Once again I will admit I have never seen an episode of The O.C. While many friends have told me that the first season of the show is brilliant on so many levels, I just never found the time to tune in. But based on how many people emailed me for this contest I know a lot of you still care. That is why when I got sent the transcript from a recent telephone interview that Rachel Bilson and show creator Josh Schwartz did I figured some of you would want to read it.

I would love to write more but I am seriously not qualified with this show. If you are looking forward to The O.C. returning on November, 2^nd then I am sure you will enjoy what is below.

Josh Schwartz

Moderator               Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Josh Schwartz and Rachel Bilson conference call.  At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode.  As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, and I’d like to turn it over to Mr. Josh Schwartz.

J. Schwartz               Hey, everybody, thank you for doing the call.  Rachel is just wrapping up a scene and will be with us in like two to five minutes.

Moderator               Mr. Schwartz, are you ready for your first question?

J. Schwartz               Sure thing.

Moderator               Okay, and that will come from the line of Valerie Greenberg of Life & Style Weekly.  Please go ahead.

V. Greenberg            Hi, Mr. Schwartz, how are you?

J. Schwartz               I’m good.  Call me Josh.

V. Greenberg            Oh, Josh, okay, thanks.  So how is it now with everybody, without Mischa on the set?

J. Schwartz               I think it was certainly weird initially and she is definitely missed, but everybody understood the creative new direction that the show is headed in.  I think everyone is having a lot of fun.  But she was important part of the show and her character is an important part of the show and her character is honored I think in the beginning coming of this season.  So she’s missed but everybody is moving – is back at it.  The show must go on.

Moderator               Thank you and our next question will come from the line of Brian Cantor of Headline Planet.  Please go ahead.

B. Cantor                Hey, Josh, How’s it going?

J. Schwartz               Good, how are you?

B. Cantor                I’m fine, thanks.  I guess speculation suggests that the fourth season is probably going to be the final one.  I know that’s not official but that’s what most people assume, and you know Grey’s Anatomy’s success in the timeslot is certainly not helping at all in terms of a potential ratings rebound.  So I’m curious how that sort of pessimism affects you as a producer on the show.  Does it allow you to take more risks?  How exactly does that impact what you do with the show?

J. Schwartz               It’s actually proved to be totally, creatively liberating.  I think last year the show creatively was – decisions were made that weren’t necessarily creative, but that were made in the sort of defensively, so as to not get cancelled.  I think promotable events were dictating characters, plus the other way around.  This year we’ve gotten very Zen about the fact that we are perilous to control those ratings, and out of that actually is real creative liberation.  We’re having a lot of fun, anything goes, and we’re really doing the show that we are excited to do and that we think our fans will be excited to see.

Moderator               Thank you, our next question will come from the line of Megan Cherkezian of TV Guide Online.

M. Cherkezian          Hi, Josh.

J. Schwartz               Hey, how are you?

M. Cherkezian          Good.  I was excited to see that Chris Pratt is a guest star.

J. Schwartz               Yes.

M. Cherkezian          I’m a big fan of his.  I’m just wondering, is he going to stay on the show and become a possible love interest for Summer?

J. Schwartz               Well yes – well I don’t know about a love interest but he’s definitely going to stick around.  We had him originally slated for a handful of episodes and we just all enjoyed working with him so much and he’s so much fun.  He’s really, “I think I’m the newest character,” a lot, that we decided to extend it and bring him back for a few more.  His character right now is really just as a Svengali, sort of a spiritual guru to Summer at college.  I think if he was to have a romantic story somewhere further on in the season, it would be with someone you might not expect.

Moderator               Thank you.  Our next question will come from the line of Ann Oldenburg of USA Today.  Please go ahead.

A. Oldenburg            Hi, Josh.

J. Schwartz               Hey, Ann, how are you?

A. Oldenburg            Fine.  I have a question about Sandy and why you felt the need that he should have a guy friend.  Why does Sandy – why does that bother Sandy?

J. Schwartz               Why does it bother Sandy?

A. Oldenburg            Or why does he feel he needs to have a man friend I think...?

(Overlapping voices)

J. Schwartz               Well I think there comes a time in a man’s life where he looks around and he realizes, “you know, I don’t really have any guys to hang out with,” and I think that can become a complicated thing as you become a dad and you’re working a lot, the sort of the idea of just having like a friend, especially when you’re Sandy Cohen and you’re often solving people’s problems.  You know you’re a great dad, a great husband, but like what about just having somebody to hang out with and have a beer with and watch the game.  We thought that was sort of a smaller, more relatable kind of side to Sandy that we wanted to explore.

A. Oldenburg            Will that, his friend, the character, become more of a bigger character or is it just sort of...?

(Overlapping voices)

J. Schwartz               Well I think he’s somebody that we can now fold into the show you know?  He’s a buddy for Sandy to have.  They work together.  It’s a place to go in the show, and it was a story line that Peter was really excited to do as well and had a lot of fun with.

Moderator               Thank you, and next we’ll go to the line of Daniel Fienberg of Zap2it.com.  Please go ahead.

J. Schwartz               Oh-oh.

D. Fienberg              How you doing, Josh?  So in the past you’ve had sort of different sort of five or six episode roadblocks for Sandy and Kirsten, over the seasons – you know, Bill Campbell, Bonnie Somerville, Jerry, Ryan, etc., but that’s sort of happy at the beginning of these episodes.

