A co-worker once told me that if you carry a clipboard and walk purposefully, you can get in anywhere. I don't have a clipboard as I walk out to the pool at the Hard Rock Hotel Tuesday morning, but I do have a notebook and I walk with purpose, right up to where a crew is shooting a scene for the Fox drama The O.C., in town for three days. I can't spot the publicist I'm supposed to meet, so I just take my place a little ways back from the action and watch stars Tate Donovan and Peter Gallagher recite their lines. I can't hear a word they're saying, but I can hear every other person on the set, yelling "Quiet!" and "Rolling!" and "Action!" Everything has that exclamation point at the end of it. It's the kind of thing that seems like it should be very exciting, but it is really just a whole lot of commotion to watch two guys have a short conversation at the pool bar.
The rest of the morning goes like this: I stand around. Other people stand around, talk on cell phones, move equipment, yell things, chat. Twenty minutes after I arrive, someone asks if I'm supposed to be there, and I have to be verified. Holding a notebook only gets you so far. At some point during the two-and-a-half hours I spend standing around, two scenes from the penultimate episode of the first season of The O.C. are filmed.
You always hear that filming a movie or a TV show is mostly waiting, and there's a reason you hear that: Because it's true. Every person I told that I was going to the set of The O.C. had the same response: "That's exciting!" The truth is, it's actually kind of boring. There are people running around doing their jobs, carrying lights and moving cameras and sprucing up extras, and it's nearly impossible not to get in the way.
Still, this is a show I watch every single week, so it's hard not to be a little excited. Right after I arrive, Adam Brody, who stars as hot nerd Seth Cohen, walks right by me in a knit cap and sunglasses and I don't even recognize him until he's gone. Seth Cohen, right there next to me! Amazing. Later, when Benjamin McKenzie, who plays brooding Ryan Atwood, walks by, I do recognize him, and I feel a perverse desire to say hello. After all, I see this guy every week, why wouldn't I want to say hello? It's Ryan. I know all about his problems with Marissa, his tough upbringing in Chino, his tendency to get in fistfights. Thankfully I restrain myself and McKenzie walks by, blissfully unaware of my fanboy-ish presence.
I do, however, get to talk to Donovan, who tells me about how grateful the cast is to be shooting outdoors. The irony is that the show takes places in Southern California's Newport Beach, but everything is shot on soundstages. "We're working, but we feel like we're on vacation," he says. I then ask how it feels to be on a teen drama (Donovan is 40). He says he never considered himself an "older actor." After the interview, I'm told the show is not to be referred to as a "teen drama." There are no more interviews.
But the spin-control people are probably right: This is not a teen drama, at least not like Beverly Hills, 90210 or Dawson's Creek. Donovan and Gallagher are just as important as McKenzie and Brody (and, it should be noted, just as good). While there are plenty of the standard teen-drama plots on this show, there is just as much humor, and the characters, after a few bumps early in the season, are well-developed. It doesn't seem out of place to say that this is one of the most entertaining shows on TV and probably the one I look forward to the most in my weekly viewing regimen.
I get a little more interested in the day's second scene, with McKenzie and Brody and some blonde female guest star. It's amusing to watch the stand-ins, the same two guys who stood in for Donovan and Gallagher in the previous scene, mime talking on a cell phone (with fingers) and saying their lines. In the last scene, one of the stand-ins was wearing ridiculous platform shoes to get to the actor's height; now he's in sandals. There are palm fronds attached to a metal pole that serve as a backdrop.
I feel cool and detached watching Brody and McKenzie film the scene for real, talking on the cell phone, saying their lines, running into the blonde female guest star and—Hey! Why is the blonde girl kissing Seth? She's not Summer! What's going on here?!
Maybe I'm not so cool and detached. Maybe I'm a bit of a fanboy. Maybe I can't wait until this episode airs, so I can see how Summer reacts to that kiss. Maybe the day's visit was a little bit exciting.