LOS ANGELES – When we last saw Seth Cohen, the endearing nerd on Fox’s wildly popular “The O.C.,” he was alone in his sailboat, heading for destinations on yonder.

And if it was up to Adam Brody, the actor who plays Seth, it will be the last oceanic journey he ever takes.

“I actually hate being on that (expletive) sailboat,” Brody admitted after a press conference featuring the cast of “The O.C.” was held at television’s summer press tour. “It’s just a torturous way to film a scene.”

Turns out that the 24-year-old Brody, a San Diego native and former Blockbuster Video employee, is a diehard surfer dude. In fact, he continually urges Josh Schwartz, the show’s Wunderkind creator-producer, to get poor Seth off that wretched boat and onto a surfboard. But thus far it’s a no-go, so bust out the Dramamine.

“It’s weird,” said Brody. “I can sit on a surfboard for three hours and I don’t get seasick at all. It’s a different thing. But when I’m on a boat, I want to puke. When we filmed the pilot last year, they had me on that thing for six hours and I felt like I was about to pass out.”

Many television viewers have experienced a similarly queasy feeling in recent years when they’ve taken primetime soaps for a spin. In fact, after “Melrose Place” left the air in 1999, there were clunkers galore and the genre seemed to be dead. Then late last summer “The O.C.” came along to reinvent it.

Lo and behold, suddenly here was a crowd-pleasing show that not only contained all the requisite gloss and gorgeous faces, but offered fleshed-out characters – both teens and adults – along with touches of subversive wit and self-mockery.

And, according to Brody, a distinctive “coolness factor.”

“A lot of other shows and movies don’t have music as cool as we do,” he said. “And there’s the cool clothes. It’s sort of got that Gen-Y vibe going for it and it feels new and fresh.”

All of which makes the extensive wait for new episodes somewhat trying. “The O.C.” gang went back to work last week, but its season won’t debut until Nov. 4, thanks to Fox’s fall commitment to the baseball playoffs. Impatient fans can fill at least part of the void with the DVD set of Season 1, which is slated for an early October release.

When “The O.C.” does return, you’ll no longer find it on Wednesday nights, but Thursdays at 8 p.m. EDT. NBC’s “Friends” is now out of the picture and Fox believes young viewers will gravitate toward “The O.C.” in hordes. The network’s marketing department is already hard at play, dubbing the programming “O.C.-TV” (a nod to NBC’s Must-See TV) and putting together a promotional reel that emphasizes there’s “a whole new set of friends to hang out with.”

Of course, it’s no lock that “The O.C.” will rule on Thursdays – it is matched against the “Friends” spinoff, “Joey,” as well as CBS’s “Survivor” – but Schwartz has high hopes.

“In terms of demographics, I think Thursday is actually much more favorable to us,” he said. “We have our fan base. I think they’re going to come with us, and I really do believe we’re going to be able to build on that audience and expand. I think it’s wide open.”

Schwartz was annoyingly stingy when it came to revealing specific plotlines for the upcoming season, but he did point out that he will “slow down” the storytelling process.

“There won’t necessarily have to be a brawl at every black-tie affair this year,” he said in a reference to Ryan Atwood’s (Benjamin McKenzie) frequent on-screen dustups. “I think people get the show now and they embrace these characters. And now we want to dig in and really get to know them even better.”

That includes Seth, the fidgety, comic book-loving quipster who became one of the ensemble’s most-loved and important characters in Season 1, much to the surprise of Brody, who thought he’d be laying low for the most part.

“When we first started, I had no inkling of how popular he’d be,” he recalled. “I was like, whatever, so I’m not the hot guy. Just don’t dress me in anything too lame and I don’t really care. I’m just gonna have my fun and do my job and screw around and whatever. And now it’s weird. I’ve got people coming up to me saying, “Seth Cohen’s our hero.’ I’m surprised at how many people feel like this character is speaking for them.”

Even so, Brody visibly flinches if you try to categorize him and his character with TV’s greatest geeks (“That honor goes to Urkel,” he says.). After all, Seth had two hot girls vying for him at one point and ran with a cool crowd.

“We call him a geek because he’s into comics and might wear a button-up,” he said. “But truthfully, is he that nerdy? Is he that socially inept? No, not really. He’s just a little goofy and has a great sense of humor.”

Especially when he’s not floating about on that wretched sailboat.

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Over the weekend, we held our 20th Television Critics Association Awards bash at the Century Plaza Hotel. Veteran critics talk of the days when this was a humble affair (one lasted only 20 minutes) held in low esteem by the industry. How low? Well, winners used to send their publicity flaks to accept their awards.

But over the years, it has grown in stature. We have a celebrity host (Bill Maher handled the gig this time), the trade publications run ads touting the winners and now the stars show up dressed to the nines (Edie Falco in a lovely black backless number).

Still, it remains a largely no-frills event with only 11 award categories and no TV coverage. You get the feeling the stars like it this way because they can kick back and be themselves. To wit: Maher was wildly off-color as he ripped the presidential candidates and the war in Iraq, and several others, including “Deadwood’s” Ian McShane (Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Drama), displayed the kind of language that makes the FCC queasy.

Perhaps the best thing about the TCA awards is that it has a history of recognizing great work that may go overlooked by mass audiences and/or other award events. For example, “Homicide: Life on the Street” was honored three times as an outstanding drama, even though it was never even nominated for an Emmy.

And this year it was more of the same as “Arrested Development,” the critically lauded but ratings challenged Fox sitcom, captured two TCA awards (Outstanding New Program and Outstanding Achievement in Comedy).

In accepting the awards, creator-producer Mitchell Hurwitz took the stage, looked out over the 200 or so attendees in the room and beamed with pride.

“We’re very, very proud,” he said. “This is about as big as our audience ever got.”

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Chuck Barney: cbarneycctimes.com

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(c) 2004, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.).

Visit the Contra Costa Times on the Web at http://www.contracostatimes.com.

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Adam Brody

AP-NY-07-20-04 0938EDT

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