How Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clarke ended up doing a podcast on The O.C. together

The A.V. Club

Bilson says she was recruited by Kast Media a year ago to do Welcome To The O.C., Bitches!, and so she recruited Clarke to join her. "Hopefully, we’re entertaining enough," says Bilson. "For me, I’m basically watching the show for the first time because even if I saw every episode, I don’t remember them at all. I don’t remember storylines. It was a discovery for me." Bilson and Clarke note that there were a lot of scenes that wasn't there for. "When we started, in all honesty, we didn’t know exactly what the format was going to be, even if it’s called a rewatch podcast," says Clarke. As for recruiting O.C. alums, Bilson says she and creator Josh Schwartz are close, so he was easy to book for the first episode. "A lot of it was just sending a text to Kelly Rowan (Kirsten Cohen) or Peter Gallagher (Sandy Cohen) that says 'Hey, let’s chat,' or if we don’t have their phone numbers, we’ve DM’ed them," adds Clarke. "If we really don’t have any contact, we’ve gone through their representatives. We’re talking to writers, too, like Debra J. Fisher who was a staff writer for us at the time and now she’s showrunning Ginny & Georgia. She was a great guest. It was so lovely to reminisce with her, learn about her process, and see what she takes away from The O.C. ’til today as a successful showrunner. One of our editors and directors, Norman Buckley, he was so excited and he said he’s got a lot to share. It’s fun for us to reconnect with everyone. We are true fans, and ultimately that’s what’s being communicated to the listeners." ALSO: Bilson would love to interview Mischa Barton for their podcast.