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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Summer, Luke, Taylor.
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** Like father, like son: at a party early in season one, Seth walks in on some sexcapades in a bathroom, which prompts a line that Sandy later repeats upon walking in on a menage a trois atfter Hailey throws a party in their house:
--->'''Seth/Sandy:''' I should really learn to knock... in case there's a ''threesome going on in the bathroom/bedroom.''
** Various characters decry other characters for 'salting someone's game'. Nobody appears to know what it means.
--->'''Seth/Sandy:''' I should really learn to knock... in case there's a ''threesome going on in the bathroom/bedroom.''
** Various characters decry other characters for 'salting someone's game'. Nobody appears to know what it means.
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Moving from YMMV.
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* SpoiledBrat: Marissa, for much of Season 2. Made especially bad when Lindsey, who lives in a tiny bungalow and grew up without a father, shows up to contrast with her. And yet the audience is still meant to have sympathy for Marissa simply because she doesn't like her mother.
** And again towards the end of Season 3. In one episode she becomes so bratty that she walks out on her (recently very sympathetic) mother's engagement party, and later Summer finally calls her on her {{Wangst}}y nonsense, telling her to grow up. Yet a few scenes later, Ryan tells Volchok to treat her right "because she deserves it".
** In fact, you can tell whenever she's being a bitch because she makes ''Julie Cooper'' seem sympathetic.
* SpotlightStealingSquad - When Oliver and Johnny were on the show, it seemed like all of the plots started revolving around them. Even Christmukkah was taken over by Johnny's issues.
** And again towards the end of Season 3. In one episode she becomes so bratty that she walks out on her (recently very sympathetic) mother's engagement party, and later Summer finally calls her on her {{Wangst}}y nonsense, telling her to grow up. Yet a few scenes later, Ryan tells Volchok to treat her right "because she deserves it".
** In fact, you can tell whenever she's being a bitch because she makes ''Julie Cooper'' seem sympathetic.
* SpotlightStealingSquad - When Oliver and Johnny were on the show, it seemed like all of the plots started revolving around them. Even Christmukkah was taken over by Johnny's issues.
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** Taylor is a literal example as Autumn Reeser was an actual extra in Season 1.
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** breaks up with him, but then spends seven hours outside of his workplace with binoculars, spying on him. (She follows him in disguise later on.)
** applies to Berkeley, his college of choice, without telling him.
** tries to force him into saying he loves her so her applying to Berkeley is justified.
** gets him drunk in an effort to make him do the above.
** says (jokingly, but it's still cringeworthy) that she wants to tie him to a chair and inject him with sodium penthanol in order to make him admit his feelings.
** applies to Berkeley, his college of choice, without telling him.
** tries to force him into saying he loves her so her applying to Berkeley is justified.
** gets him drunk in an effort to make him do the above.
** says (jokingly, but it's still cringeworthy) that she wants to tie him to a chair and inject him with sodium penthanol in order to make him admit his feelings.
to:
** breaks Breaks up with him, but then spends seven hours outside of his workplace with binoculars, spying on him. (She follows him in disguise later on.)
**applies Applies to Berkeley, his college of choice, without telling him.
**tries Tries to force him into saying he loves her so her applying to Berkeley is justified.
**gets Gets him drunk in an effort to make him do the above.
**says Says (jokingly, but it's still cringeworthy) that she wants to tie him to a chair and inject him with sodium penthanol in order to make him admit his feelings.
**
**
**
**
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* AnyoneCanDie: Marissa, especially considering there was no real warning for it in the press.
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** Hell, pretty much ''every'' recurring character is a deadpan snarker to some extent.
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** Also Julie
* DemotedToExtra: Jimmy was originally part of the main cast while Julie was not, but he was so bland that he eventually got removed and disappeared altogether.
* DemotedToExtra: Jimmy was originally part of the main cast while Julie was not, but he was so bland that he eventually got removed and disappeared altogether.
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change to more accurate trope
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* ColourCodedForYourConvenience - Chino is CSINewYork (grainy and desaturated). Orange County is Miami (lush colours).
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* ColourCodedForYourConvenience ColourMotif - Chino is CSINewYork (grainy and desaturated). Orange County is Miami (lush colours).
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* GiveGeeksAChance: For somebody who is supposed to be a socially awkward geek and outcast, Seth seems to have little trouble attracting beautiful young women. See the ChickMagnet entry above.
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* CantHoldHisLiquor - Seth Cohen is stealth.
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* CantHoldHisLiquor - Seth Cohen is stealth. stealth.
* CastingGag: Ryan and Marissa's fathers both played {{Hercules}}
* CastingGag: Ryan and Marissa's fathers both played {{Hercules}}
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* WhamLine: In "The Earth Girls Are Easy" Frank delivers "[[spoiler: I'm Ryan's father]]"
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*** Though, in an unusual example, "The Chrismukk-huh?" explores what world where Marissa died in Tijuana. Her death caused Summer to become best friends with Holly and an airhead, Jimmy and Julie to gravitate in different directions and wind up married to Kirsten and Sandy and Kaitlin to become an escapist who locked herself in her studies to the point where she graduated high school at 14
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** Dr. Roberts moves to [[GreysAnatomy Seattle Grace]], though unfortunately the character never appeared on the show
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* PreppyName: Surprisingly, the only person with one is Sandy, whose first name is Sanford and he grew up poor.
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* SixStudentClique
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* SixStudentCliqueSixStudentClique: For Season 1 before Luke and Anna left
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* WhamEpisode: "The Graduates"
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* ActorAllusion: At Kaitlin's school, Marissa pretends to be an exchange student from London. Mischa Barton was born in London to British parents
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* ActorAllusion: At Kaitlin's school, Marissa pretends to be an exchange student from London. Mischa Barton was born in London to British parentsparents. YourAccentNeedsWork also applies
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* ActorAllusion: At Kaitlin's school, Marissa pretends to be an exchange student from London. Mischa Barton was born in London to British parents
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* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: When Anna returns in Season 3, her hair is much longer
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* KilledOffForReal - [[spoiler:Caleb Nichol and Marissa Cooper.]]
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* KilledOffForReal - [[spoiler:Caleb Nichol Nichol, Johnny Harper, and Marissa Cooper.]]
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** Also there's the fact that Amanda Righetti was 20 when she first appeared as Hailey playing Adam Brody's older aunt, who was older than her
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* ChickMagnet: Seth attracts the attention of Summer, Anna, Alex, and Taylor.
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Chili is short for Dennis Childress
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* {{Expy}} - Casey, Dennis and Chili at Newport union were pretty blatant expy's of Ryan, Summer and Seth, with the flip that the Summer-analogue was dating the Ryan analogue
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* {{Expy}} - Casey, Dennis Johnny and Chili at Newport union were pretty blatant expy's of Ryan, Summer and Seth, with the flip that the Summer-analogue was dating the Ryan analogue
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** Pulled off by Sandy, Seth, and Summer in Season 3 to get Ryan back to into Harbor. They pretend to have proof of the relationship between Dean Hess and Taylor to use as blackmail.
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* DistaffCounterpart: Anna is in many ways, a female Seth
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* AscendedExtra: Kaitlin was pretty irrelevant in Season 1 before she was recast and returned in Season 3 and eventually promoted to main cast in Season 4.
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* BatmanGambit - Caleb Nichols almost pulls this off in Season One. This results in Jimmy [[spoiler: punching him in the face and ruining his deal in a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.]]
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* BatmanGambit - Caleb Nichols Nichol almost pulls this off in Season One. This results in Jimmy [[spoiler: punching him in the face and ruining his deal in a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.]]
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* HoYay - Seth and Ryan
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* [[OneSceneWonder One Episode Wonder]]: Alex's ex-girlfriend Jodie is quite popular in fanfiction despite only being in one episode (with a cameo in the previous episode)
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* TakeThat - Josh Schwartz doesn't seem to be very fond of his time slot competitor ''GreysAnatomy''.
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* TakeThat - Josh Schwartz doesn't seem to be very fond of his time slot competitor ''GreysAnatomy''.''Series/GreysAnatomy''.
