The final episode of Mark Schwahn’s nine year epic teen drama, One Tree Hill, has closed its doors and with it a generation of Tree Hill Raven’s fans will feel the lose of the family and team. While the final seasons of One Tree Hill may be had mixed reaction with its core audience the fact of the matter remains that One Tree Hill has stood the test of time and after standing alongside major network blowhards like Lost, House and Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill was always able to escape what, often times, looked like clear cancellation. Nine years of basketball, heartbreak and inspirational literary quotes later, One Tree Hill says goodbye to fans that are more like family and a family in the millions. This season finale however was more of an homage to the past 9 years than lateral storytelling. Simply giving us glimpses at the current characters lives and how they have moved on while paying respect to the core cast, One Tree Hill, and Mark Schwahn put forth a mighty goodbye that only slightly felt empty with the lack of Lucas and Peyton.
One Tree Hill premiered on September 23, 2003, for The WB network, a precursor to The CW that we have now. This unique drama combined family values, sportsmanship and popular music and although the ratings have started off small, by the end of Seasons 1 OTH had a loyal and rabid fan base that was willing to follow its stars on music venue tours, mall appearances and just about everywhere else!
Although One Tree Hill at its beginning was about the struggles between half brothers and bitter enemies Lucas and Nathan Scott, the real and everlasting core of this show was family. As we forged our way together with the teens of One Tree Hill we overcame teen pregnancy, parental neglect and death, cancer, stalking, marriage, graduation, child birth and many other daily struggles. One Tree Hill never forgot where it’s fans came from, often integrating popular music and advertising with story lines, as well as occasional appearances by musical icons like Lupe Fiasco and Fall Out Boy.
One Tree Hill was a formulaic teen drama at its finest. The angst, the love, the pretty faces and the heart felt honesty in the writing is what made us proud to stand on the sidelines as Lucas played his final basketball game ever, that made us cheer when Nathan finally became a Bobcat and was signed to an NBA contract, when Brooke Davis, the girl behind the red door, finally had the family she wanted, when Dan Scott became a hero and was ushered to the next world along side his big brother, all these moments and moments of bitter truths and honesty are why One Tree Hill will stand tall in a sea of under achieving cookie cutter teen drams after it.
While art and basketball where the prominent feature of One Tree Hill, it was music that became the literal “sound track of their lives”. Using the emotional connection teens and young adults often have with music One Tree Hill would brilliantly blend music into the background of this phenomenal television series. Often I would find myself reflecting on the music of my youth and how a music video or song could change the course of my day, and it was in these moments that we fell in love with One Tree Hill’s Iconic Blonde, Peyton Sawyer. If basketball was the muscle, family is the heart, then music is the soul of One Tree Hill and at least this viewer, writer, father, and fan, would like to thank One Tree Hill, its cast, its writer and creator, and everyone on set, for giving us 9 of the best years we never had.
One Tree Hill – Always & Forever.
