Dawson's Creek Information

Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series created by Kevin Williamson which debuted on January 20, 1998, on The WB and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. Filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, at EUE/Screen Gems studios and on location around Wilmington, Southport and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Many scenes were filmed at UNCW, including William Randall Library and Alderman Hall, which served as the facade of Capeside High School. Other college scenes in the fifth and sixth seasons were shot at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. It portrays the fictional lives of a close-knit group of teenagers through high school and college. The program, part of a new craze for teen-themed movies and television shows in America in the late 1990s, catapulted its leads to stardom and became a defining show for The WB. The series ended on May 14, 2003.

Re-runs of the show are often seen in Australia on Foxtel, in Canada on TVtropolis, in Norway on TV3, in Denmark on TV2 Zulu, in the UK on Sony Entertainment Television, in France on TMC, in Greece on Macedonia TV, in Romania on Digi Film, in India on Zee Café, in Indonesia on TPI and Global TV, in Italy on Italia 1, in Spain on LaOtra, in Lithuania on TV3, in Latin America on Liv, and in the Middle East on MBC4 and on the Orbit - Showtime Network (OSN).

The show placed #90 on Entertainment Weekly "New TV Classics" list.

Premise

The series follows four friends"?Dawson Leery, Joey Potter, Jen Lindley, and Pacey Witter"?living in a small fictional seaside town called Capeside, Massachusetts who were in the early part of their sophomore year when the series began. The lead character, Dawson Leery, mirrors Williamson's interests and background.

Cast

Main characters

Actor	Character	Regular Seasons	Recurring Seasons
James Van Der Beek	Dawson Leery	1"6	"
Katie Holmes	Joey Potter	1"6	"
Michelle Williams	Jen Lindley	1"6	"
Joshua Jackson	Pacey Witter	1"6	"
Kerr Smith	Jack McPhee	3"6	2
Meredith Monroe	Andie McPhee	3"4	2, 6
Busy Philipps	Audrey Liddell	6	5
Mary-Margaret Humes	Gail Leery	1"4	5 " 6
John Wesley Shipp	Mitch Leery	1"4	5
Mary Beth Peil	Evelyn "Grams" Ryan	1"6	"
Nina Repeta	Bessie Potter	1"4	5 " 6

• Despite the title being named after James Van Der Beek's character, Katie Holmes is the only cast member who appeared in all 128 episodes. Van Der Beek's character, along with Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams, did not appear in a handful of episodes during the show's final two seasons.
• Kerr Smith and Meredith Monroe were added to the cast during the show's second season in recurring capacities until they were promoted to full-time series regulars during the show's third season. Monroe later left the series mid-way through the fourth season while Smith remained with the series for the remainder of its run. Monroe made a guest appearance in the Season 6 finale.
• At the beginning of the show's fifth season, only Mary Beth Peil remained a regular character out of the show's four "adult" characters whereas Mary-Margaret Humes, John Wesley Shipp and Nina Repeta were scaled back to recurring roles.
• Busy Philipps joined the show's cast during the fifth season as a recurring role and was a series regular character during the show's sixth and final season on the air.
• Although having prominent roles in the show, Busy Philipps and Meredith Monroe never actually had any screen time together. In fact, they never even appeared in the same episode.
• During Season 1 Michelle Williams held the lead female role until she was replaced by Katie Holmes in Season 2
• Meredith Monroe is the only cast member out of the main seven who does not appear on the cover art of any of the DVD sets.