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oc4_1561.jpg]]
-> ''We've been on the run, driving in the sun, looking out for number one -- California, here we come, right back where we started from...''
--> --'''Phantom Planet''', "California", '''''The O.C.''''' theme song.
''The O.C.'' is the story of Ryan Atwood, a troubled teenager from Chino, and the family who takes him in, the Cohens. Ryan and his brother are arrested for grand theft auto, but Ryan's idealistic public defender, Sandy Cohen, recognizes Ryan's intelligence and offers him a way out. When Ryan's alcoholic mother and her abusive boyfriend kick him out, Ryan has no choice but to call Sandy.
Ryan is thrust into the glamorous world of Orange County, and into the lives of the Cohens and their neighbors. There's [[DefrostingIceQueen Kirsten Cohen]], Sandy's wife; nerdy [[DeadpanSnarker Seth Cohen]], their son; [[FallenPrincess Marissa Cooper]], their beautiful but troubled neighbor; [[MagnificentBitch Julie Cooper]], Marissa's scheming mother; and Summer Roberts, Marissa's best friend. Ryan's first meeting with Marissa sets off sparks--too bad she's dating a JerkJock. Seth has loved Summer for years--too bad she doesn't know he exists.
With Ryan around, things are changing fast. Ryan, Marissa, Seth, and Summer are about to endure breaking up, breaking down, [[WildTeenParty parties]], proms... everything teenagers would normally be expected to go through, but with the added drama of living in the O.C.
This is a show about references. When you hang a guy upside down in the rain for a kiss from his [[LoveInterests main babe]], and you are not shooting the movie ''Spider-Man'', you are up to your ass in PostModernism.
One official TV Tropes Wiki No Prize is up for grabs for each example of an other-media reference from this show.
Not to be confused with an abbreviation for OriginalCharacter.
----
!!This series provides examples of:
* AbortedArc - At the end of Season One, we learn that[[spoiler: the Newport Group is virtually bankrupt; Sandy and Jimmy inadvertently foil Caleb's scheme to rescue it. While the DA keeps investigating Caleb in Season Two, the issue of, you know, bankruptcy is forgotten about. In fact Kirsten takes over the Newport Group's accounting in Season Two and never mentions a thing. Except, surprise! In Season Three, it turns out Caleb was bankrupt after all.]]
* AbuseIsOkayWhenItIsFemaleOnMale - A ''lot'' of Taylor's behavior towards Ryan would probably be condemned if she were a guy, but because she's a girl, it's played off as a cute quirk of character. She:
** breaks up with him, but then spends seven hours outside of his workplace with binoculars, spying on him. (She follows him in disguise later on.)
** applies to Berkeley, his college of choice, without telling him.
** tries to force him into saying he loves her so her applying to Berkeley is justified.
** gets him drunk in an effort to make him do the above.
** says (jokingly, but it's still cringeworthy) that she wants to tie him to a chair and inject him with sodium penthanol in order to make him admit his feelings.
* AbusiveParents - Frank Atwood and many of Ryan's mother's boyfriends. Ryan gets hit in the face by one five minutes into the Pilot.
* AllGirlsLikePonies
** Summer and Princess Sparkle
** Kaitlin's pony China who had alopecia.
** Seth and Captain Oats.
* AlternateUniverse - In one episode, Ryan and Taylor fall off a ladder and end up in one of these, where Ryan never came to the O.C. and Taylor was born a boy. Everyone has changed for the worse [[spoiler: (like Kirsten who turned into her father, Sandy who became a Republican, Seth who never stopped being a wallflower and Summer became an even more vapid bimbo -- though Marissa still died)]] except for Veronica, who is "still a bitch" as Taylor resignedly points out. Luckily, it was AllJustADream.
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: [[http://vlog.xuite.net/play/Sjk0WmNGLTkzMDI2MS5mbHY=/Bz-15-Ore-to-Omae-no-Atarashii-Kisetsu "Ore to Omae no Atarashii Kisetsu"]] by B'z is used as the Japanese ending theme.
* ASimplePlan - These never ever go right.
* AuthorAvatar - Seth Cohen is Josh Schwartz.
* BaitAndSwitch - In this example from 3.18
-->'''Jess''': Tell you what, why don't you stay awhile?
-->'''Ryan''': Look, Jess, we were never friends.
-->'''Jess''': Got it. (''break'') You can go if you want.
-->(''Ryan turns to leave'')
-->'''Jess''': Did you know Trey's dealing? (''Ryan turns around'') Blackjack, off the strip.
* BatmanGambit - Caleb Nichols almost pulls this off in Season One. This results in Jimmy [[spoiler: punching him in the face and ruining his deal in a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.]]
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Its arguable whether Seth started as one or TookALevelInJerkass.
* BiTheWay: Alex Kelly and Marissa Cooper.
* BookEnds
* TheBusCameBack: Kaitlin and Holly
* CallBack: A few.
** Ryan finding Marissa standing alone outside of their prom (2x23, "The O.Sea") is a callback to when he found her after Cotillion (1x04, "The Debut"). Similarly, when he gives her his jacket a few episodes before (2x18, "The Risky Business"), it parallels when he gave her his suit jacket after Cotillion.
** A more heartbreaking one for them is when [[spoiler: he carries her away from the burning car shortly before her death (3x25, "The Graduates")]]. It parallels when he carried her to the pool house (1x01, "Pilot") and out of the alley in Tijuana (1x07, "The Escape").
** Seth's coffee cart proclamation of love to Summer (1x20, "The Telenovela") is reprised by Summer two years later (3x21, "The Dawn Patrol"). [[spoiler:It doesn't go nearly so well for her.]]
** Seth intruding on Summer and Zack's TV time (2x12, "The Lonely Hearts Club") is a callback to Summer intruding on him and Anna (1x16, "The Links").
** Kirsten finds Ryan with Lindsay (2x08, "The Power of Love") in almost the exact same position she found him with Marissa (1x10, "The Perfect Couple").
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09diX06ILqg Seth being stealth]](2x07) and tagging along with Ryan (4x02)
--->'''Seth:''' OK, then take me with you.
--->'''Ryan:''' No.
--->'''Seth:''' I won't get in the way, you know how stealth I can be.
* CanNotSpitItOut - Hardly an episode goes by without the use of this trope.
* CantHoldHisLiquor - Seth Cohen is stealth.
* {{Catchphrase}} - "Bang!"; "Eww!"
* CelebrityParadox - Seth makes a reference to the vomiting little girl from TheSixthSense... who was played by Mischa Barton, also known as Marissa.
* CharacterDevelopment - Luke from a jerk jock to a good friend, Marissa from a normal schoolgirl to a tortured teen, Ryan from a hot-headed teenager to a calmer young man, Summer from a airheaded bimbo to... well, a ''nice'' airheaded bimbo and then to ''nice'' airheaded bimbo with a conscience. With good SAT scores. [[PingPongNaivete Who, despite having very high potential intelligence, is still at the age 18 entirely unaware what 'jihad' means]].
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Compare Summer's personality in the first couple of episodes with the rest of the series: she comes across as a lot less likeable, a slutty , obnoxious, partygirl airhead who dumps her unconcious best friend in her driveway after a night out. Likewise original flavour Taylor is very different from the adorable GenkiGirl she became, being a bitchy SmugSnake who is fooling around with a teacher (a SadistTeacher at that). Neither character was originally intended to be a regular but the unexpected appeal of Rachel Bilson and Autumn Reeser meant they ended up staying on and developing into quite different characters.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome - Ryan Atwood. Lampshaded at seperate times by different characters in Season 1, 2, 3, and 4. One episode in Season 3 had Kirsten helping Ryan to figure out he doesn't need to help every DamselInDistress anymore. One episode in Season 4 had Sandy helping Ryan to figure out he needs to help every DamselInDistress because it's "his thing" and he "shouldn't turn his back on that".
* ChronicVillainy - Julie Cooper switches between trying to be a good mom and being a gold-digging manipulative slut schizophrenically throughout the series.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome - Rachel in Season One. They were setting her up with Jimmy, and then she just... disappeared, never to be mentioned again, despite being Sandy's colleague.
