The O.C. debuted on Fox on August 5, 2003, which, based on my quick math, means that today is its 10th birthday. Ten. Holy cow. It grew up so fast. Why, I remember back when it was three and it went to rehab and started hanging out with that weird surfer named Johnny. Seems like just yesterday. We were all so worried. But then it when turned four it really started getting its act back together, LIKE A LITTLE GROWNUP, thanks in no small part to its decision to get back to basics and kill Johnny and Marissa. Hmm. It appears this analogy has gone a bit off the rails. To the extent it was ever on the rails. Perhaps I should be more direct: The O.C. is 10 years old.
Lots of people had lots to say about this today. Vulture posted a fun and impossible quiz, as well as an interview with executive producer Josh Schwartz that covered a great many aspects of the show’s run, including the fact that Olivia Wilde left the show when she did because Fox was a little gun-shy about a lesbian/bisexual-girl/heterosexual-male teen love triangle in the wake of Janet Jackson’s nipple appearing during the Super Bowl halftime show. (So, if we’re connecting all the dots here, Justin Timberlake basically got Olivia Wilde fired.) Alan Sepinwall at Hitfix also had an interview with Schwartz, which was both very thorough and very interesting, but we are not going to talk about that because at one point Schwartz says “God bless him. I love Oliver,” and if I think about those two sentences for another second I will literally scream. (Speaking of things that will make me scream…) A bunch of other people, including our own Josh Kurp, discussed the role music played on the show, and the way it has SH-SH-SHAKIN’, SH-SKAKIN’ up the way music and television are oh God I immediately regret doing that I’m so sorry.
Anyway, as for me, I’ve already said most of the things I need to say about The O.C. (Oliver is the worst, Seth was right to choose Summer over Anna, etc.), so I suppose I’ll just remind all of you that Sandy Cohen’s giant-dancing-caterpillar eyebrows were AND ARE life-changing, and neither time nor their reappearance on a USA show starring Piper Perabo should ever dilute that.
