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Random Tidbits
Samaire Armstrong appeared in the last episode of Freaks and Geeks. If you loved Freaks and Geeks, then go out and by the dvd set now and check out a long-haired brunette Samaire.
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Tate Donocan and his band The Decadents released a CD called Wake Amusements
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The Pool House now has a Peter Gallagher action figure. Collect them all!
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Articles and Postings
TVGuide.com - Ask Matt
Question:
First of all, I really enjoy your column and read it every week. I have loved The O.C. since episode one (and have loved Adam Brody since Gilmore Girls). I might be in the minority on this, but I have to say I was disappointed in the March 24 episode — the viewers were subjected to a series of inside jokes that I felt went on too long and chipped away at the charm of the show. I like a well-placed inside joke here and there, but devoting a whole episode to self-referential humor seemed like overkill. For example, when Rachel Bilson's character talks about actors dating each other, I could not help but think, "oh, she's referencing rumors about her and Adam Brody dating in real life" (which ruined that scene for me, frankly, since I was no longer watching "Seth and Summer"). Also, I was annoyed by the constant references to Colin Hanks' character ad-libbing most of his lines. Okay, we get it already: Adam Brody ad-libs his lines. At some point, the fans should be allowed to view the show without constantly being reminded that they are, indeed, watching just a TV show. Since you are a fan of The O.C., I was wondering what your thoughts were on this episode. I realize the humor of the show is one of the best things about it, but are they in danger of turning a good, entertaining show into a big joke by not taking themselves seriously at all? — Erum R.
Matt:
On the contrary. Once the show starts taking itself too seriously, it runs the risk of becoming a joke. If you want to watch a show about teenagers who look much too old to be teenagers taking themselves too seriously, I suggest you check out WB's One Tree Hill. With The O.C., I love the fact that the characters on this show are all too aware of the absurdity of the situations they find themselves in and can't help commenting on it. Whenever Sandy (the terrific Peter Gallagher) sighs, "Here we go," I relish the humor in his resignation to the craziness that is his family's life. I found this episode to be a riot from start to end; for my lengthier analysis, read my Dispatch from March 26. I might agree that if The O.C. tried doing this sort of thing so extensively every week, it might burn itself out. But basically, I loved it.
Question:
All right, I love The O.C. It is not just funny but also interesting. It reminds me of the first three seasons of Gilmore Girls (which I still think is good), but I have to admit that I get most excited when they make a reference to The Golden Girls — my favorite show ever, which I started watching with my grandmother in reruns (I am only 16). Do you think we will ever have another show like Golden Girls? And how do you feel about the references on The O.C.? — Garrett M.
Matt:
I think the Golden Girls salutes are a hoot and very much in keeping with the irreverent vibe of this pop-culture-saturated show. I find it very encouraging that the O.C. kids, like you, acknowledge how very cool The Golden Girls was and still is. Maybe the networks will wake up to the fact that being of a "golden" age does not make one's appeal obsolete. Watching the networks chase after the same young audience with the same types of shows is so discouraging. The Golden Girls had mass appeal, to old and young alike, and we could use a few more like them today.
~~~
OConline.com Forum by Fanbolt.com
From The New York Times, April 2, 2004
The Ancient Days of Teenage Drama
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: April 2, 2004
The high school students of "The O.C." do everything imaginable in their privileged beach community in Southern California except, of course, go to school. The show, on Fox, revels in one of the most romanticized views of adolescence on television — all sex and no band practice. Teenage shows on WB, like "One Tree Hill" and "Everwood," are almost as gauzy, picking up the torch left by the mother of all high school dramas, "Dawson's Creek."
In the primeval ooze of television before "Dawson's Creek," "The O.C" and "One Tree Hill," there was a drama called "My So-Called Life," starring Claire Danes as a smart, confused (what else?) 15-year-old in Pittsburgh. The show's return in repeats tonight on the N Channel provides more than just an opportunity to watch a poignantly funny show about the unendurable ordeal known as high school.
