NEED TO KNOW
Chad Michael Murray wishes he had never filmed the infamous dog-eats-heart scene from One Tree Hill
Show creator Mark Schwahn was inspired to create it by a show-writer’s dog
The scene occurs in season 6, episode 19, Searching for a Former Clarity
Image credit: The Star Tracker
Chad Michael Murray wishes he had never filmed One Tree Hill’s most famous scene.
While the teen drama was known for its over-the-top soap-opera twists, the show went full Looney Tunes with the infamous season 6, episode 19 dog heart-eating scene.
Speaking to a One Tree Hill panel attended by The Star Tracker at the Anaheim Nostalgia Con, Murray shared how he really felt about the episode.
The most famous scene from One Tree Hill
For anyone who hasn’t watched the episode since the last time they wore low-rise studded jeans and a trucker hat, here’s a brief refresher.
In the episode Searching for a Former Clarity, Dan Scott, the series’ villain and the father of Murray’s character Lucas, was in the hospital to receive a long-awaited heart transplant.
At the same time, a man brought his golden retriever into the hospital because it ate pot brownies. While the owner spoke with doctors, his dog stretched its leash across a hallway where an orderly carried a cooler with Scott’s new heart.
The orderly tripped over the leash, spilled the heart onto the floor, and the dog ate it, creating a scene so surreal and infamous that it remains the most talked-about moment in the show’s history.
Chad Michael Murray begged not to be in the scene
Murray said he immediately knew the scene was a disaster.
“The moment I read that plot and read that script, I walked like a beeline straight from the trailer to the production office and said, ‘Guys, I don't need to be in this scene. I see no purpose in being here. Let's not do it. I don't want to be in that scene. Please don't.’
Fortunately for fans who love bizarre television, the producers refused to let him skip filming.
Murray added that he thinks the producers created the sequence because they knew its absurdity would draw attention to the show and get people talking about One Tree Hill.
“Back then, there was a TV show called The Soup,” a show that made fun of outrageous TV moments.
“It's basically like YouTube today, and they would just take clips and then talk about the clips. And so it was a promotion for the show. Like that show, that scene was so ridiculous.”
One Tree Hill producers thought it was a serious moment
While Murray believes that producers wrote the scene for attention, they claim that it was intended as a serious character moment for Dan Scott.
In an interview with The Ringer, Mark Schwahn, the show’s creator, said, “We want to take him (Scott) to the edge of hope and then see what he’s made of. I just thought, ‘What’s an absurd way of this guy getting really close to getting this heart transplant and not getting it?”
The scene originated when a writer on the show shared that his English bulldog would eat anything that fell on the ground. The story inspired Schwahn to create one of the most improbable scenes in television history.
“I just started thinking about it, and I thought, you know, we’d all heard stories about someone getting their animal stoned or whatever. So I thought, this guy is stoned, his dog gets into his stash. He’s not making good decisions at this point because he’s high, and he loves his dog, so he takes the dog to the hospital.”
Whether it was a calculated publicity stunt or an earnest attempt at high drama, the sequence accomplished one thing neither side disputes: seventeen years later, fans are still talking about it.
Murray shares why he hopes One Tree Hill returns for a new generation.
