Why Adam Brody almost didn't play Seth Cohen on The O.C.

If there is one show that could serve as a time capsule for the early aughts, it's The O.C.

The series launched indie music careers, and turned comic book nerds into heartthrobs. But viewers may be surprised to hear that the hit show's fan-favourite character, Seth Cohen, almost didn't make it to the small screen.

Commotion host Elamin Abdelmahmoud caught up with the series' creator Josh Schwartz and executive producer Stephanie Savage to celebrate the release of Welcome to the O.C., a new book sharing an oral history of the legendary teen drama.

For the full discussion, including the story behind the iconic Hide and Seek needle drop and what the creators wish they'd done differently with the series, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

While audiences nowadays may be used to the idea of watching shows centered around the lives of nerdy characters, when The O.C. debuted in 2003, the teen soap opera genre had never seen someone on screen quite like Seth Cohen.

Portrayed by Adam Brody, Cohen is a wealthy California teenager who enjoys reading comic books, listening to rock music, and avoiding bullies at school. In Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History, Schwartz and Savage share that it was challenging to develop a character like Cohen because the network was skeptical about having a nerd for a leading man.

Schwartz says he took inspiration for the character from his own journey as a young Jewish man moving from the East Coast to California for college.

"There's a direct pipeline from Newport Beach to USC and high school kids. I'd never heard of water polo before that. I didn't realize that's who all the girls were going to be in love with," Schwartz says.

"And so to be able to take that as the jumping off point and then pass that baton to Brody, he was able to make it something really singular. I can't tell you how many people we hear from who say they went to college to find their Seth Cohen. He became a heartthrob in a way that I think surprised all of us."

While it's hard to imagine anyone else playing Cohen now, Schwartz and Savage reveal in the book that they initially weren't interested in casting Brody for the part.

"There's a time in L.A. called pilot season, and if you're a young actor, you are literally going up for probably four shows a day for, like, two months," Schwartz says. "Adam walked in. He hadn't learned the lines, wasn't really locked in, and he tried to improvise the whole thing. We were like, 'Who is this guy?'"

As auditions went on, however, Schwartz says they struggled to find someone who fit the role.

WATCH | The Best of Seth Cohen

"We saw so many kids who just didn't put it together for us. Our casting director, Patrick Rush, was like, 'Just let me bring back Brody. Let me get him on book and let me bring him back.' And when he did, it was no question. And the network who had concerns about Seth, they saw him and they were like, 'Done,'" Schwartz says.

"It made everything good," Savage agrees. She says seeing Brody's second audition was "magic."

"It just made everything make sense, because I think one of the things that I appreciated about Josh's original pitch on Seth Cohen is that was not a character that was in the nighttime soap opera paradigm at all. And so that was really exciting, but it was also challenging. It was a needle that needed to be thread, and Adam really helped us do that," Savage says.

Funnily enough, in Welcome to the O.C., Brody says that he didn't realize he'd had such a bad audition the first time around.

"Stephanie's Canadian, so it speaks to her natural politeness. And we had really good fake smiles, I guess, at the time," Schwartz says with a laugh.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.