** She "went on vacation".
* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience - Chino is CSINewYork (grainy and desaturated). Orange County is Miami (lush colours).
* ConflictBall - Carried by various characters. Often manifests itself in willfully misunderstanding the other person (see CanNotSpitItOut above).
* CoolestClubEver - The Bait Shop.
* CoolLoser - Seth Cohen. Then, eventually every character in the main cast.
* CoolShip - The Summer Breeze, an awesome Hobie mini-catamaran that Seth owned in season 1, and pawned for bus-fare in season 2.
* CloudCuckooLander - Taylor and Che.
* ContinuityNod - Oh so very many. One notable one is the phrase 'salting your game' as an indication of cockblocking. Used first by Ryan to Seth, half a season later from Seth to his dad, and then in season 2 by Sandy to his wife.
* CreatorBreakdown - Josh Schwartz was jaded by pressure from some fans and ExecutiveMeddling and seemingly zoned out during Season 3.
* CunningLinguist - Taylor Townsend is fluent in French, Korean and Spanish and is able to use enough Latin to deliver her valedictorian speech in that language.
* DawsonCasting - Lampshaded in "The L.A."
-->'''Ryan''' (speaking of the star from the ShowWithinAShow): How does that guy play high school?
-->'''Seth''': It's ''Hollywood'', man.
* DeadpanSnarker
** Seth Cohen.
** Sandy.
** Ryan also had some moments of this, thanks to Seth's influence.
** Summer. She claimed once that she never used irony until she met Seth.
** Anna.
** Alex as well
* {{Defictionalization}}: Before the series, "OC" was sometimes used in print as shorthand for "Orange County," but very rarely in speech, and never prefixed with a "the." Many Orange County residents scoffed at the show's title, but over the years, some of them really do refer to the region "the OC" without irony.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Kirsten, before Ryan joined the family and caused her to soften. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming a touching scene]] in the fourth season premiere, "The Avengers", when Seth puts together a comic book illustrating the Cohens' lives before he joined the family.
-->'''Kirsten''': The ice queen was surrounded by an impenetrable force field and her silver cell phone was her only link to the outside world.
* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Marissa, in Ryan's, in the Season 3 finale.]]
* DiegeticSwitch: Though not as often as SorryILeftTheBGMOn.
* DoomMagnet: In-universe, Ryan is accused of being one early in the show by Julie.
** Marissa Cooper, [[spoiler:especially in season 3]]. In fact, [[spoiler:when you factor in that her death at the end of the third season was followed by the ''much'' LighterAndSofter fourth season - Everything literally got better for the characters after Marissa's death]]. Possibly [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in a FreezeFrameBonus in the AlternateUniverse[=/=]AllJustADream episode.[[hottip:*:There's briefly a shot of a poster advertising that "Pac West Surf Star" Johnny Harper would be making an appearance to advertise his new line of boards. Johnny died the previous season, and the implication is that if Ryan had never arrived in Newport & saved Marissa from an overdose in season one, Johnny would have never died.]]
* DrugsAreBad - Chris Brown gets upset when Kaitlin offers him weed.
* DumbBlonde - Holly Fischer. Not so much in the first season when she was [[SmugSnake unpleasant]] but not noticably dim but when Holly eventually returned after an absence of two whole seasons she'd enthusiastically embraced the vapidity within.
* MrFanservice: Ryan, Luke, but a lot of girls seem to enjoy Seth. This isn't true for geeks in RealLife.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Che is short for Winchester
* ExecutiveMeddling - Resulted in the end of the Marissa/Alex lesbian relationship. Also, apparently a big factor for the quality decline in Season 3, as Fox wanted something 'promotable' to happen every week. The writers once got a note that said, "This is Fox, not Fox Searchlight".
* {{Expy}} - Casey, Dennis and Chili at Newport union were pretty blatant expy's of Ryan, Summer and Seth, with the flip that the Summer-analogue was dating the Ryan analogue
* FallenPrincess - Marissa. Luke is the male version.
* FanService
** Summer in the Wonder Woman costume; Summer in the Little Miss Vixen costume; scenes of bikini clad women aplenty; one episode has Ryan continuously fantasizing about Taylor in what appears to be a bad 80s video involving her in skimpy clothing and at one point sliding her ass across a wet window. Another episode had a purposefully gratuitous close-up of the incredibly attractive cokewhore Jess' bikini-clad ass as she walked up the stairs. For the women, many scenes of men with their shirts off, including a rather porn-like shot of The Yard Guy watering the lawn.
** Marissa in the [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule naughty schoolgirl outfit.]]
* FishOutOfWater - Ryan (at least, in early seasons)
* FiveManBand. They're all outcasts
** Ryan - TheHero
** Seth - TheSmartGuy
** Luke - TheBigGuy
** Marissa - TheChick
** Summer - Possess all above qualities.
* FiveStagesOfGrief: Summer goes through these after [[spoiler: Marissa's death]]. She goes through Anger twice. The therapist is amazed [[{{LampshadeHanging}} she got through it all in a week]]. She then drops some of her GranolaGirl act, though she keeps part of the activism.
* {{Foreshadowing}} In "The SnowC", Alex kisses both a guy and a girl. This comes back in "The Ex-Factor" when it's revealed that she is bisexual
* TheGenericGuy - Zach Stephens.
* GenkiGirl - Taylor Townsend
* GenreSavvy - Seth. Almost to the point of breaking the fourth wall sometimes. At the beginning of one episode he notes that everything has been going so well lately that something is bound to go wrong.
-->'''Seth:''' Ryan, don't ya see? Things are going way too well around here. Marissa got back into Harbor, you guys seemed to resolve your surf-tastic love triangle, my girlfriend got a near perfect score on her SATs but we've never been happier.
-->'''Ryan:''' It's senior year, it's meant to be the best one.
-->'''Seth:''' No, you should know better. Every time things are going well around here, that's when doom comes a-knockin'.
--> ''(doorbell rings)''
--> Or a-ringin'... Don't answer it, it's probably a flaming bag of crap.
* GoldDigger - Julie Cooper
* GoodParents: Sandy and Kirsten
* GranolaGirl - Summer in Season 4. Che, as well, who at one point plays the guitar naked and also 'jams on the didge'.
* HappilyEverAfter - Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. They got married.
* HappilyMarried - Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. Sandy and Kirsten Cohen.
* HeelFaceTurn - Luke. In the early episodes he was pretty much your typical JerkJock, but by the end of the first season he had turned into a sympathetic, likable character.
** Also applies to Summer. In the first few episodes she came across as [[AlphaBitch a shallow, spoiled bitch.]] But then became more of a somewhat ditzy, but likable girlfriend for Seth.
** Taylor.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Ryan and Seth, Marissa and Summer, and eventually Kirsten and Julie.
* HoYay - Seth and Ryan
* HiddenDepths - See CharacterDevelopment for Summer, just above.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter - Marissa when it comes to [[spoiler:Oliver]] in Season One.
** Not just Marissa, ''everyone'' except for Ryan and Luke failed to see the type of person that [[spoiler:Oliver]] was.
* [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming The Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]... correct grammar optional.
* IntergenerationalFriendship - Kaitlin and The Bullit.
* IvyLeagueForEveryone
* JewishMother - The Nana.
* KilledOffForReal - [[spoiler:Caleb Nichol and Marissa Cooper.]]
* LampshadeHanging
** Seth comments on Zach's return: "You came back!... People never leave and come back!"
** "The LA" is an entire episode of lampshade hanging. Most episodes have a lampshade hanging. Part of the show's charm was it never took itself too seriously.
** The unrealistically melodramatic nature of the show gets this when Sandy says "Life's gritty enough, comic books should be fun." Seth responds "Life's gritty? We live in Newport Beach."
** In the 16th episode of Season 2, Seth complains that their year hasn't been as good as the first one, while Ryan defends the season saying that they can't simply rehash the first season. The conversation gets dangerously close to breaking the fourth wall.
