Created by Scott Rosenberg, the show couldn't find its core audience and suffered from very low ratings. It was cancelled after its first season. In fact, so few viewers watch it, Rosenberg was able to recycle unaired scenes and even some characters for his follow up series, October Road, without anyone even noticing. Both Going to California and October Road were essentially spin offs from his earlier film, Beautiful Girls.

Going to California opened with a great theme song by Old 97, "Going to California / Let's Get Lost Along The Way". This song, unfortunately, isn't on YouTube. And there are no clips from the show on Youtube. So you will just have to take my word for it until a DVD of the series is released someday.

Rosenberg’s writing style mimics that used by David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed the Plow) and Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, Social Network). The dialog has an original cadence and feel - similar to that used by writer/director Howard Hawks (His Girl Friday, Gentlemen Prefer Blonds) in the 1940's - that is fresh, natural, and always fun to listen to.

In this particular episode, it is obvious that Rosenberg has researched the nudist culture well before putting pen to paper. When Uncle Eddie explains the behavior rules to Chase, the dialog comes straight from the rules posted at most real nudist clubs around the country. There is no attempt to hide the nudity of the actors here - it is full-frontal and unselfconcious. Howver our two stars of the series always seem to be standing behind a strategically placed plant, tree, or they are filmed from behind only.

The production notes for this episode state that the producers believed that Showtime executives would change their minds eventually and pull the episode before it aired, but instead the execs encouraged this pushing of their networks's "No Limits" philosophy to the next level.

The notes also say that the casting directors were challenged to find good actors willing to appear nude on television, no easy task in 2001. Both William Schilling and Patricia French had appeared in minor roles on other series and would do so again in later years, so perhaps it was their good fortune this episode did not attract a high rating. The directors also put out a casting call to nudist clubs in Florida to fill out the remaining Repug extras for the cookout and volleyball scenes. It was also said they visited several local strip clubs to recruit some younger, more athletically-inclined to be extras in the GB side of the cast because they could not find enough to fit the bill at the nudist resorts. Come on, we're not ALL repugs!

While the details are spot on, the basic plot is contrived and simplistic, as only Hollywood can do. However, the basic argument between Repugs and GBs is going on at a subtle level at many nudist parks today. the conflict between staying true to your nudist traditions and risk losing your core values and going out of business vs. radically re-marketing your business to attract a new generation of customers. i recall one club owner a few years ago being quoted as saying "nudists don't spend enough money to cover my overhead."

Sadly, this episode was the last time full-frontal nudity was shown on cable television in the United State in such a casual and accurate way, without the usual double-entendres, sexual context or innuendos. As America's attention turned to war in the Middle East, television pulled back from pushing any more boundaries for awhile. For now.