Before Riverdale, Gossip Girl or The O.C., there was Dawson’s Creek. This was teen series that wore its teen angst proudly on its sleeve and introduced the world to teenagers they seemed to have no clue existed. Back when the show premiered on this day, January 20, 1998, the show received its fair share of criticism because older critics seemed to think that teens didn’t act like this. The words they used were too big and outside of teenage vocabulary and their emotions resembled that of someone in their mid-20’s rather than kids stepping into their sophomore year of high school.
What these critics didn’t know is that some of us were talking and acting like this. Creator Kevin Williamson, who tapped into the youth culture in a big way with Scream in 1996, really understood that some teenagers were far more articulate than some of their counterparts. They felt big and even though we can look back on some of our teen drama and laugh at how ridiculous we made it all seem, it felt like it was huge to us when we were living it in the moment. He didn’t talk down to the audience and that’s why Dawson’s Creek took off in such a big way and probably still remains one of the shining examples of how to create a solid teen drama. It’s definitely a show that is of its time and while it may seem tame in comparison to the teen shows that followed, it really broke ground when talking about topics that some deemed inappropriate for television.
Let’s take a look back at how things all began in the fictional town of Capeside. Following the success of his screenplay for Scream, Kevin Williamson was approached to write a pilot for a television series by television executive, Paul Stupin. Williamson’s script was initially turned down by Fox, but the WB picked it up for its new Tuesday night lineup. The WB was becoming the hot spot for youth programming with a big success story from 1997 called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They saw that this was a demographic that was craving shows that spoke to them and they saw something in Williamson to keep that trend going.
Kevin Williamson could understand why Fox didn’t quite get it but The WB did. Willaimson had this to say about he pitched the show:
“I pitched it as Some Kind of Wonderful, meets Pump Up The Volume, meets James at 15, meets My So-Called Life, meets Little House on the Prarie“.
What set apart its development from other teen shows at the time, was that it was fast-tracked pretty quickly once The WB acquired it. Hits of a similar nature allowed them to quickly see the value of the show and now it was time to cast the roles that would help bring the show to life.
The role of Dawson Leery was one that was pretty personal for Kevin Williamson. The character was based on Williamson himself: obsessed with movies and platonically sharing his bed with the girl down the creek. Willamson would find a sense of himself in a virtually unknown actor named James Van Der Beek. The only role of significance that he had at the time was a bit part as a bully in 1995’s Angus. Van Der Beek auditioned for three pilots in early 1997, Dawson’s Creek being one of them, and he landed the lead role as Williamson saw a lot of himself in the way Van Der Beek chose to play the character.
The role of Dawson’s polar opposite best friend, Pacey Witter, would end up going to Joshua Jackson. Out of the four leads, Jackson was the best known of the cast due to his role as Charlie Conway in the Mighty Ducks movies. Jackson’s audition won everyone over, mostly due to a charming personality that seemed to embody what Pacey was as a character.
To play the object of Dawson’s affection, Jen Lindley, a relatively unknown actress named Michelle Willaims claimed the role. Williams was best known at the time for playing young Sil in the 1995 sci-fi hit, Species. Despite being 17 at the time, Williams had a sense of self that was well beyond her years and it made her perfect to play the precocious and promiscuous New York-based teenager who relocates to the fictional town of Capeside.
Lastly, the role of Dawson’s female best Joey Potter, and the girl who secretly has a crush on him, would go to the virtually unknown, Katie Holmes. The amazing thing about the casting of Katie Holmes was that it almost didn’t happen at all. Kevin Williamson had seen her in a small role in the critically acclaimed Ang Lee film, The Ice Storm, and asked her to come to Los Angeles to audition. Here is what Holmes had to say about what occurred after he asked:
“I was doing my school play, Damn Yankees. And I was playing Lola. I even got to wear the feather boa. I thought, ‘There is no way I’m not playing Lola to go audition for some network. I couldn’t let my school down. We had already sold a lot of tickets. So I told Kevin and The WB, ‘I’m sorry. I just can’t meet with you this week. I’ve got other commitments.”
