"The O.C." on ESPN?

Well not quite, but ESPN.com's Bill Simmons is an O.C. junkie, as evinced by this excellent (and rather no-holds-barred) interview with the show's creator and chief producer Josh Schwartz. My favorite part of the exchange is when Simmons grills Schwartz about the sudden appearance and disappearance of Olivia Wilde, whose character Alex had an all-too-brief lesbian affair with leading lady Marissa (played by Mischa Barton):

As for Olivia Wilde -- dude, I am right there with you. Whose idea do you think it was to have her in a relationship with Marissa? But the network was very nervous -- it was an extremely conservative time in our country (thank Janet Jackson for that) and everyone was freaking out. We had a whole episode where every kiss between them was cut out, just so I could get one kiss in the Rainy Day Women episode. I was literally on the phone with Broadcast, Standards and Practices bartering for kisses. It was a battle, and The Powers That Be are part of a big corporation, and were going in front of Congress at the time (every network was) -- so I understand they are all good people who were under a lot of pressure. But they wanted that story wrapped up as fast as humanly possible and Alex moving on out of the OC. But Olivia is a superstar. She was great in the part. I would have her back on the show in a heartbeat. And she's going to have a huge career, I totally agree.

But if you want Alex back, America -- you're going to have to VOTE BUSH OUT OF OFFICE.

Okay, that's actually my second-favorite part. Here's #1:

That's how we pitched "The OC" originally. It was the Karate Kid without the karate.

Awesome.

(Thanks to Too Much Free Time for the link!)