‘We were pinned as the bitches’: the OC and 90210 stars reclaiming their voices

Hit noughties US teen shows - and UK ones like Skins - were irresistible to their wide-eyed, hormone-fuelled viewers. Now their casts are reuniting in podcasts to discuss the good - and the bad - of adolescent stardom

There is nothing new about a nostalgic TV reunion. In the last year we've seen televisual specials reunite actors from Friends, New Girl and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for emotional chats and table reads of episodes past. There are cast-led rewatch podcasts like Fake Doctors, Real Friends - hosted by the Scrubs stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison - or West Wing Weekly and Office Ladies (about the US Office). But, often, they are bathed in a cosy glow. They fail to lift the lid on the shows' darker side. They avoid raising problematic issues that call into question the ethics of the industry they work in.

This is not true when it comes to the wave of podcasts that have brought together the casts of 00s teen shows. Years spent portraying the breakups, makeups, hedonistic parties and burgeoning sex lives of teenagers - in hits such as The OC and 90210 - have made way for audio series in which their casts discuss the good and the bad of adolescent stardom.