Earlier this year, Fox aired the last episode of the once-hit teen drama The O.C. Created in 2003, the show was the brainchild of screenwriter Josh Schwartz, who at 26 had become the youngest person in network history to create and produce his own one-hour series. Pitched to Fox as "the new Beverly Hills 90210," the show was the story of a young man from the wrong side of the tracks who is taken in by a wealthy family living in Orange County, California . It offered the promise of plenty of glitz, glamour, and (heterosexual) romance.

Schwartz has stated that he saw this commercial surface as a "Trojan horse" strategy, however, by which to sneak in a show with a more intelligent, offbeat sensibility. The show's quality varied widely over its four seasons, with most critics seeing the second and third seasons as the weakest. But at its best, it did live up to Schwartz's aim. And it did this partly through a series of story lines that helped to make the teen show landscape more open to gay characters.

A Secret Revealed

The O.C.'s first big gay plotline came in Episode 12 of the first season, "The Secret." During the pilot episode, viewers were introduced to Luke Ward (Chris Carmack), a square-jawed jock who went to high school with the main characters. Luke had been shown to be a homophobe and a bully, continually taunting Seth Cohen (the geeky son of the show's main family, played by Adam Brody) as a "queer."

In "The Secret," the spotlight is put on Luke's family, including his younger twin brothers and his parents, Carson and Meredith Ward, who appear to be happily married. A successful car dealer, Carson seems to be a pleasant father, although we learn that he is often away on business trips. Later in the episode, he is inadvertently outed — first to Luke, then to the whole town — after he is seen passionately kissing his business partner, Gus. Luke, understandably, is very upset.

This episode did several things. By giving the show's most overtly homophobic character a gay relative, it demonstrated that even people who think they hate homosexuals may have someone close to them who is gay, without their knowing it. It showcased — and mocked — the homophobic attitudes of conservative Orange County by putting those attitudes in the mouths of shallow socialites and dim-witted high school students who the main characters can't stand.

If anything, the show goes a little overboard in excusing Carson's deception of his family. Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher), Seth's father and the moral center of the show, tells Carson not only that coming out was the bravest thing he could do, but that he is "the kind of father any kid would be proud of."

The follow-up to this episode was mostly focused on its effect on Luke. With his father's outing, he fell from lead bully to virtual outcast in his clique. This brought out his more sympathetic side, but also took a toll on him emotionally (as did his parents' impending divorce and various negative developments in his own love life). In Episode 24 of Season 1, he drives while drunk and has a car accident. He opts to leave town for a fresh start with his father, who is moving to Portland after his divorce. (The younger Ward brothers, Eric and Brad, stay behind with their mother).

In the first episode of Season 2, Luke is shown apparently having settled into a new life in Portland, while his father is now living as an openly gay man. Throughout the series, Carson Ward has been shown as a supportive and caring father. The viewer is encouraged to see both of the characters' futures as positive and hopeful.

"Total Homosexual Undertone"

Although it did not involve any overtly gay characters, another theme that was important from the first season was the relationship between Seth Cohen and Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie). Hailing from Chino, Calif, Ryan arrives in Orange County as an outsider and a borderline delinquent, and is taken in by the wealthy Cohen family.

From early promo shots that show Ryan and Seth lounging opposite each other, shirtless, on matching pool recliners, there were hints of a homoerotic current between Seth and Ryan. As the show developed, this manifested itself in the admiration that geeky, talkative Seth had for strong, silent Ryan, and the increasing emotional dependence that he seemed to have on him.

Ryan, in turn, was quick to protect the unpopular and skinny Seth whenever he was in danger of being beaten up. By Episode 24 of the first season, it seemed clear that the writers were aware of the subtext between the two characters and were playing it up deliberately. In one scene, Seth walks in on Ryan changing and, flustered, asks him whether he works out.

For many viewers, though, it was the first season finale that cemented the gay subtext that seemed to underlie Seth's feelings for Ryan. In the episode, Ryan's ex-girlfriend, Theresa, is pregnant with a child he thinks is his own, and he decides to move back to Chino to help her look after the baby. This news devastates Seth, even though he himself has a girlfriend, Summer (Rachel Bilson). When Summer tries to tell him that he still has her, Seth angrily responds that it's not the same thing.