Then after the pilot, I met Bob DeLaurentis, a very smart and good guy, who taught me a ton – about showrunning and about balancing life and work. But there was no version of them letting me do this alone once the series went. So there was so much chaos and so much going on there just wasn’t time to find that show runner. So he read it and dug it and actually ended up being the perfect guy to direct the pilot. I was like, “Let’s go to someone like Lisa Cholodenko.” And they were like, “What are you talking about?” Doug Liman was somebody who was on the short list, and somebody I loved. And that sent the whole process into a tailspin because we’re moving so quickly. And then he got called in to do some “Charlie’s Angels” sequel re-shoots and couldn’t. We had a staff we just didn’t have that (veteran) person.Īnd we had an extra little wrinkle: it was always designed that McG was going to direct the pilot. And so she did a lot of those meetings with me and she was like, “If you hire that person, they will kill you and take over the show.” And there was a lot of people who were like “I can’t wait to kind of get this kid out of here and take over the show’ energy.” So we kept pushing it off and we hired other writers we hired guys like Allan Heinberg at a co-EP level, Melissa Rosenberg, people who have gone on to have really nice careers, Debra Fisher and Erica Messer. Stephanie was a more experienced producer than I was and had worked with McG on the “Charlie’s Angels” movies, and they had a new show called “Fastlane” coming out that year. Josh Schwartz: Well, I didn’t get out of it so much as we didn’t find the right person while we were making the pilot. Was there talk about pairing you with an experienced show runner? I was probably 25 when we sold it, but I was 26 basically at that time. So it was a very kind of exciting, aggressive, unusual experience. And they said, “Just go to script,” I didn’t have to go to outline first, and that if they wanted to make the pilot, ultimately we should start hiring writers at the same time and start moving as if we were going to series while we’re going to pilot. I basically pitched the whole pilot in the room to them. They were looking to change it up and be aggressive they also put on “American Juniors” that summer. And they were really looking to do summer programming. We pitched on a Saturday to Fox, which was unusual. So I went off and started cooking up some characters and came back and then we pitched very late in the season. And that was part of the story that was interesting to me versus the action. And I think in his head it was originally to do something little more action-oriented, but as Steph and I started talking, it was really, for me, very much tied to the experiences I had had coming to USC as a Jewish kid from Providence. And the world of Orange County came up, that’s where McG is from. So I went in for a general meeting with McG’s company, that’s where I met Stephanie Savage. Everybody was like, “You need to work with a big producer who can kind of help you get it over the top.” And so I was told to go meet at McG’s company. Josh Schwartz: I had done a couple pilots that had gotten made but had not gotten on the air. Philbin, who was one of the minds behind Taylor Townsend, Ché, “Je Pense” and a lot of the wackier moments from that weird, lovely final season. And later Monday, I’ll also have a shorter interview with longtime “The O.C.” writer J.J. You can read part 2 here, focusing on some of the bumpier spots like Oliver and Johnny’s knee. In part 1, Schwartz and I discuss the show’s origins, casting the characters, the music and more. It’s a very long interview, so I’m splitting it up into two parts (and several pages among each part, to avoid breaking the site). In honor of the 10th anniversary, I sat down with Schwartz to revisit exactly how things were done in Orange County. Later seasons were bumpy (though the barely-watched final season was a funny and touching return to form), but that first year was something to behold. It introduced the world to the concept of Chrismukkah and to many of Schwartz”s favorite indie rock bands. And it turned out, for a while, to be a phenomenon and a delight: funny and self-aware, and yet capable of being a sincere, well-constructed teen melodrama. ![]() Ten years ago Monday night, FOX debuted a primetime soap called “The O.C.” It was a genre that had mostly disappeared from network TV, starring a bunch of unknown young actors and Peter Gallagher”s eyebrows, from a 26-year-old creator named Josh Schwartz who had no real experience in television. We’re re-running that now in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the show’s final episode. ![]() In 2013, TV critic Alan Sepinwall spoke with Josh Schwartz, the creator of ‘The O.C.’ to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the show’s premiere with a two-part interview on the show’s run.
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