TV GUIDE INTERVIEWS: PART 1 (CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY)

Check back tomorrow for an interview with Sophia Bush as she discusses her maternal feelings on the show.

SEASON 5 OUT ON DVD TODAY!

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BUDDY-TV INTERVIEW WITH CREATOR MARK SCHWAHN (PART 2)

Hi, this is Don with BuddyTV, and today I'm talking to Mark Schwahn, creator of One Tree Hill.  Season 5 of One Tree Hill definitely seemed to reinvent the show, so what are your plans for season 6?

I think we want to continue with the momentum that the jump ahead gave us.  Obviously we have a few cliffhangers to address, whereas I chose closure in season 4 because we were closing up that time of the characters' lives.  The show in many ways has been refaced and reinvigorated.  It's very much a twentysomething show now with some relevant adult characters, and I really like that energy for the show.  It allows us to be a little more complex in the storylines, and the actors welcomed the change and are thrilled with the material they're getting, not only last season but this season as well.  I think it sets us apart from shows that have been positioned as being similar, but there's not a lot of people doing what we're doing right now.  I feel like with the success that we got from the jump ahead, just continuing that and continuing to build on that is sort of the blueprint for season 6.


One thing I definitely didn't see coming last season was the relationship between Skills and Deb.  What inspired you to do that?

First and foremost, I think Antwon and Barbara are an asset to the show.  Great actors that are oftentimes used as counsel to the other actors.  It always frustrated me a little bit that they didn't have their own relationships and their own journeys.  Obviously we didn't see much of Deb in season 5, and right around the writers' strike I told Barbara that there were plans to see Deb in [episode] 101.  When the writers' strike rolled around I told her to just be patient, and that that character was coming back in a really great way.  I was just inspired to put them together because people, on face value, would find it so odd and unlikely, and they see the comedic shades of it.  But this season we're going to continue to play that relationship, and it's great to hear people who are surprised at the likability of that couple, and that there's a lot more going on than just using it for comedic effect.


Nathan and Haley definitely had a lot of problems last season.  Are they going to continue to have troubles next year, or are you going to let them bond again?

Nathan and Haley's fan base is so strong, and there's a reason for that.  That couple is gold as far as I'm concerned, and I've felt that way since the very beginning.  People always ask me about when I'm just going to let them be happy, and it's always an interesting question because I feel like they've always been the most stable couple on the show.  They have a lot of obstacles come their way, but at least last season they overcame them together for the most part.  The nanny Carrie stuff was obviously challenging to their relationship, but I see them growing -- especially with the jump ahead and aging them a little bit -- I see them growing into some really great places, not only as individuals, but as a family.

 I think if they were safe and happy and nothing really happened, I think the fans would be bored by that.  The difference is rather than antagonizing the fan base by driving obstacles between them, they're facing obstacles together.  That's a big part of life, whether it's the heightened version on our show or not. In your twenties, stuff happens, you know?  A lot of it is unexpected, but I think the stability of that couple is really fun to watch, and one of the biggest and best parts of the show.  We'll continue down that path, and continue with the seeds that we planted, which is basically whether Nathan is going to pursue basketball and Haley is going to pursue music, or any other dream they might have.  Are they able to pursue those things and still remain a family and a couple?  Are those things going to be detrimental toward their relationship?


Speaking of that family, I thought that Jackson Brundage was fantastic last season.

I agree with you.  He's amazing.


Is there anything coming up for Jamie that we should know about, and will Chester make a return appearance?

You know, Chester is going to be put in peril in one episode.


Oh no!

I can't say enough about adding Jackson Brundage to the cast.  That search to find the right kid to play Nathan and Haley's son was very exhaustive, and I took it very seriously, because I felt like the bar was set very high and fans were expecting us to rise to that challenge.  Jackson is just above and beyond anything I had hoped for.  I knew that he was going to be really special, but he's not that sort of fake-y kid actor.  He's a real kid, he's a rough and tumble kid, and he comes from a really solid family, and yet he's got a gift where he's very, very talented at what he's doing. 