Recurring characters and guest-stars

Actor	Character (season which they appeared)
Dylan Neal	Doug Witter (Seasons 1, 3-6)
Sasha Alexander	Gretchen Witter (Season 4)
Monica Keena	Abby Morgan (Seasons 1-2)
Mark Matkevich	Drue Valentine (Season 4)
Oliver Hudson	Eddie Doling (Season 6)
Michael Pitt	Henry Parker (Season 3)
Hal Ozsan	Todd Carr (Seasons 5-6)
Chad Michael Murray	Charlie Todd (Season 5)
Jensen Ackles	C.J. (Season 6)
Megan Gray	Emma Jones (Season 6)
Ken Marino	Professor David Wilder (Season 5)
Roger Howarth	Professor Greg Hetson (Season 6)
Obi Ndefo	Bodie Wells (Seasons 1, 3, 4, & 6)
Ian Kahn	Danny Brecher (Season 5)
Dana Ashbrook	Rich Rinaldi (Season 6)
Harve Presnell	Arthur "A.I." Brooks (Season 4)
Leann Hunley	Tamara Jacobs (Seasons 1-2)
Obba Babatundé	Principal Howard Green (Season 3)
Bianca Kajlich	Natasha Kelly (Season 6)
Lourdes Benedicto	Karen Torres (Season 5)
Jordan Bridges	Oliver Chirckirk (Seasons 5-6)
Greg Rikaart	David (Season 6)
David Dukes	Will/Joseph McPhee (Seasons 2"4)
Gareth Williams	Mike Potter (Seasons 1, 2, & 6)
David Monahan	Tobey Barret (Season 4-5)
Carolyn Hennesy	Mrs. Valentine (Season 4)
Jason Behr	Chris Wolfe (Season 2)
Ryan Bittle	Eric (Season 5)
Mika Boorem	Harley Hetson (Season 6)
Scott Foley	Cliff Elliot (Season 1)
Sebastian Spence	Professor Matt Freeman (Season 6)
Nicole Bilderback	Heather Tracy (Season 5-6)
Adam Kaufman	Ethan (Season 3)
Aubrey Dollar	Marcy Bender (Season 3)
Robin Dunne	A.J. Moller (Season 3)
Brittany Daniel	Eve Whitman (Season 3)
John Finn	John Witter (Seasons 2, 4, & 6)
Ed Grady	Gramps Ryan (Season 1)
Bianca Lawson	Nikki Green (Season 3)
Eddie Mills	Tyson 'Ty' Hicks (Season 2)
Edmund J. Kearney	Mr. Peterson (Seasons 1-2)
Sherilyn Fenn	Alexandra 'Alex' Pearl (Season 5)
Jonathan Lipnicki	Buzz Thompson (Season 3)
Rachael Leigh Cook	Devon (Season 2)
Harry Shearer	Principal Peskin (Season 4)
Jane Lynch	Mrs Witter (Season 4)
Ian Bohen	Anderson Crawford (Season 1)
Mel Harris	Helen Lindley (Season 2)
Mimi Rogers	Helen Lindley (Season 6)
Sarah Shahi	Sadia Shaw (Season 6)

Production

Development

Kevin Williamson, a native of the small coastal town of Oriental, North Carolina, was approached in 1995 by producer Paul Stupin to write a pilot for a television series. Stupin, who as a Fox Network executive had brought Beverly Hills, 90210 to the air, sought out Williamson after having read his script for the slasher film Scream"?a knowing, witty work about high school students. Initially offered to Fox, the network turned it down. The WB, however, was eagerly looking for programming to fill its new Tuesday night lineup. Williamson said "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 Prairie". The show's lead character and main protagonist, Dawson Leery, was based on Williamson himself: obsessed with movies and platonically sharing his bed with the girl down the creek. The entire first season was filmed before the first episode aired. After the end of the second season, Williamson left to focus on Wasteland, a new show for ABC, and returned to write the two-hour series finale.

Procter & Gamble Productions (the company behind such daytime dramas as Guiding Light and As the World Turns) was an original co-producer of the series. The company, however, sold its interest in the show three months before the premiere when printed stories surfaced about the racy dialogue and risqué plot lines.

Filming locations

Filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, at EUE/Screen Gems studios and on location around Wilmington, Southport and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. College scenes in the fifth and sixth seasons shot at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and additional shooting was done in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1999, some scenes were shot on the University of Richmond campus. The fourth season episode "Eastern Standard Time" also did location shooting in New York City, including at Grand Central Terminal.

The Wilmington area benefited greatly from the show. While a number of films, commercials and music videos had been shot at the studios, the show was the first to occupy numerous soundstages for many years. One Tree Hill later occupied some of those same soundstages for several years and used some of the same locations in Wilmington.

In addition to business brought into the community by the project, it attracted attention to the city as a filming location and boosted tourism. The visitors' bureau distributed a special guide to filming locations used in the show. When the program was cancelled in 2003, the news was reported on the front-page of Wilmington's daily newspaper, the DailyStar.

• Dawson's Creek and home (is 6424 Head Road)

Sunset shots of Dawson standing on his dock among the marsh grass were filmed along Hewlett's Creek on Pine Grove Road between Masonboro Loop Road and Holly Tree Drive in Masonboro, North Carolina. The private residences used as homes for Dawson, Jen and Joey are all located along the shores of Hewlett's Creek.

Some of the scenes shown during the opening credits and miscellaneous scenery shots throughout the episodes were filmed on Martha's Vineyard - an island off the coast of Massachusetts. One of which is a pan of Oak Bluffs Harbor and another includes a shot of Circuit Avenue also in Oak Bluffs, MA.

• Capeside

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 shot in and around Wilmington, North Carolina. Its bays and coastlines are similar to those found along the coast of Massachusetts.

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.

A Dawson Creek actually exists in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is named for the river of the same name that runs through it. Another exists in Oriental, NC, which flows into the Neuse River. This served as the inspiration for the show's name.

• Restaurants and bars in the show

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.

The Hell's Kitchen bar featured in the show was a natural food store at 118 Princess Street in Wilmington which was purchased by producers, dressed as a seedy college bar and used for production during the show's last season. When production completed, the building was purchased by a local restaurateur, along with much of the set and decorations, and converted it into a real restaurant and bar. It retains the name as well.

Leery's Fresh Fish, exteriors were filmed at Water Street Restaurant at 5 South Water Street in Wilmington.

• Worthington University

Worthington University is a fictional university from Dawson's Creek. Joey (played by Katie Holmes) and Audrey (played by Busy Philipps), characters from the series, attended this school. It is supposed to be located in Boston, Massachusetts and to have been founded in 1787 by Josiah Worthington. It is sometimes said to be an "Ivy League college".

Producers had not planned for the show to extend beyond the characters' high school years. The architectural uniformity of UNC Wilmington prevented it from being used for Worthington University exteriors. The scenes at Worthington were filmed over two hours away at Duke University, and a number of its students served as extras. Some filming was also done on Franklin Street adjacent to nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Style

Dawson's Creek was shot like a motion picture using a single camera and often filmed on location, rather than being largely studio-bound. The series used soothing colors, similar to Party of Five, rather than the cold, harsh look of shows such as The Practice. While most of the episodes were conventional, there were two Rashomon-like episodes exploring a story from differing perspectives, and the somber fifth season episode "Downtown Crossing" featured only one regular, Joey, and her interaction with a mugger. The fourth season episode, "The Unusual Suspects", was filmed as a film noir detective story, complete with camera work and music appropriate to the genre. At times, Dawson's Creek was deliberately self-conscious, as when Eve tells Dawson he is Felicity, beginning a discussion of why Dawson doesn't like television shows, which concludes with his observation that they cut away when the best part comes"?immediately demonstrated when Eve, about to kiss him, is interrupted by the main titles. It also made fun of itself on other episodes besides that one, especially the finale, when Dawson is the creator of a TV show called "The Creek."

