Writer Scott O'Brien is suing the producers of the Fox network's "The O.C." claiming his idea of a teenage boy who tries to avoid foster care was stolen.

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In court documents, O'Brien said he came up with the TV show concept "2610 Rivers Road," several years ago about an "emancipated teenage boy who lives in an apartment behind a main house, hiding from authorities, fearful of being put in foster care."

Josh Schwartz, creator and executive producer of "The O.C.," told the syndicated TV show "Celebrity Justice" his days in college in California were the inspiration for the hit TV show.

"That's where all the Newport Beach kids were from, that's where they went, that's where I met them all and got to get behind their gated communities and enter their McMansions," Schwartz said.

"I was from Rhode Island, so I was seeing it as an outsider and that's where the show was, what it was really inspired by."