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One Tree Hill proves to be not just another ordinary teen show
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(James Lafferty, Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Gaelotti/Credit CW TV)
Get ready One Tree Hill fans, your favorite show is returning from its summer hiatus and it's bringing you a full batch of new episodes for its new season.
At a time when prime time television is at its most competitive, not even the show's actor's could have predicted this CW network drama to carry on as long as it has. “I thought we'd be here for nine episodes and then they would send us home”, said Sophia Bush who plays the role of Brooke Davis on One Tree Hill.
Bush's co-star James Lafferty also did not think he would be residing long in Wilmington, NC, where the show films. “I don't think I was confident we'd be back for another season”, Lafferty said during the filming of Tree Hill's first season.
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(One Tree Hill aired its 100th episode in March of 2008)
Let's hope Bush and Lafferty are enjoying life in Wilmington because they have now become locals there as One Tree Hill is set to air its seventh season premiere this Monday. Perhaps the reason why this veteran drama was known very early on as the 'little show that could' was because it films in Wilmington and outside of the PR worlds of Los Angeles and New York City, therefore at times receiving much less publicity than its former major rival Fox's The OC. Maybe that typical big city attention is not always better as The OC was canceled after its fourth season while as Bush noted the former 'little show that could' did. “It was incredible because our little ratings that they told us weren't enough kept growing”, said Bush.
And grow they did, even with a network merge from the WB to the CW, One Tree Hill still maintained its dedicated followers.
The fans followed even as the show transformed itself from a drama about high school kids to a 20's something young adult show. Instead of following the usual scripted teen drama route and show the characters try to make the college life work, after the fourth season creator Mark Schwahn decided to take his show down an alternative route by jumping ahead four years in his series. “To drop into a new world with all these characters that I loved and tell new stories and yet be able to bounce back once in a while, it's incredibly invigorating for me...as opposed to skipping ahead to college and doing the same old stuff”, said Schwahn, who originally wrote One Tree Hill out as a feature film.
(The time jump brought in new cast members like Daphne Zuniga)
The jump into the new world was perhaps like a reward to the viewers who stood by the show for four years as they now get to see how the characters they all knew and loved while in high school play out in the real world. The real world gave fans plenty of new story lines and issues to be dealt with among their favorites, such as those of careers, parenthood, and of course, even more complex relationships than those in high school. It also now answers questions like what happens when you get everything you wished for but still feel as if something is missing and how do you follow your dreams without losing who you truly are or meant to be in the process?
When the seventh season premieres this month, One Tree Hill will again have gone through another time jump-this time leaping 14 months from when the audience last saw them during the sixth season finale. “There's gonna be a lot of changes this year”, said Schwahn when discussing the upcoming new season.
Perhaps one of the biggest changes will be the departures made by .jpg)
two of Tree Hill's original residents Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton who will not be appearing in the new season. How did Schwahn handle the void left by two of his core characters? He brought a few new faces to add even more drama to the lives of those in Tree Hill.
Those new faces include Robert Buckley, Shantel VanSanten and Jana Kramer who will each be contributing in their own ways to the new stories in the new chapter of One Tree Hill.
Schwahn said at the Television Critics Association party in August that he is optimistic about the new season despite the loss of two key cast members. “We feel great about the season this year, the new characters and the new journeys”, said Schwahn. It's a good thing Bush thought wrong about going home after nine episodes seven years ago because she is a key cast member that is indeed back for the new season and like Schwahn has only high hopes for it. “It's gonna be amazing”, said Bush when talking about what's been filmed so far for season seven.
You can see for yourself what Bush means by amazing when the season premiere of One Tree Hill airs September 14 on the CW.
To see clips and behind-the-scenes footage of the new season of 'One Tree Hill', go to:www.cwtv.com
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