Aw! Peter Gallagher Still Keeps in Touch With the Cast of ‘The O.C.’

Can you believe it’s been 13 years since the series finale of The O.C.?

It seems like only yesterday that the beloved teen show ended, but Peter Gallagher is continuing to keep its spirit alive.

“We really had something with that show,” Peter told People in a recent interview. “And the audience felt the same way.

Of course, Peter played Sandy Cohen, an altruistic attorney living in Newport Beach, California, with his family, who takes in a needy teen, played by then-newcomer Benjamin McKenzie.

The series launched the careers of Rachel Bilson, Mischa Barton and Adam Brody.

“The script [for The O.C.] showed up and I thought, ‘This is exactly what this country has been waiting for,’” said Peter. “It was just post 9/11 and people were drumming up a xenophobia, a fear of the outsider. I thought it was giving into our worst instincts, and it was entirely un-American.”

Peter describes his character, Sandy, as “this Jewish guy from the Bronx, a public defender, living in a gated conservative Republican community, and he doesn’t change. He throws his arms open. And people responded to that character because he wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t afraid to love his kids, or other kids or his wife, or to do what was right.”

Peter added that he’s managed to keep up with his O.C. costars all these years later.

“We try to get together, but it doesn’t quite work out, because someone has to go somewhere,” he admits. “But I love those kids. And I root for them, always.”