interludes at the Peach Pit After Dark were awkward product placements, the Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, Interpol and Bright Eyes songs on The O.C. were woven into the character development of cute geek Seth Cohen. 4. It included familiar character types — then let them be anything but typical Anyone watching The O.C.’ s premiere episode would have been forgiven for rolling their eyes at what seemed like stock characters. The comic geek with the crush on the snotty, clique-conscious pretty girl? The former thug in love with the lovely, pouty princess? Been there. The princess’ fight-starting blond jock boyfriend? Done that. But actually putting the geek and the snot together without either one getting a major makeover? That’s different. 5. It made religion, sexual identity and culture a part of the story while sparing us the Very Special Episode Newport Beach was a fairly WASPy place, and Schwartz didn’t shy away from divisions that would, quite realistically, be apparent in such a place. Kirsten and Sandy Cohen were presented quite clearly as a loving, interfaith couple who celebrate an inclusive holiday for their son (Chrismukkah, anyone?) but whose relationship still showed their differences.

http://blog.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/?p=54

Say Goodbye to The OC, Bitch
Published by editor February 22nd, 2007 in pop culture and tv.
by Tim Shenk

High schoolers watch lots of TV and they have lots of disposable income, which is why there are so many shows about high school. Some of these shows, despite rampant mediocrity, parlay soap opera plotlines and a hot cast into extended primetime runs. 90210, probably the best example of the genre, lasted for ten years, which is longer than eternity in television time. There are other shows that draw smart portraits of outcasts, the only people likely to develop any emotional depth while teenagers, for instance My So Called Life and Freaks and Geeks. They both ran for one season. The moral of the story seems pretty clear: mediocre shows that pander to the lowest common denominator last forever; good shows get cancelled faster than you can say “critically acclaimed.”

The O.C. tried to change this. For a while, it even succeeded. But tonight, it all comes to an end, at 9pm on FOX.

In case you are reading this despite having never heard of the show before, though I can’t imagine why you would do such a silly thing, think of it as Good Will Hunting on the West Coast. Ryan Atwood, a brilliant kid from the mean streets of Chino finds himself almost magically transported by his do-gooder public defense attorney, Sandy Cohen (played by Peter Gallagher, he of the majestic eye-brows), to Newport Beach, home to the rich, powerful, and nicely tanned. There he falls in love with Marissa Cooper, the girl next door with a thing for bad boys. The premise—part teen sex romp, part fairy tale—made The OC an instant hit when it debuted in the summer of 2003.

But the show was better than that outline makes it appear. After moving to Newport, Ryan becomes friends with Sandy’s son, Seth, who has the misfortune of being the only person in the county who knows how to read a book. Alone, Seth and Ryan are just outcasts. Together, they’re still outcasts. But at least they have each other.

They also have a relationship that provides the show with emotional depth and damn good dialogue. Here’s a sample:

Seth: So when you lost your virginity, I was playing Magic the Gathering. 


Ryan: You still play Magic.

Seth: Yeah, but not as much.

It’s a character from 90210 talking to a character from Freaks and Geeks. Plus it’s pretty funny.

This dynamic—combined with the show’s intricate plotting, consistently engaging acting, wry grasp of pop-cultures, and a steady stream of musical montages scored by bands ranging from Radiohead, to Sufjan Stevens, to Preston School of Industry, to Bob Seeger—made The OC more than a hit. It made The OC into damn good TV.

Not that the show didn’t have its flaws. The acting could be laughably bad, although this almost always came from Mischa Barton, who played Marissa. Some plots turned the show into a parody of itself, although these almost always involved Mischa Barton in some way. Also, the show prominently featured Mischa Barton.

Unfortunately, after the first season, both the ratings and the quality of the series began to decline, slowly in the first season and like a stone in the third. Fox decided to move The OC from its plum post-American Idol spot to Thursday, where it competed against established hits from the other networks. At the same time, Josh Schwartz, the wunderkind creator of The OC who became the youngest executive producer in TV history when Fox bought the series, spent less and less time with the show, allowing less talented writers to take his place. These were both bad decisions.

In this season, its fourth, the show’s quality has returned to levels last seen in the glory days of season, largely because Schwartz increased his involvement with it. Though the show has improved, its ratings have not. In January, Fox announced that this season of The OC would be its last. When the season finale airs tonight, you should watch it. The writers killed of Marissa at the end of season three (another reason for the rise in quality), so you don’t have to worry about watching Mischa Barton “act.” Or “speak.” Or “exist.” And Josh Schwartz, the author of tonight’s episode, knows his way around a good script.

