Back in 2004, a group of MTV manufacturers showed up at a Southern California high school on the hunt for the ideal group of charming teenagers to front their newest creation: A real-life, docu-soap variation of Fox’s runaway-hit drama The O.C.
“We’re sitting there in class, and over the daily announcements they announce, ‘Okay everyone, MTV’s here. They’re going to cast a reality show on Laguna Beach. If you’re interested, sign up in the quad at break,'” Christina Sinclair (née Schuller) remembered to Time in2014 “And I believe for any 18 years of age, that’s a dream come to life. It’s like Grease— when they state they’re going to movie their senior prom and it’s going to be on nationwide tv. Oh my gosh, I need to do it!”
In a pre-Kardashians, pre-Real Housewive s world, what the network was after was relatively revolutionary– a glossy-looking, brand-new kind of truth television that merely followed a group of appealing topics around waiting on them to make great tv.
