100 Fun Facts About Dawson's Creek

In which fictional Massachusetts town is Dawson's Creek set?

Capeside is a fictional coastal town in Massachusetts, but the show's creator drew it from his own teenage years as a would-be film-maker growing up beside a creek in North Carolina.

Who created Dawson's Creek?

Kevin Williamson created Dawson's Creek but left after its second season to make another series, then came back four years later to write the two-hour finale.

On which network did Dawson's Creek originally air?

The WB built its brand around the show, which helped define the fledgling network as the home of teen drama in the late 1990s.

Who plays Dawson Leery?

James Van Der Beek plays Dawson Leery in all six seasons; his sobbing face in the season-three finale, as Dawson lets Joey go, later looped around the internet as the 'crying Dawson' GIF.

Which actress plays Joey Potter?

Katie Holmes plays Joey Potter across all six seasons; committed to a school play in her hometown of Toledo, Ohio, she won the part with an audition tape filmed in her basement.

In the Dawson's Creek pilot, Jen Lindley arrives next door from which city?

New York: Jen says she has come to help care for her ailing grandfather, but her parents have really sent her away from the city's temptations to live with her strict, churchgoing grandmother.

How does Joey usually get into Dawson's bedroom?

Up a ladder to his window: Joey has been coming over for movie nights since they were seven, and a later flashback shows Dawson's father putting the ladder up for her.

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

Bessie runs The Icehouse, the waterfront restaurant where Joey also waits tables; after it burns down, the Potter sisters turn their home into a bed and breakfast.

Which director is Dawson's hero?

Steven Spielberg: the pilot opens with Dawson and Joey watching E.T. in his bedroom, and the finale closes with Dawson telling his friends he is about to meet his idol.

Where do Dawson and Pacey work in the first season?

A video rental store: at Screen Play Video, Pacey flirts with an older customer, then is stunned the next day to find she is his new English teacher.

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

Joshua Jackson read both parts so well that the creator wanted him in the show either way, and when the network could not picture the former Mighty Ducks star as Dawson, he became Pacey.

On Dawson's Creek, which McPhee sibling comes out as gay in season two?

Jack McPhee, played by Kerr Smith, comes out in season two after a teacher forces him to read his poem aloud in English class; Andie is his sister.

On Dawson's Creek, what does Jen call her strict, churchgoing grandmother?

Grams, Jen's grandmother Evelyn Ryan, is played by Mary Beth Peil; the devout churchgoer later takes in a friend of Jen's who needs a home.

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

True Love: Pacey spends much of season three restoring the wrecked boat himself, and he and Joey then spend the whole summer at sea on it.

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

TV news anchorwoman: Gail reads the local evening news, and in the pilot Joey discovers she is having an affair with a colleague; she later opens the restaurant Leery's Fresh Fish with Mitch.

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

Gretchen: Dawson had a crush on Pacey's big sister as a boy, and it comes back when she drops out of college and returns home in season four.

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

Dawson enrols at USC film school in Los Angeles in season five but quickly has second thoughts, and his father dies after they argue about him dropping out.

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

Worthington is supposed to be an elite Boston college, but its campus scenes were shot at Duke University in North Carolina.

Who plays Audrey Liddell, Joey's college roommate?

Busy Philipps plays Audrey Liddell, joining the cast in season five; Audrey dates Pacey and her drinking spirals in the final season.

What surprising career does Pacey take up in the final season of Dawson's Creek?

Stockbroker: after a year cooking in a Boston restaurant, Pacey puts on a suit at a small brokerage firm, then loses his own savings and Dawson's when a stock he backed collapses.

The Dawson's Creek finale jumps five years ahead to whose wedding?

Gail, Dawson's mother, remarries in it: the creator had left the show after season two, and the network asked him back to write the two-hour finale, which he set five years on.

Which character dies in the Dawson's Creek series finale?

Jen has been hiding a heart condition found during her pregnancy; she collapses on the dance floor, and before she dies she asks her best friend to raise her baby daughter, Amy.

What is Joey's job when the Dawson's Creek finale jumps five years ahead?

Junior editor: Joey is working in publishing and living with a writer boyfriend, Christopher, when the finale begins, and by its end she has chosen Pacey instead.

