Melinda Clarke wears our Free Marissa Teeshirt and Thomas Fincher spills OC set secrets!

 

It's a Chrismukkah miracle! My favorite character, Julie Cooper-Nichol-Cooper-Roberts-Cooper-Atwood aka Melinda Clarke has graced us with her presence by modeling our Free Marissa design on The O.C. Bitches podcast! This was by far one of the most interesting episodes as it dives into the set design and detail in the shows fantastic background. 

I really enjoyed Stephen Fincher's candid behind the scenes information and as always Melinda Clarke's brilliant research! As you know, I cover a lot of behind the scenes material on this page, particularly regarding the Cohen house sets. One such topic that Stephen spoke about was the Cohen backyard backdrop which (Cohen)sides with this article here. Years ago he actually was kind enough to email me information about how the backdrop worked and sent over some behind the scene photos that were included in that article. Be sure to check it out! 

Yet again fantastic episode gals! Check out the episode here and feel free to check out our official store if you would like to order a Free Marissa t-shirt amongst some other amazing designs! Thank you!

Behind the Scenes: Season 4 On location at "Al's" Gas Station

Here is a really amazing collection of behind the scenes photos taken during Season 4 episode 8 "The Earth Girl Are Easy".  Most of these consist of Benjamin Mckenzie and Adam Brody goofing off. Ejoy!

For more information regarding this shooting location check out the amazing Seeing Stars article here!

Behind the Scenes: Super Rare Season One Promotional Shots

Hey OC'ers! Below are some very rare season one promotional shots of Adam Brody, Mischa Barton and Benjamin McKenzie. These photos were captured at the Raleigh Manhattan Beach Studios (Cohen backyard set). Some quick fun facts below as well. 

Yes, that's AstroTurf aka fake grass that never needs mowing (just like the Brady's)

Behind them is the fake ocean backdrop as seen in nearly every episode of The O.C..To emulate the shimmery water effect, production crew glued metallic pieces of acetate paper to the backdrop. A fan would then be positioned on the backdrop blowing the pieces around - pretty cool effect actually and does look a lot like water.

The plants used in the Cohen backyard set were actually real. Again, fans would blow on the plants giving the appearance that they were really outside.

Behind the Scenes: The episode where Seth and Ryan go to "The Vegas"

The following images are behind the scenes shots of The O.C. cast filming on location for Season One's Episode: "The Strip" (although we think it should have been called "The Vegas". If you remember or not, in the episode, Ryan, Seth, Caleb and Sandy go to Vegas for Caleb's bachelor party but like most times in The O.C. Seth and Ryan get into trouble and somebody gets punched!

Adam Brody and Benjamin Mckenzie studying their lines

Adam and Benjamin goofing off

Adam and Benjamin goofing off again...

And again...

Adam taking in direction from the shows directors

Adam Brody talking to his stripper friend

Seth in awe of the hotel they are staying at..Paid by Caleb of course!

Tate Donovan and Peter Gallagher going over some lines

Tate Donovan eating from the many actor food-carts that were on location

Benjamin taking direction from the directors

A bunch of behind the scenes people standing around

Makeup checkup on Peter Gallagher, yes their tans were faked

Behind the scenes filming inside the casino hotel

Alan Dale and Peter Gallagher filming a scene

Behind the Scenes: Season One O.C. Magazine Clippings!

Here are a few very rare behind the scenes magazine clippings of The O.C. actors goofing off while filming Season 1 Episode 7 "The Escape". 

Adam Brody adjusting his Sombrero because, you know that's very Tijuana!

Benjamin Mckenzie and Peter Gallagher study their lines before filming the part when the whole gang hits the road to Tijuana.  

Behind the Scenes: Pictures of Seth's room from the pilot episode

Here are two super rare images of Seth's room that was featured in the pilot episode only. The pilot episode was filmed in a real house located in Malibu, on the same cul-de-sac as the two story exterior house we see in nearly every episode. Ironically this house was a one story. 

After the pilot episode, Seth's room was rebuilt in Raleigh Studios located in Manhattan Beach, CA, along with the pool house, Cohens house, harbor school etc.. Sadly the house used in the pilot later burned down from the California fires in 2018 (to read all about that go here). You will notice that Seth's room in the pilot episode is decorated much different then the rest of the series. Many of the band posters were switched out with more indie type bands but the majority of the other accessories remained similar. 

Read much more about Seth's room here!

Lovable Props From The O.C.: A Collection of Actual O.C. Scripts and More!

Here at Everything The O.C. we like to bring you rare and hard to find things about The O.C, not just photos we've all seen hundreds of times on O.C. fan Instagram accounts. This time we've ordered you up a special! We bring to you photos of some actual original O.C. scripts, production paperwork and more!



