Suddenly, there was a hole in data pipe television, and it was oneO.C.creator Josh Schwartz would fill.
This was a space that Fox really wanted aggressively to get into, Schwartz says.
Enter Ryan Atwood, the handsome outsider from the wrong side of the tracks.
‘The O.C.'.Everett Collection
Over the course of its 27-episode first season,The O.C.became a teen phenomenon of its own.
And it all began with one heck of a pilot.
He had a little bit moreFreaks and Geeksenergy.
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But the biggest change was when we found Adam Brody.
The model had always been: You get your Luke Perry and you get your Jason Priestley.
SCHWARTZ:“The trick with Ryan was that he was not passive but that he’s an observer.
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He was kind of like a stray puppy in a way.
Hopefully the audience would understand that he was a good kid who just needed somebody to believe in him.
Father Figure
Guiding both young men through life was the very wise just check out those brows!
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He’s from the Bronx and so is Sandy, so there’s that.
That was just a really fun character and something that Peter [Gallagher] really ran with.
He was the first person we cast for the show.”
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It was during that process that they found the theme song, Phantom Planets California.
What we came to realize was a lot of people hadnt heard the song when it first came out.
So it became the obvious choice for the main title song."
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Eureka, Ryan!
(Remember Chester?)
SCHWARTZ:“The first time Ryan and Seth met, we were laughing and enjoying ourselves.
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That was a moment I remember feeling like, ‘This feels exciting and fun.'”
A wind picked up when we were shooting it, but only on Mischas coverage.
You know how some actors can always find the light?
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Mischa found the wind.
It was also the first and only time we had a teenager smoking a cigarette on online grid television.
We were able to get it through that way.
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But that didn’t stop her from stealing the scene with an “ew.”
But she really sold that line and got it in all of its complexity.
An Unforgettable Welcome
All fans know the line.
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SCHWARTZ:“People from Orange County were like, ‘No one calls itTheO.C.’
But I had gone to USC with kids from Orange County who would refer to it as The O.C.
as if it were like The LBC.
It gave some people from Orange County pause, but I think they’ve surrendered now.”
SCHWARTZ:“That Joseph Arthur song was always in there.
