I LOVE TV: “One Tree Hill” bides its time till sweeps

Monday night’s episode of the locally filmed drama series “One Tree Hill” was what I like to call a filler episode. After the craziness of Nanny Carrie and angst of Peyton’s daddy visit, we got a quieter, sweeter episode that focused on relationships. The Scotts helped Jamie deal with a bully. Peyton and Lucas had their own “War of the Roses” as she finally moved in with him. And Brooke took one step back, two steps forward with foster kid Sam.

The whole episode seemed like a reset button to shake out the storylines of earlier this year — one final farewell to Quentin, Mouth is back at his old job, Brooke reconnects with Owen. And even though she’s been saying she wanted to get back into singing for a while, Haley finally belted out “I Want Something That I Want” with guest star Grace Potter.

Last week, I was talking about how Mark Schwahn has signed on to a seventh season but the cast has not, and while your responses overwhelmingly supported a seventh year, I’m curious:

Would you support a seventh season of “One Tree Hill” that didn’t include all five main characters (Peyton, Lucas, Nathan, Brooke and Haley)? Would it be OK if Sophia or Bethany Joy left but everyone else stayed, for example? Could the show go on without Lucas? Without Nathan? Discuss….