If you really want to appreciate the show, rent season one from Kim’s and watch as much as possible as quickly as possible. By the time you get to the episode where Seth says that in his first time having sex he “was like a fish flopping around on dry land. I was Nemo, and I just wanted to go home,” or where Paris Hilton explains that she loves Thomas Pynchon and considers Gravity’s Rainbow his masterpiece, you’ll understand why The OC was more than a vapid teen drama, or even a commercially viable adaptation of My So Called Life and Freaks and Geeks. It was better.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/entertainment/ci_5279689

'The O.C.' closes its gates for good tonight
Column by Susan Young
Article Last Updated: 02/22/2007 02:42:35 PM PST


"THE O.C." SAYS GOODBYE: Awe, don't they look like "The Waltons"?

The Cohen family says goodbye in "The O.C." series finale "The End Isn't Near, It's Here" at 9 tonight on Fox-Channel 2. From left, Ben McKenzie, Autumn Reeser, Kelly Rowan, Peter Gallagher, Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody star in the final episode. "The O.C." series finale
8 tonight on Fox-Channel 2

During a press conference a few weeks before the Aug. 5, 2003 premiere of "The O.C.," a clueless TV critic asked Adam Brody if his character Seth was developmentally disabled.

After the conference, Brody sat by himself at the end of the stage with nary a reporter even close to him.

"Did you think I was slow on the show?" a clearly depressed Brody asked when I approached him. I reassured the actor that I thought he was one of the best things on the series.

Few people, including Brody, expected "The O.C." to explode into a mega-hit and culture phenomenon that summer.

The simple story of an outsider Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) taken in by a wealthy couple (Kelly Rowan and Peter Gallagher) and their geeky son Seth (Brody) was appealing. The bright young boy knocked around by life, hard on the outside and sensitive, intelligent and kind of marshmallowy on the inside, captivated us, especially as he yearned for Marissa (Mischa Barton), the pretty troubled girl next door.

We knew this series rocked the first time we watched the pilot, with the pugilistic Ryan (he ended up in 22 fights over the years) tangled with a jealous Luke in the season premiere.

"Welcome to the O.C. bitch. This is how it's done in Orange County," says Luke, Marissa's then-boyfriend, after pummeling Ryan.

But Ry wasn't about to let that stand.

"Know what I like about rich kids? Nothing," he says before rocking Luke's world with a punch heard 'round the world.
Phantom Planet's "California" set the musical tone for the series, which introduced the masses to such indie bands as Death Cab for Cutie, Rooney and Modest Mouse.

That first season the story lines came fast and furious. Ryan alone whipped through, like, five girls before getting with Marissa. And even after that, the two of them continued to break up, hook up and get back together.


Not only did we go through a lot of fights, even some not involving Ryan, but also a lot of flames. Two places were burned down: Candles knocked over during a fight between Ryan and Luke consumed Kirsten's model home in a fiery blaze, and a stoned Seth let his joint start a fire that burned down his mom's office, The Newport Group headquarters.


Seth nursed an unrequited love affair with the lovely Summer (Rachel Bilson) since elementary school, but Ryan's cool rubbed off and he finally got the girl early in the first season. Who can forget when she dressed up as sexy Wonder Woman, complete with golden lasso, just to get his attention?

"I hear you like comic books, Cohen," she purred.

Between the sex, fights and fires, we were introduced to Chrismukkah.

"See, for my father here, a poor struggling Jew growing up in the Bronx, Christmas meant Chinese food and a movie. My mom over here, Waspy McWasp, well, it meant a tree, it meant stockings and all the trimmings," Seth explains to Ryan before diving into the odd holiday Cohen family traditions.

And we met The Nana, Seth's quirky grandma Cohen played by Linda Lavin ("Alice").

But after a splendid first season, a second rockier season ensued. Things started falling apart completely in the third season, and a rejuvenated fourth season couldn't bring back the viewers.

Even the supportive fans at UC Berkeley's law school couldn't quite raise a proper level of excitement for the show any more.

