At FOX's January Press Tour party, Josh Schwartz, the 27-year-old creator of "The O.C." made an embarrassing confession. It's not as embarrassing as Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) admitting his failure as a first-time lover to his Chino-raised friend Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie), but a subject of chagrin nonetheless.

Schwartz, network television's youngest showrunner, was suffering his first bout of writer's block.

Nearly two months later, Schwartz can joke about that moment of near-insecurity.

"I got over it," he says simply. "I went to Vegas. I just got out of town."

After that intellectual dry spell and a temporary narrative hiccup involving a borderline psychotic named Oliver Trask, "The O.C.," like its youthful creator, has experienced a creative second wind in the later stages of its extra-long 27-episode first season. Learning the job on the run, Schwartz and his staff of writers ("Everything goes through my computer at some point," he says of the collaborative process) have had to make major character adjustments as the season progressed.

Viewers who haven't visited Schwartz's semi-fictionalized Newport Beach universe since the show's August premiere would have some difficulties recognizing the young characters (except for the fact that the actors who play them have seen their faces plastered on magazine covers, billboards and web sites).

Summer (Rachel Bilson) has developed from a sarcastic ice queen into a sympathetic romantic lead and the show's second most reliable source of one-liners. Luke (Chris Carmack) has gone from stereotypical, short-tempered jock to surprisingly endearing and bumbling doofus (some of the transitions haven't been quite so organic). And Ryan has gone from mumbling, monosyllabic, brawl-starting bad boy to, well, mumbling, monosyllabic, brawl-starting bad boy, but at least he sometimes makes jokes about his limitations.

"We always knew we wanted to -- especially with Luke and Summer -- really dimensionalize those characters," Schwartz says. "We always wanted to immediately go and start to show these other sides of those two. Seth, as I got to see what Brody did really well, I wanted to start writing towards that and making the character a little bit more extroverted."

The process of making comic readin', Shins-lovin', Captain Oats-ownin' social reject Seth into one of the show's heroes ran into a roadblock when, thanks to Brody, Seth actually became too cool and too popular. The show's Valentine's Day episode, which featured that awkward first sexual encounter, began the process of regeekifying Seth, a devolution which continued an episode later with a peculiar (and romantic) declaration of love.

"He stands on a giant coffee cart and announces to the world that he's a huge geek," Schwartz says of the "Some Kind of Wonderful"-inspired episode "The Telenovela." "That's letting him reconnect with that side of his character and retapping back into the mythology of that character as being this misfit, loner, outsider who never fit in."

It's unlikely that Schwartz is going to allow Seth to regress too far, as it's clear that the creator views the character as something of a proxy for himself, as well as a source of inspiration for introverted fans everywhere.

"I think the lesson with Seth is that you stand up there on that coffee cart, you declare who you truly are and you might just get Summer, as opposed to standing in the background and just naming your boat after her and never trying to talk to her," he says.

Just as those awkward Seths-in-training might feel as if the show is speaking directly to them, the show's burgeoning Internet fan base has noticed that many of their comments, concerns and jokes have worked their way onto the show. In past episodes, the metatextuality has included gags about McKenzie's resemblance to Russell Crowe, the show's occasional over-reliance on fistfights and the fact that Peter Gallagher's eyebrows often become entirely new characters. More than a few web sites have become convinced that they're Schwartz's one-stop shop for cyber-buzz.

"I can't reveal the sources because then they know and it just throws everything out of whack," he notes, before half-joking "I'm out there. I'm trolling in cyberspace. I'm highly sensitive to the criticisms of the general public and I'm here to please."

An example of the show at its most self-referential comes this Wednesday when "The O.C." returns after several weeks of "American Idol"-based hiatus. Titled "The L.A.," Wednesday night's (March 24) episode finds Summer and Marissa hobnobbing with the stars of their favorite primetime soap "The Valley," including Colin Hanks who plays an actor named Grady Bridges who plays Jake Needleman, the Seth Cohen of "The Valley."

"Seth is, of course, jealous that he's going to lose Summer to the real-life TV Seth Cohen," is Schwartz's circular logic.

Another group that's watching is FOX's Standards and Practices department. "The O.C." has faced a bit of a crush because the Post-Janet Jackson Era began at the same time as several of the show's characters were engulfing on sexual relationships.

The most notorious cut came in Summer's Stephanie Savage-penned come-on line "You don't even have to do anything. You can just lie there like a buffet, and I can serve myself," which was ultimately delivered to Seth sans buffet reference. The Valentine's episode also featured a pair of advisory warnings.

The network also had reservations about the May-September relationship between high school guy Luke and attractive, scheming mom Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke).

"We had to throw in a line there at the last minute saying Luke was 18, even though we don't believe he is actually 18," Schwartz confesses. "It was the only way they'd let us get away with it and I'd much rather do the storyline. The idea is that he stayed back a year."

With storylines flowing from his word processor once again, Schwartz is looking forward to ending the season with a bang, but hopefully not too much of a bang.

"We're building to a cliffhanger, but it's not going to be a cliffhanger like the Tijuana episode," he promises." Oliver will not show up and take Marissa hostage and put her in the trunk of his car and drive off with her. I think it's going to be more of an emotional cliffhanger."