Ten Years Later, ‘The O.C.’ Creators Still Don’t Know If Killing Off Marissa Was A Good Idea

In case you haven’t heard, The O.C. is still one of the best teen TV shows of all time. Because of its enduring legacy, creator Josh Schwartz, executive producer Stephanie Savage, writer Leila Gerstein and legendary music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, were invited to speak at the recent nostalgia-packed ATX conference in Austin.

For fans of The O.C., this panel was full of juicy details that you wouldn’t have found on fan forums circa-2004. The title of the show was meant to be an ironic jab at the water polo jocks who Schwartz hated at USC (also, Schwartz may have been the inspiration for Seth Cohen, but that does not mean he celebrated Chrismukkah). Also, apparently the Cohens were originally called ‘The Newmans’ to placate Fox executives who may not have been comfortable with the show’s Jewishness. They eventually became “medium okay” with it.

By the by, Imogen Heap’s ‘Hide and Seek’ was their favourite musical moment in the show too.

The biggest scoop from the event was Josh Schwartz admitting that he still wonders if killing off Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) was a good idea. For those who haven’t dusted off the DVD box set in a while: Marissa was killed in a car crash while on her way to start a new life working on a boat (??). Her ex Volchok ran her off the road, and though Ryan tried to save her (in a callback to when he did save her in Tijuana in season one) he failed. Then he became a cage-fighter, because naturally.

“It’s complicated,” Schwartz says. “There were a lot of factors involved and it was something we really wrestled with. There were reasons both creative and just in terms for the show itself and where we were with the network.”

“It’s something we still wrestle with.”

This reflection may be prompted by the fact that Schwartz still gets a lot of “angry fan art” about everyone’s favourite alcoholic teen with annoyingly perfect hair, but at the time killing off Marissa was a very controversial move. Her exit from the show seemed kind of inevitable with Ryan and Summer going away for college, but ruling her out of the action completely seemed very drastic. Arguably, the show was already past its peak when she died.

In other news, just in case you get any wild ideas the old rumour that Josh Schwartz will someday make a spinoff of The O.C. using the fictional in-show teen drama The Valley, is false. However, he did hint that he might have something in the works… maybe.