Envy me! I not only got to see the Paley Festival’s terrific March 9 salute to “The O.C.” I got to see it in the company of Merissa, Amy, Jen and “Altoids Girl,” four of the most fabulous college girls on the planet!
“Altoids Girl,” you’ll recall, is famous for her Coaxial News “Farscape” reviews, only slightly less famous for her highly entertaining behavior at Coaxial News’ Buffy Bash last May, and not famous at all for being the first to send me the “Wonderfalls” pilot. She came to the “O.C.” event clutching Warren Ellis and Brian Bendis trade paperbacks to her bosom. She is the REAL Anna Stern. Or perhaps a size-four Seth Cohen. Let’s just say she’s eleven kinds of adorable.
She also obviously felt threatened by “Kzingirl’s” scarily exhaustive report on last week’s “Alias”/”Felicity” event. Bow down as young “Altoids Girl” spills all orangy goodness:
She also obviously felt threatened by “Kzingirl’s” scarily exhaustive report on last week’s “Alias”/”Felicity” event. Bow down as young “Altoids Girl” spills all orangy goodness:
First off, if you don’t want to slog through the whole play by play, these where the two things we learned concerning spoilers:
1) There *will* be a wedding at the end of the season. And no, it won’t be Luke’s dad (this was actually asked).
2) Second season will be premiering after baseball in October. “Don’t worry,” Josh told the audience “There’s cocaine in October too."
3) The song that plays as Anna leaves (1x21- The Goodbye Girl) was specially covered by Nada Surf for the episode. It's a cover of "If You Leave"
Today’s little cap of last night’s The OC panel for the William S. Paley Television Festival was brought to you by the thousand screaming Adam Brody fangirls who wouldn’t know the difference between “Legionnaires” and “The Teen Titans” if it bit them in the severely tanned ass. Keep in mind that anything you read here should immediately be followed with “OMG DID YOU SEE HIM SMILE AT ME?!!? RIGHT AT ME I SWEAR TO GOD! AIEEE!” It’s The OC Fangirl Union club rules.
The night started out with all the girls (Herc’s little harem if you will) meeting up in the line. One girl, I’m going to call her Missy, was awesome enough to come at 9 am, so we had a great spot in line in front of said thousand screaming fangirls. We waited until Herc himself showed up with the tickets, where he promptly got kicked out under accusations of scalping. After few arguments were exchanged with the adorably inept security guard, and a brief altercation with another man who had an even smaller dick than us teenage girls put together[NOTE: For the more literal minded, I believe the brainy "Altoids Girl" is here making metaphoric comment on the little ticketeer's egregious abuse of a tiny amount of authority; I don't believe she was witness to any actual exposed genitalia - Herc], Herc’s honor was restored and we were back in line.
Of course, by that time, the thousands of said teenage girls showed up, replete with matching “OC” hats, and really, really, REALLLY bad tans. We all felt vastly superior until it dawned on us that hey, we were there too. After running the gamut of the camera crews and microphones with little of our dignity intact, we made our way inside –running and shoving through all the overgrown men with gigantic boxes of glossy 8x10s and E-bay in their eyes.
We got a fairly good seat up front, with said fangirls behind us clutching their signs and whispering loudly. This will become important later on –actually, not really important in the sense that they had something to say, but as they added humorous commentary as the night continued you’ll probably be reading more of them.
We got good seats in the first two rows, with the gaggle of fairly raucous and snippy teenage girls whom clutched their signs to their developing chests and whooped and hollered every chance they got. A small clip detailing the history of the Paley festival and it’s eponymous founder rolled onto the big screen, narrated gamely by Dan Rather and a rather stiff looking Candace Bergen. Rounding it off were a few clips of other panels offered this year including: Smallville (“Oh I love Tom! He’s so hot!”), Trading Spaces (“OMG I loooove that show!”), and a Night with William Shatner (“Wooo! Captain Kirk is so dreamy!” Oh wait, that was just me.)
Anyway, the announcer came back out and introduced the cast before they ran the episode. They came filing out, followed by loud screams when Adam Brody finally stumbled onto the stage. This will happen anytime Adam Brody exists on the same plane of reality as the festival, so keep that in mind whenever words are said to be coming out of his mouth. Or anyone else’s for that matter. Every quote mentioned here should probably be followed by “ADAM WE LOVE YOU!” But I’m too lazy to keep writing that.
