Which did seem to be happening every week. Or, at least, every other week.

Schwartz hasn't sworn off that kind of over-the-top antics — "which I love to do, and we'll get to this season as well. But I think it was really about how can this show mature and evolve and be different from what it was last year and evolve the characters."

Unlike such shows as "90210" and "Dawson's Creek," the parents are as involved in the action as are their teenagers. "Our best episodes are those where the parent storylines and the kid storylines are interconnected, where they drive each other," Schwartz said.

Which is not to say the characters are going to act mature. Or lose their sense of humor. Or that the show will become less self-involved and self-referential. Like when, in next week's episode, the ever-brooding Ryan says, "I'm gonna brood, silently, over here."

"The O.C." walks a fine line between being right at the top with material like that and plunging into the abyss of stupidity. (Think "Melrose Place" in its later years.) But, to date, Schwartz and his writers, as well as the cast, have walked that line with incredible skill and created fun, escapist TV.

"Obviously, we've got some problems out there in the world and there's a lot of bad news when you put on the television," Schwartz said. "It's nice to be able to put on a TV show for an hour a week and see a family that really loves each other and get some escapist entertainment that has a sense of humor about it — that has romance, has some cool music, that sort of lives in a universe that feels relatable but certainly isn't as beleaguered with everything that's going on in the world."

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com