My Favorite Scenes: Nathan and Haley from One Tree Hill

When One Tree Hill first premiered on The WB, it was a vehicle for Chad Michael Murray, who used to play a character on Dawson's Creek.

I'm sure the execs were surprised when Bethany Joy Galeotti (nee Lenz) and James Lafferty outright stole the show out from under him.

The two play Haley James and Nathan Scott. Haley was a bookworm tutor who was best friends with lead character Lucas. Nathan was Tree Hill's resident bad boy with the great basketball skills. He also happened to be Lucas' younger half-brother, and he hated him. Nathan's revenge? Use Haley to get to Lucas by becoming her tutoree. The plan seemed to be working fine, until he found himself liking her for more than her potential to screw with Lucas. Nathan and Haley quickly fell for each other, and so did viewers. Soon, people could care less about the Brooke/Lucas/Peyton triangle; it was all about "Naley". They became the stars of OTH, with an stronger-than-steel fanbase.

Since season one, they have married, gotten a tattoo of Nathan's jersey number on her lower back (Haley), file for emancipation (Nathan), move into their own apartment, fallen asleep in the park, made out in the rain more than once, broken up over a tour and Chris Keller, crashed a car (Nathan), signed annulment papers, fought over birth control, reunited, got pregnant, dove into a river to save his uncle and nearly drowned (Nathan), got involved in a point-shaving scandal (Nathan), bitch-slap Rachel (Haley), had a boy named Jamie, went to college, fall through glass and become paralyzed (Nathan), break up over a psycho nanny, have their son nearly drown, have their son kidnapped by the psycho nanny, gone to marriage counseling, and go back to their dreams of music and basketball. Yet, through it all, and they have been through A LOT, they remain in love and committed to each other. Nathan and Haley are the best couple on television, period.

From their long, illustrious history, I have chosen two scenes I think encapsulate why everyone loves Nathan and Haley. Both are from season one.

The first is from the eighth episode, where Nathan and Haley go on their first official date, where he dismisses her in front of his friends. That leads to the couple's first kiss the next morning (from NathanLuvsHaley):



The next is from the very next episode, where Nathan leaves the hospital and finds Haley after he collapses on the basketball court (from cheerchickmarna):



Two things to notice: James and Bethany's ridiculous chemistry and the perfect music during the scenes.