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One Tree Hill stars Hilarie Burton Morgan, Bethany Joy Lenz, and Sophia Bush haven’t revisited the iconic 2000s-era teen drama that catapulted them to stardom – until now. Nearly 20 years after the show debuted, the real-life best friends are rewatching the friendships, heartbreaks, and sports drama that made the show so addictive on their podcast Drama Queens. On this episode, they’ve reached the season finale of season one – which they’re pretty sure was written to serve as a series finale, since the showrunners weren’t sure they would get a second season – and a single line from co-star Moira Kelly sheds light on the show’s title. “There’s only one Tree Hill, and it’s your home,” she informs Chad Michael Murray, who plays her son Lucas. “It was really the first time the title of our show made sense,” Hilarie laughs.
They go through the plot point-by-point, praising James Lafferty’s performance, wishing they’d gotten to see Barbara Alyn Woods and Craig Sheffer make out a little more ("We've been waiting for that all season!" Joy says), and wondering if this was meant to be a series finale; Hilarie points out that there wasn’t as much of a cliffhanger in this finale as there were in subsequent seasons, as if the writers wanted a clean, happy ending for everyone in case the show never came back. But Joy’s character, Haley's, marriage “was the hook,” Sophia says. “People were like, ‘They have to come back!’” She remembers getting the script for the finale, and the ending was so major that the writers were worried about spoilers leaking – so the last eight pages were printed on red paper, to prevent anyone being able to make readable copies. “I busted out of my chair and went to James like, ‘DID YOU SEE THIS?’” Sophia recalls.
Hilarie also gets a little more evidence about her “Juicy suit theatrical device,” which she’s been tracking in several episodes. “Haley was in one in the beginning, and that’s how we knew you were about to get down. Barbara too!” she jokes. “Juicy suits are such a powerful thing.” Joy has a whole story about the iconic satin bra she wore for this episode, too. Plus, there was one line that didn’t sit right with any of them. Then they answer listeners’ questions about their most (and least) favorite outfits from the season and how they spent their breaks in between filming the series (leading to some hilarious reminiscences about movies none of them should have ever said yes to). Hear all this One Tree Hill goodness and more on this episode of Drama Queens.
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