Williamson and the network actually respected her commitment to her school play and permitted her to submit her audition on videotape. Holmes read for the part of Joey Potter in her basement with her mom reading off Dawson’s lines. The tape proved to Williamson and the network that she was perfect for the tomboy best friend of the title character.
The adult roles were filled out by various veterans of TV and stage. Mary-Margaret Humes won the role of Dawson’s mother, Gail Leery. John Wesley Shipp, who was best known for roles on Guiding Light, As The World Turns, and the short-lived CBS take on DC’s The Flash, landed the roles of Dawson’s father, Mitch Leery. Mary Beth Peil, a veteran actress, and singer would land the role of Jen Lindley’s grandmother, Evelyn “Grams” Ryan. Lastly, Nina Repeta, who actually went to East Carolina University with Kevin Williamson, landed the role of Joey’s older sister, Bessie Potter. With the cast set, it was time to create the world where Dawson’s Creek would talk place and its location became one of the big things that would set it apart from other teen dramas.
Capeside is a fictional town in Massachusetts where Dawson’s Creek takes place. It is located on Cape Cod, possibly somewhere mid-Cape between Falmouth and Yarmouth, as an early episode includes these real towns in a “hurricane day” announcement. Incorporated in 1815, the town has a population of 35,000 and is located between the cities of Providence, Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts. Capeside exteriors were actually shot in and around Wilmington, North Carolina. Its bays and coastlines are similar to those found along the coast of Massachusetts. Eagle eye fans will notice that another Williamson project, I Know What You Did Last Summer, was also shot in the area.
Capeside High School is the high school in Capeside, Massachusetts attended by several characters during the first four seasons of the show. Exteriors were filmed at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Another popular location included The Icehouse, a restaurant owned by Joey’s sister. Interiors for The Icehouse were filmed at The Icehouse bar in downtown Wilmington several blocks from less picturesque water so exteriors were filmed at the Dockside Restaurant at 1308 Airlie Road in Wrightsville Beach, NC. Nearby constructions at the real IceHouse forced producers to eliminate the bar from the storyline by burning it down.
Now it was time for Dawson’s Creek to be seen by the masses and The WB crafted a promo launch that made the show a must-see for its teen audience. The 13 episode order, which was shot in its entirety before the show aired, was a hot commodity for the network and that wanted to ensure that the show would be a hit. The series was launched on the “New WB Tuesday” which also saw Buffy the Vampire Slayer move to the night in another highly publicized move.
While never a huge ratings success among the general television population, Dawson’s Creek did very well with the younger demographic it targeted and became a defining show for the WB Network. The pilot episode was watched by 6.8 million viewers and had a 4.8 rating which was the network’s highest rating at the time (it’s also a demo rating that networks would kill for right about now). The first season’s highest ranked episode was the finale, which was fifty-ninth, while the second highest rated was the second episode (probably scoring so well partially because the other major networks carried President Clinton’s State of the Union address in the midst of the Lewinsky scandal rather than their regular programming). When the show ended its run in 2003 after six seasons, the finale itself was watched by 7.8 million viewers, which was its largest audience ever.
While the show quickly became a favorite with its demographic, the show had its share of naysayers when the series initially launched. Dawson’s Creek generated a high amount of publicity even before its debut, with several television critics and consumer watchdog groups expressing concerns about its anticipated “racy” plots and dialogue. The controversy drove one of the original production companies away from the project.
John Kiesewetter, a television columnist for The Cincinnati Enquirer, had this to say about the show:
“As much as I want to love the show—the cool kids, charming New England setting, and stunning cinematography—I can’t get past the consuming preoccupation with sex, sex, sex.”
Syndicated columnist John Leo said the show should be called “When Parents Cringe,” and went on to write:
“The first episode contains a good deal of chatter about breasts, genitalia, masturbation, and penis size. Then the title and credits come on and the story begins.”
The Parents Television Council proclaimed the show as the single worst program of the 1997–98 and 1998-99 seasons by being “the crudest of the network shows aimed at kids,” complaining about “an almost obsessive focus on pre-marital sexual activity”, references to pornography and condoms, and the show’s acceptance of homosexuality.
