On August 5, 2003, the Fox network premiered The O.C., a teen drama set against the lush backdrop of Newport Beach, California, about the chaos that ensues when wealthy lawyer Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher) takes Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie), a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, to live with his family in their huge McMansion. The show was an instant sensation, making stars out of McKenzie, Mischa Barton (as fragile Newport princess Marissa Cooper), Adam Brody (as Sandy’s nerdy son Seth), and Rachel Bilson (as Seth’s forever crush Summer Roberts), and redefining how TV shows incorporated music with its loving spotlight on indie rock bands like Death Cab For Cutie. It helped put Orange County on the map (the minds behind Laguna Beach and The Real Housewives admit they drew heavy inspiration from the Cohens and their friends), and had room for plenty of comedy in the likes of the blended holiday of Chrismukkah, Yogalates, and Seth’s plastic toy horse Captain Oats. Its 27-episode first season remains an all-timer, in part because it incorporated as much plot as other shows like it would spread out over three or four years.
And in this 20th anniversary year, I’ve written an oral history book about the whole thing: Welcome To The O.C., coming to you on November 28, from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Done in collaboration with O.C. creator Josh Schwartz and his longtime producing partner Stephanie Savage, Welcome To The O.C. features exclusive interviews with the entire regular cast — McKenzie, Barton, Brody, Bilson, Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, Melinda Clarke, Tate Donovan, Chris Carmack, Autumn Reeser, Willa Holland, and Alan Dale — plus key members of the creative team (like pilot director Doug Liman), notable recurring guest stars, and members of the bands whose music would become inextricably linked with the series, for good and for ill.
It is a warts-and-all portrait of the series, both on screen and off, demonstrating how fleeting phenomenon status can be, how overnight success can start to feel like a trap, how coworkers go from feeling like friends to actively avoiding one another, and more. Everyone was very candid about the good (the perks of overnight celebrity, and the creative highs of the early years), the bad (questionable story choices and cast unrest in the middle seasons), and the ugly (Barton’s controversial departure at the end of Season Three).
Schwartz — who wrote the series pilot when he was 26, becoming one of the youngest showrunners in TV history — says of the book, “It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years, but I am thrilled and gratified that people still want to talk about The O.C., maybe even more than when the show was on! I am so appreciative that much of the cast and crew shared their experiences and helped bring this book to life. Whether you’re a fan of this show, or behind-the-scenes books in general, hopefully this is for you.”
Savage, who developed the series with Schwartz and came to be a writer and executive producer, adds, “The journey of making The O.C. was as much a coming-of-age story for the people behind the scenes as it was the characters on screen. The oral history has been an incredible way to gather perspectives and tell a story that surprised even us.”
Chrismukkah isn’t until much later in the year, but Welcome To The O.C. is available for pre-order now for the Seth or Summer in your life. (And it’s OK to admit that the Seth or Summer is you.)
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