by Emily Maesar, Associate TV Editor 

After a season with no new live-action teen shows, the 2003-2004 television came back with a bang. Two of the biggest teen shows of the 2000s started on Fox and The WB with The O.C. and One Tree Hill, respectively. One of them was bigger than the other, but they both remain in our cultural consciousness for multiple reasons today and really set the new tone for this next generation of shows. In part because of their specific plotting and casting, but also because of the creative forces behind them.

Airing second, in late September, One Tree Hill has less of an ultimate legacy—but that’s not to say it isn’t a legendary series. Created by (alleged) serial sexual harasser Mark Schwahn, One Tree Hill is a show about two young men who realize they’re half-brothers when they end up on the same high school basketball team. The inciting incident is convoluted in the perfect kind of teen way, where Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) joins the basketball team at their high school and Nathan (James Lafferty) challenges him to a one-on-one game where the loser has to leave the team. Lucas wins, but ultimately makes Nathan stay on the team out of spite. Thus, their rivalry is cemented, and the series is properly set in motion.

 Originally conceived of as a feature film, it was eventually turned into a series—one that ended up lasting for nine seasons. Schwahn was a high school basketball player and really conceived of the show as being very basketball centric. It feels a bit similar, at least to me, to Kevin Williamson giving Dawson his film obsession, which really becomes the lens through which that character views the world, himself, and his relationships. Basketball is the center of both Lucas and Nathan’s lives. Them coming to it separately, but having different relationships to the sport, relates them as half-brothers but also makes it clear that they were raised differently. It’s nature and nurture working in tandem. 

One Tree Hill is often named one of the greatest teen shows of all time, though the first season received mixed reviews when it was airing. It was even compared to Dawson’s Creek, which had just ended the television season prior after six seasons. Tracey McLoone from PopMatters said, “Where Dawson's was about relationships, especially between boys and girls, One Tree Hill tries to be about masculinity, especially as negotiated through sports,” noting that it would end up being labeled as a show for girls, in spite of this. Which was very accurate. It’s widely considered, like a lot of straightforward teen dramas, to be a show for teen girls. Boys would watch it, sure, but they weren’t gushing over it in the same ways. It wasn’t Smallville.

It’s interesting to note that, because there were so many teen shows on at the time (or just ending, like Dawson’s Creek), there was a lot of debate among critics about which shows were actually like each other and which ones were just within the same subgenre. Was One Tree Hill actually like The O.C., or was it simply a Dawson’s Creek knockoff? In the end, only time could tell where the series was going to land. It had a lot of elements that made it successful and recognizable, especially within teen dramas. There were love triangles, lots of very cool bands of the era, and a theme song to absolutely look forward to. 

I didn’t even mention the girls in the series who were all cool in different ways and all filled out different roles in the tradition of teen dramas. Hilarie Burton as Peyton Sawyer is very much your indie rock girlie, and your mileage may vary on how well that works for you. Bethany Joy Galeotti as Haley James Scott is Lucas’s best friend who ended up dating (and then marries) Nathan. Plus, the ever-dreamy Sophia Bush as Brooke Davis, who does the “mean girl with a heart of gold” act so perfectly that only Leighton Meester ever did it better.

One Tree Hill didn’t get meme’d to high heavens (like we’ll talk about with The O.C.), but it was able to maintain viewership over nine full seasons, ending in 2012. It was a series that started on The WB, but eventually spent most of its run on The CW. Few shows made the transition and lasted quite as long, with the notable exceptions being Smallville and Supernatural. Interestingly enough, the series was deeply successful, even with its lower average viewership. Shows that were deemed as “under viewed” based on their cultural impact, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which also ended the TV season prior), still had a larger audience than One Tree Hill. I would say this was the start of average ratings dipping, but I know that’s not true because Fox’s The O.C. would end its first season with almost 9.5 million average viewers against One Tree Hill’s season one average of just under 4 million. I think we just needed another Dawson’s Creek, and Schwahn delivered that with these messy teenagers in North Carolina. (Can we set teen shows in my home state again? I miss those times!)

When The O.C. aired in August of 2003, about a month and a half before One Tree Hill, it went off like gangbusters. The pilot premiered to almost 7.5 million viewers and the American audience was charmed by Ben McKenzie’s Ryan Atwood, a teenage boy whose brother gets them caught stealing a car. When Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher) is assigned as Ryan’s public defender, he wants to help him get back on his feet. Ryan eventually comes to live with his family, including his son Seth (Adam Brody), and goes to the rich high school of Orange County. Lots of issues arise as it's clear he doesn’t quite fit in with the rich kids, but also falls for Seth’s neighbor, Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton).

 The series was created by Josh Schwartz and received generally positive reviews from critics. Schwartz would go on to create the focal point of The CW, prior to all the superhero shows, and one of the teen dramas of my life: Gossip Girl. However, The O.C. was a really great start to his career with both The WB/The CW and in teen television and it was a hit. It was viewed as being in opposition to Beverly Hills, 90210, which also dealt with a rich high school in California. It was considered funny, earnest (but not overly so), and really solidly adult without being melodramatic. Which… sure! It wouldn’t remain that way, but for the first season I think that’s a fair assessment of what works in the series. That… and the theme song. Because, like One Tree Hill, the opening theme of The O.C. is absolutely iconic. 

Despite the success of the first season, every season after was considered inferior and fell into the teen soap opera trap that it had originally seemed to largely escape. Which is not to say that it wasn’t culturally relevant or widely watched. Even by the end of the series, it was averaging a little under 4 million viewers, which was still more than One Tree Hill was ever getting on a regular basis. Both shows were moved around a bunch during their runs, trying to optimize viewership and it never seemed to help with either for a long period of time.

The O.C. was one of the first major teen shows, in particular, to manipulate their storylines based on online chatter—as the internet was well on its way to becoming a major staple in our lives. Recently, Schwartz admitted that they killed Marissa in season three because viewers didn’t like her storyline and the network wanted to kill a main character for ratings. Which means she was brought out as the sacrificial lamb, though he has expressed regret for it given how the audience reacted.

Additionally, one of the biggest legacies of the show is actually one that has superseded the series. Even at the time, it was only known as a reference to The O.C. by those who were watching the second season, but the meme of the SNL sketch “The Shooting AKA Dear Sister” is a direct reference to the last scene in the season two finale, where Marissa shoots a character to save Ryan’s life. Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek” plays once she fires the gun with the iconic “Mm, whatcha say?” playing them all out of the season. It was then parodied in one of the most watched SNL Digital Sketches ever, making absolute history—even if most people don’t realize it’s a reference to The O.C.

Overall, the 2003-2004 season in new teen shows ushered in a lot of iconic characters. One Tree Hill and The O.C. had some major cultural clout and while it didn’t stick around forever, even though the former ran until 2012, the seeds of both shows ushered in a slightly new era of television for teens—especially The O.C., in large part because of Schwartz’s future endeavors.

Welcome to One Tree Hill… bitch.