I think what we have to do is hold back the want of writers and actors to have him in every scene of the show.  Actors aren't dumb, they all ask me for scenes with Jackson because they know the cute quotient and the likability quotient goes through the roof when he's in those scenes, and all the writers want to write for him.  But he's a seven-year-old boy who can only work limited hours and gets tired, and also should have a fulfilling life outside of the show.  He's going to have his own storylines from time to time, and obviously he'll be at the center of a lot of what's going on with Nathan and Haley, Lucas, Brooke and others.  I think adding him to the cast was like adding Butters to South Park.  It's rare when you add a new character who becomes instantly as important as the rest of the cast.  I think that was true with Jackson, and it's a testament to his God-given abilities.  He'll be at the center of a lot of stuff this year.


I've heard that Chad Michael Murray has written a black and white noir-themed episode for later in the season.  Is there anything you can tell us about that?

I think that noir-themed is very risky, because I think that noir can be very dark and very guy-ish in its approach.  I'd say this is more Casablanca infused.  It's set in the '30s, I think Joe Davola is going to direct it, and we've been talking about doing it in black and white.  I think we will.  But yeah, Chad had this idea for the last couple years, and we've talked about when would be the right time to try to do it.  It felt like in season 6 we're in a good place right now creatively.  I actually found a place where not only would it fit as a standalone episode, but it'll also have a few handles to the serialized nature of the show and be able to advance story a little bit as well.  He's been working on the script and he did a great draft, and I've been working with him since he's new to writing.  The writing staff has embraced it, and I think the actors are excited to do it too.  That's something the fans will see during the first half of the season, toward the middle of the season.

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NEW WEBSITE / MYSPACE / GALLERY LAYOUT / HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAD

We would also like to wish Chad who turns 27 a Happy Birthday!

COULD LINDSEY BE BACK?

Could it be that Lucas called and proposed to Lindsey? Many ruled her out once Michaela McManus got cast on SVU, but One Tree Hill's creator wants you to consider her still in the mix. "Michaela is returning, and for more than one episode," Mark Schwahn told me exclusively during an in-depth preview of the new season. "We'll see Lindsey throughout the year."

To those who track spoilers/on-set sightings and profess to know who Lucas wound up calling, Schwahn argues, "If Lucas were to pick Lindsey, who's to say she'd pick him back? And if she does, who's to say it works out? A lot of people have eliminated her as a candidate because they know a lot about show biz, but I'm like, 'Hold on a second....'"

Does that mean OTH's mighty love "rectangle" of Lucas, Brooke, Peyton and Linds is destined to continue on? "Not really, and not romantically," says Schwahn. "As you get older and more complex, how you love someone and what they mean to your life, that changes. So I think that romantically, it's probably done. But [those relationships] will always be a staple of the show. They’ll all be in each others lives in some major way."

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BUDDY-TV INTERVIEW WITH CREATOR MARK SCHWAHN (PART 1)

Hi, this is Don with BuddyTV and today I’m talking to Mark Schwahn, creator of One Tree Hill.  There are a lot of One Tree Hill fans at BuddyTV, so we asked them to submit some questions for you.  I just wanted to go over some of those.  People want to know if Mouth and Millicent are going to get serious next season.

Yeah, I feel like Mouth finally found a girl.  Fourth season, fifth season, Mouth sort of drifted a little bit until we met Millicent, and it just felt so right to me, that couple.  Obviously they’re pursuing their own dreams and ambitions, and I think when you’re young and you’re in your twenties, you’re trying to set up the architecture for what your life is going to be down the line.  You feel like if you don’t do it right now, there may never come another chance to do it, in terms of career.  I think that their storyline will be: can you have your career ambitions and also be a couple, and what does it mean to your relationship if you’re chasing different things?  But that’s a couple that gives me a feeling of sort of safeness and makes me comfortable to watch them together, and I like that for the audience and I like that for the show.  That doesn’t mean they won’t have obstacles ahead of them, as all couples do on One Tree Hill, but fans will definitely see more of them in season six.


There are a lot of fan favorite characters that people would like to see back, like Rachel or Tim or Chase or Whitey.  Is there any chance of any of those people coming back this season?

Yeah, there’s a chance that you would see all of those characters -- well, I don’t know about Tim.  I’m being sarcastic.  We’re pretty early at it in terms of mapping out the entire season, but I would add Jake to that list, too.  I’ve been talking to Bryan [Greenberg] about coming back, I don’t know if it’ll work out with his schedule and what he’s doing.  I think the great thing about being in season 6 is you have all of that architecture, all of that history to draw upon.  I always felt like Rachel went away in not the best light when she disappeared, and I’d love to check in with Whitey.  I always think it’s great when we can see the return of some of these characters.  We’d like to do that and we have some concrete plans to do it, but a lot of it is up in the air.


