Showing posts with label Sandy Cohen History Lesson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sandy Cohen History Lesson. Show all posts

Friday, February 16, 2018

Why Did The O.C. Get Cancelled?



On Febuary 22nd 2007 the last episode of The O.C. aired. The O.C., a show that was once known for its very fast pace and somehow 25 plus episode seasons ended on a mid season note on episode 16 of it's 4th season. The O.C. was wildly successful so why did it get cancelled?


At birth, The O.C. initially aired on Tuesday nights. Then after a handful of successful season 1 episodes, the network switched the time slot to Wednesday nights and the show stayed in this slot throughout the remainder of  season 1. Season 1 carried a very solid 9.48 million viewers (on average) a crazy success! The show and it's actors literally exploded through the stratosphere and became a cultural phenomenon instantly! The O.C. was fresh, exciting and hilarious! Josh Schwartz (the creator of The O.C.) alone wrote 14 of the 27 episodes of season 1!



Then some things started to change. Who remembers when this happened? You know, when the network switched The O.C's time slot from Wednesday to Thursday at the beginning of season 2, our beloved Wednesday night time slot was lost forever..


The airing switch-up caused some confusion for dedicated watchers of the show. Season 2 of The O.C. was doing pretty well with a nice 7.44 million viewers (on average). Josh Schwartz wrote 7 episodes of season 2. Season 2 was still as fun as season 1, the addition of some new charters, new places for the characters to hang out and yes a tad more drama added something special to the show. I mean who didn't appreciate Seth having to become the Bait Shop janitor!? What about the epic scene where Marissa Mmm-Whatcha Says Trey!?


Then season 3 arrived. Yes we know - season 3 is sort of like The O.C.'s red-headed step child that nobody wants to fully accept, not that many fans really liked it. It has been said that the story lines were stale/predictable/less creative than seasons 1 and 2. In fact many fans would have been open to another Oliver story line vs the very tired Johnny Harper plot. Despite season 3 and its negatives we think that there was still many gems to be found especially if you kind of filter some of the less than savory clutter. Once again Josh Schwartz's contribution to the show dwindled, Josh only wrote 4 of the 25 O.C. episodes in season 3!

From a ratings standpoint and the networks opinion - season 3 was the beginning of the end. Average viewers went way down to 5.83 million almost loosing half of its original season 1 audience. Ironically those kind of numbers spells a big hit for cable TV these days but the early 2000's was a different time.


Then there's season 4, The O.C.'s last chance to get back to it's witty light and fun story lines that made people love the show in the first place! Despite the shows writing being infinitely better, the viewers just weren't following at this point, 3.96 million viewers on average for the entire season. Josh Schwartz again only wrote 4 episodes wrapping up season 4 and the show as we know it - forever. To clear things up season 4 was a saving grace for fans, it just really satisfied in a way season 1 and 2 did. The writers did the best they could with the very short network order of 16 episodes the final season.


So why the cancellation? Was it only because of ratings and changing of air dates? We believe the show got cancelled due to multiple complex factors.

The shows downward spiral into ratings null was probably because of season 3's finale, lots of people were very attached to Marissa and refused to watch the show once she was killed off.

The other obvious reason could have been because people were getting bored of season 3's repetitive story lines and figured the show wasn't going to get any better therefor decided to not even partake in season 4.


We find it odd that the birth father of The O.C. (Josh Schwartz) wrote less and less of episodes as the seasons of his first baby progressed. Was he out of ideas or was he crippled by making choices on where to take the show next? Was he too focused on his next idea the TV show Chuck? Below is the top 10 episodes by views. Is it not ironic that out of the top 10 episodes by millions of views - Josh Schwartz was involved in 6 of the 10?


We can assume that Josh Schwartz felt a certain pressure to give the fans what they wanted or to satisfy the opinion of his elders in the field. It is well documented that Josh spent lots and lots of time reading various O.C. message boards which probably pushed him into infinite creative hibernation. People wanted this and that to happen and would gripe about the direction of the series. But the truth is that Josh Schwartz was super young, only 26 when the show was first picked up. The O.C. was his first big success and we believe he did an excellent job by adding in some very creative writers to help out - even though some of those writers tired the plots.


Let's face it watcher counts/ratings aren't everything especially in the days of original series on Netflix/Hulu but when it comes to a cable TV show's survival, ratings really go into consideration. I mean it was the early 00's and The O.C. was competing with a ton of huge reality shows! Also a 9pm timeslot is pretty late considering the shows top demographics, teenagers!


