ORANGE COUNTY centers on Shaun Brumder (
Colin Hanks), a high school senior whose mother (
Catherine O'Hara) is a drunk, father (
John Lithgow) is too busy making deals to pay any attention to him, and brother Lance (
Jack Black) is drugged out and "constantly recovering from the night before." Shaun also has a sweet, animal-loving girlfriend named Ashley (Schuyler Fisk). Shaun wants to be a writer and his dream is to go to Stanford because his idol, Marcus Skinner (
Kevin Kline), teaches there. But when his addled college counselor (
Lily Tomlin) sends the wrong transcript, he is rejected. So Shaun, Lance, and Ashley drive up to Stanford to meet with the director of admissions (
Harold Ramis) to try to persuade him to let Shaun in. Unfortunately, they accidentally feed him some of Lance's drugs and burn down the Admissions office. Eventually, Shaun spends a few moments with his idol, and, like Dorothy, learns that there's no place like home.