Ben McKenzie, Rachel Bilson, and more celebrate The O.C. 's 20th anniversary
It's been 20 years since Ryan Atwood's arrival in picturesque Newport Beach.
To celebrate two decades of the teen drama The O.C., stars Ben McKenzie (juvenile delinquent with a heart of gold Ryan), Rachel Bilson (popular girl and snarky Summer Roberts), and Melinda Clarke (formidable matriarch Julie Cooper) took to Instagram to pay homage to the series from creator Josh Schwartz.
McKenzie shared a throwback photo with costar Adam Brody, who played his onscreen BFF Seth Cohen, and lamented that he often shows his children photos of his younger self "to prove how cool I used to be, but for some reason they don't seem to get it."
Bilson also shared a throwback photo of herself as Summer and captioned, "Twenty."
Clarke shared a snapshot with costar Peter Gallagher, who played Cohen patriarch Sandy, and captioned, "Wait Whut?! We're how old?"
Centered on McKenzie's Ryan, who finds himself adapting to life in Newport Beach after lawyer Sandy (Gallagher) and his family take him in, the Fox drama ran for four seasons between 2003 and 2007 and catapulted its young stars, including Mischa Barton (as the troubled Marissa Cooper, who met her demise in the penultimate season), to fame.
In 2021, Bilson and Clarke launched series rewatch podcast Welcome to the O.C., Bitches!, which welcomed much of the core stars, including Barton, who got emotional while rewatching Marissa's big death scene via fiery car crash during the season 3 finale. "I think I've probably only seen it once in my life," Barton said of the scene, recalling of filming her final moments, "I was like, 'More blood, more blood.' I really wanted it to be super dramatic and as realistic as you can get for The O.C. so that she went out with a bang."
Everett Collection Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody, Mischa Barton, and Ben McKenzie on 'The O.C.'
In the final rewatch podcast episode in May, McKenzie revealed he was in the midst of rewatching the series with his 7-year-old daughter. "Bad idea, bad idea," he quipped. "She of course loves it, like absolutely loves it. I had to cut it off after two episodes because I was like, 'Oh my god I forgot about the smoking.' I remembered the drinking. And there's cocaine." Joking that it may be "terrible parenting" on his part, McKenzie added, "It's adorable and really weird to watch it with your daughter."
Kelly Rowan, Tate Donovan, Chris Carmack, and Willa Holland also starred in the drama, which featured a slew of memorable guest stars throughout its run, including Olivia Wilde, Cam Gigandet, Chris Pratt, and Logan Marshall-Green, plus musical appearances by Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, and Rooney.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content:
