GRAMERCY PARK (ABC) - Samaire Armstrong ("The O.C.") is the latest to join the cast of the ensemble drama pilot, about three nannies and the families they work for in a luxury New York high rise. She'll play one of the three leads, a struggling actress who winds up working as a nanny. She joins the previously cast Milo Ventimiglia, Elizabeth Mitchell, Travis Schuldt, Izabella Miko and Paul Blackthorne in the project, which is set up at Warner Bros. Television and the Tannenbaum Co.
Samaire Armstrong would never advocate giving up The O.C. (which, coincidentally, she does tonight at 9 ET on Fox). However, she does recommend tuning in without acting out. Although her character, bootylicious brainiac Anna, is as levelheaded as they come, not all of the prime-time sudser's pretty young things are models of the role variety.
"After the episode where Marissa OD'd on drugs, [the network ran] the whole 'If you're having suicidal thoughts, please call this number' [PSA],'" she recalls for TV Guide Online, "and we actually got a call from the head of the association saying that their calls had increased by 20 or 30 percent — which is a good and bad thing. It's like, does that mean that people who watch our show have a tendency to commit suicide, or are we really helping people?"
All kidding aside, the Not Another Teen Movie costar loves that her fictional friends in Newport Beach, Calif., are magnets for trouble. "The bigger the problems, the better"... that's her motto. "Forget about the war and the famine and all that," she suggests, tongue in cheek. "Right in our studio, we've got this [unreal] society set up and built around instant gratification.
"[In that imaginary kingdom] this is how we're going to deal with things," she continues, on a roll. "We're going to do the most shocking thing possible, and it'll be done. Then we'll have another set of problems to deal with, and we'll solve them in the same shocking way. And we'll get greater and greater ratings every time!" At least for so long as Fox keeps reminding viewers not to pull such stunts at home.
posted by Erin @ 12:59 PM |
Teen Titans February 25, 2004 -- SUDDENLY, there is a horse race for the hearts and minds of the teenage viewers.
"The O.C.," which debuted with a bang last summer, is the hottest young drama since "90210."
But in recent weeks, it has begun to look over its shoulder to see if a new show, the WB's "One Tree Hill," is catching up.
In ratings terms, "The O.C." is head and shoulders above "One Tree." But in the past two months, buzz for "One Tree Hill" has picked up.
The turning point seems to have been when the WB show returned from hiatus in January, re-airing the Nov. 18 cliffhanger - in which Nathan Scott (James Lafferty) turns to amphetamines to meet his father/basketball coach's expectations.
Ratings for "One Tree Hill" have blossomed - now reaching an average 3.7 million viewers - although still nowhere near the 9.3 million that watch "The O.C." " 'One Tree Hill' is coming on strong, and Chad Michael Murray is the A-Rod of the female teen set," says a WB spokesman. No one would comment over at Fox. Much of "One Tree Hill's" popularity stems from the accessibility of the characters for the average American teen.
"I can relate to the characters [on 'One Tree Hill'] - I was a cheerleader during basketball season [like Peyton, played by Hilarie Burton] - and being in high school, you start encountering the same types of things that are on the show - dating, alcohol, sex and drugs," says 15-year-old Ashley French, the founding editor of the first "One Tree Hill" newsletter at Onetreehill-fansite.com.
Adds Amy, the webmaster of Onetreehillonline.com, "While I love 'The O.C.,' I've never quite connected to the children of Newport Beach millionaires in head-to-toe Prada, who party in beach houses and hotel penthouses."
The identification with the characters on "One Tree Hill" doesn't mean fans now dislike "The O.C.," though.
To John Kim, commander-in-chief of The O.C. at Boalt, the University of California-Berkeley Law School's "The O.C." fan club, "One Tree Hill" is nothing more than the "poor man's 'The O.C.,' plain and simple.
"There really is no distinction between the two guys - one is rich, one is poor, but they're both jocks on the basketball team. Why would I want to watch a show with five characters all playing the same person?"
"What I appreciate about 'The O.C.' is that for a major network show, they at least try to keep the characters unpredictable and multi-dimensional - like Luke [Chris Carmack], who went from total a-hole, to Ryan's friend, to being outcast for having a gay dad, to having an affair with Marissa's mom," says Meg Wilkinson, a member of The O.C. at Boalt.
