The show hasn’t been picked up for the fall 2011 season yet. Do you think it deserves a last-minute renewal?

Many CW viewers breathed a sigh of relief April 26 when the network announced the renewal of five hit series — but the news wasn’t quite as hopeful for One Tree Hill fans, whose favorite show remains very much on the bubble. As a longtime fan myself, I have to say I’d be pretty bummed if these next three episodes also turn out to be the last. I’m not ready to say goodbye to the group of madcap southerners who taught me so much about life. And actually made me care about basketball.

1. The cast wants to do it.
It’s not every day you get actors wanting to stick with a series into its ninth year, which I think is a true testament to what a great show One Tree Hill is, and how much the cast enjoys working together. Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Galeotti, Austin Nichols, Robert Buckley, Stephen Colletti and Lisa Goldstein have all signed on for a potential ninth season, with James Lafferty reportedly interested in returning at least part-time.

2. The fans deserve a ‘final season.’
Much like Smallville fans have been savoring every second of the show’s admitted “final season,” One Tree Hill fans deserve the same experience. There are a ton of story lines to wrap up, and unless the writers know ahead of time that the series is ending, there will be a ton of loose ends left… well, loose.

3. The characters’ stories aren’t finished!
The denizens of Tree Hill, N.C., have been through a lot over the past eight years. We’ve watched them long for their dreams, achieve their dreams, and ultimately… lose their dreams. Do we seriously want the series to end on such a low note? Let’s see Nathan’s back heal enough for him to shoot some hoops again. Let’s see Brooke regain her clothing empire (which it looks like she’s finally starting to.) Heck, I’m even interested in seeing Mouth (Lee Norris) get back in the newsroom!

4. Lucas & Peyton might actually come back… seriously this time!
While I’m sure the current regulars hate hearing about it, the fans really want to see Lucas (Chad Murray) and Peyton (Hilarie Burton) make one last trip to Tree Hill before the series ends. And Chad recently broke his silence about the possibility, tweeting: “Return to oth? I don’t know. Maybe next season for u guys.”

b5. Do you really want Glee‘s Brittany to die so young?
One of my favorite lines ever spoken on Glee — not that there are many — was when sexually-confused cheerleader Brittany (Heather Morris) said she didn’t want to die “before One Tree Hill gets canceled.” Doesn’t she deserve at least a few more precious months on this earth?

Show your support for OTH by signing this petition for a ninth season!

Source: Hollywood Life

After “One Tree Hill’s” eighth season wrapped in March, series regulars James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti decided to forgo the typical poolside party destination in favor of a whole different kind of vacation.

Along with Lafferty’s brother, Stuart Lafferty (who die-hard “OTH” fans will recognize from a Season 2 guest appearance) and nature photographer Ian Shive, the costars took a no-frills trip through Florida’s National Parks to explore some of nature’s hidden gems.

They filmed their adventure as a pilot presentation for “Wild Life: A New Generation of Wild.” The fifteen-minute presentation is available online and we’d highly recommend checking it out — you’ll see the four friends meet manatees, navigate alligator-infested rivers, and even visit a sunken statue of Jesus at the bottom of a river in the John Pennekamp State Park.

It’s an idea that they’ve been kicking around for quite a while.

“James and I and his little brother Stuart had always wanted to put together a travel documentary, and we were actually pitching it around a couple years ago,” Colletti tells Zap2it. “We wanted to do a European travel vacation show and gear it toward college kids on a budget and a time limit, and find secret spots, hidden gems in Europe that people would want to check out.”

Unfortunately, the execs they met with were interested in taking the show in a different direction that was all too familiar to Colletti, having had his high school personal life aired for the world to see on MTV’s reality drama “Laguna Beach.”wildlife-colletti.jpg

“We found that people were interested in a reality TV aspect that we didn’t want. It was too personal, too much of partying and whatnot,” he says. “They would run with those ideas and it kind of freaked us out. We wanted to feature the surroundings and feature the travels themselves, in a more respectable sense, so it didn’t work out. With work, it kind of fizzled for a while.”

When they began working with Shive, their excitement about the project was reinvigorated. Lafferty tells us that retreating into nature was just what he’d needed after 10 months of working on “One Tree Hill” in Wilmington.

“When we’re in Wilmington, we’re very much in our comfort zone,” the 8-year series veteran says. “Work is a very easy place to be, because everybody knows each other and we’ve been doing it for so long.”

Getting his hands dirty was a refreshing change. “To get together with my brother, who is also a really good friend of Stephen’s, and to go out there with Ian and really sort of get out of our comfort zone and be subject to the elements and enjoy the natural surrounding habitat, it was kind of a shock, but it was also very much needed,” Lafferty explains. “It was a great wake-up.”

Though the “One Tree Hill” stars are the subjects of the pilot presentation, Colletti says that they’re not planning to be the stars of the show if they can get the documentary series picked up.

“We don’t want to feature ourselves going on these adventures, we want to bring other people, other personalities into it, bringing an awareness to people so they can understand their surroundings,” he says. “There are these amazing places in your backyard that are very accessible and cost-effective. Personally, you can take a lot from that.”

“We had an absolute blast. I’m very proud of it, honestly,” Lafferty adds. “I think it’s a really positive project. I hope it’ll make people want to have a good time like that, go out and have similar experiences. That’s really what it’s all about. We’re trying to show people that these are easy things to do and it’s so accessible.”