A lot of people want to know what happened to the theme song and if it will make a return appearance.

It’s interesting about the theme song.  Not only is it costly -- and that never sort of drives what we do creatively, but I think fans don’t understand that there’s money on the table every time they hear the theme song.  That sounds like a bullsh*t producer response, too, but that’s a part of it because every year our budget is pretty challenged.  Knowing that, when I looked at the jump ahead, the four year jump, I felt like “I Don’t Wanna Be” was very much an anthem for their adolescent lives.  It was very much about who am I going to be and who am I and who am I going to be someday.  Not to mention that it was 42 seconds of screen time that I knew I could use for story.  So a lot went into the decision to drop the theme song, it wasn’t done lightly.  For Chad [Michael Murray's upcoming noir-themed] episode it would be fun to hear that theme song done in a more time period relevant way.  Never say never, but right now I think we’ll probably just go with the black card.


There were a lot of new characters introduced last season.  Is there anyone new joining this year?

We will meet some new faces along the way, sure.  One of them is John Doe, who is playing Nick Wolfe, who may or may not be Peyton’s biological father.  And I think that that’s very much at the center of the storyline, is they expect him to be her father but he’s not very forthcoming as a character with that information.  The question is why is that the case when he clearly made a choice to reach out to Peyton.  So we plan to see John earlier than later in the season.  We’ll see the return of Daphne Zuniga’s character, Victoria, which is really great.  Above and beyond that, we will see some new characters.  One of them is a character named Samantha, who is being played by Ashley Rickards.  She’s a younger character, I always think it’s important to keep younger characters in the show while the show has aged.  You still have a young fan base that’s interested in those stories, and so Samantha is going to be a high school student that we’re going to meet early on and tell stories about her as well.


A lot of people want to know if An Unkindness of Ravens will actually be published as a tie-in novel or anything like that.

We have talked about that and it hasn’t come together just yet, because somebody’s got to write it.  If it’s going to be written, considering it was Lucas’s book and it introduced Lucas as an author fictionally, it’s got to be quality, it’s got to be a decent book.  It’s not something where we just want to hire a ghostwriter and say, “Just do this so that it’s a piece of merchandise.”  I would just want to make sure there is a reason to do it and that there's spin that we could put on it.  We have talked about it though, so hopefully that’ll come to light.   If it doesn’t, it wasn’t for trying, that’s for sure.


Is there any chance that either Haley or Brooke will end up with another baby any time soon?

That’s also being talked about.  I think Brooke, certainly we’ve planted the scenes for.  Her storyline centers around what a family is and what a family can be considering hers was not what she had hoped for.  And so I think that’ll continue to be at the center.  If she ends up with Lucas, I think that they would love to have kids.  And if she doesn’t end up with Lucas, I think the idea of family is still very much at the forefront of her story.  And we’ve actually, just so you know, and I haven’t said this publicly to anyone else, we’ve talked about Nathan and Haley as well.  What it would be like to introduce a baby, because with the four year jump the fans didn’t get to spend time with the baby with that couple, we jumped ahead to Jamie as a four-year-old.  Yeah, all of that stuff is up for grabs.


Just one last question here.  Now, I know you can’t tell us who Lucas invited to Las Vegas, obviously, but do you think the fans will be happy with how that storyline plays out?

You know Don, I really hope so.  I know that there’s a danger in -- One of the staples of our show and the staples of television in general has been the love triangle.  For us it became a love rectangle, which was my version and the show’s version of trying to turn that dynamic on its head a little bit.  I think at the end of last season no one would have expected Lindsey, no one would have expected the introduction of someone else that Lucas was interested in and that Lucas loved.  Whether the fans loved it or hated it or whether they felt like it worked, I always felt it was a way of challenging the audience and yet still giving them the show they sort of love.  Obviously, I’m not stupid about this stuff and I don’t make these decisions lightly, I know that if Lucas picks one person, that changes the dynamic that the audience has been familiar with for a long, long time.  The relationship and who Lucas picks will frame the season for a lot of fans.  For the ones that are happy, it’ll be a great season.  For the ones that wish he would have picked someone else, the season will suck.  I would just urge them to look beyond that and look at what we’re doing as a show.  I mean, when you watch the first three episodes, it’s undeniable that this is still a relevant, risky, forward thinking show.  I think that this season is once again a really challenging, forward thinking season of One Tree Hill.

