11 Secrets About One Tree Hill Even The Biggest Fans Wouldn't Know

Imagine if One Tree Hill had only been a two-hour movie instead of a nine-season series. In Building A Winning Team: The Making Of One Tree Hill, a documentary about the series, creator Mark Schwahn revealed he originally developed the concept as a movie called Ravens (the school’s mascot). However, Schwahn’s plans changed when executive producers Brian Robbins, Mike Tollin, and Joe Davola began lobbying him to adopt the idea into a TV show. It took four years, but Schwahn eventually agreed, and thus One Tree Hill (which was named after the U2 song)was born.

Originally, Schwahn wanted One Tree Hill to take place in Illinois, since that’s where he grew up, but the network asked him to reconsider. As Schwahn explained in the 2012 TV movie One Tree Hill: Always & Forever, he never looked back once he got to North Carolina and saw how beautiful it was.

One of the reasons the series made the switch to Wilmington, North Carolina? It’s where basketball star Michael Jordan grew up. The show was filmed at Laney High School, where Jordan attended, and all of the show’s basketball scenes were filmed in his high school gym.

To fully transform into Peyton, actor Hilarie Burton had to dye her hair multiple times and undergo near-constant styling. After two seasons, the constant processing damaged Burton’s hair so much, she had to cut it off to avoid going bald, prompting a significant hairstyle change for Peyton.

Lucas Scott is a basketball prodigy in the show, but Chad Michael Murray? Not so much. Murray was so bad at basketball, the show’s producers had to hire a coach to make him look even moderately believable. In addition, Murray’s lack of ability slowed down production, as the crew had to reshoot scenes over and over until he made the shot.

Chad Michael Murray might not have had Lucas’ talent, but his onscreen half-brother, Nathan Scott, played by James Lafferty, was not so hampered. Before getting into his acting career, Lafferty played on his high school basketball team, so he fit right into the Ravens offense. (This fact is doubly ironic, since, originally, Murray auditioned for Nathan, and the producers insisted on casting him as Lucas instead.)

Sophia Bush became famous for playing Brooke Davis, but she was rejected not once but twice for the role before she landed it. Her initial audition failed because the producers thought she wasn’t hot enough. So, she came back revamped, and this time, she was deemed too racy. Nevertheless, she persisted and landed the part after a third audition.

Most fans would assume Haley’s arc surrounding her singing career was why Bethany Joy Lenz got cast in the role. In reality, it was the opposite. Schwahn cast Lenz as Haley without knowing she had serious vocal chops. After he overheard her singing in a parking lot, he decided to make her character a singer to take advantage of it.

Season 4, Episode 17, “It Gets The Worst At Night,” set the cast on a road trip to Honey Grove, Texas. If that seems like a weird choice for the characters, that’s because it was. The writers contrived the story after the town won a contest in which fans wrote in explaining why One Tree Hill should come to their city. The episode was filmed on location in Honey Grove, and kids from the town who took part in the contest got to be extras.

To commemorate the show’s 100th episode (Season 5, Episode 12), creator Mark Schwahn wrote the script in the Tree Hill High library. What better way to get inspiration for a memorable wedding (and a terrible kidnapping) than to write in the place that started it all?

Not a single cast member appeared in all 187 episodes, although Sophia Bush, who played Brooke Davis, came the closest. Though she seems to be in every episode, she’s not in the original pilot, since the writers didn’t add her character until after production completed it. As the show’s original stars, Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton likely would have appeared in every episode. But the series went on so long, they moved on after Season 6, and weren’t in the final three seasons.