The series is known for its realism and intelligent dialogue that included allusions to American television icons such as The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. For example, Dawson calls his mother's co-anchor "Ted Baxter" and refers to his parents as "Rob and Laura Petrie". He responds to his principal's request for a film glorifying the football team as belonging to "the Leni Riefenstahl approach to filmmaking." Jen says her parents followed "the Ho Chi Minh school of parenting." The New York Times headlined its review: "Young, Handsome, and Clueless in Peyton Place, an allusion that was similar to those found in the series that teenagers weren't likely to understand. The verbosity and complexity of the dialogue between its teenage characters "?who commonly demonstrate vocabulary and cultural awareness"? has been though criticized at times as being beyond the scope of the average high school student, yet being combined with an emotional immaturity and self-absorption reflecting actual teens. This precociousness has been a staple of a number of teenage-themed shows since, notably including One Tree Hill (also filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina), The O.C. and Gossip Girl.

Reception

Critical reception

Dawson's Creek generated a high amount of publicity 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, television columnist for The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote, "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." In his defense, Williamson denied this was his intention, stating that "I never set out to make something provocative and racy". 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." Tom Shales, of The Washington Post commented that creator Kevin Williamson was "the most overrated wunderkind in Hollywood" and "what he's brilliant at is pandering." 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." They explained the series contains "an almost obsessive focus on pre-marital sexual activity" with a lot of references to topics of pornography and condoms and also criticized teen self-identification with homosexuality which is given a thumbs-up. The Council also cited it as the fourth worst show in 2000"2001. Former UPN President Lucie Salhany criticized WB for airing Dawson's Creek which features "adolescent characters in adult situations" in an early timeslot while the network is supposed to be "the family network". However, on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum, the National Organization for Women offered an endorsement, deeming it one of the least sexually exploitative shows on the air.

Numerous critics praised the show. Before its premiere, San Francisco Chronicle explained the buzz around the show is due to its creator Kevin Williamson who wrote the screenplays for Scream and Scream 2 and that the show might be "one of the year's tangier hits". He also 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." Variety wrote that it was "an addictive drama with considerable heart...the teenage equivalent of a Woody Allen movie"?a kind of 'Deconstructing Puberty'". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called it "a teen's dream". The Dayton Daily News listed Capeside as a television town they'd most like to live in. 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..

Accolades

Dawson's Creek was nominated for fourteen awards, including ALMA Awards, Casting Society of America Awards, Golden Satellite Awards, TV Guide Awards, and YoungStar Awards. In 2000, the show was awarded a SHINE Award for consistently addressing sexual health issues on TV. By the end of its run, the show, its crew, and its young cast had been nominated for numerous awards, winning four of them. Joshua Jackson won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actor three times, and the show won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Drama once. The series also won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Drama Series.

U.S. television ratings

Season	TV Season	Timeslot	Season Premiere	Season Finale	Rank	U.S. ratings (millions of viewers)
1	1997"1998	Tues 9/8c	January 20, 1998	May 19, 1998	#121	6.6
2	1998"1999	Wed 8/7c	October 7, 1998	May 26, 1999	#119	5.4
3	1999"2000	Wed 8/7c	September 29, 1999	May 24, 2000	#122	4.0
4	2000"2001	Wed 8/7c	October 4, 2000	May 23, 2001	#120	4.1
5	2001"2002	Wed 8/7c	October 10, 2001	May 15, 2002	#134	3.9
6	2002"2003	Wed 8/7c	October 2, 2002	May 14, 2003	#134	4.0

The show was rated TV14 for content.

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. 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). The finale itself was watched by 7.8 million U.S. viewers, which was its largest audience ever.

Spin-off

The show had, in the words of television experts Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, a "semi-spinoff", Young Americans. The protagonist of Young Americans, Will Krudski (Rodney Scott), was introduced in three episodes at the end of the show's third season, as a former classmate of Dawson, Joey, and Pacey, who had moved away some years before and had returned for a visit. He was never referred to or seen before or since. Young Americans was made by the same company as Dawson's Creek, Columbia TriStar Television, and appeared in Dawson's Creek's timeslot when it went on hiatus during the summer of 2000. The show had 8 episodes. The reason the show is considered a semi-spinoff instead of a true spinoff is that Will was not originally created for Dawson's Creek. He was added to Dawson's solely to set up and promote the series Young Americans.