The O.C. was a very fast mover, meaning the shows plots would often be full circle wrapped up with a ribbon quicker than captain oats can nay. Other shows in the same genre often dragged out the same drama and plots for weeks. The problem with a fast moving show like The O.C. is that the writing and stories get exhausted quickly. Leaving less and less creativity to scrape up and mold something new and exciting.


Then there's the whole internal politics stuff that went down behind closed doors. It has been confirmed by Tate Donovan (actor that played Jimmy Cooper video above) and Cam Gigandet , actor that played the villain Kevin Volchok, that some of the young actors in the show had bad attitudes when he was on set. Click the links for more on that. To their defense most of the young actors on the show didn't have much fame before The O.C..Their overnight fame was huge and the actors were getting TV and movie offers left and right but were often unable to take most of them due to The O.C. hectic shooting schedule and contracts. The young new to fame actors didn't necessarily know how to handle fame which caused them to get a bit mixed up in it all.


Out of the core 4 Mischa Barton (Marissa Cooper) was the only actual teenager when the show aired, the other 3 - Adam Brody, Benjamin Mckenzie and Rachel Bilson were clear in their 20's. Lets face it you definitely go through changes from ages 17 to 20 years old. Mischa Barton apparently was purposely getting to the OC studio later and later and it's been said that some of the actors were forgetting their lines purposely out of disinterest and boredom.


Adam Brody has been quoted to have been scared of getting typecast as the adorkable geek if he were to stay on the show for too long. Additionally Adam Brody dated Rachel Bilson and broke up with her all the while working on the show, which had to be pretty awkward and difficult for the both of them. There is also a definite change in Adam Brody's performance quality and depiction of Seth Cohen in the later seasons. Adam appears to be more agitated, sarcastic and void of that early Seth Cohen delivery.


The show lost it's musical tone when the background music composer was switched out at the end of season 2. Did anyone catch that? A new composer was hired on, one that changed the feeling of the show in a darker direction albeit went well with the darker writing. The music in season 1 and 2 was a character within itself, it was light and fun but when we lost that tonality - the show started changing the way scenes felt even though the actors stayed the same.

Interestingly enough The O.C. was tested and aired on Wednesday nights yet again during the fourth season while the very successful show "Lost" was on a hiatus. This was a last ditch effort  to attract more viewers to watching the show but the network quickly realized that this move was a big fail. They then switched it back to Thursday nights! Talk about a wild bipolar ride FOX!

Josh Schwartz has been quoted after the show ended to having a few regrets too - writing out certain characters (Luke and Anna) and moving the show too quickly. Furthermore at the end of the third season Josh and the crew didn't even know if they were going to be awarded a 4th season.


Most of season 4's ratings were around 3.5 million viewers with the finale totaling up a whopping 6.5 million viewers. When the show ended, countless online OC blog sites and message boards attempted to petition for the show to return, but sadly failed. So all this to say that our beloved O.C. ended and was cancelled for a multitude of above reasons - some may not even be fully known but more truth shall come out as the years go by. We will be diligently be waiting for E's True Hollywood Story on The O.C.!

Friday, February 3, 2017

The O.C. Locations: The Balboa Lighthouse Restaurant

The Balboa Lighthouse exterior The O.C.

What: The Balboa Lighthouse Restaurant
Where: Located in Newport
When: Season One
How: The Lighthouse was a restaurant venture started by Sandy and Jimmy
Actual location: 655 N. Harbor Drive in Redondo Beach, CA.

Jimmy and Sandy talk about buying the Balboa Lighthouse The O.C.

Story: 
While Sandy and Jimmy share appetizers and drinks at The Balboa Lighthouse Restaurant Sandy convinces Jimmy that they should partner-up and buy the place. Jimmy agrees after hesitation and gets excited, they both feel its a fantastic and fun idea. Lacking the funds Sandy and Jimmy have to get Caleb on board as a silent partner.

concept model of The Balboa Lighthouse Restaurant The O.C.

They put a down payment on the place, design it, renovate it, host a food tasting but last minute they are denied their liquor license. Sandy assumes its because his affiliation with Jimmy. This problem basically makes the business "worthless", due to the lack of alcohol sales that they would need to thrive. Without a liquor license Sandy and Jimmy decide to cut their losses and sell the property to Caleb, each of them getting over a million dollars in the deal. Jimmy and Sandy feel like they got quite a good offer considering perhaps maybe too good to be true. Then a little later they find out that Caleb was the one that blocked their liquor license purposely, buying the restaurant cheap from Sandy and Jimmy with the intention of selling it to someone else for way more money!

