“It Did Not Feel Good”. Showrunners of The O.C. Explain a Decision They Still Regret After More Than 15 Years
The showrunners of The O.C. revisited the tragic event that ended the story of one of the main characters of the TV series, explaining why they made such a decision. They also revealed that they regret it to this day.
The O.C. was a big hit. The TV series about the hit teenagers of Orange County generated a lot of interest, zooming in mainly on the love adventures of the characters, although there were times when the TV show took on more serious and even darker themes. One of these may include what happened to Marissa Cooper, and especially how her story ended.
When Mischa Barton, who plays Marissa, decided that she wanted to leave the TV series, the creators had to figure out how to say goodbye to one of the four main characters. They decided to do something bold for the time, putting Marissa to death under tragic circumstances. During an interview with Vanity Fair, they confessed that they regretted going down this road, although the decision was not entirely theirs.
Josh Schwartz: We talk about it quite bluntly [in the book]. It’s something that we regret, and looking back on it, we wish we could have come up with a different solution. We didn’t see an alternative path at the time, which is why we went down that road. But obviously in hindsight, there were lots of other ways we could have written the character off the show—and given Mischa the break that she needed and wanted—that still would’ve allowed for that character to return.
When Marissa shot Trey, everyone was very upset in a way that was fun to experience. They were shocked, and I heard from parents who said their kids were crying about what had happened. Ultimately it was the reaction you wanted to get out of the audience. And when we saw the reaction after Marissa died from that audience, it did not feel good. It did not feel like that audience had been served or respected in the way that we always wanted and aimed to. Immediately, we had regret at that point.
Stephanie Savage: We were also under tremendous pressure to do something with that level of drama. Killing a series regular came down from the top. If we wanted a season four, we’d have to do something like that.
So, as you can see, the decision came from above and was the result of expectations that something big and shocking would happen in the TV series, which would keep viewers and encourage them to watch the next season, as The O.C. continued after Marissa's death.
During an interview with E!News, Barton confessed why she made the decision to leave the TV series. The actress was reluctant to talk about the subject for many years, however, she addressed the topic in 2021, noting problems on and off the set.
It's a bit complicated. It started pretty early on because it had a lot to do with them adding Rachel [Bilson] in last minute as, after the first season, a series regular and evening out everybody's pay—and sort of general bullying from some of the men on set that kind of felt really s--tty. But, you know, I also loved the show and had to build up my own walls and ways of getting around dealing with that and the fame that was thrust specifically at me. Just dealing with like the amount of invasion I was having in my personal life, I just felt very unprotected, I guess is the best way to put it.
And on the subject of Marissa's death itself, she said that it was poetic and she thinks it was a great ending for her character. What she didn't expect, however, was how strong a reaction this event in the TV show would elicit from fans, who were sad because of the departure of one of the main characters who had been present in The O.C. from the very beginning.
At the time, viewers were disappointed by the departure of the character who, along with Ryan, had given the story its beginning, having not lived to see her happy ending with Atwood. And although the TV series lived to see one more season after Marissa's death, it never really recovered from that event.