*** A similar instance in the penultimate episode of the series, after learning that [[spoiler:Seth gave his blood to save his life]], Ryan jokes that he has the sudden urge to listen to emo music & read comic books; which Seth responds to with a comment that if they'd switched things up & became a [[FreakyFridayFlip body swap comedy]], they probably could've stretched another two years out of it.
** In the show's final episode, Summer comments that ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Valley]]'' had just been renewed for several seasons and that "These teen dramas, they just run forever."
* LonelyRichKid - Seth Cohen, before Ryan's arrival.
* LongLostUncleAesop - The Nana. She even [[{{LampshadeHanging}} lampshades]] this in complaining her family never writes, calls or visits.
* LoveTriangle - A lot of them, but they're usually extremely polite. Anna and Summer hang out while fighting over Seth, Zack and Seth hang out (and start a comic book) while fighting over Summer, Marissa and Teresa help each other while fighting over Ryan, Ryan saves Johnny several times while fighting over Marissa...and those that aren't polite while part of the love triangle (for example, the first triangle of Ryan, Luke and Marissa) become friends when the love triangle is over.
* ManicPixieDreamGirl - Taylor Townsend saves Ryan Atwood from the soulless and brooding world of cage-fighting, el guapo taco, and insomnia.
* MayDecemberRomance - Luke and Julie.
* McLeaned - Marissa Cooper was killed off at the end of season 3, right around the time her actress Mischa Barton left the show.
* MeaningfulName: Anna '''Stern''' likes to sail.
* MonochromeCasting - A constant joke about this show is its exceedingly white cast.
** Sorta justified in that LA's rich upper class elite would mostly be white. Why everyone in Chino is also white is a mystery though.
* MontageOut: The final scenes of the series show brief snippets of what the future holds for the characters, such as [[spoiler:Sandy becoming a lecturer, Seth & Summer's wedding, Julie getting a degree, and a BookEnd to Ryan's story]].
* MushroomSamba - In Season 4, Seth takes hallucinogenic berries in an attempt to "heal his animus". He then has a vision of walking through a tripped-out version of the Cohen house until he walks into his room. His room now has a pool in it, where Seth's spirit animal, an otter, flops out of the pool. Seth begins to talk to him. When the vision ends, Seth has been renewed spiritually by 'saving his spirit animal', and is thus ready to love again.
* MrsRobinson: Julie Cooper
* OldShame - Julie Cooper's sex-tape
* [[OneSceneWonder One Episode Wonder]]: Alex's ex-girlfriend Jodie is quite popular in fanfiction despite only being in one episode (with a cameo in the previous episode)
* OppositesAttract - Nearly every major relationship: Sandy/Kirsten (geeky Jewish liberal lawyer + WASP princess), Ryan/Marissa (wrong side of the tracks + ([[FallenPrincess seemingly]]) perfect debutante), Seth/Summer (nerd + popular party girl), Ryan/Taylor (BookDumb introvert + intellectual GenkiGirl) etc,. The few BirdsOfAFeather couplings like Seth/Anna or Ryan/Theresa are conspicuous by their lack of success.
* TheLostLenore - [[spoiler:Marissa becomes this for Ryan in Season 4. She's killed on their graduation day in a car accident caused by Volchok, Marissa's ex, and dies in Ryan's arms. He spends the first half of Season 4 mourning her, and even tries to go after Volchok and kill him. It's telling that when he and Taylor are in an alternate universe where Marissa ''might'' still be alive but wouldn't know him, he's willing to stay there, with a Marissa who doesn't know him and could come to love him, than he is to go back to the real world, where everyone else who loves him ''but'' Marissa is alive.]]
* TheOtherDarrin - Kaitlin Cooper, Trey Atwood, and Theresa's mother.
* PairTheSpares: Rather than have Luke and Anna date, they sent [[PutOnABus both away]]
* ProductPlacement - In the weeks leading up to the RevengeOfTheSith theatrical release date. The full-length trailer aired after an episode with a short introduction by Adam Brody in character. Then, Summer walked by a life-size Obi-Wan cut-out. Then, GeorgeLucas guest starred on the show. Then, the characters were all shown playing the RevengeOfTheSith videogame with Seth saying, "I didn't know you could throw your lightsaber.", with Ryan replying, "New Game, who knew?"
* PutOnABus - Numerous characters. Lampshaded by Seth.
** Applies especially to Luke, who became one of the main characters in the latter half of season one. But after the season two premiere was never seen or heard from again.
* RealLifeRelative - Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson were engaged in real life
* ReformedButRejected - Luke in "The Proposal".
* RedemptionInTheRain - Although mostly a parody of Spider-Man
* RememberTheNewGuy - Taylor Townsend first appeared at the start of the third season, but apparently had been going to the same school as the main characters for the entire time. Indeed a later flashback revealed she had been friends (or at least on name terms) with Summer since they had been in elementary school. The weird thing is, watching the first two seasons again on DVD, it really does appear that her actress ''may'' have been an extra in earlier school scenes. Or maybe it's just someone who looks similar.\\
\\
{{Lampshaded}} at one point when Taylor is talking to Summer about Seth's declaration of love in the first season: "Oh, you didn't see me, but I was here"
* ReTool - The first half of Season 2 had the writers slow down all the storylines (Josh called it [[MySoCalledLife My So-Called OC]]), not have Ryan punch anyone, not have any [[WildTeenParty wild teen parties]], and split up all the couples. Viewers weren't very receptive, and this era ended at Episode 14. Season 4, however, can be considered a genuine ReTool as it became more of a lighthearted comedy without many soap opera plotlines. Aside from one Prostitution Ring, most storylines revolved around quirky plotlines like [[ItMakesSenseInContext slutty aliens]], offbeat french authors, sleep therapists, and freeing bunnies.
* RichBitch - Julie Cooper
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge - Ryan goes on one against [[spoiler:Volchok after Marissa's death]].
* RunningGag - Nothing good ''ever'' happens at a Cohen party.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney - Julie. Caleb too, although arguably to a lesser extent.
* SecondLove - Ryan actually had three true loves. Theresa The First, Marissa The Second, and Taylor The Third.
* ShirtlessScene - Half of Ryan's wardrobe consists of tank tops, especially in the eariler seasons. Later on, they finally give the poor guy some sleeves. ''Tight'' sleeves.
* ShooOutTheNewGuy - Several characters:
** Jimmy Cooper:[[spoiler: The character had run his course at the beginning of Season Two, so he was PutOnABus with a rather... unconvincing excuse. [[{{LampshadeHanging}} Marissa even called him on it.]]]]
*** [[spoiler: The unlikely excuse just about worked the first time around, but then they had to bring him back for Caleb's funeral, only to remember why they got rid of him in the first place. In the end, he leaves for almost the same reason as before, and Marissa flat-out tells him that he can't come back this time, just so the writers wouldn't encounter the same problem again.]]
** Lindsay Gardner:[[spoiler: Caleb's illegitimate daughter who occupied the first half of Season Two amid much {{angst}}. Ryan, supposedly deeply in love with her, forgot her during the episode after her departure. She never returned; not for her father's funeral, not when her sister went into rehab.]]
* ShoutOut - Jimmy Cooper mentions "the North Shore" to Hailey - Amanda Righetti was on the short-lived show ''North Shore''.
* ShowWithinAShow (''The Valley'', a parody of The OC itself, featuring parodies of the real-life versions of the actors in the roles)
** [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Not to mention "Sherman Oaks: The Real Valley".]]
** In Season 2 Episode 3, Summer is watching ''The Valley'' in her bedroom, and you can hear dialogue from the first season of The OC being repeated verbatim except the names, about a character dating his ex's mother (i.e. Luke and Julie).
*** In the commentary track, the creator explicitly mentions that all dialogue heard on The Valley are snippets from earlier O.C. episodes.
* ShutUpKiss - Notably Seth and Summer's first. Ryan and Lindsay too.
* SimilarSquad - Johnny and the public high school gang Marissa starts hanging out with once she's forced to change schools are supposed to be counterparts to Ryan, Seth, and Summer. Lampshaded when Ryan refers to one of them as Bizarro Seth, which is also a {{Seinfeld}} shout-out.