Sandy and Kirsten met while students at UC Berkeley, so seeing an

Rapper Pall Wall (back) and Johnny Dang, Paul Wall's business partner (front), meet children upon their arrival in Kono. (Irena Mihova)opportunity to have a fan club on campus, law student John Kim started the O.C. at Boalt. To keep an official status on campus, the club needed to provide a service, so a scholarship in the name of Sandy Cohen was born.
Peter Gallagher not only helped to fun the scholarship, which was awarded each May to a deserving law student who would work in the public defender's office, but also showed up to hand it out.

Tonight, "The O.C." creator Josh Schwartz promises a special homage to Berkeley and "The O.C. at Boalt" fans. We suspect that the Cohens will leave their earthquake-thrashed home and move back to Berkeley. Ryan and his girlfriend, Taylor, have already decided to attended Cal in the fall.

Welcome to Berkeley, bitch.

[vinni2]

http://digital.nationalpost.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

This is how they did it in the O.C.
Leslie Gray Streeter, Cox News Service

When the tony denizens of The O.C. take their last jaunt around Newport Beach tonight, they can be confident that the cultural impact of the show’s relatively short four seasons of witty quips, pool parties and monied angst will be felt because of the following: 1. It reinvented the nighttime soap Yeah, so there are similarities between The O.C. and its teen drama predecessor Beverly Hills, 90210 — Chino thug Ryan Atwood’s immersion into the wealth of his new home in Newport Beach mirrored those perky Walsh twins’ conversion from Minnesota fresh-faced to Rodeo Drive chic. But creator Josh Schwartz also borrowed from the boardroom shenanigans of Dynasty, the neighbourly goings-on of Knots Landing and the mid-life crises of thirtysomething, turning them into something referential but still current. 2. It was about family relationships — twisted, pain-ridden family relationships, but family relationships nonetheless The secret to The O.C.’ cross-generational appeal was the way it gave parents and children equal focus in its storylines, and treated the impact of the characters’ decisions on each other as important. For instance, social climber Julie Cooper’s trampiness deepened beyond farce or two-dimensional villainy when you remembered she was somebody’s mother. 3. It became a televised jukebox without descending into cheese Fictional television shows have been platforms for bands ever since Ricky Nelson played for the cool kids on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. But while Ozzie shilled its own hot star, and Beverly Hills, 90210’ s musical interludes at the Peach Pit After Dark were awkward product placements, the Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, Interpol and Bright Eyes songs on The O.C. were woven into the character development of cute geek Seth Cohen. 4. It included familiar character types — then let them be anything but typical Anyone watching The O.C.’ s premiere episode would have been forgiven for rolling their eyes at what seemed like stock characters. The comic geek with the crush on the snotty, clique-conscious pretty girl? The former thug in love with the lovely, pouty princess? Been there. The princess’ fight-starting blond jock boyfriend? Done that. But actually putting the geek and the snot together without either one getting a major makeover? That’s different. 5. It made religion, sexual identity and culture a part of the story while sparing us the Very Special Episode Newport Beach was a fairly WASPy place, and Schwartz didn’t shy away from divisions that would, quite realistically, be apparent in such a place. Kirsten and Sandy Cohen were presented quite clearly as a loving, interfaith couple who celebrate an inclusive holiday for their son (Chrismukkah, anyone?) but whose relationship still showed their differences.

http://blog.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/?p=54

Say Goodbye to The OC, Bitch
Published by editor February 22nd, 2007 in pop culture and tv.
by Tim Shenk

High schoolers watch lots of TV and they have lots of disposable income, which is why there are so many shows about high school. Some of these shows, despite rampant mediocrity, parlay soap opera plotlines and a hot cast into extended primetime runs. 90210, probably the best example of the genre, lasted for ten years, which is longer than eternity in television time. There are other shows that draw smart portraits of outcasts, the only people likely to develop any emotional depth while teenagers, for instance My So Called Life and Freaks and Geeks. They both ran for one season. The moral of the story seems pretty clear: mediocre shows that pander to the lowest common denominator last forever; good shows get cancelled faster than you can say “critically acclaimed.”

The O.C. tried to change this. For a while, it even succeeded. But tonight, it all comes to an end, at 9pm on FOX.

In case you are reading this despite having never heard of the show before, though I can’t imagine why you would do such a silly thing, think of it as Good Will Hunting on the West Coast. Ryan Atwood, a brilliant kid from the mean streets of Chino finds himself almost magically transported by his do-gooder public defense attorney, Sandy Cohen (played by Peter Gallagher, he of the majestic eye-brows), to Newport Beach, home to the rich, powerful, and nicely tanned. There he falls in love with Marissa Cooper, the girl next door with a thing for bad boys. The premise—part teen sex romp, part fairy tale—made The OC an instant hit when it debuted in the summer of 2003.

