First time viewer - the Whole Marissa Thing

Plenty of ways they could have contrived to keep them around Newport. Either have them all enroll in a fictional local college, or they could have done the rumored at the time Sandy heart attack in the Season 3 finale and had Ryan and Seth stay around to help take care of him as he recovered and maybe even Ryan having a big role in the Newport Group in his absence. Could have revealed a Kirsten pregnancy too in the Season 3 finale as another reason for them to stay, to help take care of the baby as Sandy recovers to full health.

Josh Schwartz was only like 28 at the time and he was obsessed with reading O.C. message boards, and one in particular he read a lot was the Television Without Pity forum, which HATED Marissa. He claims listening to these types combined with network pressure influenced his decision and that it taught him a lesson to never listen to the internet minority again as it doesn't reflect the opinions of the larger fanbase. I think if Gail Berman had still been the President of FOX at the time she would have blocked the decision, but Peter Ligori was a new President at the time and didn't care about The O.C.

I actually liked Mischa - she was a complex character... her acting gradually improved but she was a definite force in the series. I felt her chemistry with Ryan was raw, and seeing her with the others being Summer, Seth felt real and natural.

Taylor was just horrible and had nothing in common with any of them. Everything felt forced from her end.

The decision should haunt him, as it killed the show.

Ratings were already slipping at the time, that's true, but that had to do with the repetitive storylines in season 3 and the lackluster drama going on compared to the fireworks of seasons 1 and 2. I remember watching season 3 live and on the message boards there was a general feeling of malaise until Caitlin showed up and things got slightly more interesting. By the time the season actually started gaining any momentum, it was nearly over and suddenly they killed off the most popular character on the show, as if perhaps amping up their storylines for season 4 would have been too unreasonable. No, just best to go for the big shock now and not worry about the fact you killed off your main story generator until you've already done it.

A LOT of people complained about Marissa, but that was not the point. She provided the drama 90% of the time and the actual compelling stories revolved around her. The only stories the other characters had that even compared were Kirsten's alcoholism and Julie's marital issues. Yes, some people didn't care for how damsel-in-distress she always was and how she seemed deliberately naive to the repercussions of her actions at times, but Mischa had so much chemistry with everyone on screen and, coupled with her storylines, was the most compelling character.

It was monumentally stupid to kill her off, and at the time I just remember wondering how they'd keep people interested in the show. As it turns out, they couldn't.

I fully believe had they kept Mischa around and made season 4 have the same dramatic fireworks of season 1, the show would have recovered from any ratings slump or eventually stabilized and been fine airing on a certain night which would have enabled it to continue for a few more seasons. The series had the potential to go on for at least six seasons, but they effectively killed the show when they killed Marissa. As the man responsible for running my show into the ground and making everyone lose their jobs, you can bet it would haunt me.

Everyone is blaming Josh for Marissa's death but from what I've heard Misha was the one that asked for Marissa's death. She didn't want to go back to the show and to this day she still says she regrets making the show! So, not Josh's fault, they did the most of the circumstances and, I personally think it brought life back to the oc.