The O.C.’s axing, two seasons too late

By Jon Juliano
Collegian Staff
January 24, 2007

Many television shows in recent history have had a tendency to worsen as they stay on the air. The early seasons of Friends are far funnier than the later ones. (A good rule of thumb is any episode where Chandler is not skinny and sarcastic, but overweight, not funny and a rumored drug addict is not worth watching.)

Seinfeld, arguably one of the greatest comedies of all time, saw its co-creator Larry David leave after seven seasons, and the show ultimately declined.

The more current examples are the latest seasons of The Sopranos – which seemed to jump on the Brokeback Mountain bandwagon – and FOX’s teen soap opera The O.C.

The O.C. has been a guilty pleasure of mine ever since I saw the second season’s “Christmakkah” episode. However, last season was less than stellar, and this season is just awful.

Not only is it hard to keep a show good when all the characters have to go to college (do I really have to mention Saved By the Bell: The College Years), but the introduction of a new, annoying fake hippie character, Che, a lack of situations involving the best character in the show, Seth, and an over saturation of scenarios involving Ryan and dead Marissa’s sister Caitlin has caused the show’s ratings to drop to less than four million viewers.

For some reason, networks have a tendency to keep shows on longer than they need to be. Many times shows become like an aging athlete who stays around too long causing fans forget the good years and lose interest. You want to keep being a fan because you were one for so long, but now when you watch, it’s just sad and pathetic.

The most notorious example of a show staying around too long is Happy Days. In the show’s fifth season, Fonzie jumped a shark on water skis while wearing a leather jacket. This single worst moment in sitcom history, in my opinion created a phrase that scares the bejeezus out of TV writers, and caused many arguments between obsessed fans of any show about the exact moment a show “jumps the shark” and goes from great to awful in one episode.

Now, I’m not positive when The O.C. jumped over Jaws. Most likely it was when Marissa died last season, but I think it might have been before that because that season wasn’t great, and only pulled six million viewers when the show’s previous seasons pulled in 10.

I am happy that FOX was smart and canceled the show before it got to be completely unwatchable, but that did not stop the damage it caused. Sadly, The O.C. may leave a legacy of bad teen soap operas that follow the formula of its predecessor, Beverly Hills: 90210.

Examples of these 90210-The O.C. bastard children are Laguna Beach, One Tree Hill and Everwood. These shows are exactly like The O.C., only they lack good writing, comedic situations and decent storylines. Where The O.C. balanced the line of over the top teen soap operas and witty interesting drama, these shows fail, and most of the actors in them struggle to be believed as human beings.

The O.C’s last hoorah will be Thursday Feb. 22, and “will deliver real closure to the…story we began telling four years ago,” according to series creator Josh Schwartz.

I guess Neil Young was talking about more important things than TV shows, but it still seems true. It’s better for The O.C. to burn out than fade away.

julianoj3@lasalle.edu