'O.C.'
Creator Keeps Quiet on Season 2 (but Seth's Fine)
July 20, 2004
Ryan's in Chino. Seth is alive
and well, at least physically. And the Nana is responding to her
cancer treatment.
That's more or less what
we know about "The O.C." as it begins production on its
second season. FOX showed a few clips from the season premiere to
reporters Friday (July 16) at the TV Critics Association press tour,
which hinted that Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) has reached a breaking point
about the departures of Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) and Seth (Adam Brody).
"Summer's over. ... Bring him home," she tells her husband,
Sandy (Peter Gallagher).
Creator Josh Schwartz is
keeping pretty tight-lipped about plot points from the early
episodes, but he does allow that Ryan will eventually return
to Orange County.
"I think it was never
a question of would Ryan come back, but a question of how,
and also how his leaving and the summer that has taken place
with his absence, with Seth's absence, has sort of ... torn
these families apart," Schwartz says.
FOX ordered 24 episodes
of "The O.C." for season two -- down from 27 in its freshman
year -- and set its premiere date for Thursday, Nov. 4. Schwartz
says now that viewers "get what the show is," his goal
for the season is to dig more deeply into the lives of its characters.
"We are going
to slow down the storytelling some this year, I think," he
says. "I think, you know, there won't necessarily have to be
a brawl at every black-tie affair this year."
Schwartz is adamant about not revealing
where Seth's sailing trip, begun in last season's finale, finally
ended. He'll only say that Seth is unharmed.
Navi
Rawat's Theresa will return to the show -- she's seen in the clip
FOX showed at press tour -- and current "North Shore" star
Amanda Righetti will be back "briefly" as Kirsten's sister,
Hailey, Schwartz says.
It also
appears that Linda Lavin will definitely return as Sophie 'Nana' Cohen,
Sandy's mom. Lavin appeared in one episode late last season, in which
she told her son she had cancer.
"She
was great," Schwartz says of Lavin. "The Nana really popped
for people. And so, therefore, I think it's safe to say the chemo
is working."