Should "The O.C." worry about the growing popularity of "One Tree Hill"? " 'The O.C.' came first, plus it's got 'American Idol' as its lead-in - as Seth said in the pilot episode, 'XO, XO, it's an unbeatable combination!'" says Kim. ____________________
Both Eric Balfour and Navi Rawat appeared on the first season of another FOX series, "24", and Balfour appeared on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" while Rawat appeared on its spin-off "Angel." ____________________
Alot of people are taking notice that the girls watch "The Valley", wait 'til the find out...
(can't remember where I got this...I think TVTome.com Forum Boards) I read on ain't it cool that Summer and Marissa will get a part on a television show like the OC and Summer will fall for the actor who plays the nerdy- Seth like character. The character of the actor is supposedly based on Adam Brody and his popularity from playing Seth in real life. Also, the actor who is playing this role is Colin Hanks, who was in the movie 'Orange County.'
The show within the show "The Valley" will be featured in an upcoming storyline according to one source: The rising popularity of Adam Brody as hipster nerd Seth Cohen inspired an upcoming episode in which Marissa and Summer get small parts on a show-within-the-show called "The Valley," with Summer falling for the actor playing the hipster nerd character there -- "So essentially she leaves Seth Cohen for Adam Brody." For added weirdness, the role will be played by Colin Hanks , who starred in a recent movie called ... "Orange County." ____________________
TV Gal Learns a Thing or Two from Sweeps (Thursday, February 26 08:02 AM) By Amy Amatangelo
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - This morning I woke up, grabbed my remote control and tried to turn my coffee pot on with it. Okay, things aren't actually that bad, but February sweeps are exhausting. I think my televisions are considering forming a union and demanding overtime pay. Everything starts to blur together during a sweeps month. I find myself wondering why C.J. Cregg can't help President Palmer. Or wouldn't Jonathan Kent be better off in the "ER."
Here's what I learned on my February sweeps vacation: • When Exes Return, It's Never Good: Frasier's ex-wife returned on "Frasier" and the good doctor almost got busy in front on an audience full of first graders. The reappearance of Sherry Palmer on "24" didn't exactly work out well for the President. The arrival of the former Vice-President caused all sorts of trouble for "The West Wing." And the return of Ryan's ex-girlfriend Teresa resulted in a serious telenovela. (Sidebar about "The O.C.": How great is it that they all watch a soap called "The Valley? ) • If You Like Someone, Make the First Move • If You Like Someone, Don't Make the First Move: Unfortunately this tactic didn't work out to well for Rachel on "Friends" or Marissa on "The O.C. • We Are So Stuck with Bad Reality TV
Seth Cohen Quote of the Week:
"That would actually make that romantic triangle more of a romantic rhombus," Seth to Ryan about Ryan, Eddie, Teresa and Marissa.
The O.C. What is this, Grand Romantic Gesture night? Between this and The Bachelorette, I'm swooning. Not since Donna Martin kissed David Silver in front of the whole gang at the Christmas dance (right before Steve went to find his birth mom) has there been a sweeter public display of affection than Seth's standing-on-a-table declaration of love before the Harbor School's student body. Summer, girl, you show that emo geek the love! And while you're at it, hide his Member's Only jacket. That's just wrong. And speaking of wrong, I'm sure some of you are icked out by the Luke-Julie thing, but come on. You know that when it comes out, Marissa is going to go completely over the edge. That alone is worth a season's worth of cheap motels and booty calls. Oh, and did anyone catch that Coop was watching a show called The Valley in her scene with Jimmy? I take much comfort knowing that the gang has a soapy teen drama to love, too.for Wednesday. (Take mental note, last week, Summer was watching The Valley also)
More TV Guide Online... Michael Ausiello’s Entertainment News IAN'S HER GUY!: Meredith Phillips picked Ian over Matthew on last night's finale of The Bachelorette. McKee thanked her with a proposal, which she accepted. I have nothing witty to say about this because I was busy watching The O.C. Speaking of which, how much do we love Luke and Julie as a couple?
...And even more TV Guide Online... Caught He's a long way from Chino now! The O.C.'s Benjamin McKenzie was mobbed by adoring East Coast fans on his way to The Late Show with David Letterman ____________________
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Sandy Cohen has left his days as a public defender behind on "The O.C.," but a group of law students at the University of California-Berkeley are looking to follow in his footsteps.
Yes, they understand that Sandy is not a real person. But 60 or so students at Boalt Hall School of Law nonetheless are in the process of setting up the Sandy Cohen Fellowship, a scholarship that will send a student to work in the Orange County public defender's office this summer.
