09. The success of the series premiere of The O.C.—and the series in general—changed the course of young-adult programming. Without The O.C. there is no Gossip Girl; without The O.C. there is no Laguna Beach (subtitled The Real Orange County), and by extension there is no The Hills, or Spencer and Heidi, or The City, that show starring Whitney Port that MTV tried to make happen. With The O.C., Josh Schwartz proved that there was a giant, thirsty, young audience craving soapy melodramas, ushering in a new era of TV on the back of a chain-smoking bad boy from Chino, a nerdy kid who liked Death Cab for Cutie, a literal Abercrombie model, and a pretty girl with predilection for vodka.
— “The 100 Best TV Episodes of the Century” on THE defining show of my youth.
(Source: besttv.theringer.com, via suspicious)