** Except that Ryan's counterpart is dating Summer's. It could be a coincidence but Summer does actually hit on Ryan in the pilot.
* SixStudentClique
* SmokingIsCool - Ryan and Marissa share a smoke in the Pilot. An agreement between Fox and the writers said they could have this scene, so long as the characters never smoke again.
* SmugSnake - The Dean of Discipline. Also Taylor Townsend in her first few episodes ([[CharacterizationMarchesOn who got better]]) and Holly Fischer (who didn't).
* SorryILeftTheBGMOn: Played with in that you can usually hear the switch in volume when it goes from soundtrack music to scene music, and characters may or may not draw attention to it by lowering the radio/changing the channel/telling X to turn it off.
* SpiritualSuccessor - The OC's spiritual successor is {{Chuck}} in terms of dialogue, characters, and humor. GossipGirl is the spiritual successor plot and settingwise.
** It was also the spiritual successor to LagunaBeach, TheHills, and probably JerseyShore. UnfortunateImplications there
* StalkingIsLove - Oliver to Marissa.
** A lot of Taylor's behavior towards Ryan early in their relationship qualifies as stalking, but it's portrayed as being cute and funny rather than scary.
* StealthParody - The show wasn't self-aware enough to qualify as a {{deconstruction}} of the {{teen drama}}, but someone in the writer's room was at least content to flirt with the possibility.
* TheStoner - Seth Cohen in Season 3. Kaitlin Cooper. Early Luke Ward and Early Summer Roberts.
* StonersAreFunny - Seeing Seth Cohen under the influence of drugs was a highlight.
* SuicideAsComedy - Oliver fakes a suicide attempt, and after making the phone call, dances around flinging pills everywhere.
* SurvivorGuilt - Marissa's constant moping after Johnny's death.
* TakeThat - Josh Schwartz doesn't seem to be very fond of his time slot competitor ''GreysAnatomy''.
* TangledFamilyTree - Sweet Jesus
* TeenDrama
* TheirFirstTime - Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. They lost their virginity together.
* ThemeTune - "California" by Phantom Planet
* ThereAreNoTherapists - Subverted a bit. [[spoiler:Marissa does attend a therapist and seems to be getting better... until life crashes on pretty much everyone after Oliver appears. Then psychotherapy is pretty much dismissed, although Lord knows it would have done her (and most of the other characters) some good.]]
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch - "Welcome to the O.C., bitch!" - #83 on a TV Land's Best TV Quotes list. [[{{LampshadeHanging}} Lampshaded]] when Luke moves. "Welcome to Portland, bitch!"
** Though not so with Kaitlin's roommate who calls all of her friends bitch with no emphasis whatsoever
* TimeSkip: Of around six months between show's penultimate & final episodes.
* TookALevelInJerkass: As mentioned above, its arguable whether Seth did this or started as a BitchInSheepsClothing.
* TrashTheSet: [[spoiler:The penultimate episode ends on the revelation that the inside of the Cohen's home has been destroyed by the earthquake that ended the previous episode]].
* UnexplainedRecovery - [[spoiler: In Season One, the Nana has terminal cancer. In Season Two she's alive and well again (and has mysteriously moved to Miami).]] TelevisionWithoutPity had a field day with that one.
* UptownGirl: Ryan and Marissa. This is the primary storyline for the first half of the show
* ViewersAreGeniuses - During Season Four, when it was clear the show was being cancelled and the writers were done with writing for ratings, "The French Connection" featured long drawn-out conversations among three characters revolving around David Hume, and a variety of french poets and philosophers. Some of this conversation is in unsubtitled French.
* WildTeenParty - Many. Almost once an episode in Season One, Season 2's "The Rager" and Season 4's "The Summer Bummer"
* WorldOfSnark: Virtually every major character (and many minor characters) is a DeadpanSnarker.
* YiddishAsASecondLanguage - Sandy Cohen is fond of "schmeering" bagels.
* YouMeanXmas - Chrismukkah
----
-> ''We've been on the run, driving in the sun, looking out for number one -- California, here we come, right back where we started from...''
--> --'''Phantom Planet''', "California", '''''The O.C.''''' theme song.
''The O.C.'' is the story of Ryan Atwood, a troubled teenager from Chino, and the family who takes him in, the Cohens. Ryan and his brother are arrested for grand theft auto, but Ryan's idealistic public defender, Sandy Cohen, recognizes Ryan's intelligence and offers him a way out. When Ryan's alcoholic mother and her abusive boyfriend kick him out, Ryan has no choice but to call Sandy.
Ryan is thrust into the glamorous world of Orange County, and into the lives of the Cohens and their neighbors. There's [[DefrostingIceQueen Kirsten Cohen]], Sandy's wife; nerdy [[DeadpanSnarker Seth Cohen]], their son; [[FallenPrincess Marissa Cooper]], their beautiful but troubled neighbor; [[MagnificentBitch Julie Cooper]], Marissa's scheming mother; and Summer Roberts, Marissa's best friend. Ryan's first meeting with Marissa sets off sparks--too bad she's dating a JerkJock. Seth has loved Summer for years--too bad she doesn't know he exists.
With Ryan around, things are changing fast. Ryan, Marissa, Seth, and Summer are about to endure breaking up, breaking down, [[WildTeenParty parties]], proms... everything teenagers would normally be expected to go through, but with the added drama of living in the O.C.
This is a show about references. When you hang a guy upside down in the rain for a kiss from his [[LoveInterests main babe]], and you are not shooting the movie ''Spider-Man'', you are up to your ass in PostModernism.
One official TV Tropes Wiki No Prize is up for grabs for each example of an other-media reference from this show.
Not to be confused with an abbreviation for OriginalCharacter.
----
!!This series provides examples of:
* AbortedArc - At the end of Season One, we learn that[[spoiler: the Newport Group is virtually bankrupt; Sandy and Jimmy inadvertently foil Caleb's scheme to rescue it. While the DA keeps investigating Caleb in Season Two, the issue of, you know, bankruptcy is forgotten about. In fact Kirsten takes over the Newport Group's accounting in Season Two and never mentions a thing. Except, surprise! In Season Three, it turns out Caleb was bankrupt after all.]]
* AbuseIsOkayWhenItIsFemaleOnMale - A ''lot'' of Taylor's behavior towards Ryan would probably be condemned if she were a guy, but because she's a girl, it's played off as a cute quirk of character. She:
** breaks up with him, but then spends seven hours outside of his workplace with binoculars, spying on him. (She follows him in disguise later on.)
** applies to Berkeley, his college of choice, without telling him.
** tries to force him into saying he loves her so her applying to Berkeley is justified.
** gets him drunk in an effort to make him do the above.
** says (jokingly, but it's still cringeworthy) that she wants to tie him to a chair and inject him with sodium penthanol in order to make him admit his feelings.
* AbusiveParents - Frank Atwood and many of Ryan's mother's boyfriends. Ryan gets hit in the face by one five minutes into the Pilot.
* AllGirlsLikePonies
** Summer and Princess Sparkle
** Kaitlin's pony China who had alopecia.
** Seth and Captain Oats.
* AlternateUniverse - In one episode, Ryan and Taylor fall off a ladder and end up in one of these, where Ryan never came to the O.C. and Taylor was born a boy. Everyone has changed for the worse [[spoiler: (like Kirsten who turned into her father, Sandy who became a Republican, Seth who never stopped being a wallflower and Summer became an even more vapid bimbo -- though Marissa still died)]] except for Veronica, who is "still a bitch" as Taylor resignedly points out. Luckily, it was AllJustADream.
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: [[http://vlog.xuite.net/play/Sjk0WmNGLTkzMDI2MS5mbHY=/Bz-15-Ore-to-Omae-no-Atarashii-Kisetsu "Ore to Omae no Atarashii Kisetsu"]] by B'z is used as the Japanese ending theme.
* ASimplePlan - These never ever go right.
* AuthorAvatar - Seth Cohen is Josh Schwartz.