Tonight’s guests were:
Mischa Barton (Marissa),
Rachel Bilson (Summer),
Adam Brody(Seth),
Chris
Carmack(Luke),
Melinda Clarke (Julie Cooper),
Bob DeLaurentis (Executive
Producer),
Tate Donovan (Jimmy Cooper),
Peter Gallagher (Sandy Cohen),
Allan
Heinberg (Producer),
McG (Producer),
Benjamin McKenzie (Ryan),
Kelly
Rowan
(Kirsten Cohen),
Stephanie Savage (Writer),
Doug Liman (Director, not
listed
originally)
Josh Schwartz (Creator)
Josh said a little something before they showed the episode, explaining how it was good to be here, and he was glad that the show found a viewership. He also said that the song that plays as Anna leaves was the first song specially recorded for an episode of The OC, in this case, Nada Surf’s cover of ‘If You Leave’.
Then they all filed off and we watched episode 1x21, The Goodbye Girl, with the adorable Anna Stern leaving The OC for good. The episode, already good on its own merits, was awesome with the crowd watching along. Even the cast, sitting on the sidelines, got in a few cheers. When the episode ended and sniffles could be heard through the audience, the cast retook their seats and then gamely proceeded to answer a few questions, some inane and some, not so much. One of the most interesting portions of the night was to listen to Josh Schwartz, the creator of the show, explain how he came to develop the premise.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF “The OC”:
The panel began with the proctor introducing each actor in turn, until
she
came to Josh Schwartz. Introduced as the youngest helmer of a one hour
television show (he’s only 28) Josh went on to explain how his college
life
at the USC film school planted the seeds of what would soon grow to be
The
OC. He told the audience that he came up with the idea when he went to
visit some of his “tall and healthy water polo player” friends down in
Newport during the weekends and spring breaks. It was these experiences
as
an outsider that led him to develop the show and the characters that
would
inhabit it.
When Josh met with McG, they both realized that their experiences with Orange County formed the basis for a compelling show. McG also described his experiences in Orange County as the outsider growing up. He described himself having a gigantic “orange afro, shorts and braces”.
It was also interesting to listen to Allen and Stephanie talk about writing for the show. Both Alan and Stephanie stressed that the adult portion of the show was just as important as the stories of the kids. Stephanie mentioned that they had set out to make the adult portion important enough that it could have been sold as an adult drama if the kids didn’t pan out and vice versa. Plan B, Alan said, was if the show didn’t take off immediately, they would have tried to phase out the adult portion but luckily it never came to that and that the response was so good, that it bolstered their efforts with the network to continue the adult portion.
McG and Josh aptly described the show as a “Trojan Horse” (snicker), in their approach to pitching it to Fox. Apparently at the time they pitched the show, Fox was looking to return to the “90210” concept of television. By emphasizing the teenagers’ stories, they managed to piggyback the adults as well.
Also, it was interesting to note that the show wasn’t originally going
to be
titled “The OC”, but that the name came later.
Alan: The shock for me is that we've been allowed to get away with it.
I
fully expected a Plan B, where the adult stories would get smaller and
smaller."
Josh: “You're not supposed to tell them about Plan B."
Peter Gallagher: "I have a Plan C, something I like to call, Sandy
Cohen
Attorney at Law…"
Family interconnectivity, said Stephanie, Doug and Josh, was one of the most important aspects of the show, and that without it The OC probably wouldn’t have been as successful as it was. Doug Liman often praised Peter Gallagher and Kelly Rowlan for portraying the loving family that had become so central for the show. “Basically,” Doug said, “Every episode becomes a love story where Peter and Kelly have sex…with each other.”
THE MUSIC OF “The OC”:
The majority of the music comes from both the writers and the actors
recommendations. Adam Brody was responsible for the major push of
“Deathcab
for Cutie” while 1x21’s “Journey” mention was from when Josh found Ben
listening to the band one day. The cast joked that they had to be wary
of
what they said or did on the set, because there was always some writer
lurking waiting to include it in a later script and embarrass them. One
example of this is Luke and his guitar, which came from Stephanie
overhearing the actor, Chris, playing on the set one day.
