Photo illustration by Sara Norgon

Every Thursday afternoon those two little letters ring in our ears.

We watch our fellow students re-schedule meetings, postpone homework and eat dinner especially early so they can make it to the futon by 6:58 p.m.

The OC, which FOX Network said is one of its most popular creations since the early ’90s series Beverly Hills 90210, has not only hit the college shores with the intensity of a wave seen at the Pipe Masters, but has followed our men and women to Iraq as well.

Sophomore Sara De Santis said she began watching the show when her older brother, who was deployed to Iraq, asked her to begin taping the series for him.

“I started watching the show in the middle of the first season and I was immediately hooked,” De Santis said.

De Santis said her brother and his friends overseas are huge fans of the show and even purchased the first two seasons online so they could have “OC time.”

The series follows the lives of four teenagers and their families, or lack thereof, within the affluent community of Newport, Calif.

Sutherland Hall Director Kirby Harless said the curiosity toward this lifestyle could be the reason behind the intense popularity for the show.

“My roommate and I bought two fish at the beginning of this year; we named one Seth and one Ryan” (after the two main male characters), sophomore Kaitlyn Murphey said.

This clich‚ story of the “nerdy” boy dating the prom queen is equally apparent to the “bad boy” falling in love with the perfectly beautiful but unstable girl next door. With drop dead gorgeous looks and ever-flowing bank accounts, these “kids” always seem to find themselves in the heart of intense, unrealistic conflict.

“I think the show is more dramatic than actual high school,” De Santis said. But she said she watches it just the same for the humor the characters bring to the show.

She sums it up by saying, “I am in love with Adam Brody.”

Harless also has a love for Brody’s character, Seth Cohen.

“I love Seth Cohen … I enjoyed (Brody’s) prior work on Gilmore Girls and I am a comic-reading, wisecracking dork who has achieved more attention than I deserve. I can relate to him,” Harless said.

Harless said even his love for the show does not override the fact the series possesses the inarguable charactistic of an “over-dramatic” plot.

“When I was in high school, there were fewer psychotic kids named Oliver and less famous people,” he said.

Junior Marc Kalscheuer agreed with De Santis and Harless.

“(The show) really doesn’t display reality because the actors are way too old to be in high school and way too much s*** happens for it to be real,” he said.

So, why do we watch this guilty pleasure?

For Kalscheuer, the answer is simple.

“The hot women. A lot of hot women.”

The series is currently in its third season, but the trend seems to be that students did not begin watching the show until the first season was creeping up on the finale or the second season had already begun.

Junior Emily Viau said she began watching the show well into the first season because her friends were obsessed, and out of curiosity, she sat down with them one Thursday evening. Viau now owns the first two seasons on DVD.

“At least ten of my friends and I get together at my friend’s house every week,” Viau said. “Everyone rushes over from class or work, and we have rules: no cell phones, no talking.”

When asked if she had any intention of purchasing the third season, her response was matter-of-fact.

“You bet!”

FOX Network said creator and executive producer Josh Schwartz is the youngest person in the network’s history to create a series and run the day-to-day production.

The network believes that Schwartz’s young age plays a role in the success of the show – he can relate to the issues presented onscreen.

“Once you get to college you kind of lose some of the “cool” kids versus the non-cool kids garbage you carried with you in high school. You get to college, and it becomes easy for you to identify with the dork and you cheer for the dork.” Harless said. “But what do I know. I’m not rich and famous.”

The OC airs at 7 p.m. Thursdays on FOX Network.