The Balboa Lighthouse Restaurant interior The O.C.

It would have been really cool for this to have worked out for Jimmy and Sandy. Even if they only
owned it for a season. Nana Cohen's meatloaf would have delighted many Newport dwellers. Sigh.

Venezia Italian Grill porch area redondo beach

The actual filming location of the interior/exterior building was in Redondo Beach and not Newport, as most of The O.C. was. It simply costs too much to film outside L.A..The building housed many restaurants over the years, with the last restaurant being named "Venezia Italian Grill" and "Harbor Drive" before that.

Venezia Italina Grill Menu Redondo Beach
 The most recent Yelp review was in 2008 with an average rating of 3/5 stars.
redondo beach shade hotel la construction

Sadly in 2013 the original Balboa Lighthouse building suffered the same fate as The Bait Shop, the building was torn down and construction started on a new modern and sophisticated hotel. We lost yet another O.C. landmark.

redondo beach shade hotel la

The hotel is called "Shade Hotel". Regular rooms start at $250-269 per night but if you want to live large the luxury suites will set you back $1500 a night!

Monday, September 12, 2016

Sandy Cohen History Lesson: The Sandy Cohen Public Defender Fellowship!


Very cool things were happening surrounding The O.C. phenomenon during the early 00's. Some of which have been rumored about throughout the years or were thought of as just O.C. legends. The following O.C. legend your about to read was very true.

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

In the fall of 2003 John Kim (class of 2004) of The Berkeley Law at the University of California started The Sandy Cohen Public Defender Fellowship for Lawyers who Dare to Dream also known as "The Sandy". The O.C. premiered on Fox during the summer before John's final year of law school, he saw in “The O.C.” and thought it was everything missing from law school life in general: glamour, romance, and visionary lawyering. He decided that other law students might feel the same and organized the club as soon as school began again. It was one of the largest clubs at UC Berkeley with a total of 75 members!

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

The Fellowship was inspired by no other than the man himself Sandy Cohen of The O.C..Sandy Cohen graduated from Berkeley Law school and was seen as a public defender in the early season one episodes. Sandy Cohen used his keen selfless public defender skills and rescued Ryan Atwood from his poor life in Chino.

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

The fellowship was created to help summer law students who provided public defense on a volunteer unpaid basis. Each year one or more student would be chosen for their wonderful charitable attitude and work ethic. The winning students would receive or split a cash prize of 3,000-5,000 dollars which was donated by Fox, Warner Brothers, Peter Gallagher and the Boalt Totally Awesome Prom Fundraising Event.

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

This Fellowship went on for three years, with each year Peter Gallagher stopping by to present the award to the winning students and hanging out to sign autographs etc.

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship
Jason Balitzer accepting his award in 2004 with actor Peter Gallagher that plays Sandy Cohen in The O.C.

The first winner was Jason Balitzer in 2004. In 2005 Ronnie Lin was the winner and lastly in 2006 there were five total winners, Ruth Mackey, Joey McInnis, Rachel Pfeiffer, Loriani Santos and Van Swearingen!

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

The Sandy Cohen Fellowship was loved by the media and was mentioned on Entertainment Weekly, The Jimmy Kimmel Show, The New York Times and even the official Fox O.C. website. Peter said “I think this club is amazing. They aren't lampooning [Sandy] as an impossible dreamer missing out on a fat paycheck. Instead, they are encouraging people to do the right thing.”

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

Members of the fellowship would also meet every Thursday to get their O.C. on, watching the latest episode, gossiping about what would happen next, all the while eating snacks! Furthermore the fellowship would also host O.C. related parties throughout the year.

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship
John (guitar), Iiona (keys), Anne (bass) and Captain Oats on drum machine

There was even an official band of the fellowship called "Orange Crush" who formed in December 2003. "Orange Crush" played at O.C. club meetings and wrote all original fun O.C. songs. This hot three piece plus Captain Oats on drum machine was a force to be reckoned with. With catchy hits such as "Anna Face" and "Summer Come Over" all of which can be downloaded here!

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

Peter Gallagher said in the Oakland Tribune: "I love the fact that [the OC at Boalt] are encouraging people to go into the public defender's office, and the fact that it happens to be based on a character I play is all gravy. I think this club is amazing. They aren't lampooning [Sandy] as an impossible dreamer missing out on a fat paycheck. Instead, they are encouraging people to do the right thing."