"My So-Called Life" was created by Winnie Holzman with Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz as executive producers, the same team that wrought "Thirtysomething" and "Once and Again"; it was canceled in its first season after 19 episodes, but it serves as a milestone in the American way of depicting teenage life. Ten years on, angst is still front and center, but the important, mortifying elements of high school — the cafeteria, parents' day, science experiments and make-up tests — have almost entirely receded. Only a few symbols — basketball practice and proms — linger as vehicles for love and power struggles.
On "My So-Called Life," the school principal is intelligent and scary, not a buffoon, and the classroom is a circus funhouse of tedium and terror. In the pilot episode, Angela (Ms. Danes), who has a painful crush on Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto), is daydreaming through the class discussion of "The Diary of Anne Frank." When the teacher catches her off guard and asks her what she thinks of Anne Frank, Angela instinctively replies, "She's lucky." Her teacher is aghast and angrily demands an explanation. Angela wasn't joking. "Because she was trapped in an attic for three years with this guy she really likes," she replies in a near whisper.
On "The O.C.," romance is as ubiquitous and as glossily histrionic as on a daytime soap opera, and the line between adolescence and adulthood has blurred almost indistinguishably. (Daughters have large, womanly breasts and mothers have thin, girlish figures and taut, shiny faces.) In comparison, "My So-Called Life" is searing realism — the N Channel equivalent of Zola.
The historian Philippe Ariès argued that childhood is a relatively recent bourgeois concept, a cultural distinction that did not take hold until the 19th century.
By that standard, adolescence is a purely 20th-century American discovery, isolated in the laboratory of early television sitcoms like "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" and "The Patty Duke Show." Progress has accelerated the sexualization of children on television and spawned a whole new subspecies: the tween, celebrated in "Lizzie McGuire" on the Disney Channel and "Degrassi: The Next Generation," a Canadian import, also shown on the N.
Love is all-consuming, but sex is no longer much of a teenage trauma on the most successful shows. On "The O.C.," of course, all the kids are sexually active and confident. Marissa's hunky ex-boyfriend, Luke, has an affair with Marissa's mother, and even Seth, the nerd with the high I.Q. and nervous speech patterns, has a sexy girlfriend, Summer, and no inhibitions.
On other shows, teenage sexuality is fodder for dramatic tension. On "Gilmore Girls" on WB, the teenage heroine keeps her virginity in high school; on "Everwood," the teenage hero has a hard time losing it. But mostly teenage sex is very adult, only better. "The O.C." is written almost entirely from the point of view of teenagers: their angst is more passionate and meaningful and real than in the adult world, which is all about chores, careers and stuff. (That the show also has a large adult following suggests that youth-obsessed baby boomers relate best to teenagers.)
And the eternal-adolescent perspective could explain why the actors chosen to play high school students look so mature — like fashion models and soap opera stars, not 12th graders. Teenagers see themselves and one another as grown up; everyone else is either a child or very, very old.
"My So-Called Life," on the other hand, is a backward look at adolescence, viewed less with nostalgia than with recovered dread. Parents are victims, too; even Angela's mother, Patty (Bess Armstrong), tightly wound and humorless, has sympathetic moments. "I cannot bring myself to eat a well-balanced meal in front of my mother," Angela says in a voice-over. "It means too much to her."
"Gilmore Girls," in which the mother and daughter get along splendidly and converse in arch, screwball comedy shorthand, is a mother's pipe dream, but all teenage shows traffick in the adult fantasy that teenagers and parents can come to an understanding in a crisis (AIDS, condoms, eating disorders, death of a grandparent). Yet what is striking these days is how often some parents are depicted as purely evil — in other words, exactly how their children view them. On the latest WB show, "One Tree Hill," the father of Nathan, one of the main characters, is almost Dickensian in his wickedness.
The newest, most fanciful nighttime soap operas, like "The O.C." and "One Tree Hill," are, paradoxically, most realistic in the sense that they more accurately mirror the way teenagers view themselves. "My So-Called Life," on the other hand, feeds the nostalgia of viewers who mourn the days when adults were in charge of television.