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

The Creek is Dawson's semi-autobiographical teen drama; in the very last scene Joey and Pacey watch its season finale together, then phone him to congratulate him.

In which North Carolina city was Dawson's Creek primarily filmed?

Wilmington and its beaches stood in for coastal Massachusetts, and another teen drama, One Tree Hill, began filming in the city just as the show wrapped in 2003.

How does Dawson's father Mitch die in season five?

A car crash: driving home from buying milk, Mitch drops his ice cream cone, takes his eyes off the road to reach for it and is killed.

In season one of Dawson's Creek, Joey stuns Dawson by singing "On My Own" from which musical at a beauty pageant?

Les Misérables: Joey enters the pageant for the prize money, and her song about loving someone who doesn't notice makes Dawson see her as more than a friend for the first time.

Who sings the Dawson's Creek theme song, "I Don't Want to Wait"?

Paula Cole's song was already running in the network's promos for the show, so when the producers' first choice could not be cleared shortly before the premiere, executives suggested it as the theme.

Which Alanis Morissette song was the planned Dawson's Creek theme until the rights fell through?

Hand in My Pocket played over the titles of the pilot and stayed in the producers' heads all through filming the first season, until they found they could not clear it and had to start again.

On later Dawson's Creek DVDs, the theme was replaced by "Run Like Mad" by which Canadian singer?

Jann Arden wrote the song as a possible theme before the show premiered; it sat on the shelf in America until the studio, trimming its DVD budget, swapped it in rather than pay for the original.

What did the singer of the Dawson's Creek theme do so the song could return on streaming in 2021?

Re-recorded it: the old recording belonged to her former label, so she cut a new version that she owns, and the studio licensed that for the opening credits instead.

Which clothing retailer dressed the Dawson's Creek cast and put the then-unknown stars in its catalog?

J.Crew was named the show's official wardrobe provider and photographed the four unknown leads for its winter-spring catalog, sailing, playing football and climbing trees in its preppy basics.

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

Dawson's Desktop mimicked his computer screen: fans could open the characters' emails, chats and trash bins between episodes, and what they asked for there fed back into the storylines.

Which household-goods giant, a veteran producer of soap operas, pulled out as co-producer of Dawson's Creek before its premiere?

Procter & Gamble, producer of daytime serials such as Guiding Light, reviewed early episodes of the much-discussed drama and withdrew as an equity partner in October 1997, three months before the first broadcast.

Who replaced Alex Gansa as showrunner of Dawson's Creek early in its troubled third season?

Greg Berlanti, one of the few writers left from the first two seasons, took over after a production shutdown and revived the series with one pitch: pair Joey with Pacey and turn the friends into a Camelot-style love triangle.

Which eight-episode "semi-spinoff" took over the Dawson's Creek time slot in the summer of 2000?

Young Americans was launched by planting its hero in late season-three episodes of Dawson's Creek, and Coca-Cola paid to sponsor the summer run.

The two-hour Dawson's Creek finale drew the show's biggest audience in years despite airing against which ratings giant?

American Idol was nearing its own finale that Wednesday and drew over 25 million viewers, yet 7.3 million still watched the friends say goodbye, the show's largest audience since its second season.

The actor who plays Pacey won Choice TV Actor three years running at which awards show?

Teen Choice Awards: he won at the very first ceremony in 1999, beating the co-star who plays the title character, and took the same prize again in 2000 and 2001.

The Dawson's Creek soundtrack did best far from home, spending weeks at number one in which country?

Australia: the soundtrack topped the albums chart there and ended 1999 as the country's fifth-best-selling album, ahead of Britney Spears's debut.

In which comedy does the actor who plays Dawson turn up as Dawson, in a scene sending up the show?

Scary Movie: he makes a brief, uncredited appearance as Dawson in the 2000 spoof, and years later he sent himself up at length, playing a fictional version of himself in Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.

Kavak Yelleri, a long-running teen drama modelled on Dawson's Creek, was made in which country?

Turkey: Kavak Yelleri began in 2007 as a summer series about four friends in the coastal town of Urla and ran for four years on Kanal D, outlasting its US model by some 40 episodes.

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

Entertainment Weekly reunited the main cast for its March 2018 issue, marking the show's 20th anniversary with a set of collectible covers and a joint interview.

