When iHeartMedia announced in June that the actresses Hilarie Burton Morgan, Sophia Bush and Bethany Joy Lenz were working on a podcast called “Drama Queens” about their time on the teen show “One Tree Hill,” CW millennials — 20- and 30-somethings who grew up on a television diet consisting heavily of shows on the CW, a network founded in the early aughts for teenagers and young adults — lit up.
Within days, a preview of the podcast along with its theme song, composed and sung by Ms. Lenz, was at the top of Spotify and Apple’s charts. It was clear that even though the show premiered two decades ago and ended nearly a decade ago, there was still interest — if not in the show itself, then certainly in the three women who anchored it for many years.
“What I’ve learned about the fans is that they don’t even necessarily care so much about the show anymore,” Ms. Burton Morgan, 39, said in an interview. “They like the people involved, so whether it is a charity that I do here in Rhinebeck, New York, or it’s my book or it’s some other side hustle, they support it like it’s their favorite thing ever.”
The podcast idea, which Ms. Bush had, was similar to other rewatch podcasts. The three women would watch episodes and then give an behind-the scenes look at how they got there. Each woman admitted that they had seen only a portion of the series less than ten years ago. So, it would be the first time they would have seen the entire series in its entirety. They would also invite their co-stars to discuss their characters and experiences.
The podcast was a pleasant surprise for fans.
In 2017, the women were part of a group of cast and crew members who wrote a letter about the harassment they faced on the set of “One Tree Hill” at the hands of its showrunner, Mark Schwahn. Schwahn has not yet publicly responded to the accusations.
The experience of working on “One Tree Hill,” which the women described as traumatizing, signaled to fans that the show would never come back.
While Ms. Lenz and Ms. Burton will guest star in an upcoming episode of “Good Sam,” the new CBS show Ms. Bush anchors, the women say they still feel conflicted about a “One Tree Hill” reboot. However, they were able to revisit the series through a podcast.
“What if just me and the gals sat together to hear some of that conflict to heal some of those past wounds and traumas?” Ms. Bush, 39, said of the podcast’s inception. “What if the O.G. girls got together and reclaimed our show, and by doing that together, shifted a power dynamic and took our power back and invited all of our friends and co-stars to come along with us as we do this?”
‘I felt bullied.’
On “Drama Queens” the hosts talk openly about the challenges they faced, including the impossible beauty standards they were expected to live up to, being young and mostly inexperienced in show business, being hypersexualized, with limited control of their character’s fates and being pit against one another on and off the set.
“I felt bullied,” Ms. Lenz said. “I felt like I couldn’t trust anybody because the power dynamic on the show was constantly telling me and, from what I understand from Hilarie and Sophia telling them as well, ‘Nobody likes you, nobody trusts you.’” Her sentiments were echoed by Ms. Bush and Ms. Burton Morgan. All three were never fully able to express these feelings when they were on the show, but with age and experience, they’re now able to talk about it.
“Having a daughter was a big game changer for me,” Ms. Burton Morgan said. “Stuff I was willing to put with, put up with on my own, I was no longer willing to tolerate on account of her.”
In some ways, the timing for “Drama Queens” was ideal. Many people looked back on what they loved during the pandemic. It was a common way to cope with the pandemic. This was because it gave you comfort and familiarity.
In addition to dissecting the podcast on TikTok and Instagram each week, “One Tree Hill” fans post about each episode on Facebook, Reddit and other online communities that have remained active in the nine years since the show ended.
Clay Routledge, a North Dakota State University professor of business, stated that people reach back into the past when they are afraid of the unknown. He has been studying human motivations and nostalgia for more 20 years.
“Nostalgia helps comfort people when they’re stressed or anxious or frayed or lonely,” he said. “Engaging in these sorts of nostalgic activities is largely beneficial. If it’s watching ‘One Tree Hill,’ maybe it makes you feel good when you watch it, it makes you happy, makes you laugh. It’s comforting. It takes you back and helps you connect with old memories.”
‘We were accessories for the boys.’
In 2006, when the WB and UPN networks shut down and the CW emerged, “One Tree Hill,” along with “Gilmore Girls,” “Supernatural,” “Girlfriends,” “Veronica Mars,” “America’s Next Top Model” and “Everybody Hates Chris” were carried over to appeal to a younger audience.
The combination of these shows alongside the creation of “The Vampire Diaries,” “Gossip Girl” and “90210” made the network popular among teenagers and young adults drawn to dramas. The CW could see change again. The Wall Street Journal reported this month that ViacomCBS, WarnerMedia and WarnerMedia were looking at selling the network.
When “One Tree Hill” premiered on the WB in 2003, it was billed as a show about two half brothers, Lucas and Nathan Scott, played by Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty, who had the same father and different mothers in a small North Carolina town. Although they went to the same highschool, the brothers moved in different social circles. They were brought together by a shared love for basketball and a dislike for their father.
But the most engaging characters, for many viewers, were Peyton (Ms. Burton Morgan), Brooke (Ms. Bush) and Haley (Ms. Lenz) — teenage girls navigating high school in the early 2000s. Their story lines dealt with self-esteem and confidence, drugs, loneliness, grief, teen pregnancy (a New York Times columnist once called out the show for “refusing to lay out the grim consequences of premature motherhood”) and complicated familial and romantic relationships. At its peak, “One Tree Hill” averaged 4.3 million viewers, and not surprisingly, a significant portion was young women.
Ms. Bush said that the actresses still, despite their popularity, had to fight for their characters’ development and growth.
“It isn’t lost on us that the boys had fully formed characters with parents and that literally none of the girls on our show had parents,” she said. “We were kind of treated like the early 2000s character versions of small dogs and purses. We were accessories for the boys.”
“One Tree Hill” wasn’t perfect, and it certainly did not have a diverse cast— issues Ms. Burton Morgan, Ms. Bush and Ms. Lenz contend with on the podcast. At its most absurd, a dog ate a human heart, a stalker pretended to be a character’s brother, and a nanny tried to seduce a man before kidnapping that same man’s child. And “Drama Queens” doesn’t shy away from the cringe-inducing moments, making it all the more delightful.
“It wasn’t heightened ‘Riverdale.’” Ms. Bush said. “It wasn’t about werewolves or vampires. It was all about families. And you saw kids struggling with abandonment, with privilege and with poverty, and when they were introduced to potential sexual intimacy.”
Peyton, Brooke, and Haley were entertaining as they navigated through the lows, highs, and joys of female friendship. The characters always found a way to get back together after each fight.
It is heartwarming to hear the actresses talk about how they navigate adulthood while still being friends in real life. It is a touching reminder of the people behind these characters.
“Girls, especially, were really looking for authentic, positive female friendships,” Ms. Lenz said. “It was the right place at the right time with the right combination of grounded authenticity and positivity and female friendships.”
Ms. Lenz said that during the show she was part of a “controlling, group, and that kept her from bonding with castmates as much as she would have liked to. She feels like the podcast has allowed her to make up for those lost moments and has inspired her to think about what she can show her daughter about female friendship.
“I now get to have Take 2 on these female friendships and learn to trust and learn to let my guard down and be vulnerable, and that’s only good for my daughter because I’m learning things that I can pass onto her,” she said.
The actresses have been reminded of how much they mean to their loyal viewers by coming together for the podcast.
“The memo I got over and over again was how replaceable I was,” Ms. Burton Morgan said, tearing up. “What has been really humbling is that after getting that message, to have this fan base show up for a podcast 18 years later and tell you that you’re not replaceable is really nice.”
Source: NY Times
