The "One Tree Hill" Ladies Just Reunited On Screen For The First Time In 13 Years In "Good Sam," And Here's How It Happened

🚨 Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers ahead for Good Sam Season 1, Episode 8. 🚨

One of my favorite things is when actors who used to star in TV shows together reunite on screen in another project, so you can imagine how emotional I was when Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton, and Bethany Joy Lenz — who starred on One Tree Hill together for nine seasons — recently reunited on the new series Good Sam.

Good Sam follows Dr. Sam Griffith (Bush), a brilliant doctor who is living in the shadow of Dr. Rob "Griff" Griffith (Jason Isaacs), the chief of surgery at the hospital who also happens to be Sam's dad. The series kicks off when Griff suddenly ends up in a coma for months, and Sam steps up and becomes chief of surgery. Of course, he eventually wakes up, and now he must learn to work with Sam, who is his new boss.

Along with starring in the series, Sophia Bush is a producer alongside Jane the Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman and showrunner Katie Wech.

Good Sam is well into its first season now, and this latest episode was a very special one because Sophia was able to bring in Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz, marking the first time the trio has acted together in 13 years.

Speaking about how Hilarie and Joy ended up guest-starring, Sophia told BuzzFeed back in February, "We've been together so much that we were kind of like, Wait, we haven't all acted together on screen in like 14 years! It has been 11 years for Joy and I, and 14 years for me and Hilarie. It just so happened that Episode 8 of Good Sam was the script we were getting the day we got back to filming in 2022."

Sophia continued, saying, "Katie [Wech], my sweet angel of a boss, listened to all of the press I did for Good Sam before the premiere, heard me talking about wanting Hilarie and Joy to come play, and sent me the script for Season 1, Episode 8 and was like, 'There's sisters in 1x08. Want them to come play them?'"

In the Good Sam episode, Hilarie and Joy arrive at the hospital as Gretchen (Burton) and Amy (Lenz), two sisters who don't see eye to eye. Gretchen is the overprotective sister, while Amy, a recovering alcoholic, is admitted for what appears to be a heart condition.

And because I love a good side-by-side, here's Sophia, Hilarie, and Joy in their first One Tree Hill appearances vs. their last episodes of OTH vs. on Good Sam:

Like, I'm extremely emotional over this.

Both characters were departures from Hilarie's Peyton Sawyer and Joy's Haley James Scott from One Tree Hill, and Sophia said a lot of thought went into who would play which sister.

"In our dissection of One Tree Hill with the podcast, Joy has talked about how, because she played Haley, everyone really thinks of her as this good girl. She's always wanted the opportunity to play somebody messy. So when I read the script for their episode, [Amy] is a mess. I just knew Joy had to play her, and Hilarie the other one," Sophia said.

The episode even playfully winked at Sophia, Hilarie, and Joy's past friendship when Amy, who appears to be drunk but is actually dealing with a medical condition that makes her act that way, thinks she knows Sam and has met her before.

While their scenes together on Good Sam were sweet for fans, Sophia said behind-the-scenes was even more perfect, and it was "exciting" to get to introduce her Good Sam family to her One Tree Hill BFFs. She said, "It was just so much fun to have them here and to do it. Everyone on set was like, 'Oh my god, y'all are like a tornado. What's going on here?' We just have a lot of energy, and we've built this over 20 years."

Sophia running through set going to find Joy and Hilarie is the cutest thing I have ever seen.

When asked about her favorite memory from filming this episode, Sophia recalled Hilarie and Joy's final day on set and a special speech she gave to the cast and crew about their lifelong friendship.

"One of my favorite memories is when they wrapped," Sophia began. "I made the whole crew stop to just say, 'I know some of you in this room understand who these women are to me.' But as soon as I opened my mouth, I started weeping."

"I didn't expect to cry so quickly. I was sobbing. My whole crew was like, 'Oh my god, are you okay?' Then Hilarie and Joy were sobbing and everyone was crying. It was very cute."

Also, when asked if Hilarie and Joy would be the first of many OTH reunions we could get on Good Sam — if the series gets picked up for more seasons — Sophia said, "We can have so many great people come on and play patients, visiting doctors, or whatever. I would love to bring all my friends from One Tree Hill and other projects. Having medical cases gives you the opportunity to cycle your loved ones into a show. It would be so cool."

Basically, I'm so ecstatic these three have remained good friends all these years and are very much still B. Davis, P. Sawyer, and Haley James Scott.

You can read our full interview with Sophia Bush here, where she discusses Good Sam, One Tree Hill, and more.