The fellowship is the work of The O.C. at Boalt, a club formed last year and devoted to the FOX series. The club is celebrating "'O.C.' Awareness Week" this week on the Berkeley campus, wearing orange T-shirts and tank tops with quotes from the show on the back, according to The Daily Californian, the campus newspaper.
"The point of the club is to have fun," founder and "commander-in-chief" John Kim says. "It's a parody of law school clubs."
The O.C. at Boalt meets on Thursdays to watch a tape of the previous night's episode and discuss the trials and tribulations of the Cohen family, their ward Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) and the rest of the characters.
"If you think about these shows, and think about the diagram of the evolution of man, '90210' may have been the genesis, but standing upright at the end of the scale, you have 'The O.C,'" says Brendan Cody, the club's Secretary of Gossip. The Sandy Cohen Fellowship is the club's first serious work. It's named after Peter Gallagher's character, who's a Boalt alumnus and former Orange County public defender. The club has invited Gallagher to attend the presentation of the fellowship later this year. ____________________
Minty from the Forum on OCFiles.com "i hear someones going to get pregant on the show. someones going to get proposed to and eventually leave the show AND paris hilton is going to be a guest star in season 2. - this was confimed by paris and ET and Access Hollywood."
From affgomes: How good was the last episode of The O.C.! Good to be Oliver-free. Ollie, Ollie, O.C. son-free! Coming up this week: Sad news for Anna. This is her last episode, at least for now. Seth's trying to figure out his new relationship with Summer and asks Anna for advice. The drama leads to Summer and Anna ceasing to be friends, for now. And the salacious, scandalous cradle-robbing sizzle you've been waiting for: Luke, still pursuing Julie, may finally get what he has been after--a little bumpity-bumpity-bump in the sack. ____________________
On "Everwood," parents are parents for good and for bad...(skip some stuff)... That's a stark contrast to the parents of "The O.C." What can you say about a show where Summer seems to have been spawned (have we ever seen Mr. and Mrs. Whatever Summer's Last Name Is?) and Julie "the Dragon Lady" Cooper is sleeping with her daughter's ex-boyfriend? You can say "thank Chrismukkah for the Cohens." But last week Sandy failed me.
Now I can deal with a lot in the world of "The O.C." Even the Julie and Luke affair isn’t too much for me -- it's so preposterous and over-the-top, but it doesn't involve a crazy kid named Oliver so I'm going to let it pass. But I was really counting on Sandy to have a more honest conversation with Seth about sex. After he made sure Seth had practiced safe sex, Sandy couldn't wait to give his son bedroom advice. I expected more from Sandy, especially now that he seems to be waxing his eyebrows. I know that "The O.C." isn't exactly knee-high in reality, but I was really hoping for a better father-son exchange. I'm glad Seth and Summer realized they were going too fast, but it would have been nice if the parents had acted like parents. Where is Dr. Brown when you need him?
Spoiler (which you should already know): Theresa will decide that Newport is so much better than Chino on "The O.C." And I told you that Jimmy is going to find out about Julie and Luke, right? Seth will think it's his fault when Anna decides to go back to Pittsburgh. ____________________
Next week... "The Goodbye Girl", Episode #121. Theresa's decision to remain in Newport pleases Ryan; Jimmy witnesses an intimate moment between Julie and Luke; Seth races to the airport to stop Anna from leaving for Pittsburgh. ____________________
Samaire Armstrong would never advocate giving up The O.C. (which, coincidentally, she does tonight at 9 ET on Fox). However, she does recommend tuning in without acting out. Although her character, bootylicious brainiac Anna, is as levelheaded as they come, not all of the prime-time sudser's pretty young things are models of the role variety.
"After the episode where Marissa OD'd on drugs, [the network ran] the whole 'If you're having suicidal thoughts, please call this number' [PSA],'" she recalls for TV Guide Online, "and we actually got a call from the head of the association saying that their calls had increased by 20 or 30 percent — which is a good and bad thing. It's like, does that mean that people who watch our show have a tendency to commit suicide, or are we really helping people?"
All kidding aside, the Not Another Teen Movie costar loves that her fictional friends in Newport Beach, Calif., are magnets for trouble. "The bigger the problems, the better"... that's her motto. "Forget about the war and the famine and all that," she suggests, tongue in cheek. "Right in our studio, we've got this [unreal] society set up and built around instant gratification.