Which hit slasher script had the show's creator just sold when he pitched Dawson's Creek?

Scream had not even been filmed when the bidding war over its script won its writer a meeting with a TV producer, who asked whether he had any ideas for a series.

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

Fox bought the pitch and then passed on the finished script, wondering whether it needed another teen drama while its own Party of Five was struggling; the show surfaced on a newer rival two years later.

Which actress was nearly cast as Joey Potter before a basement audition tape changed the producers' minds?

Selma Blair was close to being cast when a tape arrived from a teenager in Ohio, who had read Joey's scenes in her basement with her mother playing Dawson.

The actor behind which Modern Family character once auditioned to play Dawson?

Mitchell Pritchett: Jesse Tyler Ferguson revealed the near-miss himself in 2017, posting a photo with the man who got the part and joking that one of the two had auditioned for Dawson and lost.

Which watchdog group ranked Dawson's Creek the worst show on the networks two years running?

The Parents Television Council put it top of its ten worst shows in both seasons, calling it the crudest of the network programmes aimed at kids and objecting to its eight o'clock slot.

A May 2000 episode of Dawson's Creek is remembered for which first on US network TV?

A romantic kiss between men: earlier same-sex kisses on network shows had been jokes or pecks, and the showrunner says he had to threaten to quit before the network would let this one air.

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

Freaks and Geeks, Paul Feig and Judd Apatow's 1999 high-school comedy, was pitched as 'the anti-Dawson's Creek' for its unglamorous, awkward teenagers.

Which actress plays Andie McPhee?

Meredith Monroe plays Andie McPhee, the high-achieving newcomer who arrives in season two and dates Pacey before her struggles with mental illness lead her to a treatment facility.

What is Dawson Leery doing in the Dawson's Creek scene that became a widely shared internet meme?

Crying Dawson, as the image is known, comes from the season three finale. The actor later sent up his own tearful face in a comedy sketch.

Trailers for Dawson's Creek ran in cinemas before screenings of which 1997 blockbuster?

Titanic audiences saw the teen drama advertised because its network became the first in television to run trailers in movie theaters. The campaign cost an estimated $3 million.

Which future Oscar nominee plays Jen Lindley, the new girl next door, on Dawson's Creek?

Michelle Williams earned her first Academy Award nomination for Brokeback Mountain, two years after the series ended. She has called the teen drama the best acting class she had.

Before Dawson's Creek, the actor behind Pacey Witter was a child star of which Disney sports comedy?

The Mighty Ducks made him a familiar face as Charlie, a young and aspiring hockey player. The show's creator thought him too good-looking to play the underdog title character.

Which supernatural series moved to Tuesday nights to launch a new line-up alongside Dawson's Creek?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer switched from Mondays to open the network's new Tuesday night, with the teen drama following it an hour later. Both became flagship shows.

Which future Grey's Anatomy star auditioned for the part of Jen Lindley on Dawson's Creek?

Katherine Heigl was brought in by the pilot's director, who had worked with her on the film My Father the Hero. The part went to a rival who won the room with a heartfelt bedside scene.

During Dawson's Creek's run, the actor behind Dawson Leery starred in which 1999 teen sports drama?

Varsity Blues spent its first two weeks at number one at the US box office. It also won its leading man an MTV Movie Award for breakthrough performance.

Which Nickelodeon sketch comedy spoofed Dawson's Creek in a recurring parody called Moody's Point?

The Amanda Show ran the spoof until the series was abruptly cancelled after its third season, leaving the parody's own storyline unresolved for good.

Which 1980s teen film does a first-season episode of Dawson's Creek openly pay homage to?

The Breakfast Club set-up puts four friends in Saturday detention under the school librarian, where a game of truth or dare nearly exposes Joey's secret crush.

On Dawson's Creek, Joey Potter's father Mike is in prison when the story begins for which crime?

Drug trafficking is also what sent the show's creator's own father, a fisherman, to prison. Joey's dad is freed in season two, only to be arrested again with her help.

On Dawson's Creek, Tamara Jacobs, the older woman Pacey Witter falls for, turns out to be who?

His English teacher, he learns, only after developing a crush on her as a stranger in town. The affair drew much of the early criticism aimed at the series.

