One Tree Hill Writer Terrence Coli Talks About Penning 80’s Themed Episode on Feb. 2 OTH Podcast

On February 2, the One Tree Hill Podcast will have an exclusive interview with One Tree Hill writer Terrence Coli about penning the February 1 episode “Don’t You Forget About Me.” The episode is an 1980’s themed episode, that is also a tribute to the late writer/director John Hughes.

The title of the episode, “Don’t You Forget About Me,” comes from the Simple Minds song that was made famous in Hughes’ quintessential 80’s movie “The Breakfast Club.” It is just one of many Hughes references and movies peppered through the episode.

Coli got the idea for the episode after the passing of Hughes in August of 2009. The whole One Tree Hill writing staff was affected by Hughes’ passing and was huge fans of him.

“Growing up in the 80’s, as I did, with these seminal classics of my youth, like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Some Kind of Wonderful, all of those movies have such an influence on all of us here on the writing staff,” Coli said. “Most of us didn’t know Hughes, but those of us who grew up with those movies, knew how much they and he meant to us and never forgot it.”

Coli then decided when it was his turn to write his next episode, he wanted to pitch an 80’s themed episode and passed it by One Tree Hill writer Bill Brown, who worked with Hughes on films like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ and “Plane’s Trains and Automobiles.”

“When I started thinking about this next episode, I would write, I thought wouldn’t it be cool to pay tribute to John Hughes,” Coli said. “The first thing I did was go to Bill and ask him if this is crazy, as a guy who knew John.”

Brown told Coli it was a great idea. Coli took the idea to One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn, who told him to go for it.

It evolved to the episode airing on Feb. 1. Many of the storylines of the One Tree Hill episode are taken from Hughes films. In the One Tree Hill Podcast, Coli goes through the different Hughes’ movies and which ones go with what each One Tree Hill character is going through.

The One Tree Hill Podcast will also have an exclusive interview with Rick Nielson, from the band Cheap Trick, who had an on-camera performance in the episode. The band performs at the 80’s themed dance in the episode. The band performed “Smile” (from their new album The Latest), “Surrender,” and “I Want You to Want Me.”