When it premiered in 2003, the concept of
“One Tree Hill” was better than the show itself. Set in a small
North Carolina town – where almost no one, oddly, had a Southern
accent – the show featured two squabbling, basketball-playing
half-brothers with the same father. As The CW teen drama begins
its fifth season with a two-hour premiere this week (8 p.m.
Tuesday; subsequent episodes will air at 9 p.m. Tuesday while
“Reaper” takes a break), “One Tree Hill” has traveled more than
five years from its initial concept.
In the fourth-season finalé, the kids
graduated from high school; as the new season begins, the gang
time-travels four years into the future, skipping all the
college drama.
The season begins with soulful,
now-published author Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray, looking
more and more cheesy-skeevy with every new facial-hair
configuration) becoming coach of his former high school
basketball team. Half-brother Nathan (James Lafferty), who
dreamed of being a pro dribbler, is still married to Haley
(Bethany Joy Galeotti), but his dreams have evaporated, leaving
him to sulk.
Peyton (Hilarie Burton) is working as an
assistant for a record-company-executive slimeball in Los
Angeles. He invites her to an important meeting, if she’ll
unbutton the top button of her blouse. She complies.
Her best friend, Brooke (Sophia Bush), has
become a big-time New York fashionista with her label Clothes
Over Bros. She works with a nasty woman (Daphne Zuniga), whom
Brooke hired but who seems to be calling the shots.
Fans of the show will probably be happy to
know the stories, though geographically scattered at the start,
eventually return to Tree Hill.
Because of the fast-forward, the adult
characters are sidelined, but villainous Dan Scott (Paul
Johansson), last seen in prison for the murder of his nice-guy
brother, Keith, will continue to have a regular presence in the
show. Karen (Moira Kelly) and Whitey (Barry Corbin) will cameo
in the first 12 episodes that were completed before the writers’
strike began.
Series creator Mark Schwahn said he had
the idea of jumping the story ahead before season four, when he
was trying to convince The CW to keep the show (after the
dissolution of The WB).
“I think it’s unprecedented. That’s one of
the reasons I was attracted to it, but whenever you come up with
an angle or story line that’s unprecedented, it’s also risky,”
Schwahn said by phone recently. Network and studio executives
were initially leery of the concept, but they warmed to it. It
probably helped that, “Beverly Hills, 90210” aside, most
college-set shows have failed (“Saved by the Bell: The College
Years,” “Class of ’96,” etc.).
Economically, the fast-forward meant no
college sets would have to be built. Storywise, Schwahn could
avoid sending the whole crew to a fictional university.
Schwahn said he was excited about the
story line following Lucas as he assumes the role Keith played
in his life. (Lucas offers guidance to the 4-year-old son of
Nathan and Haley.) The writer said he expected to do more
jumping back in time to fill in gaps in the missing four years,
but stories the writers crafted in the present were compelling
enough that there were fewer flashbacks than he expected.
With “One Tree Hill” yet to premiere and
its future beyond these 12 episodes uncertain, Schwahn said the
last episode filmed does end in a cliffhanger, albeit not as
dramatic as Nathan trapped in a limo underwater (season three’s
finale).
“If the show continues, it will be really
interesting (to resolve), and if the show doesn’t continue, I
think the fans will have enough,” Schwahn said. “They’ll want to
know more, but it’s not going to break their hearts. They’ll
just have to fill in the blanks on their own.”
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