But the show was better than that outline makes it appear. After moving to Newport, Ryan becomes friends with Sandy’s son, Seth, who has the misfortune of being the only person in the county who knows how to read a book. Alone, Seth and Ryan are just outcasts. Together, they’re still outcasts. But at least they have each other.

They also have a relationship that provides the show with emotional depth and damn good dialogue. Here’s a sample:

Seth: So when you lost your virginity, I was playing Magic the Gathering. 


Ryan: You still play Magic.

Seth: Yeah, but not as much.

It’s a character from 90210 talking to a character from Freaks and Geeks. Plus it’s pretty funny.

This dynamic—combined with the show’s intricate plotting, consistently engaging acting, wry grasp of pop-cultures, and a steady stream of musical montages scored by bands ranging from Radiohead, to Sufjan Stevens, to Preston School of Industry, to Bob Seeger—made The OC more than a hit. It made The OC into damn good TV.

Not that the show didn’t have its flaws. The acting could be laughably bad, although this almost always came from Mischa Barton, who played Marissa. Some plots turned the show into a parody of itself, although these almost always involved Mischa Barton in some way. Also, the show prominently featured Mischa Barton.

Unfortunately, after the first season, both the ratings and the quality of the series began to decline, slowly in the first season and like a stone in the third. Fox decided to move The OC from its plum post-American Idol spot to Thursday, where it competed against established hits from the other networks. At the same time, Josh Schwartz, the wunderkind creator of The OC who became the youngest executive producer in TV history when Fox bought the series, spent less and less time with the show, allowing less talented writers to take his place. These were both bad decisions.

In this season, its fourth, the show’s quality has returned to levels last seen in the glory days of season, largely because Schwartz increased his involvement with it. Though the show has improved, its ratings have not. In January, Fox announced that this season of The OC would be its last. When the season finale airs tonight, you should watch it. The writers killed of Marissa at the end of season three (another reason for the rise in quality), so you don’t have to worry about watching Mischa Barton “act.” Or “speak.” Or “exist.” And Josh Schwartz, the author of tonight’s episode, knows his way around a good script.

If you really want to appreciate the show, rent season one from Kim’s and watch as much as possible as quickly as possible. By the time you get to the episode where Seth says that in his first time having sex he “was like a fish flopping around on dry land. I was Nemo, and I just wanted to go home,” or where Paris Hilton explains that she loves Thomas Pynchon and considers Gravity’s Rainbow his masterpiece, you’ll understand why The OC was more than a vapid teen drama, or even a commercially viable adaptation of My So Called Life and Freaks and Geeks. It was better.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/entertainment/ci_5279689

'The O.C.' closes its gates for good tonight
Column by Susan Young
Article Last Updated: 02/22/2007 02:42:35 PM PST


"THE O.C." SAYS GOODBYE: Awe, don't they look like "The Waltons"?

The Cohen family says goodbye in "The O.C." series finale "The End Isn't Near, It's Here" at 9 tonight on Fox-Channel 2. From left, Ben McKenzie, Autumn Reeser, Kelly Rowan, Peter Gallagher, Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody star in the final episode. "The O.C." series finale
8 tonight on Fox-Channel 2

During a press conference a few weeks before the Aug. 5, 2003 premiere of "The O.C.," a clueless TV critic asked Adam Brody if his character Seth was developmentally disabled.

After the conference, Brody sat by himself at the end of the stage with nary a reporter even close to him.

"Did you think I was slow on the show?" a clearly depressed Brody asked when I approached him. I reassured the actor that I thought he was one of the best things on the series.

Few people, including Brody, expected "The O.C." to explode into a mega-hit and culture phenomenon that summer.

The simple story of an outsider Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) taken in by a wealthy couple (Kelly Rowan and Peter Gallagher) and their geeky son Seth (Brody) was appealing. The bright young boy knocked around by life, hard on the outside and sensitive, intelligent and kind of marshmallowy on the inside, captivated us, especially as he yearned for Marissa (Mischa Barton), the pretty troubled girl next door.

We knew this series rocked the first time we watched the pilot, with the pugilistic Ryan (he ended up in 22 fights over the years) tangled with a jealous Luke in the season premiere.

"Welcome to the O.C. bitch. This is how it's done in Orange County," says Luke, Marissa's then-boyfriend, after pummeling Ryan.