THE ACTORS OF “The OC”:
Josh also spoke on how the actors themselves influenced the development
of
the show. Characters whom were only supposed to last one or two
episodes
remained due to what the actors brought to the roles. After Josh and
Stephanie overheard Chris play the guitar and sing one day, they
decided to
include that in the character of Luke as well. Rachel Bilson,
originally
only scheduled for one or two episodes, played Summer with such charm
that
the writers kept finding more and more excuses to keep her. Even
Samaire
Armstrong, whom had already left, was kept longer than originally
planned.
Supposed to stick around for only one or two episodes, the way the
actress
and the character played against with the rest of the cast kept giving
the
writers an excuse to keep bringing her back. While her exit bow to
Pittsburgh did occur in the end, it was, says the writers, the only way
to
service both the characters and the story effectively without cheating
the
audience or dragging it out unnecessarily or cheating, ultimately, the
Seth
and Summer relationship.
RANDOM TIDBITS:
-Melinda had originally signed on as a guest star, set to do seven episodes and then be off to film another show. Luckily the writers loved her so much (as did the fans) and Melinda became a regular cast member after her seven episodes were up. -Melinda Clarke on how she got the part for Julie Cooper: "I first audtioned for Kirsten, but apparently Josh didn't think I was nice enough," Tosses her arm around Chris, "I wonder why? Anyway, I did get a call two weeks later asking me if I wanted to come back to try out for Julie since Josh thought I was perfect for, and I quote, 'a forty year old going on to fourteen, tan skin going to leather, and plastic all around' end quote. I wonder why he thought of me?"
-Tate Donovan explaining how he got the part of Jimmy: “I won an essay contest on ‘Why Would You Want to Be Jimmy Cooper in 5,000 Words or Less’” He also told a funny anecdote of how he first ran his lines with another Jimmy hopeful, who to Tate, seemed to represent how Jimmy should have been: “Like some has been, an ex-foot ball player loser whose come back to the place he grew up in, washed up and pitiful. And of course they thought I was perfect.”
-Chris on how he got the part for Luke: "I gave a mediocre performance so I felt that I had to make up for it with a little something as I left the room. So as the next guy came in I socked him in the gut and then started making out with his mom." The audience didn’t know what to make of that while the rest of the cast was giggling madly. He deadpans: "What? That's what happened!"
-Adam Brody on if he's like his character: "Yeah, it's kind of sad really. I'll be going on the set and everyone's hanging around and they'll be like "Dude, your in wardrobe already?" and I'm like, "No." It's all very sad. So yeah, I'm pretty much Seth...except I'm 38" Young girl sitting behind us: "Woah. Really, he is?" "No." "Are you sure?”
-The cast singing happy birthday to one lucky 15 year old girl lead by Peter Gallagher and followed by the rest of the cast and crew. They even got her name right. Peter: "We do this all the time. Everyday is Tate's birthday!" Adam: "Yeah, he's 87."
-Josh is asked a question on how the show sometimes uses thematic shortcuts to move the story along. He answers with a "You're from Television Without Pity, aren't you? Well, I'd like to say it's because we can't move the story without those so called shortcuts within an hour, but really, it's just contempt for the audience."
-Apperently, Josh had to promise FOX that they’ll never have the kids smoking again on the show if the one driveway scene from the permiere was allowed to remain.
-Ben on auditioning for the role: "So I had to come in a thousand times, and one of the last times, one of the times in front of the bigwigs, I had to do the cigarette scene without Mischa. You know the one, where we're in the driveway and I'm being all James Dean like, except a really BAD James Dean. Really, really lame. Instead of Mischa I had to do it with the casting director whose, like, 45 -50, old and male." Mischa Barton (Marissa) also explained a simliar situation when trying out for her role.
-Adam on auditioning against Ben for the first time:
Adam: "I was totally scared they were going to get this six foot model
guy
who couldn't act and luckily it was you (Ben)!"
Ben: "Thanks man, that really means a lot. I thought they were going to
get
this skinny, geeky kid and-"
Adam: "Well, they go that."