Check back for part two of our interview on Monday to find out what's coming up for Nathan and Haley, what sort of danger Chester the bunny may be in, and why Mark decided to hook Deb and Skills up!

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POST YOUR QUESTIONS FOR THE CAST OF 'ONE TREE HILL!'

We just got an invite to the set of One Tree Hill in Wilmington, and we can't wait to catch up with the cast and crew. As always, we want your questions, but here's the deal -- we're leaving tomorrow (this was last-minute!). So if you want a shot at asking the OTHers something, you've got to post right away... like, within the next few hours. We'll be compiling the questions by early evening so we can catch our flights.

Be creative, and please keep it to one question per fan!

GO TO THE BLOG AND POST YOUR QUESTIONS NOW...

SEASON 5 GAG REEL ONLINE

Our good friends at BuddyTV posted this article today. The gag reel from the fifth season of 'One Tree Hill' DVD's which hits stores next a week from today!

Who doesn't love a good gag reel?  Even though I've watched actors cracking up as they flub their lines on seemingly hundreds of different DVDs, I never tire of seeing my favorite stars act like real people.  There's something about a good gag reel that makes you feel like you're right there on the set watching the magic happen.  It's a bit strange to see someone like Kiefer Sutherland break character as he collapses into giggles while filming 24, but that's what makes it so entertaining.  Gag reels help to remind us that actors are real people, and they make mistakes just like the rest of us

Season 5 of One Tree Hill comes to DVD on August 26, but the gag reel has already shown up on YouTube.  Read on to check it out.

There are plenty of highlights to be found in the four and a half minutes of footage, including: Bethany Joy Galeotti making K-Fed fall on the floor by spouting some profanity, lots of tongue action from various actors, Jackson Brundage dancing, Haley flirting with Dan, Paul Johansson rolling a wheelchair into a pool, James Lafferty getting slapped numerous times, and Chad Michael Murray failing to successfully shoot a basket.  Who knew Lucas had such shoddy aim?

You can check out all the shenanigans below:



The gag reel is just one of the bonus features found on the One Tree Hill season 5 DVD set.  The set also includes interviews with the cast and crew discussing the show's fast forward, a special look at the 100th episode, commentary on two episodes, and a featurette highlighting musical guest stars like Kevin Federline and Kate Voegele.  Hopefully the DVDs will tide fans over until season 6 of One Tree Hill premiere on September 1.

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SEASON 6 TO BE THE FINAL SEASON

credit: nine/TWOP Forum:
The network tried to offer Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray a ton of money to stay for another season (S7) but they both turned the offer down. I dont know if the rest of the cast was made an offer and turned it down but the two I mentioned did at least.

When The CW makes their official announcement, we will post it. I always imagined season 6 to be the final season. This is truly a sad day for 'One Tree Hill' fans

6x01 'TOUCH ME I'M GOING TO SCREAM' EPISODE STILLS

CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY WRITING 'NOIR-THEMED' EPISODE (BUDDY-TV)

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MYSPACE LAUNCHES FIRST MUSIC TOUR

MySpace’s music label, the creatively titled MySpace Records, is launching its first national tour. Singer/songwriter Kate Voegele is the first artist to score a headlining tour sponsored by the popular social networking site.

Dubbed the "Back 2 School" tour, and cosponsored with the University of Phoenix, where Voegele  is a psychology major, the trek will span 40-dates in North American trek, and launches Friday, Aug. 8 at the Glass House in Pomona, Calif.

"It's all wrapped up in this bigger ad package sold by MySpace," MySpace Records GM J Scavo told Billboard. "The centerpiece is the media that's running on myspace.com, which drives traffic to this co-branded page."

As part of the sponsorship, the 21-year-old singer will chronicle her touring experience via blogs and video diaries on myspace.com/kateontour. Voegele will also upload behind-the-scenes footage from the tour, post bulletin updates and maintain the site's "Ask Kate" forum.

"The MySpace sales staff feels embolden now to go offer these far more complex and integrated packages to advertisers," Scavo added. "If we can keep doing this, it adds awareness and creates some support for our efforts as a label."

Voegele launched her career on prime-time teen soap One Tree Hill, is touring in support of her debut album Don't Look Away.

Oh…and she’s cute…

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