~~~
Linda Lavin visits 'The O.C.'
Byline: Jeff Hidek, Staff Writer
Section: Lifestyle
Forget The Donald. The new domineering presence on TV is The Nana - just ask the characters of Fox's The O.C.
Wilmington's Linda Lavin will guest star on Wednesday's episode of the series, playing Sophie, a powerful matriarch referred to as "the Nana."
It was an opportunity the Tony-winning actress says she was thrilled to have, even if she wasn't exactly sure what she was getting into.
When the offer first came, Ms. Lavin had not even heard of the show. "I knew Peter Gallagher (who plays Sandy), but I did not know what The O.C. was," she said, adding that she thought it might be a medical drama before a friend pointed out that "it's just the biggest hit on Fox."
Indeed. After a much-hyped launch in the summer of 2003, The O.C. has been pulling respectable ratings and generating considerable buzz. Set in Orange County, Calif., the series chronicles the life of the Cohen family, including Sandy, his wife, Kirsten (Kelly Rowan), his son, Seth (Adam Brody), and Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie), a former juvenile delinquent the Cohens have taken in.
Ms. Lavin was quickly converted to the show's appeal.
"Even though it's all about beautiful, young, rich people, it has a core of substance to it," she said. "You really care about the characters."
And what a character she'll be playing.
A Jewish New Yorker, Nana is "a kind of old-world socialist... coming out for Passover to celebrate a holiday that neither Sandy nor Kirsten has ever celebrated at home," she said. "She raised her son to have social values that he seems to be denying in this time in his life."
Ms. Lavin says her character also will bring news that promises to further disrupt Sandy's life.
The accomplished actress, who won a Tony in 1987 for the play Broadway Bound, is probably best known for her role as the lead character on TV's Alice in the 1970s and '80s.
The call offering her a spot on The O.C. came while Ms. Lavin was in Florida performing her one-woman cabaret show, The Song Remembers When.
Ms. Lavin has taken the "relatively new" venture to Atlanta, the Poconos and Palm Beach and plans to take the show to New York in the fall. In the meantime, she'll be spending time beautifying the garden in her Wilmington residence.
"I really love being home," she said. "This is where I want to be."
~~~
COLUMN: For some, 'The O.C.' is God; Patrick Hedlund
University Wire 03-30-2004
(Daily Orange) (U-WIRE) SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The ritual begins at about 8:30 p.m., as we eagerly stir in anticipation of the intense hour that awaits us. We chat of our predictions for this week and fond memories from weeks past as the tension in the room reaches a fever pitch. Nearing the end of "American Idol," the room grows silent. In minutes the geniuses at the Fox Network will unveil a fresh installment featuring Newport's wacky bunch.
At 9 o'clock on Wednesday evening, there is only one place to find me: parked in front of my friends' big-screen television for another episode of "The O.C." The plots are relatively predictable, the actors play caricatured roles, and the show's entire idea is a retread of the old teen-drama formula. And still for some reason this hour is the highlight of my week.
Why do I affirm an addiction to "The O.C." even in the face of ridicule and harassment from peers and show's detractors? Well, I haven't felt this way in a long time. A California-based program hasn't bound itself to my television emotions so effectively since the Walsh family moved to Beverly Hills back in 1990.
I realized my affection for "The O.C." had surpassed the "casual-viewer" status when I found myself searching through teen magazines for articles about the show, hoping to uncover bits of gossip about the cast's off-screen relationships.
Pathetic? Maybe.
But I'll risk stares from parents, as they slowly move their children away from me, in order to get the newest scoop. It is a natural reaction to a weekly engagement that often leaves my fellow viewers and I speechlessly in awe. For O.C.-virgins, a short introduction is necessary.
There is Ryan, the rugged and big-hearted Chino transplant, whose quick fists do the talking when words cannot. Seth, Ryan's adorably self-conscious foil, pioneers geek-chic for a whole new generation of high-school outcasts and squealing teenaged girls. Sandy, Seth's father and Ryan's guardian, has risen through the ranks to become one of the all-time best TV dads, attaining a level equal to that of Bill Cosby and Jason Seaver in just two seasons.
