50 Fun Facts About Dawson's Creek

In which fictional Massachusetts town is the series set?

The creator originally set it near a North Carolina creek like the one he grew up on; the studio asked him to move it to the Boston area.

Who created Dawson's Creek?

He was taking meetings after selling his Scream script and wrote a 20-page outline for the show overnight.

On which network did the show originally air?

Fox passed on it while worrying about Party of Five; the scripts landed at the newly founded network that had just launched Buffy.

Who plays Dawson Leery?

The creator saw an insecure, over-thinking quality in his audition tape and said "There's Dawson"; his crying face later became a meme.

Which actress plays Joey Potter?

She won the role with an audition tape shot in her basement with her mother reading Dawson's lines, beating out Selma Blair.

Which character arrives from New York City to live with her grandparents next door to Dawson?

Michelle Williams won the part with a hushed audition scene at her grandfather's sickbed; Katherine Heigl also read for it.

How does Joey usually get into Dawson's bedroom?

The platonic movie-night sleepovers set up the love triangle critics compared to Archie, Betty and Veronica.

What is the name of the restaurant run by Joey's sister Bessie?

Interiors were shot in a real North Carolina bar of the same name; construction there later forced writers to burn the place down in the story.

Which director is Dawson's hero?

The creator himself grew up as an aspiring filmmaker idolising the same director, which became the seed of the show.

Where do Dawson and Pacey work in the first season?

The store fits Dawson's film obsession; Pacey meanwhile pursues an affair with a new teacher at Capeside High.

Which actor was first considered for Dawson but cast as Pacey instead?

The creator loved his auditions but felt his good looks were wrong for an underdog video geek; The Mighty Ducks star got Pacey.

What is the name of the McPhee sibling who comes out as gay?

His kiss with Ethan was the first romantic kiss between two gay male characters on primetime TV.

What is Jen's grandmother's nickname on the show?

Mary Beth Peil's conservative churchgoer eventually opens her home to Jack when he needs somewhere to live.

What is the name of Pacey's boat, on which he and Joey sail away at the end of season three?

The episode, also called "True Love", made The Ringer's list of the 100 best TV episodes of the century.

What job does Dawson's mother Gail hold in the early seasons?

She later leaves journalism to open the restaurant Leery's Fresh Fish with Mitch.

Which older sister of Pacey's does Dawson date in season four?

The season also has Andie nearly dying at a rave after taking ecstasy that clashed with her medication.

At which real university's film school does Dawson enrol in season five?

He has second thoughts about Los Angeles, and his father dies after they argue about him dropping out.

What is the name of the fictional Boston university Joey attends?

Its scenes were shot at Duke and around Franklin Street in Chapel Hill because the Wilmington campus used for the high school was too recognisable.

Who plays Audrey Liddell, Joey's college roommate?

She joined as a recurring player in season five and had a brief relationship with Pacey.

What surprising career does Pacey take up in the final season?

After a summer on a yacht and a stint as a cook at a trendy Boston restaurant, he lands at a small brokerage firm.

In what year is the two-part series finale set?

The gang reunites in Capeside for Gail's wedding before tragedy strikes.

Which character dies in the series finale?

She leaves her one-year-old daughter Amy in Jack's care after learning her heart condition is untreatable.

What is Joey's job when the finale catches up with her in New York?

She is living with a writer boyfriend, Christopher, played by Jeremy Sisto, before choosing Pacey.

What is the name of the TV show-within-the-show that Dawson creates, seen in the finale?

The final scene reveals Joey and Pacey watching its season finale together in her New York apartment.

In which North Carolina city was the show primarily filmed?

One Tree Hill later took over some of the same soundstages and locations.

Which university's halls served as the exterior of the town's high school?

Alderman and Hoggard Halls did the job; the campus was too uniform to double as a second college later on.

Which Massachusetts island supplied some of the scenery in the opening credits?

The Leery, Lindley and Potter homes were actually private houses along Hewletts Creek in New Hanover County, North Carolina.

