The O.C. (2003)

Ryan Atwood arrives in Newport Beach from the wrong side of the tracks, but it is Seth Cohen, the comic-book obsessive who claims to have invented Chrismukkah, who made the show a cult. Josh Schwartz treated music as a character: indie bands played the Bait Shop, Death Cab for Cutie among them, and six soundtrack albums followed, with Phantom Planet's "California" as the theme. The first season is close to perfect; after that the plots get gloriously silly.