'O.C.' Creator Keeps Quiet on Season 2 (but Seth's Fine)(Monday, July 19 02:06 PM)By Rick PorterLOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Ryan's in Chino. Seth is alive and well, at least physically. And the Nana is responding to her cancer treatment.
That's more or less what we know about "The O.C." as it begins production on its second season. FOX showed a few clips from the season premiere to reporters Friday (July 16) at the TV Critics Association press tour, which hinted that Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) has reached a breaking point about the departures of Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) and Seth (Adam Brody). "Summer's over. ... Bring him home," she tells her husband, Sandy (Peter Gallagher).
Creator Josh Schwartz is keeping pretty tight-lipped about plot points from the early episodes, but he does allow that Ryan will eventually return to Orange County.
"I think it was never a question of would Ryan come back, but a question of how, and also how his leaving and the summer that has taken place with his absence, with Seth's absence, has sort of ... torn these families apart," Schwartz says.
FOX ordered 24 episodes of "The O.C." for season two -- down from 27 in its freshman year -- and set its premiere date for Thursday, Nov. 4. Schwartz says now that viewers "get what the show is," his goal for the season is to dig more deeply into the lives of its characters.
"We are going to slow down the storytelling some this year, I think," he says. "I think, you know, there won't necessarily have to be a brawl at every black-tie affair this year."
Schwartz is adamant about not revealing where Seth's sailing trip, begun in last season's finale, finally ended. He'll only say that Seth is unharmed.
Navi Rawat's Theresa will return to the show -- she's seen in the clip FOX showed at press tour -- and current "North Shore" star Amanda Righetti will be back "briefly" as Kirsten's sister, Hailey, Schwartz says.
It also appears that Linda Lavin will definitely return as Sophie 'Nana' Cohen, Sandy's mom. Lavin appeared in one episode late last season, in which she told her son she had cancer.
"She was great," Schwartz says of Lavin. "The Nana really popped for people. And so, therefore, I think it's safe to say the chemo is working."
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