Okay, I watched The O.C. last night... in case you didn't know, I grew up in O.C. - Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley, a stone's throw from Newport Beach, so naturally, I was curious to see how they captured it. In Huntington, Newport is still a whole different world... sort of like Tiburon or Belvedere, except conservative. Now, the main discrepancy I noticed was that half the people should be Asian (and there were none), but since it's the pilot, I'll wait and see. They did manage to capture the way the light glows golden over the stucco homes at sunset, and that strip of PCH between Huntington and Newport was shown. Oh, and Fashion Island got a shout-out. At first, I though the premise of the show was completely unreleastic - a public defender takes in a bright kid from Chino who's a first-time juvenile offender. But then I remember my old swim coaches. A lot of people thought my high school water polo and swim coach, Mr. Bray was a hardass, but I knew deep down, he was a softie. HIs adopted son, Andy, was my first swim coach. He was great with kids - I still remember trips to Thrifty's Ice Cream, playing Crab Soccer and Sharks and Minnows. When he was a teenager, Andy was a similarly troubled kid. Mr. Bray took him in, and raised him as his own kid. Under his care, Andy excelled at swimming and water polo, when he was old enough, got involved with the community as a swim coach. He became a lifeguard at Huntington, competed in triathalons, marathons and iron men. Eventually, he settled down and got married, and went to become a fireman. It's good to know that there are good samaritans out there.