History Trivia / TheOC

* CelebrityParadox: In "The Secret", Luke was mocked for his father's homosexuality by his jock friends, saying that Luke might be gay as well and watch teen dramas such as Series/DawsonsCreek and Series/Everwood. 3 seasons later, the actor who played a main character in Everwood (Creator/ChrisPratt) shows up as Summer's new friend at Brown.

* BillingDisplacement: Peter Gallagher & Kelly Rowan are billed first in the opening credits for all 4 seasons, despite their characters being less prominent than the teenagers. When Melinda Clarke & Rachel Bilson were added as regulars, Clark was again billed ahead of Bilson despite the same applying.

* BillingDisplacement: Peter Gallagher & Kelly Rowan are billed first in the opening credits for all 4 seasons, despite their characters being less prominent than the teenagers. When Melissa Clark & Rachel Bilson were added as regulars, Clark was again billed ahead of Bilson despite the same applying.

* TheOtherDarrin: Kaitlin Cooper, Trey Atwood, and Theresa's mother.
** Kaitlin's Other Darrin was lampshaded when Ryan didn't recognize her after she returned.

* StarMakingRole: For Rachel Bilson; to a lesser degree for Benjamin [=McKenzie=] & Autumn Reeser.

* MemeticMutation: The Season 2 finale shooting (a.k.a [[Music/ImogenHeap Mmm, Whatcha Say]]), especially when [[Series/SaturdayNightLive "Dear Sister"]] came out. Also subject to the WeirdAlEffect as many people were unaware that "Dear Sister" was a parody.

* DuelingShows: With OneTreeHill. The latter lasted longer, but The OC is usually thought to be the better of the two.

* HeyItsThatGuy
** [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0828177/ Steve-O]] as an insane Marine Seth meets and drinks with in Mexico (4x02)
** [[{{House}} Thirteen]] plays Seth and Marissa's ex-girlfriend and her ex-girlfriend was [[{{Entourage}} Sloan]].
** [[{{Twilight}} Rosalie Hale]] plays one of Ryan's girlfriends and James plays the antagonist of season 3 [[spoiler: who kills Marissa]].
*** Plus Jasper romanced Kaitlin.
** Apparently when Taylor was a kid she looked like a younger version of [[ShakeItUp CeCe]].
*** And when Sandy was in college he looked like [[NewGirl Schmidt]].
** Creator/LucyHale plays Kaitlin's roommate, whose father created The Valley.
** [[Series/PrettyLittleLiars Hanna Marin]] as the AlphaBitch of Kaitlin's class and one of the girls that she bosses around is Mona Vanderwal.
** [[Series/TheVampireDiaries Vicki Donovan]] is one of Marissa's friends at Newport Union.
*** And Stefan Salvatore shot Luke.
** [[Series/TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager Amy Juergens]] was Marissa's sister in Season 1.
** Che wound up playing [[Film/{{Moneyball}} First base for the Oakland Athetics]].
** Julie Cooper used to run a brothel on a border planet and slept with [[{{Series/Firefly}} Malcolm Reynolds]].
** And of course [[Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys Hercules]] as Ryan's father.
*** Funny thing, [[{{Disney/Hercules}} Disney's Hercules]] is Marissa's father.
** Ryan later made up for his criminal past by becoming a [[Series/{{Southland}} Police officer]]. When that didn't work, he became [[ComicBook/BatmanYearOne Batman instead]].
** [[HartOfDixie Wade]] was on the water polo team. Why does he have cornrows.
** Volchok cheated on Marissa with [[BeverlyHills90210 Naomi Clark]].
** [[GoodLuckCharlie Bob Duncan]] is Harbor's soccer coach.

* MemeticMutation: The Season 3 finale shooting, especially when [[Series/SaturdayNightLive "Dear Sister"]] came out. Also subject to the WeirdAlEffect as many people were unaware that "Dear Sister" was a parody.

* CastingGag: Tate Donovan plays Jimmy Cooper (Father to Marissa & Kaitlin) and voiced the title character in Disney's ''[[Disney/{{Hercules}} Hercules]]''. When the decision was made to finally introduce Frank Atwood (Ryan's father) in season 4, Kevin Sorbo got the role; Sorbo having played the title character in the unrelated ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys''.

** Julie Cooper used to run a brothel on a border planet and slept with [[{{Firefly}} Malcolm Reynolds]].

** LucyHale plays Kaitlin's roommate, whose father created The Valley.

** [[TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager Amy Juergens]] was Marissa's sister in Season 1.

** In the same season, AlGore was supposed to be Summer's GEORGE recruiter, but had scheduling differences.

* PlayingGertrude: Amanda Righetti was 20 playing 25 year old Hailey Nichol. This also put her being younger than Adam Brody, who was playing her teenaged nephew.

* 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.
** 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.
** The exceptions being the Coopers. Mischa Barton was 17 playing 16 and Willa Holland was 14 playing 14.

* OldShame: Julie Cooper's sex-tape.

* OldShame - Julie Cooper's sex-tape.
* TheOtherDarrin - Kaitlin Cooper, Trey Atwood, and Theresa's mother.
* RomanceInTheSet: Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson were engaged in real life.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen - The writers tried to get Trey to return in Season 4 to finish his story arc. In the same season, AlGore was supposed to be Summer's GEORGE recruiter, but had scheduling differences.

* McLeaned - Marissa Cooper was killed off at the end of season 3, right around the time her actress Mischa Barton left the show.

* RealLifeRelative - Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson were engaged in real life.

** [[{{House}} Thirteen]] plays Seth and Marissa's ex-girlfriend and her ex-girlfriend was [[{{Entourage}} Sloan]]
** [[{{Twilight}} Rosalie Hale]] plays one of Ryan's girlfriends and James plays the antagonist of season 3 [[spoiler: who kills Marissa]]

** Apparently when Taylor was a kid she looked like a younger version of [[ShakeItUp CeCe]]
*** And when Sandy was in college he looked like [[NewGirl Schmidt]]
** LucyHale plays Kaitlin's roommate, whose father created The Valley
** [[Series/PrettyLittleLiars Hanna Marin]] as the AlphaBitch of Kaitlin's class and one of the girls that she bosses around is Mona Vanderwal
** [[Series/TheVampireDiaries Vicki Donovan]] is one of Marissa's friends at Newport Union

** Che wound up playing [[Film/{{Moneyball}} First base for the Oakland Athetics]]
** Julie Cooper used to run a brothel on a border planet and slept with [[{{Firefly}} Malcolm Reynolds]]
** And of course [[Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys Hercules]] as Ryan's father
*** Funny thing, [[{{Disney/Hercules}} Disney's Hercules]] is Marissa's father

** Volchok cheated on Marissa with [[BeverlyHills90210 Naomi Clark]]

** 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
** The exceptions being the Coopers. Mischa Barton was 17 playing 16 and Willa Holland was 14 playing 14