This, however, only offers a speck of information in the vast dramatic web of "The O.C." For full disclosure, weekly viewings and back-episode research are a must. But one show may be all it takes to make believers out of those willing few. The hooks are already deep - so don't expect to see me outside of television's warming glow on a Wednesday night.
That is, at least, until reruns start.
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DVD News
TVShowsOnDVD.com
The MusicFromTheOC website, which is there to support the recently released soundtrack album CD for the show, has a FAQ area which helps us DVD-lovers out by narrowing down the release timeframe for The O.C. - Season 1.
As you may recall, we posted this news about a month ago that narrowed it down to a "late summer/early fall timeframe". Now the FAQ at the music CD website narrows it down even further:
Q: When is the DVD coming out?
A: The DVD's of Season 1 will be released in October 2004.
...And that's all it says so far! That means we're probably still about 3 months away from getting all the details about this one, but stay tuned to TVShowsOnDVD, because we'll be updating you on whatever hard info we can dig up. In the meantime, we would like to thank readers Francis Fernandez and Daniel Ben-Zvi for their notes pointing us toward this web page.
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Pictures from Events
Rachel Bilson (wireimage.com)
Details Magazine and DKNY Jeans Next Hollywood Party - Inside
4/2/2004
Samaire Armstrong (wireimage.com)
Details Magazine and DKNY Jeans Next Hollywood Party - Arrivals
4/2/2004
Mischa Barton (wireimage.com)
Nickelodeon's 17th Annual Kids' Choice Awards - Arrivals
4/3/2004
Benjamin McKenzie, Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen present the Favorite Female TV Star Award (Ben is about to slime them) (wireimage.com)
Nickelodeon's 17th Annual Kids' Choice Awards - Show
4/3/2004
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Spoilers and Script
(do not continue to read if you don't wanna know--I've warned you)
TVTome.com
boogaru2
[b]New for the Strip[b] extra sides
THERESA: (shakes her head, no) I don't even have enough money to get to Atlanta, so I have no idea how I'm supposed to pay for... (stops herself) Even if I were gonna *have* the kid -- I work in a bakery. I mean... (fighting tears) ...What am I gonna do?
MARISSA: Maybe if you talked to Eddie --
THERESA: I can't. He'll try to get me to marry him and have the baby. Or else he'll say it isn't his --
Which brings Marissa up short. She nods. Tries not to jump to conclusions. Then can't help but ask --
MARISSA: Who else's could it be?
Theresa looks at her -- miserable -- confirming Marissa's fear. Marissa takes a deep breath, tries not to be sick.
THERESA: I'm so sorry. I thought you knew. It was just one night. You guys had broken up. I didn't mean to --
MARISSA: (fighting tears) No, it's okay. Really. (forces a smile) It's gonna be okay...
OFF MARISSA -- wishing she really believed that..
*
INT. OFF-STRIP POKER CLUB -- NIGHT (N3)
Ryan sits at the TABLE with FIVE OTHER CARD PLAYERS. However, only Ryan and the angry-looking YOUNG MAN opposite him (in the TRUCKER HAT) are still in the game.
The COMMUNITY CARDS are: A-S, 9-S, 8-C, 9-H, Q-S
TRUCKER HAT: All in . Twenty-five hundred.
Trucker hat pushes in ALL his chips. Ryan steals a glance at his own cards. Frowns. Then pushes in ALL his chips, as well. Ryan stands, FLIPS his cards: A-H, A-C.
RYAN: Pocket aces.
Trucker Hat angrily pushes himself away from the table, crosses off to get a drink. The other players LAUGH and MURMUR. Ryan watches Trucker Hat warily, stacks his chips, preparing to go. Seth appears at his side.
SETH: What are you doing there, buddy?
RYAN: We got your bar Mitzvah money. We got Theresa's money. Now we gotta go.
SETH: But what about our Ryan-and-Seth-go-to-Europe money? If you stay we can both get Vespas.
