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Move ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' 50 miles south and what do you get? The Fox network is hoping the answer is ''The O.C.,'' its glitzy new drama that chronicles the lives of a group of frisky, photogenic teens and their well-preserved parents (debuting Aug. 5, 9 p.m.).
Like ''90210,'' the Newport Beach-set ''O.C.'' (local slang for Orange County) shows its privileged -- and sometimes raunchy -- world through the eyes of a teen outsider. Newcomer Benjamin McKenzie, a hunky Russell Crowe look-alike, plays Ryan, a car thief who comes to live in the O.C. after his generous-to-a-fault public defender (Peter Gallagher) takes him home. (No, Ryan doesn't have Luke Perry's, er, Dylan's lengthy sideburns.)
Ryan soon befriends Seth (Adam Brody), the son of Gallagher's public defender and a wiseass social outcast. ''It's like a buddy show,'' says Brody, who's best known as Lane's boyfriend on ''Gilmore Girls.'' Adds 26-year-old ''O.C.'' creator Josh Schwartz: ''The idea of two outsiders who are brought together is interesting to me. You don't normally get to see stories of friendships -- it's always two guys fighting over the same girl.''
Oh, but not to worry -- there are plenty of girls in the mix. Luckily, Seth and Ryan are hot for different ones. Unattainable beauty Summer (Rachel Bilson), whom Seth pines over, may drool over Ryan in the pilot -- but he's decent enough to turn her away. And why not? He's got his eye on the luminous Marissa (Mischa Barton, described by Schwartz as a ''young Audrey Hepburn''), who is literally the girl next door.
But forget ''90210'''s coy conflicts and heavy moralizing. ''The O.C.'' is aiming for a more honest depiction of teen life, circa 2003. In the pilot, a drunk Marissa passes out at a party, and her friends just leave her lying in the driveway -– with nary an ''underage drinking is evil'' life lesson in sight. At the same bash, there's a steamy jacuzzi scene and a brief ménage à trois. Explains Schwartz: ''[Fox Entertainment president] Gail Berman sat us down and said, In the post-reality television world, the game's changed. She wanted us to go out there and push the envelope and present things as realistically as we could.''
To that end, the show takes a cinematic approach, highlighted by gritty handheld camerawork by director Doug Liman, who used a similar style in his critically praised indie feature ''Go.'' Liman, who directed the pilot and the first episode, serves as an executive producer for the series, as does McG (''Charlie's Angels''). But Schwartz's cinematic inspiration for the show is yet another director, Ang Lee. '''The Ice Storm' was a big paradigm for me -- the ability to show a world and not necessarily judge it.'' If only TV critics and audiences can show the same restraint.
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