Source: Zap2it

Gallery link:
Projects > One Tree Hill > Season 8 > Screen Captures > 19. Where Not to Look For Freedom

After eight seasons of hoop dreams and relationship drama one could hardly fault James Lafferty for wanting to hang up his sneakers. But just how serious is he about preparing to say goodbye to Nathan Scott, the character he has been playing since he was 17 years old? We recently caught up with the actor to find out just that, as well as have him reflect on One Tree Hills’ remarkable longevity as we head towards what may-or-may-not be the hit CW show’s final act.

Did you ever imagine that eight years later you’d still be shooting One Tree Hill?
James Lafferty: Not really. I think it was kind of impossible to imagine that we would go eight seasons like that, especially having been on the bubble after pretty much every season where we never really knew our fate. That said, I think just to have that streak of being on the bubble for so many seasons, is just as unprecedented as actually going the eight seasons.

What was your mindset when it came to shooting the upcoming season finale, not knowing if it really was the end or not?
We’ve made the last episode of season eight with an eye on the fact that it could very well be the last episode of the show. So if season nine does come along it’s always welcome, but at the same time if this is actually the last episode we’ll be more grateful on looking back on everything we’ve accomplished than we would be disappointed in the fact that maybe we didn’t get to accomplish something. We’ve really covered all the basis and are so grateful with the eight seasons that we’ve gotten, everything else would kind of be a cherry on top.

How much do you think shooting the show outside of Hollywood — where young actors with a lot of disposable income have a history of getting in trouble — helped contribute to the longevity of the show?
You know it would be difficult to say whether or not One Tree Hill would be One Tree Hill if it was shot in New York or Los Angeles. The show’s heart is in its small town identity and its small town people. And I think when all of the cast is in Wilmington (North Carolina) it’s easier to focus, live that small town lifestyle our characters are living and separate ourselves from all the rest of the rat race that goes in either New York or LA.

Over the years the show has been very adept at introducing and weaving character in an out of Tree HIll. Was there ever any serious talk about a spin-off?
I think that every different version of the show has kind of been joked about over the years, but I don’t really think that there’s too much of a possibility of that happening. I think at this point it seems like our show is centered around the couples. And in terms of what ONE TREE HILL actually is, I think that everybody being there in the same place, in the same town, and experiencing the same things that they do together as a community is really what the show is about. It’s about that tight knit group of friends and how they navigate life. So while we’ve joked about, I don’t really think that there’s too much of a possibility of that actually happening.

And while we’re on the subject of couples, the Nathan/Haley relationship has for the most part remained ONE TREE HILL’s one constant. Looking back, do you have a favorite moment?
The episode I directed in season 7, that focused on tearing down Renee’s claim that she was the mother of Nathan’s illegitimate child, that was a pretty monumental moment for Nathan and Haley’s relationship because Haley really did stand by Nathan through the entire thing. And as embarrassing and humiliating as it was for her she really made the choice to stick by Nathan and I think Nathan was really honest and understanding about his wife’s reaction. It was an episode that very easily could have torn the family unit apart but they overcame it. And to me, that was really a sign of their relationship, which might have faced the toughest test in their entire roller coaster of a relationship and marriage. They overcame it, they were better for it, and both Nathan and Haley learned from it.

Putting on your writer’s cap for a moment, how would you like to see Nathan end the series?
Well, I think that Nathan, right now is where he belongs, with his family. For so long he bounced around the country trying to pursue his dream of basketball and as much as basketball is really a part of who Nathan is his priority is always his family, which I think is what he is most proud of in life. So for me, if the show ends this season, that’s where I’d like to see Nathan. With his family.

And finally, in preparing for this interview we came across your latest project that sees yourself, brother Stuart, co-star Stephen Colletti and Award-Winning Nature Photographer Ian Shive chronicle your adventures in the great outdoors. What was the inspiration for the project?
We just have a great respect for the outdoors, love to be in the outdoors and really have grown up that way. So you know I think all of us being friends decided we wanted to go and take a trip that would also give the National Park system and these places that our so accessible to everybody in this country [America] a little bit of exposure. This generation — and we’re all guilty of it, I myself spend far more time in front of my computer and television than I probably should — needs to be reminded to experience the outdoors. And we wanted to show other people just how easy it is to get out there and have fun and we’re really proud of the way it turned out because I think it just makes the entire experience look like a blast. Hopefully it will inspire people to get out there, do the same and support a National Park near them, because really that’s how these Parks continue to stay alive — through the support of the people that come, camp, buy passes and see what they have to offer.

Source: The TV Addict

Will the couple face new challenges in the show’s final episodes? James gives us the inside scoop!

One Tree Hill super-couple Nathan (James Lafferty) and Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) have faced their fair share of troubles over the past eight seasons — limo crashes, high-school pregnancies and tabloid scandals come to mind — but James tells HollywoodLife.com the couple’s darkest days are definitely behind them. “Fans shouldn’t anticipate any new problems for Nathan and Haley,” he says.

But that doesn’t mean Nathan won’t have any future problems of his own, especially when it comes to that mean-mugging teacher and his ball-playing son. On tonight’s all-new episode, Nathan and Julian (Austin Nichols) decide to confront Professor Kellerman about Ian’s (Eric McIntire) drunk-driving accident that nearly killed Brooke (Sophia Bush) and Jamie (Jackson Brundage.) And although James couldn’t give away too much about the confrontation, he did promise plenty of “drama.”

And while I had James on the phone, I couldn’t help but ask about one of my favorite versions of Nathan that we’ve seen on the show thus far — the rough, bearded, wheelchaired, angry version from season five.

“I definitely don’t miss that,” James says. “We were filming that in the summer, so it was hot and sticky and they had to glue the bear onto my face. Yeah, I definitely don’t miss it.”

That makes two of us, James.

Source: Hollywood Life