But Ry wasn't about to let that stand.

"Know what I like about rich kids? Nothing," he says before rocking Luke's world with a punch heard 'round the world.
Phantom Planet's "California" set the musical tone for the series, which introduced the masses to such indie bands as Death Cab for Cutie, Rooney and Modest Mouse.

That first season the story lines came fast and furious. Ryan alone whipped through, like, five girls before getting with Marissa. And even after that, the two of them continued to break up, hook up and get back together.


Not only did we go through a lot of fights, even some not involving Ryan, but also a lot of flames. Two places were burned down: Candles knocked over during a fight between Ryan and Luke consumed Kirsten's model home in a fiery blaze, and a stoned Seth let his joint start a fire that burned down his mom's office, The Newport Group headquarters.


Seth nursed an unrequited love affair with the lovely Summer (Rachel Bilson) since elementary school, but Ryan's cool rubbed off and he finally got the girl early in the first season. Who can forget when she dressed up as sexy Wonder Woman, complete with golden lasso, just to get his attention?

"I hear you like comic books, Cohen," she purred.

Between the sex, fights and fires, we were introduced to Chrismukkah.

"See, for my father here, a poor struggling Jew growing up in the Bronx, Christmas meant Chinese food and a movie. My mom over here, Waspy McWasp, well, it meant a tree, it meant stockings and all the trimmings," Seth explains to Ryan before diving into the odd holiday Cohen family traditions.

And we met The Nana, Seth's quirky grandma Cohen played by Linda Lavin ("Alice").

But after a splendid first season, a second rockier season ensued. Things started falling apart completely in the third season, and a rejuvenated fourth season couldn't bring back the viewers.

Even the supportive fans at UC Berkeley's law school couldn't quite raise a proper level of excitement for the show any more.

Sandy and Kirsten met while students at UC Berkeley, so seeing an

Rapper Pall Wall (back) and Johnny Dang, Paul Wall's business partner (front), meet children upon their arrival in Kono. (Irena Mihova)opportunity to have a fan club on campus, law student John Kim started the O.C. at Boalt. To keep an official status on campus, the club needed to provide a service, so a scholarship in the name of Sandy Cohen was born.
Peter Gallagher not only helped to fun the scholarship, which was awarded each May to a deserving law student who would work in the public defender's office, but also showed up to hand it out.

Tonight, "The O.C." creator Josh Schwartz promises a special homage to Berkeley and "The O.C. at Boalt" fans. We suspect that the Cohens will leave their earthquake-thrashed home and move back to Berkeley. Ryan and his girlfriend, Taylor, have already decided to attended Cal in the fall.

Welcome to Berkeley, bitch.

[vinni2]

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007..._is_endin.html




'The O.C.' is ending! How should I stuff my face?
Feb 22, 2007, 04:46 PM | by Annie Barrett

Categories: Food and Drink, Television

PopWatch reader Caroline wrote in last week about wanting to co-host an O.C. Finale Party, and wondered: "Do you have suggestions of what we should serve? Maybe a little Pad Thai? Some Chardonnay? What would be uniquely O.C. that could end the series right?" A superb question, and right up my alley. We exchanged a few e-mails, and together came up with this list:

• Pancakes (for Summer)
• Gold Medal Ribbon ice cream from Baskin Robbins (Kaitlin's fave)
• Bagels (with slicer)
• Shrimp Tacos (Sandy's pick from El Pavo Guapo)
• Corn Dogs (Frank, ew.)
• Whatever that ice cream bar was that Marissa and Ryan got on the boardwalk in season 1 (Caroline knew it: Balboa Bars! Are those real?)
• Hot Pockets (Julie, pictured, in the trailer)
• Cheese Stix and Ding Dongs
• "Fresh Margs?" (Kirsten)
• One of Lindsay's disgusting Zone meals
• Tequila shots (for sorrow-drowning)

Post your own ideas below, then leave work early to start shopping.

_____________

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/...c-3fde5b69b133

The O.C. Flames Out

by Sarah Hall

Say goodbye to The O.C., bitch.

After four seasons of sand, sun and adolescent angst, Fox's fictional crew of privileged Southern California teens were hosting their final beach party Thursday.

The demise of the once-scorching series was announced last month, after the show's average audience dwindled to an all-time low of about 4 million viewers per episode, down from the almost 10 million viewers that tuned in for the first season finale.

