Throwback Thursday

Let’s go back to: The OC
It's been twelve long years since the premiere of the pilot episode of The OC, which aired on FOX on August 5, 2003.  The OC was a show set in my hometown of Newport Beach, California (in Orange County) and it told the story of a teenager named Ryan Atwood (played by Gotham's Ben McKenzie) who found himself in jail after attempting to steal a car in his hometown of Chino.  Enter Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher), his public defender who found that Ryan was just a product of a crappy situation and brought the boy home with him to meet his family: his wife Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) and his son Seth (Adam Brody).  Ryan moved into the Cohen family pool-house and eventually, he and Seth became best friends who navigated the "Newpsie"-infested waters of Newport Beach along with their on-again-off-again girlfriends Marissa (Mischa Barton) and Summer (played by Hart of Dixie's Rachel Bilson).  The show found instant success with fans shipping "Sethummer" as well as the actors who played them (Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson were a couple in real life during the show's run) and soon Orange County (and Newport Beach) became a place known by teenagers all over the country.  To this day, I can tell who is from OC and who isn't by whether or not they call it "The OC".  After the departure of Mischa Barton in the show's third season, things took a turn for the worst and was subsequently cancelled after an abbreviated fourth and final season.

Why it means something to you or to our podcast: To this day, The OC is still one of my favorite shows.  Even though it was horribly inaccurate, I think growing up in Newport Beach helped me see all the jokes and situations a little bit differently.  Something about it was so ridiculous and hilarious that it made me happy just to tune in every Thursday night to watch it.   From its iconic opening credits song, "California" by Phantom Planet to Seth Cohen's witty one-liners, this show was awesome when it was in it's prime.  The OC was also the beginning for some big names that you may now be familiar with: Shailene Woodley (the Divergent series), Nikki Reed (Twilight), Willa Holland (Arrow), Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars), Jackson Rathbone (Twilight), Paul Wesley (The Vampire Diaries), and Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lego Movie, Jurassic World, Parks & Recreation...just to name a few).

Where can you find it now?: Unfortunately, this awesome show is not available on any streaming outlets, but you can purchase it on Amazon Prime or anywhere DVDs are sold. 

-- Kelly Lee