Joey Potter, the tomboy of Dawson's Creek, goes by a nickname short for which first name?

Josephine is Joey to everyone around her. The character was based on a childhood friend of the show's creator.

In the Dawson's Creek episode Castaways, Joey and Pacey are locked overnight inside which store?

Kmart becomes their desert island for the night. The pair bed down in camping equipment, and Joey shaves off his goatee.

In season three of Dawson's Creek, what does Pacey Witter rent so that Joey Potter can paint again?

A wall in town is his gift after her school mural is vandalised. By then he is quietly falling for his best friend's first love.

At the end of season one of Dawson's Creek, Joey Potter weighs up leaving home for which country?

France has to wait: she stays, and the season ends with a first kiss. Paris remains the dream she finally chases in the last episode before the finale.

On Dawson's Creek, what new business do Joey Potter and her sister Bessie open in season three?

A bed and breakfast opens its doors, and a malfunctioning furnace nearly spoils the weekend a renowned critic comes to stay. The review is a good one all the same.

On Dawson's Creek, what do the friends stage in season three to support a gay classmate facing discrimination?

An anti-prom is put together by Dawson, Joey and Andie as a counter-cultural alternative. The night ends with Dawson's divorced mother proposing to his father.

Which actor plays Andie McPhee's brother on Dawson's Creek, joining the main cast in season three?

Kerr Smith was 26 when he first appeared as a 16-year-old high school student. He was 31 by the time the series ended.

John Wesley Shipp, Mitch Leery on Dawson's Creek, had earlier starred as which TV superhero?

The Flash ran for a single season on CBS with him as Barry Allen. Decades later a new version of the series cast him again, this time as the hero's father.

Which future star of The O.C. read for the part of Pacey Witter on Dawson's Creek?

Adam Brody lost out, then found fame as Seth Cohen, a character one critic has called a snarkier take on the Creek's own lead.

Which future Supernatural star plays C.J., a love interest of Jen Lindley, on Dawson's Creek?

Jensen Ackles joined for the last season as the student who trains Jen as a peer counsellor. He went on to play Dean Winchester for fifteen seasons.

Which future teen idol plays Charlie Todd, the womanising musician of season five of Dawson's Creek?

Chad Michael Murray's Charlie cheats on Jen, then talks Joey into fronting his band for a night. He soon became the lead of One Tree Hill.

Which band play themselves at a concert the friends attend in the final season of Dawson's Creek?

No Doubt play Worcester in the episode, but Dawson's backstage passes turn out to be for the following night and he ends the evening under arrest.

Which reality TV star plays himself as a childhood friend of Audrey Liddell on Dawson's Creek?

Jack Osbourne, then famous from his family's MTV series, arrives from Los Angeles with Audrey and later helps her stage a sober comeback gig.

Which future comedy star plays Bob in the final-season Dawson's Creek episode Rock Bottom?

Seth Rogen's Bob joins a cross-country drive towards a rehab clinic, then makes off with the car alongside Audrey when the group stops for gas.

Which future sitcom star plays Dawson Leery's Aunt Gwen in the season three episode Stolen Kisses?

Julie Bowen had played the love interest in Happy Gilmore. As the aunt, she talks her young house guests into a karaoke contest.

Which North Carolina-born TV legend made his last guest appearance in a 2001 Dawson's Creek episode?

Andy Griffith, born in Mount Airy, came home to the state where the series was filmed to appear in the season four episode A Winter's Tale.

Eddie Doling, Joey Potter's boyfriend late in Dawson's Creek, is played by which star's son?

Goldie Hawn's son Oliver Hudson played the bartender and would-be writer for sixteen episodes. He had already acted opposite his mother in The Out-of-Towners.

Dawson's Creek's The Longest Day replays one day four times, a structure borrowed from which film?

Go, a 1999 crime comedy with intertwining plots, was a fitting model. The actress who plays Joey was among its stars.

On Dawson's Creek, Joey Potter is raised by her older sister Bessie after their mother dies of what?

Cancer took her mother before the story begins. The loss resurfaces in season two, when a classmate's funeral sends Joey to visit the grave with Dawson.

What kind of business do Dawson Leery's parents start together in season three of Dawson's Creek?