* BaitAndSwitch - In this example from 3.18
-->'''Jess''': Tell you what, why don't you stay awhile?
-->'''Ryan''': Look, Jess, we were never friends.
-->'''Jess''': Got it. (''break'') You can go if you want.
-->(''Ryan turns to leave'')
-->'''Jess''': Did you know Trey's dealing? (''Ryan turns around'') Blackjack, off the strip.
* BatmanGambit - Caleb Nichols almost pulls this off in Season One. This results in Jimmy [[spoiler: punching him in the face and ruining his deal in a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.]]
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Its arguable whether Seth started as one or TookALevelInJerkass.
* BiTheWay: Alex Kelly and Marissa Cooper.
* BookEnds
* TheBusCameBack: Kaitlin and Holly
* CallBack: A few.
** Ryan finding Marissa standing alone outside of their prom (2x23, "The O.Sea") is a callback to when he found her after Cotillion (1x04, "The Debut"). Similarly, when he gives her his jacket a few episodes before (2x18, "The Risky Business"), it parallels when he gave her his suit jacket after Cotillion.
** A more heartbreaking one for them is when [[spoiler: he carries her away from the burning car shortly before her death (3x25, "The Graduates")]]. It parallels when he carried her to the pool house (1x01, "Pilot") and out of the alley in Tijuana (1x07, "The Escape").
** Seth's coffee cart proclamation of love to Summer (1x20, "The Telenovela") is reprised by Summer two years later (3x21, "The Dawn Patrol"). [[spoiler:It doesn't go nearly so well for her.]]
** Seth intruding on Summer and Zack's TV time (2x12, "The Lonely Hearts Club") is a callback to Summer intruding on him and Anna (1x16, "The Links").
** Kirsten finds Ryan with Lindsay (2x08, "The Power of Love") in almost the exact same position she found him with Marissa (1x10, "The Perfect Couple").
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09diX06ILqg Seth being stealth]](2x07) and tagging along with Ryan (4x02)
--->'''Seth:''' OK, then take me with you.
--->'''Ryan:''' No.
--->'''Seth:''' I won't get in the way, you know how stealth I can be.
* CanNotSpitItOut - Hardly an episode goes by without the use of this trope.
* CantHoldHisLiquor - Seth Cohen is stealth.
* {{Catchphrase}} - "Bang!"; "Eww!"
* CelebrityParadox - Seth makes a reference to the vomiting little girl from TheSixthSense... who was played by Mischa Barton, also known as Marissa.
* CharacterDevelopment - Luke from a jerk jock to a good friend, Marissa from a normal schoolgirl to a tortured teen, Ryan from a hot-headed teenager to a calmer young man, Summer from a airheaded bimbo to... well, a ''nice'' airheaded bimbo and then to ''nice'' airheaded bimbo with a conscience. With good SAT scores. [[PingPongNaivete Who, despite having very high potential intelligence, is still at the age 18 entirely unaware what 'jihad' means]].
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Compare Summer's personality in the first couple of episodes with the rest of the series: she comes across as a lot less likeable, a slutty , obnoxious, partygirl airhead who dumps her unconcious best friend in her driveway after a night out. Likewise original flavour Taylor is very different from the adorable GenkiGirl she became, being a bitchy SmugSnake who is fooling around with a teacher (a SadistTeacher at that). Neither character was originally intended to be a regular but the unexpected appeal of Rachel Bilson and Autumn Reeser meant they ended up staying on and developing into quite different characters.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome - Ryan Atwood. Lampshaded at seperate times by different characters in Season 1, 2, 3, and 4. One episode in Season 3 had Kirsten helping Ryan to figure out he doesn't need to help every DamselInDistress anymore. One episode in Season 4 had Sandy helping Ryan to figure out he needs to help every DamselInDistress because it's "his thing" and he "shouldn't turn his back on that".
* ChronicVillainy - Julie Cooper switches between trying to be a good mom and being a gold-digging manipulative slut schizophrenically throughout the series.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome - Rachel in Season One. They were setting her up with Jimmy, and then she just... disappeared, never to be mentioned again, despite being Sandy's colleague.
** She "went on vacation".
* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience - Chino is CSINewYork (grainy and desaturated). Orange County is Miami (lush colours).
* ConflictBall - Carried by various characters. Often manifests itself in willfully misunderstanding the other person (see CanNotSpitItOut above).
* CoolestClubEver - The Bait Shop.
* CoolLoser - Seth Cohen. Then, eventually every character in the main cast.
* CoolShip - The Summer Breeze, an awesome Hobie mini-catamaran that Seth owned in season 1, and pawned for bus-fare in season 2.
* CloudCuckooLander - Taylor and Che.
* ContinuityNod - Oh so very many. One notable one is the phrase 'salting your game' as an indication of cockblocking. Used first by Ryan to Seth, half a season later from Seth to his dad, and then in season 2 by Sandy to his wife.
* CreatorBreakdown - Josh Schwartz was jaded by pressure from some fans and ExecutiveMeddling and seemingly zoned out during Season 3.
* CunningLinguist - Taylor Townsend is fluent in French, Korean and Spanish and is able to use enough Latin to deliver her valedictorian speech in that language.
* DawsonCasting - Lampshaded in "The L.A."
-->'''Ryan''' (speaking of the star from the ShowWithinAShow): How does that guy play high school?
-->'''Seth''': It's ''Hollywood'', man.
* DeadpanSnarker
** Seth Cohen.
** Sandy.
** Ryan also had some moments of this, thanks to Seth's influence.
** Summer. She claimed once that she never used irony until she met Seth.
** Anna.
** Alex as well
* {{Defictionalization}}: Before the series, "OC" was sometimes used in print as shorthand for "Orange County," but very rarely in speech, and never prefixed with a "the." Many Orange County residents scoffed at the show's title, but over the years, some of them really do refer to the region "the OC" without irony.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Kirsten, before Ryan joined the family and caused her to soften. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming a touching scene]] in the fourth season premiere, "The Avengers", when Seth puts together a comic book illustrating the Cohens' lives before he joined the family.
-->'''Kirsten''': The ice queen was surrounded by an impenetrable force field and her silver cell phone was her only link to the outside world.
* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Marissa, in Ryan's, in the Season 3 finale.]]
* DiegeticSwitch: Though not as often as SorryILeftTheBGMOn.
* DoomMagnet: In-universe, Ryan is accused of being one early in the show by Julie.
** Marissa Cooper, [[spoiler:especially in season 3]]. In fact, [[spoiler:when you factor in that her death at the end of the third season was followed by the ''much'' LighterAndSofter fourth season - Everything literally got better for the characters after Marissa's death]]. Possibly [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in a FreezeFrameBonus in the AlternateUniverse[=/=]AllJustADream episode.[[hottip:*:There's briefly a shot of a poster advertising that "Pac West Surf Star" Johnny Harper would be making an appearance to advertise his new line of boards. Johnny died the previous season, and the implication is that if Ryan had never arrived in Newport & saved Marissa from an overdose in season one, Johnny would have never died.]]
* DrugsAreBad - Chris Brown gets upset when Kaitlin offers him weed.
* DumbBlonde - Holly Fischer. Not so much in the first season when she was [[SmugSnake unpleasant]] but not noticably dim but when Holly eventually returned after an absence of two whole seasons she'd enthusiastically embraced the vapidity within.
* MrFanservice: Ryan, Luke, but a lot of girls seem to enjoy Seth. This isn't true for geeks in RealLife.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Che is short for Winchester
* ExecutiveMeddling - Resulted in the end of the Marissa/Alex lesbian relationship. Also, apparently a big factor for the quality decline in Season 3, as Fox wanted something 'promotable' to happen every week. The writers once got a note that said, "This is Fox, not Fox Searchlight".
* {{Expy}} - Casey, Dennis and Chili at Newport union were pretty blatant expy's of Ryan, Summer and Seth, with the flip that the Summer-analogue was dating the Ryan analogue
* FallenPrincess - Marissa. Luke is the male version.