With its tony Newport Beach setting and a fetching young clique of characters played by Mischa Barton, Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody and Benjamin McKenzie, The O.C. was never lacking in the eye candy department.

But rather than allowing the show to coast on looks alone (a formula that has worked well for its MTV spinoff, Laguna Beach), series creator Josh Schwartz forced his beautiful people to suffer through situations including teen pregnancy, addiction, infidelity, fatal car crashes and more.

Of course, there were good times as well, what with Chrismukkah celebrations, girl-on-girl makeout sessions, um, Chrismukkah celebrations…

Though viewers lapped up the drama for the first two seasons, by the third season, The O.C.'s sudsy storytelling was beginning to wear thin, even as the show continued to struggle in its Thursday timeslot.

Meanwhile, word spread that Barton had tired of playing willowy beauty Marissa Cooper and was preparing to exit the show, much to the dismay of the show's longtime fans.

As the third season finale approached with promos promising the death of a central character, Barton did nothing to quell speculation about her character's destiny, stating her belief that she had gone as far as she could with the role

"My character has been through so, so much and there's really nothing more left for her to do," Barton told Access Hollywood days before the finale aired last May.

Sure enough, the season concluded with Marissa's death in a fiery car crash.

Though Barton told Newsweek it was the producers' decision to kill her character off the show, she said she was excited she got to die, as opposed to going out with "one of those lame farewells."

When asked if she would ever return to the show, perhaps in a dream sequence, Barton scoffed at the idea, saying it "would be cheesy."

With that attitude, any chance of a Marissa flashback in the series finale seems unlikely, if not impossible.

Though Schwartz has kept the outcome of the series closely guarded, he has said that the show will wrap up the storyline of each of its characters in some way.

While the promos have promised viewers both a baby and a wedding, the romantic fates of Summer (Bilson) and Seth (Brody) and Ryan (McKenzie) and Taylor (Autumn Reeser) remain up in the air.

Since The O.C. could probably have hung up its flip-flops long ago, as far as the majority of TV fans are concerned, the show's true legacy may prove to be its soundtracks, as opposed to its DVDs.

With its commitment to giving indie musicians a chance in the spotlight, the show helped make overnight sensations out of bands including Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes, Imogen Heap and Surfjan Stevens, and spawned six popular compilation albums.

Whether or not you actually watched The O.C., there was no denying that its Phantom Planet theme song was catchy. "California…Californiaaaaaaaa…Here we coooooome…"

Except this time, there they go.

http://www.tv.com/story/8846.html?om...dlines;title;0

R.I.P. O.C.
By Shirin Shoai - TV.com
February 22, 2007 at 04:53:00 PM | more stories by this author

Tonight's series finale marks sundown for once-ebullient teen drama.

The sun is finally setting on the Cohen clan and their moneyed Newport Beach associates tonight as Fox's The O.C. ends its four-season run. After skyrocketing to pop-phenomenon status during its summer 2003 debut, the series, focusing on a group of friends and families whose lives were changed by the arrival of an outsider (Benjamin McKenzie), suffered from a succession of timeslot shuffles and, in the eyes of many, creative slumps that steadily cost the teen soap ratings until the network ultimately decided to pull the plug this year.

So far this season, the show is averaging about 4.1 million total viewers, less than half of what it garnered during its debut season, according to Nielsen Media Research. Last season it averaged 5.7 million.

Like Beverly Hills, 90210 a decade earlier, The O.C. became the barometer of cool for a generation of tweens and teens weaned on dozens of iterations of MTV and reality television programming. Female leads Mischa Barton (killed off at the end of last season) and Rachel Bilson became instant celebrity It-girls, while brooding bad-boy McKenzie and his witty, indie-stylish counterpart, Adam Brody, each appealed to their own subset of fandom. In addition to coining the term "Christmukkah" (character Seth Cohen's hybrid of "Christmas" and "Hanukkah"), the show was gleefully praised for its torrent of pop-culture references, from The Da Vinci Code to its sexy homage to Wonder Woman, and for its soundtracks, which helped bring such hipster bands as Death Cab for Cutie and The Killers into the mainstream.

"This feels like the best time to bring the show to its close," said O.C. creator/executive producer Josh Schwartz, according to The Hollywood Reporter/Reuters. "Thanks to the hard work of our cast, crew and writers, we have enjoyed our best season yet, and what better time to go out than creatively on top."

The O.C. airs tonight at 9 p.m. PT/ET on Fox.