A seafood restaurant, Leery's Fresh Fish, grows out of his mother's long-forgotten dream. It later sponsors a boat in the town's annual regatta.

On Dawson's Creek, which sport does Mitch Leery begin coaching at his son's high school?

Football gives the once-unemployed father a new purpose. He promptly leans on his son to make a film about the team for the pep rally.

What name do Dawson Leery's parents give his baby sister, born late in season four?

Lillian, soon known as Lily, arrives after a long and difficult labour. Her brother had struggled at first with the idea of a new sibling.

Which Ivy League university offers Andie McPhee early admission in season four of Dawson's Creek?

Harvard says yes, yet the news leaves the overachiever flat. Looking for a different path, she heads to a rave that nearly costs her life.

Where is the senior prom held in the season four Dawson's Creek episode Promicide?

On a yacht, the night goes badly: Dawson is dumped, and Pacey tells Joey he can no longer feel like her charity project.

Which academic honour earns Joey Potter a speech at her high school graduation on Dawson's Creek?

Salutatorian Joey struggles to write the speech until a surprise gift from her late mother inspires her.

Which unlikely school role does Jen Lindley take on at the start of season three of Dawson's Creek?

Head cheerleader Jen is unveiled at a pep rally and soon wants out. Her squad refuses to let her quit, and she is nominated for homecoming queen.

On Dawson's Creek, which troublemaking schoolmate of Jen Lindley drowns after a drunken fall?

Abby Morgan had just crashed a wedding with Jen when she fell from the docks. At the funeral, Jen's angry speech about faith opens a rift with her grandmother.

By the Dawson's Creek finale, Pacey Witter's older brother Doug has risen to which job in town?

Sheriff Doug is running local law enforcement when the story jumps ahead. Years earlier he had hauled his brother's friends off to the drunk tank.

After Dawson's Creek, the actor behind Pacey Witter played Peter Bishop in which sci-fi series?

Fringe, created by J. J. Abrams and two co-writers, gave him a second long-running lead. He later sent up his teen-idol past with a spoof fan event called Pacey-Con.

Which future creator of an Emmy-winning HBO series wrote for the first season of Dawson's Creek?

Mike White wrote several first-season episodes, then films such as School of Rock. The White Lotus, his satire about wealthy hotel guests, came two decades later.

In the Dawson's Creek finale, Audrey Liddell is away touring as a backing singer for which musician?

John Mayer gets the name-check, and his European tour explains why Joey's former roommate misses the reunion. She is also said to have a boyfriend who is the opposite of Pacey.

Dawson's Creek's second episode rated highly while rival networks aired which political broadcast?

The State of the Union address tied up the major networks that night, days into the Lewinsky scandal. It likely helped make the episode the season's second-highest rated.

Verano del '98, a teen soap attacked as a thinly veiled Dawson's Creek copy, came from which country?

Argentina's Telefe ran it for three seasons. Its artistic director admitted seeing an early screening of the American series and using it as inspiration.

On Dawson's Creek, which beauty pageant do Joey Potter and Pacey Witter both enter in season one?

Miss Windjammer tempts Joey with a $5,000 prize for college tuition. Pacey signs up too, exposing some hypocrisy along the way.

Scenes at Joey Potter's fictional Boston college on Dawson's Creek were filmed on which real campus?

Duke University stood in for the Boston campus, along with streets around Chapel Hill. The production's usual campus location looked too uniform to pass for a second school.

Which short-lived ABC drama did the creator of Dawson's Creek leave to make after the second season?

Wasteland was pulled by ABC after three episodes. Its creator came back to the teen drama four years later to write the two-hour finale.

On Dawson's Creek, which film does Dawson Leery work on as assistant to director Todd Carr?

Wicked Dead turns into his big break. When Todd walks out over the studio's demand for reshoots, his assistant is hired to direct them himself.

On Dawson's Creek, Pacey Witter rises from dishwasher to head chef at which Boston restaurant?

Civilization takes him on to wash dishes, and within months he is cooking. A new owner later makes him head chef, and both lose their jobs after he leads a staff revolt against her.

The actress cast as Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek at first could not fly out to audition because of what?

Her school play was Damn Yankees, with the teenager as Lola. The producers waited, and she won the part when she reached Los Angeles two weeks later.