"The OC" is set in a suburban never-never land of heartbreak and teen angst, where the young people are as tormented as they are beautiful. But, hey, the rich cry too. Ryan Atwood is a troubled teen from a broken home, who's taken in by the well-heeled and even better-intentioned Cohen family. Both he and his new adoptive brother, Seth, are fish out of water, swimming in the luxurious tide pools of upper-class Orange County life. There's drama. There's love. There's substance abuse. Not to mention the tender (and steamy!) relationships they form with Marissa Cooper, Summer Roberts, and Taylor Townsend.

Running four seasons on Fox (2003-2007), the show filled the void left after "Beverly Hills, 90210" and "Dawson's Creek" had run their course. But what made "The OC" fresh was its balance of good soapy plot twists and believable characters. Unlike "90210," the outsiders weren't just plain old middle-class kids but serious screw-ups. Creator Josh Schwartz was close enough to his characters to make them feel real -- at 26, he was the youngest person in network history to create a series and run it. (He's gone on to co-create "Gossip Girl" and the spy comedy "Chuck.")

"The OC" also had a huge impact on music, spawning six compilation CDs and shedding light on a raft of alt-rockers and singer-songwriters, from The Thrills to Alexi Murdoch. Hot tunes, heavenly settings, and troubled pretty people -- teen drama was never so rich, so cool, so beautiful.