Headed for reruns

CHRISMUKKAH returned quickly for me this year, \o7gracias\f7 to Fox canceling its set-in-Orange County teen drama, "The O.C." The decision was an ignominious end for the once-hot TV show, which premiered four years ago to high ratings and critical buzz but is now deservedly destined for reruns on KDOC-TV Channel 56 alongside infomercials and "McHale's Navy." I hope it tanks there too.

My problem with "The O.C." wasn't its ignorance of the "real" Orange County, the postmodern suburban stew of multiculturalism and Mexican bashing I call \o7casa\f7. No fictional depiction of a region can possibly synthesize it entirely, John Steinbeck notwithstanding. Nor am I too bothered with out-of-towners now calling us "The O.C.," a nickname as inane as "Hollyweird." Creator Josh Schwartz's greatest sin was to transform my homeland into a synonym for avarice and vapidity -- which is what Orange County's leaders want. In the eyes of America, we're now "Dallas" with better tans and a coast, and the movers and shakers of \o7la naranja\f7 love it.

This newfound reputation was more than a century in the making. Ever since the county fathers incorporated in 1889 under the name of a fruit that few residents grew, Orange County has employed homegrown myth makers to promote its self-image as a Garden of Suburban Delights.

The gorgeous orange-crate labels of the county's citrus growers -- all depicting tranquil orchards of plenty, never showing the Latinos who picked them -- offered America a sweet slice of paradise during the Depression. Eisenhower's America wanted to visit Anaheim's Disneyland and buy into the county's promise of master-planned, affordable housing far from dirty, minority-plagued cities. Surf music immortalized Huntington Beach as "Surf City" (give it up, Santa Cruz) and allowed the nation's teens to dream of shooting the pier while blond, blue-eyed "Gidget"-wannabes snacked on funnel cakes. The ascendancy of native son Richard Nixon, while further solidifying the stereotype of us as a conservative stronghold, also meant that the nation's silent majority wanted in on the action too.

This Edenic image faced a challenge in the mid-1990s, as rock groups such as No Doubt, Social Distortion, the Offspring and Rage Against the Machine offered a more sour take on what No Doubt memorably described as the "Tragic Kingdom." The county establishment eschewed these bands and the youth that propelled their success, stodgy image be damned.