RYAN: Vespas? Really?
SETH: It's Europe. Hanleys. Whatever. The point is, why quit when you're ahead?
RYAN: Because if I don't, Angry Trucker Hat over there is gonna hurt me.
SETH: Maybe he's not angry at you. Maybe he just found out people aren't wearing trucker hats anymore (off Ryan's look) I know. But I'm doing so well with Jenn. I mean, I think.
RYAN: So invite her back to the hotel.
SETH: It is kinda sweaty in here. But how do I do that? Do I --
Jenn returns. Seth nods, smiles. Looks at Ryan: Help.
*
SUMMER (con't): Ryan!
RYAN: What are you doing here?
SUMMER: I'm looking for Cohen. And I advise you tell me where he is -- I feel a rage blackout coming on...
INT. HARD ROCK HOTEL -- PENTHOUSE -- SECONDS LATER (N2)
Summer (with Ryan) throws open the suite door to find Seth with Jenn on one of the designer sofas.
SUMMER: Cohen!
Seth look up at the sound of her voice, astonished.
SETH: Summer?
SUMMER: Get off him, whore!
SETH: Hey. She's not a whore. She goes to UNLV.
SUMMER: (to Jenn) Oh. Sorry. Skank.
VALERIE: (V.O.) ‘Scuse me. Is this the Penthouse?
Ryan and Summer turn to find THREE HEART-STOPPINGLY ATTRACTIVE CO-ED'S, including VALERIEl, standing in the open doorway.
VALERIE: (CONT'D) We're friends of Jenn's.
SUMMER: Did somebody order more skanks?
JENN: Come on in, you guys. Seth, Ryan, this is Valerie, Shannon, and Grace.
LOUCAS: (O.C.) Aren't you gonna introduce me?
Jenn looks up to see a muscular, overgrown FRAT BOY (LOUCAS, 20's) in the doorway. She does not appear happy to see him.
JENN: What are you doing here, Loucas?
LOUCAS: This many girls? I'm gonna need payment *before* the party.
SETH: Payment? What do you -- ?
RYAN: (realizing, to Jenn) You're a prostitute...?
SUMMER: I told you she was a whore.
LOUCAS: Four girls till midnight -- plus you had Jenn all afternoon --
SUMMER: (PUNCHING Seth's arm) What?
LOUCAS: -- brings us to five thousand dollars. What'll it be, guys? Cash? Check? Or charge?
OFF SETH AND RYAN -- stunned -- trapped...
END OF ACT THREE
At which point Jenn appears over his shoulder.
JENN: You can win fifteen-hundred easy.
SETH: Speaking of easy, look who's here.
JENN: (fondly) No, honey, *you* were easy. I was expensive. And you guys did buy us till midnight, so... (checking her watch) That's more than enough time for another hand of No-Limit Hold 'Em
RYAN: He'd let us go?
JENN: You and me. If I asked him to.
RYAN: You'd do that?
JENN: (re: Loucas) I don't want you guys getting hurt.
SETH: (looks at Loucas; then Ryan) It's only fifteen-hundred. Right?
As Loucas loudly KNOCKS THE PINS DOWN --
SETH: (CONT'D) (forcing a smile) Come back soon.
*
SANDY: (CONT'D) Sandy Cohen, I'm Caleb's son-in-law. And former business partner. (extending his hand) How's the food?
ROBERT CAMPBELL: (shaking his hand) Excellent fillet. Care to join us?
CALEB: Actually, Robert --
SANDY: (sliding in next to Caleb) Don't mind if I do. (reaching for BREAD) So, Mr. Campbell, I understand you're interested in Caleb's Balboa coastline property. I can see why. It's a perfect location. (grabbing Caleb's martini) You mind?
Caleb starts to protest, but Sandy's already downed it.
SANDY (CONT'D) In fact, my partners and I recently tried to open a restaurant there. No unlike this one. Two kinds of meatloaf --- dirty martinis. Problem was, we couldn't get our liquor license. And, for the longest time, we couldn't figure out why.
