Arguably the most iconic scene of “The O.C.” is the one that the show’s creators regret the most.
After 20 years, the cast and creators of “The O.C.” are opening up about their experiences on set with Rolling Stone television critic Alan Sepinwall in his new oral history, “Welcome to the O.C.”
“The O.C.,” which ran for four seasons between 2003 and 2007, starred Ben McKenzie, Adam Brody, Mischa Barton and Rachel Bilson. For the just-published book, Sepinwall interviewed the cast and crew about their time on the show.
Series creator Josh Schwartz and his longtime producing partner, Stephanie Savage, spoke about their biggest regrets in writing the show. Both agreed that killing off Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) was something they would change if given another chance.
“If you told me I could do one thing over again for the show, [killing off Marissa] is the one thing that I personally would choose to do differently,” Schwartz told The Post. “It made sense at the time, and there were a lot of reasons for it both on screen and off, but it is definitely the most divisive thing that we’ve been a part of.”
In the third season finale of “The O.C.” titled “The Graduates,” Marissa dies in a car crash caused by her ex-boyfriend Kevin Volchok (Cam Gigandet). Her main love interest, Ryan Atwood (McKenzie), pulls her out of the car and holds her as she draws her final breath.
“We did not expect the fan reaction to be what it was. The level of emotional devastation really took us by surprise,” Savage told The Post.
Schwartz’s obsession with reading harsh reviews of “The O.C.” made him believe that killing off Barton was the right move, however.
Television Without Pity, a now-defunct website that recapped TV shows with discussion boards, was one of the show’s biggest critics, consistently slamming its characters as entitled and annoying. Schwartz told The Post he thrived on feedback, even negative, and that reading Television Without Pity appealed to “both my narcissism and my self-loathing.
“It was a good lesson about the vocal minority on social media. Back then, chat rooms and Television Without Pity and message boards were not representative of the larger audience that was watching the show who had felt very differently,” Schwartz said.
By Season 3, Fox network executives felt Marissa character hit a “wall” and that the character had nowhere else to go. It also became evident that Barton wanted to leave the show.
“There was a feeling from Fox and this new regime that the show needed to do bigger, crazier, more shocking things to stay relevant and boosting the ratings. And it was also a feeling that maybe if we let Mischa off the show, it would be better for her in the long run, just as a human being,” Schwartz says in the book.
Throughout the oral history, Savage and Schwartz lament that they were not creative enough when it came to crafting storylines for Marissa. Schwartz, who was a first-time showrunner at age 26, said that having to turn out so many episodes caused exhaustion among the writing staff.
“Season 3, in particular, was probably the most creatively challenged. And obviously, the departure of Mischa was a huge part of that story, creatively, onscreen and off and needed to be told and reckoned with,” Schwartz says.
Participating in the book allowed the producing pair to reflect on how they could have better handled their relationships with Barton, only 17 when she began shooting the drama.
Additionally, executive producer Bob DeLaurentis says in the oral history that he regrets casting such a young actress, recalling that on-set she would often sit alone and read a book, allegedly unable to relate to her older co-stars.
Savage and Schwartz ultimately were too afraid to tell Barton that she was being killed off.
“Instead of talking to her about it as adults, we were like, ‘Well, we think that would work out great for her.’ And then just made this decision,” Savage says in the book.
Savage wishes she had made more of an effort to connect with Barton, who she believed was “too cool” to hang out with the rest of the cast.
“Originally, we did a lot of things together, but as she got her different boyfriends, and was going to nightclubs with Paris [Hilton] and Nicole [Richie] and being on Perez Hilton, she was more her own island,” she explains in the book. “We had the ability to give her a little tugboat to go back and forth. And we didn’t do that, and I regret that.”
