The year Adam Brody, 'The O.C.' and Chrismukkah collide

Would Seth Cohen make a better rabbi than Noah Roklov? Let's discuss.

The California-set melodrama “The O.C.” loomed big in my mind in the early 2000s. I watched a lot of the series, about a troubled and gifted teen named Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie) who gets taken in by the affluent Cohen family, in sleepless, angst-filled nights. As a teen, I loved its soap opera feel, its handsome and talented cast, the way it featured a lot of delightful indie music and films that I loved (mostly through Seth Cohen’s ramblings).

And so I was surprised to realize that the show only actually had four seasons… and therefore only four “Chrismukkah” episodes that successfully put the interfaith mash-up holiday on the map. Maybe that’s because time passes differently when you’re a young adult filled with said angst (2003-2007, the years when the show aired, were not personal highlight years for me).

This year, it feels more important than ever to look back at “The O.C.” Chrismukkah episodes because:

1. We are experiencing a rare Chrismukkah in 2024, when Christmas Day and the first night of Hanukkah coincide.

2. This is the year Seth Cohen, played by Adam Brody, the only son of Sandy Cohen and Kirsten Cohen, grew up to become Rabbi Noah Roklov of the Netflix hit “Nobody Wants This.”

For those of you who have never watched the show about Orange County drama, let me refer you back to Seth Cohen’s original definition of Chrismukkah, a term the teen, whose father was Jewish and whose mother was not, coined himself:

“Allow me to introduce you to a little something that I call Chrismukkah. It's a new holiday and it's sweeping the nation, or at least the living room… drawing on the best that Christianity and Judaism has to offer. For my father here, a poor struggling Jew in the Bronx, Christmas meant Chinese and a movie, and for my mother here, WASP-y McWasp, it meant a tree, it meant stockings and all the trimmings. Other highlights include eight days of presents followed by many presents.”

I’ve seen some people write things like “Seth Cohen walked so Rabbi Noah could run” but rewatching “The O.C.” in 2024, I have to say, I think that Seth Cohen did a lot more for Jewish representation on TV than Rabbi Roklov (I would, however, argue that Seth Cohen walked so Schmidt from “New Girl” could run).

In fact, I think Seth Cohen might have made for the better rabbi. Is he 100% accurate and reverent at all times? Absolutely not. He claims Chrismukkah is somehow endorsed by both Moses and Jesus. Seth does acknowledge that Moses has nothing to do with the Jewish Festival of Lights, but hey, he’s made up his own holiday. He doesn’t do the best job at pronouncing the word “shamash.” He tells Ryan that he should celebrate his bar mitzvah even though he’s obviously not Jewish and when Sandy (played by, it should be noted, the non-Jewish Peter Gallagher who somehow channels incredible jaddy, or Jewish zaddy, energy) accuses him of being blasphemous, he starts yawning and lamenting Judaism’s marketing problem.

Which brings me back to “Nobody Wants This.”

Rabbi Roklov’s sermons? They’re a little bit of a yawn fest. Seth Cohen’s fantastical reimaginings of Jewish traditions and rants and raves about Judaism? They’re rousing. They’re delightful. The character single-handedly made Chrismukkah a thing for people across America and the world.

“The O.C.” was co-created by then-26-year-old Josh Schwartz and his producing partner Stephanie Savage. The two went on to co-create shows like “Gossip Girl,” “Looking for Alaska” and “City on Fire.” Yet “The O.C.” was Schwartz’s first TV baby and probably his most autobiographical. He brought the most of his self, including his Jewish self, into the show. “I had gone to U.S.C. As a Jewish kid from the East Coast, I felt like an outsider,” he told the New York Times in 2023. Aside from Chrismukkah, there was constant, casual Jewish representation in “The O.C.” The first season even had a Passover seder. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Schwartz recalled looking at that scene and thinking how cool it was, for a Jewish kid who grew up with so little representation of his own culture and rituals, to be shooting a scene with a Jewish holiday meal, with characters wearing kippahs and reciting the Four Questions.

While the charming, and more adult, Rabbi Noah is more swoon-worthy (at least to an adult viewer), when it comes to bringing fun to Judaism, I think Seth Cohen wins that competition. And we now have him to thank for Chrismukkah (and all the delightful merch with his face on it).

Wishing you a happy Chrismukkah, however you celebrate it! Do you think Seth Cohen would make a better rabbi than Noah Roklov? Would you rather rewatch “The O.C.” or “Nobody Wants This?” Let me know in the comments.