CALEB: Sandy, now is not the time --
SANDY: (re: Caleb's baked potato) You gonna eat that? (digging in, to Campbell) Turns out *one* of my partners went behind our backs, got a friend of his on the City Council to deny us our liquor license, then bought us out and tried to sell the place to someone else at a better price.
CALEB: Robert, if you'll excuse us --
*
INT. HARD ROCK HOTEL -- PENTHOUSE -- NIGHT (N2)
Seth and Summer sit -- not talking -- watching Loucas bowl.
SETH: Is he gonna let anyone else bowl?
SUMMER: That's what you're worried about? We're being help prisoner by a pimp and three prostitutes, and you're worried you're not gonna get to bowl?
SETH: Hey , this was supposed to be boys' night in Vegas. You're not a boy. No one invited you. I don't even know what you're doing here.
SUMMER: I'm here because I thought my dad might have been wrong about you. But now, surrounded by your pimps and ho's, I see he wasn't.
A beat. Clearly, there's nothing left to say, except --
SETH: (to Loucas) So, how does does one become a pimp?
Loucas stops, considers the question.
LOUCAS: I like to think of myself as more of a talent manager.
SUMMER: Yeah, I'll bet
(end of spoiler #1)
boogaru02
episode 27 side (name Unknown)
27. Unknown
INT. CHAPEL – DAY
Julie approaches REVEREND DONAHUE, stately and silver haired.
REVEREND DONAHUE: Hello, Julie. Wonderful to see you. Are you ready for your moment?
JULIE: Eh, I've been better. Caleb's daughter…
REVEREND DONAHUE: Kirsten.
JULIE: Yeah. Well, her house burned down. And now she might be leaving town.
REVEREND DONAHUE: I heard that. A terrible thing. Well, why don't you come into my office and we'll do your confessional.
JULIE: I don't know if we have enough time.
REVEREND: There's always time for forgiveness and redemption.
*
EXT. DOCKS – DAY
Vince, 20s, approaches Seth as he fixes up his boat.
VINCE: Hey Seth. Haven't seen you down here in a while.
SETH: Yeah, man. Just trying to figure out what to do with the boat.
VINCE: I heard your house was for sale. What's left of it.
SETH: Yeah. My parents are viewing this calamity as an excuse for change. I think we're headed back to Berkeley.
VINCE: Well, you guys are lucky to be alive after the fire.
SETH: Gas main. Crazy. (beat) Ryan gets out of the hospital in a week. After that we will probably skedaddle.
VINCE: If you need any help selling this thing, let me know. I've got some guys who'd be interested.
SETH: Cool.
VINCE: Too bad. I know Chester was looking forward to some sailing lessons… oh well…
SETH: Yeah. That's life.
*
INT. BAKERY – DAY
Theresa comes up to the register where a female BAKERY WORKER stands at the register.
THERESA: So what's the problem here?
BAKERY WORKER: Not sure. I tried to swipe the credit card through and it kept rejecting it. Machine must be broken.
THERESA: Or maybe the credit card is expired. You ever think of that?
BAKERY WORKER: (thrown) Wow. Sorry… I didn't…
THERESA storms off…
(end of spoiler #2)
(oops, lost who wrote this one--sorry)
OK I'm not 100% sure about this but last night my friend said Marissa was going to get hurt and it will be the cliffhanger for this season. Plus this morning on Fox it showed a commercial for the next 4 episodes coming up and I'm not sure which episode it was but it showed Marissa dancing with a crowd of people and with Ryan and everyone and then showed Marissa being thrown against the wall and she was knocked out and there was blood everywhere and people screaming....then it showed her in the hospital half asleep and Julie threatening Ryan that if she finds out who shot Marissa she will hunt the person down and destroy their life.
That was all
You fill in the blanks. I'm not sure weather to believe it. Because it could just be my imagination running wild and could be a whole other story line but I think Marissa gets hurt badly. And my first though after seeing that commercial was Olivers back!!!
This would be a good cliffhanger and keep us all at the end of our seats..:)
(end of spoiler #3) |