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship
boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

boalt the o.c. sandy cohen fellowship

The Sandy Cohen Public Defender Fellowship only lasted a little while but the memories and lives changed in the process will remain priceless! What a cool experience that had to be! Cheers to all the future Sandy Cohen PD's of the world who Dare to Dream!

This post was just liked via Twitter by the man himself Sandy Cohen aka Peter Gallagher!


For more check out boalt.org
Photos provided by boalt.org


Saturday, May 7, 2016

Sandy Cohen History Lesson: Everything The O.C. Insider!


After the huge success of season 1 of The O.C. an exclusive The O.C. fan site was created in 2004 by Fox and The WB. It was called The O.C. Insider also known as OCI. For the first few years the website required a paid membership for the small-small price of 24.95 per year (in 2006 it became free for everyone).

Being an OCI member got you unlimited access to exclusive content such as cast interviews, video clips and pics, downloads for your computer or flip phone, fashion/style tips, access to message boards, discounts on O.C. gear and merchandise as well as the OCI Quarterly Magazine. In other words if you had an OCI membership you were all that and a bag of oats.

Furthermore the O.C. Insider Magazine would occasionally contain a trial membership card to the O.C. Insider website which would allow a friend to access the site for a certain amount of hours. Basically the gateway O.C. drug, giving you a glimpse of what the grass tasted like on the other side of the pasture..Then leaving you wanting more!



As you can see in the above time capsule, this is a real capture of the long defunct OC Insider website. This is what the site looked like in 2005 complete with flashy flash objects minty enough to make an epilepsy sufferer have a seizure or an O.C. super fan high and eat a ton of bagels!

Benefits of being a member stated on the site:

"THE OC INSIDER MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES:
 - A three-issue, one-year subscription to The OC Insider magazine, published by Titan Publishing
 - One year of access to theocinsider.com - the online component of The OC Insider and the ultimate online The O.C. destination which includes exclusive behind the scenes video and photos, weekly music streams and downloads, chats with talent, fashion and make-up tips
 - A membership kit, which includes a letter from series creator, Josh Schwartz, posters, and other exciting and exclusive The O.C. products.
 - Discounts and early purchases at theOCInsiderShop.com. Many exclusive items and hot fashions not available anywhere else 
- Hundreds of dollars in FREE wireless downloads!"



One of the coolest area's of the site was the pool house page!


Inside the pool house page you could download buddy icons, screen savers for your PC, flip through Seth's sketchbook and play awesome games like Casino Night Hold'em or Fold'em or Blackjack (the count goes way higher with multiple decks).


Everything The O.C has rescued some of the digital download files featured on The O.C. Insider including the two games above. They can be located in the downloads section of the site! You can thank us later!


The sites concept was pretty genius and pretty revolutionary for the time. Not only could The O.C. make money on the screen but it could also make money in digital subscription form all the while proving a ton of great content.  To hardcore fans this was a no-brainer especially keeping yourself entertained in between waiting for episodes to air. An OCI membership card, talk about the perfect Chrismukkah stocking stuffer!


The awesome video interviews were probably one of the best things going for the site. Many of which can still be found floating on YouTube by searching "The O.C. Insider". Above is an example of the typical question and answer format. It's okay Sandy your guilty pleasure is safe with us!

 

Additionally Starbrand.tv partnered with The O.C. Insider and started cross promoting their site that sold various merchandise, clothing, bags, wall art, electronics (flip phones and Ipods) that were featured on The O.C. as well as other shows of that era.


This allowed you to basically replicate the styles of the characters you loved as well as allowing you emulate their room decorations etc for a price (sometimes pretty hefty)..Giving you the capabilities of living your own unique alternate O.C. universe of sorts, you could be the main character of The O.C. wherever you lived and in complete bliss.


If you wanted Ryan's hoodie from season 2 episode 1, you could buy it..If you Marissa's top featured in X episode you could buy that too. Everything from Seth's hair wax to Sandy's public defender tie collection could be bought! Starbrand.tv would include a store locator or brand website if you were interested in purchasing an item. If this was done now they would have included a buy it now Amazon link. Starbrand.tv also did this with other TV shows with great success.

Both sites lasted awhile after the series was over. The O.C. Insider was taken down in late 2015 and Starbrand.tv was acquired by Popsugar, the site was later taken down as well. There is now a ton of copy-cat sites doing the same thing that Starbrand did. Here at Everything The O.C. we try to research and archive forgotten O.C history for you. That way fans of the future will still be able to know the way things were, not myth's but pure facts and legends!



So now you know, put that on your bagel and schmear it! 

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