“One Tree Hill”'s Robert Buckley Reveals His Favorite Guest Star — and It's Not Who You'd Expect

Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Lenz and Buckley shared their favorite guest stars on their 'Drama Queens' podcast

Fred Norris/The CW/Courtesy Everett Robert Buckley on 'One Tree Hill'

Fred Norris/The CW/Courtesy Everett

Robert Buckley on 'One Tree Hill'

Drama series don’t often feature all-star athletes, but when they do, it’s pretty memorable.

On the Nov. 7 episode of the Drama Queens podcast titled “One Tree Thrill,” former One Tree Hill stars Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Lenz and Robert Buckley answered questions about the beloved series from fans. The first question asked who their favorite guest stars were.

“Favorite in nine years?” Bush, 42, asked. Lenz, 43, decided to limit their answers. “It has to be a guest star. It can't be recurring. Like a true guest star,” she said. Lenz first picked Gerald McRaney, known for shows like Simon & Simon and Major Dad. He also had a recurring role on This Is Us.

Bush flouted Lenz’s limit and picked Daphne Zuniga, who played her on-screen mom Victoria Davis beginning in season 5. She began as a guest star and “then we kept her forever,” Bush said.

Related: One Tree Hill Cast Opens Up About Where They Think Their Characters Would Be Now

Lenz next picked Sharon Lawrence, who played the mom of Austin Nichols’ Julian in season 8. Buckley, 43, selected Amanda Schull, who played two different characters involved with his character, Clay. She played both the spirit of his dead wife, Sara, and a new love interest who “looked like” Sara, named Katie.

Rob Kim/Getty Jerry Rice in 2024

Rob Kim/Getty

Jerry Rice in 2024

But then, he explained, if he had to pick a “proper, tried and true guest star” it would be ... Jerry Rice. “Because he was Jerry Rice and he also was really good at acting and so his stuff is all funny,” Buckley explained. Bush said Buckley won “the gold” for that answer.

Rice, 62, appeared as himself in the season 7 premiere titled “4:30 AM (Apparently They Were Traveling Abroad).” In the episode, viewers learn that Nathan (James Lafferty) has become a successful NBA player, and he’s grown close with his new agent, Clay. Clay surprises Nathan and Haley’s son Jamie (Jackson Brundage) by having Rice make an appearance at his birthday party.

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Though Rice, a three-time Super Bowl champion who is widely regarded as one of the greatest wide receivers of all time, appeared on One Tree Hill, he actually made very few appearances on scripted TV. After the 2009 OTH episode, his only other credit is a 2015 episode of Hawaii Five-0.

Related: One Tree Hill Cast Reunite for Basketball Game in Honor of the Show's 21st Anniversary (Exclusive)

Back in September, news broke that Bush and Hilarie Burton were developing a One Tree Hill sequel series set 20 years after the end of the series. “What if you really can go back home?” they wrote on Instagram at the time. “If there’s an opportunity to team with brilliant creatives and build a space where all our friends can show off their talents? Own our history? Reclaim our turf? Honor our fans? Sign us up.”

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Hilarie Burton (left) and Sophia Bush in 2024

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Hilarie Burton (left) and Sophia Bush in 2024

The series will follow Bush’s Brooke and Burton’s Peyton as they are “now parents to teens and facing challenges not unfamiliar to what they tackled in the original series like love, insecurities and grief.” It’s not yet known which other characters will return.

One Tree Hill aired for nine seasons, from 2003 to 2012. It began on The WB and continued on the network’s successor, The CW, in 2006.