The OC/Trivia

• Actor Allusion: At Kaitlin's school, Marissa pretends to be an exchange student from London. Mischa Barton was born in London to British parents. Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping also applies and is lampshaded.
• Billing Displacement: Peter Gallagher & Kelly Rowan are billed first in the opening credits for all 4 seasons, despite their characters being less prominent than the teenagers. When Melissa Clark & Rachel Bilson were added as regulars, Clark was again billed ahead of Bilson despite the same applying.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Mischa Barton publicly blamed the show for her personal issues. Shortly after the show's cancellation, she said it was no surprise the show had been cancelled, since they killed her off.
  • Tate Donovan has been rather critical of the show's younger actors in interviews following his departure from the show.
• Creator Breakdown: Josh Schwartz was jaded by pressure from some fans and Executive Meddling and seemingly zoned out during Season 3.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Benjamin Mackenzie, Adam Brody, Rachel Bilson, and Autumn Reeser were all in their early to mid twenties playing teenagers. Lampshaded in "The L.A.".

Ryan (speaking of the star from the Show Within a Show): How does that guy play high school?
Seth: It's Hollywood, man.

• • Averted with the Coopers. Mischa Barton was 17 playing 16 and Willa Holland was 14 playing 14.
• Defictionalization: Before the series, "O.C." was sometimes used in print as shorthand for "Orange County", but very rarely in speech, and never prefixed with a "the". Many Orange County residents scoffed at the show's title, but over the years, some of them really do refer to the region "the O.C." without irony.
• Dueling Shows: With One Tree Hill. The latter lasted longer, but The O.C. is usually thought to be the better of the two.
• Executive Meddling: Resulted in the end of the Marissa/Alex lesbian relationship. Also, apparently a big factor for the quality decline in Season 3, as Fox wanted something 'promotable' to happen every week. The writers once got a note that said, "This is Fox, not Fox Searchlight."
• Fake American/Fake Nationality: Kelly Rowan is Canadian.
• Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Steve-O as an insane Marine Seth meets and drinks with in Mexico (4x02).
  • Thirteen plays Seth and Marissa's ex-girlfriend and her ex-girlfriend was Sloan.
  • Rosalie Hale plays one of Ryan's girlfriends and James plays the antagonist of Season 3 who kills Marissa.
  • Apparently when Taylor was a kid she looked like a younger version of CeCe.
• McLeaned: Marissa Cooper was killed off at the end of Season 3, right around the time her actress Mischa Barton left the show.
• The Other Darrin: Kaitlin Cooper, Trey Atwood, and Theresa's mother.
  • Kaitlin's Other Darrin was lampshaded when Ryan didn't recognize her after she returned.
• Romance on the Set: Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson were engaged in real life.
• Star-Making Role: For Rachel Bilson; to a lesser degree for Benjamin McKenzie & Autumn Reeser.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kaitlin was reintroduced in Season 3 with a view to creating a spin-off following Kaitlin and her friends at boarding school. This was then retooled into keeping Kaitlin as a main cast member in the fourth season so they could keep the high school drama aspect of the show after the original group had graduated.
  • The writers tried to get Trey to return in Season 4 to finish his story arc.
  • In the same season, Al Gore was supposed to be Summer's GEORGE recruiter, but had scheduling differences.

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