Media > Articles > General Fox to get the fall season rolling early with its juicy 'O.C.' The Wichita Eagle Fox is jumping the gun on the new fall television season by launching one of its splashier, flashier new dramas next week in hopes of building an audience before the competition kicks into gear. It's likely to work. I've previewed the pilot and, like Fox's ill-fated soaper "Pasadena" two years ago, it's already one of my must-see guilty pleasures. "The O.C." premieres at 8 p.m. Tuesday (KSAS, Channel 24/Cable 4) for six weeks, then shifts to its regular 8 p.m. Thursday slot on Oct. 30. The confusing title sounds more like a medical show. But it actually stands for Orange County, a wealthy bedroom community south of Los Angeles. The "The" seems extraneous (like The WSU); perhaps it's an attempt to unify the area into a monolithic mindset. In any case, it's about the beautiful, the bold, the bored and, of course, the very, very bad among the kids of Newport Beach, who have too much time, money and imagination on their hands. Talk about your sun-kissed devil's workshop! Into this seemingly perfect world of planned communities, spectacular homes, snazzy cars, clean streets and Stepford parents comes a delinquent named Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) who is given temporary shelter in the luxury home of his pro bono defense attorney (Peter Gallagher) in hopes of showing him a better way. But the kid quickly discovers that beneath the glossy veneer is a seething undercurrent of secrets, lies, infidelities, fraud, dirty tricks, revenge and everything else that makes a show worth watching on Fox. "So what do you think of The O.C.," our astonished outsider is asked at an after-school party where booze flows freely and a threesome is monopolizing the bathroom. "I think I could get into less trouble where I came from," he retorts. "Welcome to the dark side," he tells himself with a wry grin. In the pilot, Ryan gets in trouble for stealing a car and is kicked out by his exasperated single mom. When none of his so-called friends will let him crash with them, he turns in desperation to his court-appointed attorney, who sees him as a kid at a crossroads rather than a criminal. The attorney takes him in, makes him a part of the family with his skeptical wife (Kelly Rowan) and nerdy son (Adam Brody), and hopes Ryan learns about the good life from examples all around him. That he certainly does, although not the way the idealistic attorney hopes. It seems the attorney's wife is a former item with the man (Tate Donovan) next door, whose wife (Melinda Clarke) is a shallow and snobbish shopaholic. There is jealousy and one-upsmanship between the haves and have-mores. There is palpable fear in the moneyed air that it could all disappear overnight. There is underhanded wheeling and dealing to ensure that it doesn't. And the kids, who have known nothing but affluence all their lives, feel entitled, privileged, even a little royal. But the neighbor's daughter (Mischa Barton), who is intrigued by the new kid's lost-puppy look, becomes his guide to this glittering lower circle of Southern California hell. There are two generations of characters operating here, but I suspect that nobody is going to care much about the parents and their hand-wringing over infidelity and money after the series launches. To their credit, producers try to promote cross-over dramatic action between the generations. But it's far more interesting as a classy soap about teens and twentysomethings flexing their rebellious muscles, pushing boundaries and making up their own rules without supervision -- sort of an upscale, Southern California version of "West Side Story." Look for young newcomer McKenzie, who has a bit of the old Steve McQueen pout and swagger, to be the breakout find of the series whether it succeeds or not. 2003 Virtual Rain. This is an unofficial fansite with no relation to FOX, Warner Brothers, or any of their associates. This is just a fansite opened for the purpose of exposing the show "The O.C" to new fans across the internet. Original copyright of all photos remain to FOX/WB and are used purely for the purpose of enjoying the show and furthering its fanbase.