One Tree Hill

Last night marked the 100th episode of One Tree Hill, which is a huge milestone for a show that has come close to cancellation a few times in its five season run.  The episode really pulled out all the stops, and included such big events as an aborted wedding and a Jamie-napping that brought Nathan (James Lafferty) and Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) closer together.  To celebrate the mind-blowing hour, Kristin at E!Online had the chance to sit down with Hilarie Burton to discuss her thoughts on the future of the series.  Is there any hope for fans of the on-again, off-again Peyton and Lucas romance when One Tree Hill's fifth season returns in April?

It turns out that even Hilarie Burton has no idea what will happen between Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Peyton when the show returns.  "Every time I think I've got it figured out, [creator] Mark Schwahn goes and just changes everything," she admits.  "I remember it was the third season when I went to Jake and was like, 'I love you, and I want to be with you.'  And I thought, 'This is it!'  And the next script that I get is me saying Lucas' name in my sleep!  I don't think I'll ever give up on Lucas because I never know when he's going to come back to haunt me—and haunt me in a really beautiful, tender, sensitive way."

Love triangles aren't a completely foreign concept for the actress.  Burton admits that she witnessed a strange one in college that just happened to involve Michaela McManus, who plays Lindsey on the series.
"Michaela McManus and I, we have a weird common background," she says.  "I went to Fordham University when I was living in New York, and she went to Fordham.  We lived on the same floor, and we were friends with all the same people.  And yeah, our roommates both dated the same guy.  Our roommates were in a love triangle."

Aside from her connection to McManus, Burton says that working on a show for five years has also made her extremely close with her co-stars.  "We started doing this show when we were like 21," she points out. "These are our college years.  I think that for all of us, this is the longest we've ever been in one place.  So this has been the longest chunk of time we've ever spent with the same group of people, and it's life altering.  I'm going to have these people with me for the rest of my life."

Great news hit the cast and crew of One Tree Hill when the CW recently announced that the show would come back for a sixth season in the fall.  Burton couldn't be happier about the unexpected news, saying, "We've never had that before.  We weren't sure if we'd come back to shoot more episodes this season, so to be able to do that and come back next year is just a dream.  My whole family is here now.  My brother works on the show, and my parents moved here, so it's nice to know we'll be around a while longer.  It's a great place to be."

Fans can look forward to the 101st episode of One Tree Hill, entitled "Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace," airing in April.


- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: E!Online
(Image courtesy of the CW)