"[In that imaginary kingdom] this is how we're going to deal with things," she continues, on a roll. "We're going to do the most shocking thing possible, and it'll be done. Then we'll have another set of problems to deal with, and we'll solve them in the same shocking way. And we'll get greater and greater ratings every time!" At least for so long as Fox keeps reminding viewers not to pull such stunts at home. ____________________
Zap2It.com has little ads for Forever Eden that features The O.C. (you might need to go to different pages to find it though and sometimes it just sputters and stops. So, press stop and then play)
Colin Hanks Makes Time for ABC Pilot (Tuesday, February 24 11:00 AM) LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Colin Hanks will star in a sitcom pilot for ABC, the network where his dad got his big break. Hanks has signed on to an untitled show from "Just Shoot Me" alum Marsh McCall and columnist Joel Stein, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Elsewhere, FOX has greenlit two more comedy pilots, while UPN has ordered a presentation for a comedy called "The Bad Girl's Guide."
The McCall-Stein pilot will star Hanks as a young reporter at a national magazine. It's based on Stein's experience at Time, where he was the youngest writer on the staff.
It will be the first sitcom work for Hanks, whose father, Tom, starred in "Bosom Buddies" on ABC in the early 1980s. Colin Hanks' credits include the feature films "Orange County" and "Get Over It" and the WB/UPN series "Roswell"; he'll also guest-star on "The O.C." later this season. (Hmmm, starred in Orange County movie and guesting on The O.C. ...any coincidence? hehe)
The O.C. is Zap2It's Best Bet for tonight's viewer appreciation.
posted by Jen @ 9:08 AM |
Monday, February 23, 2004
There is a vicious rumor circulating (like the messageboard on IMDB for The O.C. "FoxSpoilerAlert" says "I can't believe this but my sources tell me that in the season finale of this season of the OC, a main character dies." and later you read from another person, "That character is Sandy Cohen, in a surfing accident"
I just want to make comment that I do not believe this is true and if by any way it does turn out like that, it would be a horrible decision on Fox's and The O.C. account to do so. Peter Gallagher is an asset to the cast. The character Sandy is integral to the Cohen family, including Ryan. I'm sure that this is a false spoiler because I don't think a freshman series of any kind would kill off such an important character, no matter what. Just wanted to give my opinion on that. ____________________
From Zap2It.com Rawat Expands 'O.C.' Role, Adds Pilot (Friday, February 20 03:49 PM) LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Actress Navi Rawat has been bumped up to recurring status on FOX's "The O.C." and the up-and-coming thespian will stay in the network's family taking a prime role in the "Oahu" pilot. Rawat's moves at FOX head the latest round of pilot casting news. For the time being, Rawat will play an expanded role in FOX's popular Wednesday night soap, as Ryan's (Benjamin McKenzie) ex-girlfriend from Chino. The character, Theresa, made her second appearance of the season in last week's (Feb. 18) episode. In "Oahu," perpetually described as an "Upstairs, Downstairs" drama set at a Hawaiian luxury hotel, Rawat will play the hotel's concierge. The actress' other credits include the feature "The House of Sand and Fog" and a multi-episode stint on FOX's "24." ____________________
From SpoilerFix.com • Kristin asks "Are Seth and Summer going to end up together on The O.C.?" Yes, they will date. Summer will have a hard time acknowledging Seth being her boyfriend in public. • Nutz4Stich asks "What's going to happen with Theresa and Ryan in The OC?" and Jenn asks "How long will Theresa be around on The O.C.?" Here is an excerpt from the FOX description of March 3rd episode: When Theresa decides to stay in Newport, Ryan is glad, but feels obligated to help her find a job and a place to stay. It is unknown if Theresa will appear after this episode. ____________________
VH1s Best Week Ever discussed Seth and Summer getting it on, with comments from Samaire
Also, looks like the past few weekends of ET on VH1 has been giving snip-clips of the next episode of the OC. So, check your local listing to see basically an extended version of a portion of the commercial and extra scenes. ____________________
Now, if I can get my butt into gear, I'd remember to jot some notes on who appears in Teen Vogue (I remember a page spread of Adam) and Cosmopolitan magazines (I remember some scattered pics here and there of Ben and Micha--some together, some separate).
GRAMERCY PARK (ABC) - Samaire Armstrong ("The O.C.") is the latest to join the cast of the ensemble drama pilot, about three nannies and the families they work for in a luxury New York high rise. She'll play one of the three leads, a struggling actress who winds up working as a nanny. She joins the previously cast Milo Ventimiglia, Elizabeth Mitchell, Travis Schuldt, Izabella Miko and Paul Blackthorne in the project, which is set up at Warner Bros. Television and the Tannenbaum Co.