‘O.C.’s’ Summer and Seth are a couple for all seasons

Labor Day commonly marks the end of summertime as most Americans think of it. Not over at Fox, though, where Thursday marks the beginning of a different kind of Summer time for fans of “The O.C.”

The surfside soap splashes into its third season with teen couple Summer Roberts and Seth Cohen (Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody) reunited after second-season romantic complications that were sometimes over the top even by soap standards.

When “The O.C.” premiered in 2003, of course, the designated hot young couple was Ryan Atwood and Marissa Cooper (Ben McKenzie, Mischa Barton), characters who still command their share of the spotlight. In those early episodes, Brody’s Seth was a geeky loner and Summer -- well, she was scarcely there, other than as a romantic fantasy for Seth.

Bilson earned more screen time for her character.

“She came in and she was just not what you expected in that part,” says series creator and executive producer Josh Schwartz. “She was adorable and funny and smart, which was a really fresh way to go with that character. And the more we gave her to do in the first couple of episodes, the more she kept nailing.

“Finally, in the episode with the Tijuana road trip, we watched a scene between her and Seth in the diner and knew: This girl is amazing. Let’s make her a series regular.”

Bilson, 24, grew up in Los Angeles, but although several relatives on her father’s side of the family are involved in various aspects of show business, she didn’t feel predestined to be an actress.

“I grew up on sets, but it wasn’t like I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to be an actress.’ It was just fun to hang out there,” she explains. “I loved being around the people making these things, and I thought it was really cool, but I never seriously thought about doing this myself until I was in high school and started doing plays. That’s when I realized that I really did love acting.”

In addition to moving swiftly from bit player to series regular, Bilson scored another nice perk in off-screen boyfriend Brody. She politely but firmly declines to talk about their life together, even as it relates to how it felt last season when the two of them had to play a number of tense fight scenes together.

Schwartz assures Summer-and-Seth fans that the couple will be back together this fall, although he points out that they face more bittersweet decisions as they move through their senior year of high school, with probable goodbyes looming at the end of it.

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Tribune Media Services