Remember That In A Vault Somewhere There Is A Recording Of The Full OC Cast Singing This Song. Someone

Stills of our Golfing Girl from Season 1 Episode 16 - The Links.

Stills from Season 1 Episode 15 - The Third Wheel.

The OC Strikes Back (IGN, 2004)

Looking through some old media and will post some of the things I find. This old IGN article from 2004 promoting the second season stood out and in particular this quote (images of the article at the end of the post): "The show's creator says he isn't worried about this season's evolution turning fans off, because the relational fabric of the series remains intact.  "I think the sort of core relationships that we have on the show, the Ryan/Marissa dynamic, the Seth/Summer dynamic, are the core, iconic relationships of this show," Schwartz said.  "They're like the magnetic, polarizing force of the show in that you can throw as many new characters and hurdles and obstacles in front of those characters as you want, but you can never break free of those original dynamics. That's the foundation of the show. Even when you see scenes where Ryan and Marissa aren't together, if they're off with other people, and then you see them share a scene together, you just feel like 'God, they should be together.' They have such unbelievable chemistry; there's something pulling them together. So to quote George Bush, we 'can run, but we can't hide,' and that's where our show lives and breathes in those core relationships."

New Sepinwall interview in the Hollywood Reporter

New Sepinwall interview in the Hollywood Reporter:

Mischa's story was not what he thought would it be. Bleh. (at 28:00)

Josh and Stephanie didn't want to talk about Johnny at all and rescheduled multiple interviews in order to avoid it (this is not directly Mischa related but I lol’d).

In terms of things he was not expecting, Mischa's exit was the biggest in the book. Mischa was really reluctant to talk about her exit at all 😦

He describes his conversation with Mischa as "delicate" and the one he spoke to the least and required the most negotiating to get. "If she doesn't want to unpack her trauma with a journalist, I completely get that and that's her right" because of that she was very weary and simply did not answer many of his questions (at 30:00).

He had to get a lot more from others about her than she was willing to give him.

They ask him how much did the show's exit impact her career - and he says well the gossip at the time could not have helped but Mischa's mom was annoyed that Ben and Adam were getting movie offers when she wasn't.

Maybe showbusiness had decided they didn't want her before she was even fired he seems to suggest. Why would he speculate like this after also calling his conversation with her delicate?

Sebastian Stan auditioned for the role of Johnny and they chose Ryan Donowho over him, they didn't even see him in person and didn't realise how much smaller he would look next to Mischa. How could they hire him without even seeing him in person. What in the world.

Random assortment of stills from Season 1 (Part 1).

Welcome to the OC, B! AMA Podcast Episode

The Welcome to the OC, Bitches podcast finally released the AMA episode (questions were taken from fans on the subreddit in May 2023) and originally it was released behind a paywall of Mindy's post-WTOCB podcast. They've released it publicly now and some tidbits below:

12:32 A passing reference to Mischa doing something for the troops (Rachel was wondering why they didn't do any events).

13:20 He mentions looking through his mom's scrapbooks for photos for the book and talks about how there's copies of the female cast members FHM covers and the crew seeing Autumn's and realising how attractive she is, that is why they wrote in that sex fantasy montage and had Ryan checking out her butt. Josh actually says the cover made them realise she had a nice butt. So wildly unprofessional.

14:20 Josh would not have killed Marissa if he could do things again.

17:07 My Johnny question (which Josh refuses to answer) and requesting my credit card details to release the show's scripts.

18:10 if Marissa had been alive in the AU would Ryan have stayed. Answer: yes.

23:56 Rachel says Adam "would definitely wanna do something for me right now" (re reboot) AND THEN JOSH SAYS "APPARENTLY HE COULDNT DO SOMETHING FOR YOU EARLIER" This is a comment about Rachel mentioning she didn't orgasm until her late-30s. After laughing about Josh's comment, Rachel says Adam gets it and knows it wasn't about him because he is a sane person. Okay.

24:26 Where would you have liked the story to have gone if Marissa had lived and there were more seasons and if she was alive in the series finale. Answer: Josh focuses on RM's shared sibling making things weird. That did not stop Dan and Serena Josh, you clearly have no problem with that premise.

Special thanks to Josh and Co for not really answering any of the questions. I listened to this to hopefully spare anyone else having to torture themselves through it!

Insightful article about the making of the show with JJ Philbin. She talks about Marissa's pivot in S3 with the Volchok storyline, as well as the changes to the Marissa/Berkeley episode (which we know from the original sides that are thankfully still out there)

Stills from Season 1 Episode 16 - The Links.

Ben McKenzie's interview in Elle (Volume 20, issues 1-2, 2004) was not a good look then and is definitely not a good look now. Really interesting to think how little controversy this generated compared to another cast member's Elle interview the same year. ELLE: Comprehensive list. Anything you might actually respond to favorably? BEN: A political point of view is really sexy, especially in L.A. Women here are exotic and beautiful, but it's like you're in a zoo. You look around thinking, Wow, look at all those pretty animals, and then when one opens its mouth and speaks, you're like, Holy [Censored], the monkey's talking to me!

ELLE: Would it bother you to find out that a woman you were dating had had significantly more sexual partners than you had? BEN: I think it has to affect you.

ELLE: So what's an acceptable number? BEN: In the teens is understandable. But get into the twenties and that's not good at all. Over 50 would be like, Who are you?