“One Tree Hill” kicks off its fourth season this week. Although I’m not a fan of the show (I just tape it and then fast foreword through like 80 percent of the episodes), one of the cool things they have done is that instead of having the kids be in high school and going to college in real-time, they split their senior year in half. So the fourth season is the second half of the characters senior year.
     Mark Schwahn, the shows creator, recently said this about a 5th season to Kristin from E!:

     "I do have a contingency plan for a fifth season. I think the ratings will be good this season, and I hope we’re asked back. If we are, I’m game to stay for at least one more year. I would like to do something that’s never been done with any teen-based show before. It’s sort of unprecedented. If they grant us a fifth season, I want to skip college entirely. The kids [actors] are in their 20s, you know, they’re 22 and 23, all the stuff that we’ve done is sort of college-esque in terms of the sort of advanced, accelerated behavior of our kids, so my idea is to skip ahead and fill in the blanks in flashback in season five. Nobody’s ever done it. And what’s cool is, like, if you drop in on Peyton, who’s running her own record label or whatever, what happened?! At the end of the premiere, who’s she going home to, first of all? And if she goes home alone, what happened and why isn’t she with Lucas or Jake or whoever? So, I’m definitely game to stay with show if they let us and do it at least one more year."