It’s one thing for TV Guide to make a big deal about the tenth anniversary of The O.C.  But Grantland?  That caught me by surprise.

It seems like every entertainment website has been mentioning the tenth anniversary of The O.C.‘s debut on Fox on August 5, 2003.  It’s sort of interesting when a show gets this much attention, however fleeting, and more so when it’s a teen drama that lasted for four seasons.  But there it was: a nice collection of OC-inspired reflections at Grantland.com.  You’ve got Tom Carson’s “Ten Years Gone” and an article on the show’s impact on indie rock and even a staff-wide reflection collection.  Then Grantland-Master Bill Simmons got into the game and I realized that he was in on the show big-time from the very beginning.  But it’s Andy Greenwald’s article on the show that I enjoyed the most.

I have only vague memories of the show’s first season.  It was one of the few new shows on when I first moved to Hawaii.   I knew about it’s indie music sensibilities.  I was surprised to see a show start a season a good number of episodes before the fictional school year actually started.  After reading Greenwald’s article, I watched the first couple of episodes again and enjoyed them.  The show is often viewed as being about welcoming in the stranger, which is a big part of the show (what Greenwald considers the initial hook of the show).  But I really like his take on what the show evolved into: being on the outside even when you’re on the inside:

The core of The O.C. was about protecting the fragile Cohen household — led by Peter Gallagher’s liberal lawyer Sandy and his warm shiksa wife, Kirsten, played by Kelly Rowan — from the cynical creep of commercialism and spirit-deadening cushion of privilege that surrounded it on all sides.

In the midst of all this talk, no one has overlooked the fact that the show lost a lot of its zip after the first season and almost never got it back (almost, mind you).  But the beginning, like a handful of other shows, started strong and idealistic and hopeful.  And that’s worth remembering.  Greenwald concludes his look back with commentary on a set visit and the beauty of television:

The O.C. was a show, and an experience, about growing up — especially behind the camera even as things were falling apart in front of it. Now that I write about TV full-time, I often think of that first set visit as a reminder that everything on the air is personal to somebody, even if the specific material isn’t, and that much of what we fall in love with on TV is really just the hope and promise of beginnings. On soap operas, as in real life, the start of something is always brighter and better than the eventual slow fade of endings. What unites those who make television with those who watch it is just how cruel and great the medium can be, often at the same time; how it greets you with a smile only to inevitably punch you in the face.

Beginnings and endings and ten years passing.  If nothing else, it’s good to remember the promise of things, even if what comes next is something like that punch in the face.