* FanService
** Summer in the Wonder Woman costume; Summer in the Little Miss Vixen costume; scenes of bikini clad women aplenty; one episode has Ryan continuously fantasizing about Taylor in what appears to be a bad 80s video involving her in skimpy clothing and at one point sliding her ass across a wet window. Another episode had a purposefully gratuitous close-up of the incredibly attractive cokewhore Jess' bikini-clad ass as she walked up the stairs. For the women, many scenes of men with their shirts off, including a rather porn-like shot of The Yard Guy watering the lawn.
** Marissa in the [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule naughty schoolgirl outfit.]]
* FishOutOfWater - Ryan (at least, in early seasons)
* FiveManBand. They're all outcasts
** Ryan - TheHero
** Seth - TheSmartGuy
** Luke - TheBigGuy
** Marissa - TheChick
** Summer - Possess all above qualities.
* FiveStagesOfGrief: Summer goes through these after [[spoiler: Marissa's death]]. She goes through Anger twice. The therapist is amazed [[{{LampshadeHanging}} she got through it all in a week]]. She then drops some of her GranolaGirl act, though she keeps part of the activism.
* {{Foreshadowing}} In "The SnowC", Alex kisses both a guy and a girl. This comes back in "The Ex-Factor" when it's revealed that she is bisexual
* TheGenericGuy - Zach Stephens.
* GenkiGirl - Taylor Townsend
* GenreSavvy - Seth. Almost to the point of breaking the fourth wall sometimes. At the beginning of one episode he notes that everything has been going so well lately that something is bound to go wrong.
-->'''Seth:''' Ryan, don't ya see? Things are going way too well around here. Marissa got back into Harbor, you guys seemed to resolve your surf-tastic love triangle, my girlfriend got a near perfect score on her SATs but we've never been happier.
-->'''Ryan:''' It's senior year, it's meant to be the best one.
-->'''Seth:''' No, you should know better. Every time things are going well around here, that's when doom comes a-knockin'.
--> ''(doorbell rings)''
--> Or a-ringin'... Don't answer it, it's probably a flaming bag of crap.
* GoldDigger - Julie Cooper
* GoodParents: Sandy and Kirsten
* GranolaGirl - Summer in Season 4. Che, as well, who at one point plays the guitar naked and also 'jams on the didge'.
* HappilyEverAfter - Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. They got married.
* HappilyMarried - Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. Sandy and Kirsten Cohen.
* HeelFaceTurn - Luke. In the early episodes he was pretty much your typical JerkJock, but by the end of the first season he had turned into a sympathetic, likable character.
** Also applies to Summer. In the first few episodes she came across as [[AlphaBitch a shallow, spoiled bitch.]] But then became more of a somewhat ditzy, but likable girlfriend for Seth.
** Taylor.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: Ryan and Seth, Marissa and Summer, and eventually Kirsten and Julie.
* HoYay - Seth and Ryan
* HiddenDepths - See CharacterDevelopment for Summer, just above.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter - Marissa when it comes to [[spoiler:Oliver]] in Season One.
** Not just Marissa, ''everyone'' except for Ryan and Luke failed to see the type of person that [[spoiler:Oliver]] was.
* [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming The Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]... correct grammar optional.
* IntergenerationalFriendship - Kaitlin and The Bullit.
* IvyLeagueForEveryone
* JewishMother - The Nana.
* KilledOffForReal - [[spoiler:Caleb Nichol and Marissa Cooper.]]
* LampshadeHanging
** Seth comments on Zach's return: "You came back!... People never leave and come back!"
** "The LA" is an entire episode of lampshade hanging. Most episodes have a lampshade hanging. Part of the show's charm was it never took itself too seriously.
** The unrealistically melodramatic nature of the show gets this when Sandy says "Life's gritty enough, comic books should be fun." Seth responds "Life's gritty? We live in Newport Beach."
** In the 16th episode of Season 2, Seth complains that their year hasn't been as good as the first one, while Ryan defends the season saying that they can't simply rehash the first season. The conversation gets dangerously close to breaking the fourth wall.
*** A similar instance in the penultimate episode of the series, after learning that [[spoiler:Seth gave his blood to save his life]], Ryan jokes that he has the sudden urge to listen to emo music & read comic books; which Seth responds to with a comment that if they'd switched things up & became a [[FreakyFridayFlip body swap comedy]], they probably could've stretched another two years out of it.
** In the show's final episode, Summer comments that ''[[ShowWithinAShow The Valley]]'' had just been renewed for several seasons and that "These teen dramas, they just run forever."
* LonelyRichKid - Seth Cohen, before Ryan's arrival.
* LongLostUncleAesop - The Nana. She even [[{{LampshadeHanging}} lampshades]] this in complaining her family never writes, calls or visits.
* LoveTriangle - A lot of them, but they're usually extremely polite. Anna and Summer hang out while fighting over Seth, Zack and Seth hang out (and start a comic book) while fighting over Summer, Marissa and Teresa help each other while fighting over Ryan, Ryan saves Johnny several times while fighting over Marissa...and those that aren't polite while part of the love triangle (for example, the first triangle of Ryan, Luke and Marissa) become friends when the love triangle is over.
* ManicPixieDreamGirl - Taylor Townsend saves Ryan Atwood from the soulless and brooding world of cage-fighting, el guapo taco, and insomnia.
* MayDecemberRomance - Luke and Julie.
* McLeaned - Marissa Cooper was killed off at the end of season 3, right around the time her actress Mischa Barton left the show.
* MeaningfulName: Anna '''Stern''' likes to sail.
* MonochromeCasting - A constant joke about this show is its exceedingly white cast.
** Sorta justified in that LA's rich upper class elite would mostly be white. Why everyone in Chino is also white is a mystery though.
* MontageOut: The final scenes of the series show brief snippets of what the future holds for the characters, such as [[spoiler:Sandy becoming a lecturer, Seth & Summer's wedding, Julie getting a degree, and a BookEnd to Ryan's story]].
* MushroomSamba - In Season 4, Seth takes hallucinogenic berries in an attempt to "heal his animus". He then has a vision of walking through a tripped-out version of the Cohen house until he walks into his room. His room now has a pool in it, where Seth's spirit animal, an otter, flops out of the pool. Seth begins to talk to him. When the vision ends, Seth has been renewed spiritually by 'saving his spirit animal', and is thus ready to love again.
* MrsRobinson: Julie Cooper
* OldShame - Julie Cooper's sex-tape
* [[OneSceneWonder One Episode Wonder]]: Alex's ex-girlfriend Jodie is quite popular in fanfiction despite only being in one episode (with a cameo in the previous episode)
* OppositesAttract - Nearly every major relationship: Sandy/Kirsten (geeky Jewish liberal lawyer + WASP princess), Ryan/Marissa (wrong side of the tracks + ([[FallenPrincess seemingly]]) perfect debutante), Seth/Summer (nerd + popular party girl), Ryan/Taylor (BookDumb introvert + intellectual GenkiGirl) etc,. The few BirdsOfAFeather couplings like Seth/Anna or Ryan/Theresa are conspicuous by their lack of success.
* TheLostLenore - [[spoiler:Marissa becomes this for Ryan in Season 4. She's killed on their graduation day in a car accident caused by Volchok, Marissa's ex, and dies in Ryan's arms. He spends the first half of Season 4 mourning her, and even tries to go after Volchok and kill him. It's telling that when he and Taylor are in an alternate universe where Marissa ''might'' still be alive but wouldn't know him, he's willing to stay there, with a Marissa who doesn't know him and could come to love him, than he is to go back to the real world, where everyone else who loves him ''but'' Marissa is alive.]]
* TheOtherDarrin - Kaitlin Cooper, Trey Atwood, and Theresa's mother.
* PairTheSpares: Rather than have Luke and Anna date, they sent [[PutOnABus both away]]
* ProductPlacement - In the weeks leading up to the RevengeOfTheSith theatrical release date. The full-length trailer aired after an episode with a short introduction by Adam Brody in character. Then, Summer walked by a life-size Obi-Wan cut-out. Then, GeorgeLucas guest starred on the show. Then, the characters were all shown playing the RevengeOfTheSith videogame with Seth saying, "I didn't know you could throw your lightsaber.", with Ryan replying, "New Game, who knew?"