The following scripts and paperwork come from season 2 episode 18 "The Risky Business", script revision pages from season 1 episode 17 "The Truth" and an eight page shooting schedule of episode 25 (unsure of season). These were all apart of an auction a few years ago that sold for only $50 dollars plus shipping! We wish we were the lucky bidders so we could have displayed some better in depth photos!



The page on top features information about each scene - filming location/stage, which actors would be involved, the props needed, possible stunt doubles and more. These pages are created for literally every scene, which gives you a perspective on how long an episode takes to get filmed! It isn't too uncommon for a TV show to spend two weeks on ONE episode!

If your wondering - the color of the paper represent which draft a TV production is on. There is a sequence of colors that represents which version of the script they are on, notice the blue color - that means something was revised from the original white copy (all scripts start white). Here is a the order of how scripts are colored - White Draft (original), Blue Revision, Pink Revision,Yellow Revision Green Revision, Goldenrod Revision, Buff Revision, Salmon Revision, Cherry Revision, Second Blue Revision, Second Pink Revision and so on...

The front cover page for season 2 episode 16!

Lastly here is a filming schedule - notice that the Cohen house is listed as being located on stage 28 and Seth's room is located on stage 27. This is because Seth's room wasn't actually upstairs, his room was a set located on a completely different sound stage. Stage 27 also housed things like the Newport Group offices, Harbor School, Marissa's room, Summer's room and more!

Behind the Scenes: Early Illustrations of Seth's Atomic County Comic Book!

Eric Wight's first thumbnail for Atomic County

Every great idea has humble beginnings, over time that simple idea evolves into something much more amazing - if you have the patience that is. The following images shows how Eric Wight's illustrations for Atomic County came to be. In case you didn't know, Eric Wight was the illustrator that created nearly every drawling/sketch in The O.C. - Seth's doodles, Art around his room and of course Atomic County. To the viewers imagination, the artist was of course Seth Cohen but it's all smoke and mirrors when it comes to TV..Eric Wight was the real man behind all that creativity! Learn more about him here.  

"My first attempt at the O.C. Insider magazine cover. It would ultimately become the cover to the graphic novel prop seen on the show. Note Seth's more superhero-ish outfit and rocket skateboard, both ideas that were ultimately killed." -Eric Wight

As you can see Seth was originally equipped with a rocket skateboard - how appropriate!

"My first attempt at the Atomic County graphic novel cover. Something wasn't quite working for me, so I killed it." - Eric Wight

"I was going through my files when I stumbled across my rejected thumbnail for the magazine cover. I dusted it off, made some modifications, and this became the cover to the graphic novel." - Eric Wight

No more rocket skateboard!

"The final inks for the Atomic County graphic novel cover." - Eric Wight

The final look that ended up being the prop in the show. 

Isn't amazing to see how Eric's initial idea vs final idea turned out? With that being said - don't belittle your small progresses in life because you never know, if you stick to it, it could become a huge victory! Check out our DIY printable section to print off your very own Atomic County comic book cover. 

If you're interested in learning more about Eric Wight check out the IGN interview below (we just included The O.C. related questions).

IGN: How did you first get involved with The O.C.?
Wight: I was selling a piece of my art on eBay from The Escapist, which was an adaptation of The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and the person who bought it was Alan Heinberg, one of the executive producers of the show and was a huge fan of my work and asked if I'd be interested in maybe being the ghost artist for Seth. They'd talked about taking him in the direction where he'd draw some comic books and they wanted that would literally become the artist and set the style for Seth. And immediately, it clicked and I could relate to Seth's plight on the show. It became really easy to fill in his shoes, and people really grabbed onto it; they really dug that sort of very minor sub-plot in the show. 

IGN: When you're watching the show and watching Seth trace the lines of your art, do you ever just cringe?
Wight: There's one scene where I think he gets into a fight with Summer and he takes some of my drawings in a rage and I remember just feeling this anger burning inside me, like, "How dare you tear up my drawings?" It's funny when, I'll lurk around and see what people are saying online and these arguments are like, "No; Adam Brody is the real artist!" But, it's all Hollywood magic.

The O.C. Behind the Scenes: Pilot scenes plus casting info!

Here is a very cool clip that highlights The O.C. actors/actresses opinions regarding the pilot episode of The O.C. as well as some sweet casting information! We find it funny that one of the last scenes of the pilot episode (Peter Gallagher and Benjamin Mckenzie) was actually the first scene they ever filmed for the show! 

Behind the Scenes: Rare photos from "The Strip"

Here we have a small handful of very rare behind the scenes photos from season 1 episode 26 "The Strip". If you don't remember clearly - this episode was all about Seth and Ryan getting into trouble in Vegas during Calebs "Bachelor Party". "I love the Vegas" - Sandy Cohen

This episode was the pre-grand finale before the actual season 1 finale - Julie and Caleb getting married along with an emotional roller coaster ride you would have to be at least 5 foot tall to be able to handle. Enjoy!