J. Schwartz               Yes, I think it should be a roadblock free season for Sandy and Kirsten.

D. Fienberg              Well can actually give them enough to do while keeping them from being on the verge of divorce or alcoholism at all times?

J. Schwartz               I think we can.  I think that they work best when they’re working together and they’re on the same team.  Certainly Ryan is going to keep them busy in the beginning of the season.  As we get further on, Julie Cooper will keep Kirsten more than occupied.

(Loud background noise)

Moderator               Thank you and next we’ll go to the line of Brian....

J. Schwartz               Oh, sorry, getting some feedback.

Moderator               Yes, probably from your phone.

J. Schwartz               Yes, okay.

Moderator               Next we’ll go to the line of Brian Cantor of Headline Planet.

B. Cantor                Actually I re-queued to ask a similar question to Rachel.  So I mean if you want to go to somebody next and I’ll re-queue again, that’s fine.

Moderator               Okay, thank you.  We’ll go to a re-queue from Megan Cherkezian of TV Guide Online. 

M. Cherkezian          Hi, Josh.  I was wondering where the show will go with Kaitlin and Luke’s younger brothers, and if she will at all kind of replace Marissa in a way?

J. Schwartz               The idea was not to have her replace Marissa.  The idea was just that she actually – especially in the beginning of the season, she really serves as a reminder – she serves as like a life raft to Julie to come back to reality.  That when Julie is so despondent with grief over the loss of one daughter, that Kaitlin is there to say, “You still have another daughter.  I’m still here.  I’m still alive.”  She really helps to kind of bring Julie back and they work really great together as Mother and Daughter.  The idea is not have her replace Marissa in anyway.  She will not – Eric and Brad Ward, who are Kaitlin’s – they’re almost like her lap dogs I guess really, but she will have a romantic storyline in the second half of the season with Chris Brown.

Moderator               Thank you, and next we’ll go to the line of Emily Christianson of Celebrity Week.  Please go ahead.

E. Christianson         Hi, Josh.

J. Schwartz               Hi.

E. Christianson         Hi.  I was just curious, what are the chances that Marissa will be back as either a ghost or a flashback or something like that this season?

J. Schwartz               You’ll have to watch and see, but like I said, her character will be very much in the fabric of the show, whether she herself is not back.

Moderator               Next we’ll go to the line of Valerie Greenberg of Life & Style Weekly.

V. Greenberg            Hi, Josh, how are you?

J. Schwartz               Good, how are you?

V. Greenberg            So what is ahead for Summer and Seth?

J. Schwartz               Ah, well I think they’re in a place where I believe a lot of couples have been in, in high school going into college.  We were trying to do the long distance thing.  Seth is left behind, where like, he’s hanging out with the....  The highlight of his day is he had a turkey sandwich and his Dad wanted roast beef, and meanwhile Summer is 3,000 miles away at college reinventing herself completely.  I think that’s a struggle that all kids go through at some point in their life.  That they’re trying to take the high school girl friend with them to college.  It’s part of Summer’s growth and it’s part of Seth’s growth to be happy for her, to be excited for this change, and just to make sure that she’s changing for the right reasons, and not because she’s trying to escape Newport or her past.

Moderator               Thank you and we have a follow-up from Megan Cherkezian of TV Guide Online.

M. Cherkezian          Josh, will Ryan hunting down Volcheck be a big storyline for a while or does he go in a different direction?

J. Schwartz               I think the sort of the aftermath of the season finale will play itself out in just a couple of episodes in the beginning of the year, about the first three episodes.  Then Ryan will start to move into a new direction as he tries to heal himself.

Moderator               We’ll go to the line of Brian Linder of IGN.com.

B. Linder                 Hey, Josh, how are you doing?

J. Schwartz               I’m good.  How are you?

B. Linder                 Good.  Are we going to see any old familiar faces popping up on the show this year like maybe Jimmy Cooper coming back or the nanna?

J. Schwartz               You definitely will.  We’ll definitely be bringing back some characters from previous seasons and maybe some you’ve forgotten about.  Yes, you’ll definitely see some, and Jimmy Cooper will be back for sure.

Moderator               Thank you, and next we’ll go to the line of Paulette Cohen from ETOnline.

P. Cohen                 Hey, Josh.

J. Schwartz               Hey.

P. Cohen                 Is Autumn going to be a love interest for Ryan?  It sort of looked that way at the end of the fourth episode.

J. Schwartz               Well, Autumn is going to – Taylor will play a big part in the show this year.  I think before she can be love interest for Ryan, first they have to become friends, but she is the ideal person, we believe, to help pull Ryan out of the darkness and towards the light.  That she’s just such a sort of force of nature and she brings out a really different side of Ryan.  So their scenes together are a lot of fun and the actors are having a lot of fun doing them.

Moderator               Thanks and next we’ll go to the line of Daniel Fienberg of Zap2it.com.

(Difficult to understand)

D. Fienberg              ...Josh ... in.

J. Schwartz               Hey.  Sorry, hold on a second.  I don’t why this keeps going on.  Okay.

D. Fienberg              Probably because people are trying to call you.

J. Schwartz               I guess.  I thought I turned it off, but these darn new phones.  Yes, so go ahead, sorry.

D. Fienberg              So given – as much as they made about sort of Willa’s similarities to Mischa and sort of younger sister and all, are you conspicuously or consciously going to be avoiding having her go through any sort of similar downward spiral type arcs?  Like is she going to find herself drinking soon?

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