* PutOnABus - Numerous characters. Lampshaded by Seth.
** Applies especially to Luke, who became one of the main characters in the latter half of season one. But after the season two premiere was never seen or heard from again.
* RealLifeRelative - Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson were engaged in real life
* ReformedButRejected - Luke in "The Proposal".
* RedemptionInTheRain - Although mostly a parody of Spider-Man
* RememberTheNewGuy - Taylor Townsend first appeared at the start of the third season, but apparently had been going to the same school as the main characters for the entire time. Indeed a later flashback revealed she had been friends (or at least on name terms) with Summer since they had been in elementary school. The weird thing is, watching the first two seasons again on DVD, it really does appear that her actress ''may'' have been an extra in earlier school scenes. Or maybe it's just someone who looks similar.\\
\\
{{Lampshaded}} at one point when Taylor is talking to Summer about Seth's declaration of love in the first season: "Oh, you didn't see me, but I was here"
* ReTool - The first half of Season 2 had the writers slow down all the storylines (Josh called it [[MySoCalledLife My So-Called OC]]), not have Ryan punch anyone, not have any [[WildTeenParty wild teen parties]], and split up all the couples. Viewers weren't very receptive, and this era ended at Episode 14. Season 4, however, can be considered a genuine ReTool as it became more of a lighthearted comedy without many soap opera plotlines. Aside from one Prostitution Ring, most storylines revolved around quirky plotlines like [[ItMakesSenseInContext slutty aliens]], offbeat french authors, sleep therapists, and freeing bunnies.
* RichBitch - Julie Cooper
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge - Ryan goes on one against [[spoiler:Volchok after Marissa's death]].
* RunningGag - Nothing good ''ever'' happens at a Cohen party.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney - Julie. Caleb too, although arguably to a lesser extent.
* SecondLove - Ryan actually had three true loves. Theresa The First, Marissa The Second, and Taylor The Third.
* ShirtlessScene - Half of Ryan's wardrobe consists of tank tops, especially in the eariler seasons. Later on, they finally give the poor guy some sleeves. ''Tight'' sleeves.
* ShooOutTheNewGuy - Several characters:
** Jimmy Cooper:[[spoiler: The character had run his course at the beginning of Season Two, so he was PutOnABus with a rather... unconvincing excuse. [[{{LampshadeHanging}} Marissa even called him on it.]]]]
*** [[spoiler: The unlikely excuse just about worked the first time around, but then they had to bring him back for Caleb's funeral, only to remember why they got rid of him in the first place. In the end, he leaves for almost the same reason as before, and Marissa flat-out tells him that he can't come back this time, just so the writers wouldn't encounter the same problem again.]]
** Lindsay Gardner:[[spoiler: Caleb's illegitimate daughter who occupied the first half of Season Two amid much {{angst}}. Ryan, supposedly deeply in love with her, forgot her during the episode after her departure. She never returned; not for her father's funeral, not when her sister went into rehab.]]
* ShoutOut - Jimmy Cooper mentions "the North Shore" to Hailey - Amanda Righetti was on the short-lived show ''North Shore''.
* ShowWithinAShow (''The Valley'', a parody of The OC itself, featuring parodies of the real-life versions of the actors in the roles)
** [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Not to mention "Sherman Oaks: The Real Valley".]]
** In Season 2 Episode 3, Summer is watching ''The Valley'' in her bedroom, and you can hear dialogue from the first season of The OC being repeated verbatim except the names, about a character dating his ex's mother (i.e. Luke and Julie).
*** In the commentary track, the creator explicitly mentions that all dialogue heard on The Valley are snippets from earlier O.C. episodes.
* ShutUpKiss - Notably Seth and Summer's first. Ryan and Lindsay too.
* SimilarSquad - Johnny and the public high school gang Marissa starts hanging out with once she's forced to change schools are supposed to be counterparts to Ryan, Seth, and Summer. Lampshaded when Ryan refers to one of them as Bizarro Seth, which is also a {{Seinfeld}} shout-out.
** Except that Ryan's counterpart is dating Summer's. It could be a coincidence but Summer does actually hit on Ryan in the pilot.
* SixStudentClique
* SmokingIsCool - Ryan and Marissa share a smoke in the Pilot. An agreement between Fox and the writers said they could have this scene, so long as the characters never smoke again.
* SmugSnake - The Dean of Discipline. Also Taylor Townsend in her first few episodes ([[CharacterizationMarchesOn who got better]]) and Holly Fischer (who didn't).
* SorryILeftTheBGMOn: Played with in that you can usually hear the switch in volume when it goes from soundtrack music to scene music, and characters may or may not draw attention to it by lowering the radio/changing the channel/telling X to turn it off.
* SpiritualSuccessor - The OC's spiritual successor is {{Chuck}} in terms of dialogue, characters, and humor. GossipGirl is the spiritual successor plot and settingwise.
** It was also the spiritual successor to LagunaBeach, TheHills, and probably JerseyShore. UnfortunateImplications there
* StalkingIsLove - Oliver to Marissa.
** A lot of Taylor's behavior towards Ryan early in their relationship qualifies as stalking, but it's portrayed as being cute and funny rather than scary.
* StealthParody - The show wasn't self-aware enough to qualify as a {{deconstruction}} of the {{teen drama}}, but someone in the writer's room was at least content to flirt with the possibility.
* TheStoner - Seth Cohen in Season 3. Kaitlin Cooper. Early Luke Ward and Early Summer Roberts.
* StonersAreFunny - Seeing Seth Cohen under the influence of drugs was a highlight.
* SuicideAsComedy - Oliver fakes a suicide attempt, and after making the phone call, dances around flinging pills everywhere.
* SurvivorGuilt - Marissa's constant moping after Johnny's death.
* TakeThat - Josh Schwartz doesn't seem to be very fond of his time slot competitor ''GreysAnatomy''.
* TangledFamilyTree - Sweet Jesus
* TeenDrama
* TheirFirstTime - Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. They lost their virginity together.
* ThemeTune - "California" by Phantom Planet
* ThereAreNoTherapists - Subverted a bit. [[spoiler:Marissa does attend a therapist and seems to be getting better... until life crashes on pretty much everyone after Oliver appears. Then psychotherapy is pretty much dismissed, although Lord knows it would have done her (and most of the other characters) some good.]]
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch - "Welcome to the O.C., bitch!" - #83 on a TV Land's Best TV Quotes list. [[{{LampshadeHanging}} Lampshaded]] when Luke moves. "Welcome to Portland, bitch!"
** Though not so with Kaitlin's roommate who calls all of her friends bitch with no emphasis whatsoever
* TimeSkip: Of around six months between show's penultimate & final episodes.
* TookALevelInJerkass: As mentioned above, its arguable whether Seth did this or started as a BitchInSheepsClothing.
* TrashTheSet: [[spoiler:The penultimate episode ends on the revelation that the inside of the Cohen's home has been destroyed by the earthquake that ended the previous episode]].
* UnexplainedRecovery - [[spoiler: In Season One, the Nana has terminal cancer. In Season Two she's alive and well again (and has mysteriously moved to Miami).]] TelevisionWithoutPity had a field day with that one.
* UptownGirl: Ryan and Marissa. This is the primary storyline for the first half of the show
* ViewersAreGeniuses - During Season Four, when it was clear the show was being cancelled and the writers were done with writing for ratings, "The French Connection" featured long drawn-out conversations among three characters revolving around David Hume, and a variety of french poets and philosophers. Some of this conversation is in unsubtitled French.
* WildTeenParty - Many. Almost once an episode in Season One, Season 2's "The Rager" and Season 4's "The Summer Bummer"
* WorldOfSnark: Virtually every major character (and many minor characters) is a DeadpanSnarker.
* YiddishAsASecondLanguage - Sandy Cohen is fond of "schmeering" bagels.
* YouMeanXmas - Chrismukkah
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