Premiere (The O.C.)

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"Premiere"
The Black Eyed Peas
"I'm A Player" by The K.G.B.
"Into Dust" by Mazzy Star
"Honey and the Moon" by Joseph Arthur
"Let It Roll" by Maximum Roach

"Show Me" by Cham Pain
Production code475197
Original air dateAugust 5, 2003 (2003-08-05)
Guest appearances
  • Trey Atwood
  • Dawn Atwood
  • Ron del Barrio as A.J.
  • Luke Ward
  • Julie Cooper
  • Kaitlin Cooper
  • Rachel Bilson as Summer Roberts
  • Ruth Williamson as Peggy
  • Ashley Hartman as
    Holly Fischer
  • Drew Fuller as Norland
Episode chronology
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The O.C. (season 1)
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"Premiere"

Benjamin McKenzie) into the wealthy lifestyle of the Cohen family in Newport Beach, Orange County, California
.

The casting directors, Patrick J. Rush and Alyson Silverberg, began selecting the principal cast eight to ten weeks before filming started. The role of Ryan was particularly hard to cast. Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) was based on Schwartz's experiences at the University of Southern California as a "neurotic Jewish kid from the East Coast in a land of water polo players".[3] Other central characters in the episode are Seth's parents—Sandy (Peter Gallagher) and Kirsten (Kelly Rowan)—and teenage next-door neighbor Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton).

The series premiere led the first half-hour of its time slot in

Artios Award nomination for excellence of casting in the Dramatic Pilot category. Originally broadcast and released in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, it was remastered in a widescreen ratio for the series DVD, released in November 2007. The episode was released on MiniDVD on April 26, 2005, and is available to purchase from video on demand
services.

Plot

A

Dawn (Daphne Ashbrook), collects Ryan, Sandy gives his business card to the boy. At home in Chino, Dawn asks Ryan to leave, and her boyfriend, A.J. (Ron Del Barrio), expels him from the house. Standing at a payphone with nowhere to go, Ryan calls Sandy for help. As Sandy drives Ryan to his house in Newport Beach, the opening credits and the theme tune play—unlike the other episodes, there is no title sequence.[4]

While Sandy tries to convince his wife, Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) to allow Ryan to stay in the pool house for a night, Ryan meets the girl next door, Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton). When her boyfriend

Kaitlin (Shailene Woodley
). The Cohens and Ryan also attend the show.

Summer invites Ryan to a party after the show, and Ryan convinces Seth to join him. For the first time, Seth is introduced to the sex-, drug-, and alcohol-fueled side of Newport. He experiences the wildness of a party for the first time, while Ryan flirts with Marissa. Luke takes a girl to the beach. Later at the party, Ryan rebuffs an intoxicated Summer, but Seth misinterprets the encounter and reveals Ryan's real background. Seth walks down the beach, and is bullied by a group of water polo players that includes Luke. Ryan defends Seth by punching Luke, but Luke's friends intervene and beat up Ryan and Seth. After returning to the Cohens, Ryan sees that Marissa's friends left her passed out on her drive; he carries her to the Cohens' pool house to sleep. When Kirsten finds Seth and Ryan asleep in the pool house the next morning, she is unhappy with Ryan's new influence and insists to Sandy that Ryan leave. Sandy drives Ryan back to Chino, but when they find his home empty, they return to Newport.

Production

Conception

Main article: The O.C. § Conception

In 2002, Schwartz met with Joseph "McG" McGinty Nichol and Stephanie Savage of production company Wonderland Sound and Vision. They told Schwartz they wanted to create a television show based in McG's hometown of Newport Beach.[5][6] Savage suggested producing a police or extreme sports 21 Jump Street-style show, but Schwartz knew little about the genre. Having had experience with people from Newport Beach during his time at the University of Southern California, Schwartz came back to them with his own characters.[7] The show was pitched to Fox and Warner Bros in August 2002.[8] Fox targeted a summer launch for the show,[9] and Doug Liman was brought in to direct the premiere after McG withdrew due his scheduling conflicts with Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.[10] The show was confirmed for the 2003–2004 schedule in May,[11] and an August 5, 2003 broadcast date was selected in June.[12]

Casting

"When Benjamin [McKenzie] came in, he wasn't physically what Josh had envisioned, but he inhabited the character unlike anyone we had seen. I think that the character of Ryan is a kid that always seems a little lost and has a sense of mystery and danger; Benjamin has all those qualities."
— Patrick J. Rush on the casting of Benjamin McKenzie as Ryan.[13]

Casting directors Patrick J. Rush and Alyson Silverberg began casting the main roles eight to ten weeks before filming began, with input from Schwartz, McG and Savage.