Despite the more aggressive opinions, there were critics that seemed to understand the show’s heart was in the right place. The National Organization for Women understood the show wasn’t nearly as racy as critics suggested and deemed it one of the least sexually exploitative shows on the air. The San Francisco Chronicle found Dawson’s Creek scenically “downright luxuriant” and liked that it “doesn’t have the rushed feel of so many teen shows. The edginess is in the situations, not the pacing”. The Seattle Times declared it the best show of the 1997–1998 season and said it “belongs to the small-pantheon My So-Called Life, James at 15, and to a lesser extent, Party of Five and Doogie Howser, M.D.” Perhaps the best endorsement came from Variety which had this to say about the show at the time:
“It’s an addictive drama with considerable heart…the teenage equivalent of a Woody Allen movie—a kind of ‘Deconstructing Puberty'”
Of course, the true sign of any teen show success is how it resonates with pop culture and Dawson’s Creek definitely did that in a big way. The show found success in music, with many of the songs featured on the show being sought after by fans. The iconic theme song, “I Don’t Want to Wait” by Paula Cole, pushed her “This Fire” album to double platinum status. There were also two soundtrack albums for the series that achieved worldwide success.
In the media, during the show’s second season, the series broke ground with a coming out storyline featuring the character of Jack McPhee, played by Kerr Smith. The character was introduced in season two, originally as a love interest for Joey Potter, but when creator Kevin Williamson came out of the closet publicly, he saw the character as a perfect platform to create a teen coming out story, reminiscent of what he was going through as a teen. The episodes featuring his coming out were well received by critics and fans alike and also made it a big hit with GLADD when it was awarded the GLADD Media Award for Outstanding TV Drama Series. The show also broke ground when Kerr Smith, playing Jack, was the first man to have an on-screen gay kiss on U.S. television in season three of the show.
Pop culture was also very kind to its lead cast during and after the show’s run. Movie roles abounded for the cast and they all had various forms of success. James Van Der Beek starred in Varsity Blues during the shows run and it became a big hit with teens, grossing $52 million on a $16 million budget. He later starred in the cult hit, The Rules of Attraction in 2002 and has actively continued to work in film and TV. He currently stars on, and co-created, the Viceland series, What Would Diplo Do?
Joshua Jackson also latched on to teen roles in movies at the height of the series’ popularity. He took on roles in teen hits such as Urban Legend, Cruel Intentions, Gossip & The Skulls. Jackson has gone on to continue to have a healthy life on television. He starred on the sci-fi hit series Fringe for five seasons and is currently on Showtime’s critically acclaimed series, The Affair.
Perhaps its the women of Dawson’s Creek that have seen the most success overall due to the series. Katie Holmes took on various film projects during the show’s run. She appeared in teen fare such as Disturbing Behavior and Teaching Mrs. Tingle but it was supporting roles in Wonder Boys and The Gift, that show she had a range beyond the teen market. Her starring role in Pieces of April was critically acclaimed and she would later join the DC world in 2005’s Batman Begins. It was during that time that she took on her most high-profile role as Tom Cruise’s wife. It was a media storm that derailed her career a bit, but she rebounded after their divorce and has consistently worked on TV and many critically acclaimed indie films. The MVP of the Creek has to go to Michelle Williams. During the shows’ run, she appeared in Halloween: H20 and Dick but her post-Dawson’s Creek career has definitely shined the brightest. She is probably considered one of the best actresses of her generation and has been Oscar nominated four times for her roles in Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week With Marilyn & Manchester By the Sea.
128 episodes and 20 years later, Dawson’s Creek may lack the salacious nature of its teen show counterparts but every teen show doesn’t need to be about shock value. Dawson’s Creek earned its place in the pop culture pantheon by staying true to itself and showing a bit of integrity. Teens don’t have a lot of shows like this anymore but if they chose to look back at this one as a positive example, I think they’d be pleasantly surprised by it.
