Josh Schwartz reveals: [Season 4] won't pick up directly. We're not coming back until November, and I think we'll use some of that time to put a couple of months between us and the tragedy. But it certainly will not be forgotten. Volchok will be around, and you'll have an opportunity to see how [killing Marissa] landed on him and affected him, and I think that will be interesting. The show was originally about Ryan and the Cohens, and that's what it's going to go back to next year. It's really going to be about the Cohen family surrounding Ryan after this and the battle for his soul. Some people have gone to college when the show starts, some people haven't been able to go, and some people are waiting to go. We'll break the mold next year. [Part of the show will be set in Rhode Island.]

When the series returns for season four, high school seems like a distant memory to the young graduates, who have been thrust into adulthood after the life-changing events of graduation night. Who heads to college to try to put the past behind them? Who stays in town because they can’t let the past go? Will the person responsible for the tragedy go free? Or will someone decide that the way to heal is through revenge? It’s a battle for Ryan’s soul as the Cohens struggle to keep him focused on the future, fighting the forces that threaten to pull him back into his old life. Sandy returns to the Public Defender’s office, and he and Kirsten find themselves reaching out to another troubled teen, but this one is not a stranger. It’s Kaitlin Cooper, the number-one troublemaker at The Harbor School, and too much to handle for her mother Julie, who’s off making some trouble of her own. The person most excited about leaving high school finds himself back there – as a teacher. And new cast member Taylor Townsend finds herself with some unlikely new roommates – and family members. As much as the arrival of Ryan has changed the lives of this community, so too has the departure of Marissa. The season hits the ground running with just the right mix of heart, humor, action and romance as our characters embrace their futures together. It’s a new day on THE O.C.


Josh Schwartz told my colleague Ileane Rudolph that he's planning a major "reinvention" of the show next season. For starters, Kaitlin (Willa Holland) will move back to town full-time, sparking a "repopulation of the high-school universe," Schwartz says. "You will see a whole new generation through Kaitlin's eyes." The "older" set, meanwhile, will segue into a "twentysomething world beyond just the bait shop. There's a whole young-adult world in Newport for our kids to get in trouble in." Schwartz won't guarantee that the core four — Seth, Summer, Ryan and Marissa — will all be back, but he did share this most welcome scoopbit: Autumn Reeser (Taylor) will be made a series regular. "You can anticipate a more fully evolved, romantically evolved version of Taylor in Season 4."


Yes, it's true. The show doesn't come back until early November and, with the scheduling for this fall and next winter/spring, Fox only needed 16 at this point. I'm told that number can easily (and quickly) be increased. xxx