Artios Awards.[15]

In February 2003,

Benjamin McKenzie was only invited to audition for the role after Warner Bros. made them aware of the actor following his unsuccessful audition for a UPN sitcom. McKenzie joined the cast in March 2003. He lacked working experience and later described his selection as "a tremendous leap of faith" on the producers' part.[13][21][22] The role of Seth Cohen was derived from Schwartz's experiences at the University of Southern California as a "neurotic Jewish kid from the East Coast in a land of water polo players".[3] Adam Brody first read for the part of Ryan, but found the bad-boy image did not suit him.[14] In a recall for the role of Seth, Brody lost the producers' interest by ad-libbing much of the script; he joined the cast in March 2003 after a second interview.[14][23]

Luke Ward, was credited as a guest star for the episode;[4] he joined the regular cast in the next episode.[27]

Filming

Manhattan Beach, a primary filming location for the show

Although the show is set in Newport Beach, financial penalties imposed for filming outside the "

35 mm film stock. Unusually for the show, a scene in the Atwood home in Chino was shot using a hand-held camera by Liman. Savage said this ensured the show "doesn't feel like glossy soap opera".[29]

The Cohen family home was shot on location in

Wilshire Ebell Theatre; though it did not advance the story, Schwartz described it as necessary to show the world in which the characters lived.[29] The party at Holly's beach house following the fashion show was filmed at a beach house in Malibu over three consecutive nights.[29]

Broadcast and distribution

The episode premiered at 9:00 p.m. (

Amazon Unbox in the United States, and from the iTunes Store in the United States and United Kingdom.[43][44][45]

Reception

"The clothes were hot, the music was cool, the scenery was gorgeous, the writing was snappy and smart and the characters were well-defined as we found out everything we needed to know in that first episode."[46]

— Angela Henderson, of The Herald-Dispatch.

The pilot episode attracted 7.46 million viewers in the United States,

City Manager Glen Rojas for its "negative portrayal" of Chino.[55]

Entertainment Weekly's Carina Chocano praised The O.C. for being different, claiming that it was "refreshingly free of both [Aaron] Spelling-style camp and the twee earnestness that has characterized more recent teen dramas".[56] Robert Bianco of USA Today drew comparisons with the successful Fox show Beverly Hills, 90210, saying that "The O.C. is better-written and better-acted by a cast that just might be, incredibly enough, even better-looking".[57] He praised the cast's skill and attractiveness as well as the show's ability to "come up with a few smart deviations from the genre norm".[57] Nancy Franklin of The New Yorker criticized the plot for being too predictable, but praised Adam Brody as Seth, stating that "he talks too much and too fast, he mumbles, and he projects zero physical confidence. In short, his character is adorable."[58] Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette felt that "[Benjamin] McKenzie, at times, is prone to overdramatizing scenes",[59] and considered the young characters "so detestable and yet bland" that it made the show "almost painful" to watch.[59] He nevertheless affirmed that the show had "positive attributes" that made it enjoyable.[59] Andrew Grossman of The Boston Globe commented that "Brody is instantly likable as Seth" and that Barton "does a nice job with Marissa's torn-between-two-worlds angst", but stated that Ryan "doesn't seem to have many clear personality traits".[60] Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle called the episode "superb" and described McKenzie as "essentially playing James Dean". He compared the actor to Russell Crowe and noted that McKenzie "pull[ed] the whole thing off with aplomb".[61]

Popular culture

Luke's line, "Welcome to the O.C., bitch", which he says after beating up Ryan, became a tagline for the show.[62] TV Land placed the line as 83rd in its 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases in 2006.[63][64] Hadley Freeman of The Guardian noted that the teen-focused show made many cultural references due to a "renewed interest in the teen market",[65] adding that the use of cropped tops, micro-minis, and beaded flip-flops showed a "decidedly West Coast approach to fashion".[65] The episode's cultural references to fashion included Julie Cooper's question to her pre-pubescent daughter, "Do you like my hair this straight or is it too Avril Lavigne?", while another mother complains, "What are you doing putting my daughter in Calvin Klein? She was supposed to be in Vera Wang!"[65] Teenage misfit Seth complains that "Every day's a fashion show for these kids".[65]

The episode generated interest in the program's music and was regarded as "the show to be heard on".

The Black Eyed Peas from their 2003 multi-platinum album, Elephunk. Among Schwartz's favorite musical moments from the show was Joseph Arthur's "Honey and the Moon",[69] which Schwartz claimed helped him write the pilot.[70] The title track "California" introduced the band Phantom Planet into the mainstream.[71]

Notes

  1. ^ A rating/share represents the percentage of all television households tuned into a program, and the proportion of the television audience viewing a particular show, respectively.[49][50]

References

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