Who sings the theme song "I Don't Want to Wait"?

The WB had licensed it for promos in Blockbuster stores, and it became an eleventh-hour replacement theme.

Which Alanis Morissette song was the theme in the unaired pilot before she declined to let it be used?

Producers scrambled for original material before the network suggested the Paula Cole track it had already licensed.

On DVD from season three, the theme was replaced by "Run Like Mad" by which Canadian artist?

Sony never secured home-video music rights, so most of the original broadcast songs were swapped out on DVD and streaming.

What did the theme song's singer do in 2021 so that Netflix could use the song?

The streaming service used the new master, restoring the opening most fans remembered.

Which clothing retailer provided the show's wardrobe and put the unknown cast in its catalog?

The WB also became the first network to run TV trailers in cinemas, ahead of films like Titanic.

What was the show's pioneering website, where fans read characters' emails and rifled their trash, called?

Staff were hired to interact with fans online, and their wishes shaped where the stories went.

Which company sold its co-producer stake three months before the premiere over reports of racy dialogue?

The Parents Television Council went on to name it the worst network show aimed at kids two seasons running.

Who replaced Alex Gansa as showrunner during the troubled start of season three?

The writers' room was a launchpad: alumni went on to create The Vampire Diaries, Californication and The White Lotus.

What was the eight-episode 2000 "semi-spinoff" that took over the show's summer time slot?

Its lead Will Krudski was parachuted into three season-three episodes purely to set up the new series.

How many U.S. viewers watched the series finale, its largest audience since season two?

The pilot had drawn 6.8 million, quickly making it the young network's highest-ranked show.

How many Teen Choice Awards for Choice Actor did the actor playing Pacey win for the show?

The show itself won Choice Drama twice and a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Drama Series.

The 1999 album Songs from Dawson's Creek topped the albums chart in which country?

It sold more than 1.5 million copies in six months and went triple platinum there, where the show was a number-one hit for Network Ten.

In which 2000 spoof film does the actor who plays Dawson cameo, in a scene parodying the show?

He later spent years mocking his own character as a fictionalised version of himself on Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.

The 2007 Turkish series Kavak Yelleri is what, in relation to Dawson's Creek?

The Argentine soap Verano del '98 was earlier criticised as a thinly veiled copy.

For the 20th anniversary in 2018, the cast reunited on the cover of which magazine?

The issue ran five collectible covers, and Hulu streaming of the show quadrupled that weekend.

Which hit slasher script had Kevin Williamson just sold when he pitched Dawson's Creek?

He wrote a 20-page outline overnight for Columbia TriStar; Fox passed before The WB picked it up.

Which network first commissioned Dawson's Creek but passed on it, worried it had enough teen drama?

Fox was struggling with Party of Five at the time; The WB was hunting fresh ideas after launching Buffy.

Which actress was nearly cast as Joey before Katie Holmes's basement audition tape arrived?

Holmes had filmed herself with her mother reading Dawson's lines, and a school play delayed her trip to Los Angeles by two weeks.

Which future Modern Family star auditioned for the role of Dawson?

Charlie Hunnam, Adrian Grenier and Scott Speedman also read for Dawson, and Adam Brody tried out for Pacey.

Which watchdog group named the show the single worst network programme in its first two seasons?

The National Organization for Women, by contrast, called it one of the least sexually exploitative shows on air.

Why was Jack McPhee's scene with Ethan considered a US primetime milestone?

The show also won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Drama Series.

Which show did Kristen Baldwin note was pitched as 'the anti-Dawson's Creek'?

She argued Dawson's paved the way for everything from Gilmore Girls to The O.C., whose Seth Cohen is 'a snarkier, more Jewish Dawson'.

What happened to the show's Hulu streaming traffic the weekend after the 2018 EW reunion covers?

Katie Holmes said she liked the show 'where it is', pre-social media, and Williamson doubted he would do a reboot.