Simon & Schuster published a series of fifteen mass-market paperback novelizations of the series.

The Amanda Show featured a skit entitled "Moody's Point" to parody the show, but was discontinued when the show was cancelled.

Broadcast history

International

The show was especially popular in America, where it rated #1 in its timeslot for several episodes and highly at other times from seasons one to four. The show originally aired in the UK on Channel 4 but later moved to Five for the last two seasons. In 2007, Five's sister channel FiveLife began airing reruns on weekdays at 7pm. In early 2008 with its evening showings having reached the final season it restarted the show in an early morning slot. From April 2011, it now airs on Sony Entertainment Television on the Sky digital platform.

The show also aired in numerous international markets, listed here with the premiere dates:

Country	Premiere	Channel
		[[Vizion +]]
	1998	Network Ten (Original broadcast " 1998"2003) TV1 (Syndication " 2001"present)
		ORF 1, Reruns on Puls 4
	1999	VT4, Reruns on 2BE (2008), vtm (as of 30/08/2010) , VijfTV (as of 30/08/2011)
		La Deux, Club RTL
	March 3, 1998	Rede Globo
	2000	Nova Television
	January 20, 1998 May 14, 2003	Global
	2000	MEGA
	2001, September	Nova TV
	2005, January	Cubavision
	September 9, 2000	TV Nova
		DR1, TV 2 and currently TV 2 Zulu
	1998, September	sitv
	January 10, 1999	TF1 and Télé Monte Carlo
	January 3, 1999	Sat.1
	January 10, 1999	Mega
	September 11, 1999	TV2 S1-S3, RTL Klub S4-S5, Cool TV S6
	April 2008	Zee Cafe
	1999, rerun 2007	TPI, rerun by Global TV
	May 1998	RTE TWO reruns on 3e
	September 1, 1998 ?	Channel 3 Channel 10
	January 3, 1999/ January 13, 2000	[[Tele+]] (pay tv)/ Italia Uno (free to air)
		TV3 later moved to TV6
	2000	Radio Televisyen Malaysia Channel 2 (TV2)
	July 2008	Net Television
		Canal 5
		Net5
	June 25, 1999	TV2 (New Zealand)
	September 1, 1998	TV3
	1998	Channel 4 RPC
	1998	Channel 9 SNT
		Sony Entertainment Television (Latin America)
	1998	Studio 23
	September 6, 1998	Polsat
	April 8, 2001	TVI
	February 28, 1999	Pro TV
	December 2007	MBC 4
	September 2002	B92
		SBS
	1999	M-Net
	2000	La 2 de RTVE
	2000	ARTv
	December 27, 1998	TSR 2
	May 15, 1999	True Series
	1999	CNBC-E, 2002 DiziMax, 2009 Kanal 1
	2008	[[1+1]]
	May 2, 1998	Channel 4, Sony TV
	1998	Televen
	1999	HTV7

Merchandise

DVD releases

Soundtracks

On April 27, 1999, the first soundtrack album of the teen soap opera, Songs From 'Dawson's Creek, was released. It features Sophie B. Hawkins, Jessica Simpson, Shooter, Heather Nova, Adam Cohen and Paula Cole, among others. On October 3, 2000, a second soundtrack titled Songs from Dawson's Creek "? Volume 2 was released. The first volume Songs from Dawson's Creek reached #1 on the Australian Album Chart and was certified five times Platinum, making it the fifth highest selling album of 1999, while the second also achieved Platinum status.

Bibliography and references

Darren Crosdale's Dawson's Creek: The Official Companion (Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel, 1999) (ISBN 0-7407-0725-6), thoroughly chronicles the show, but only covers events through to the end of the second season. Scott Andrews' Troubled Waters: An Unauthorised and Unofficial Guide To Dawson's Creek (Virgin Publishing 2001 (ISBN 0-7535-0625-4)) also covers the series thoroughly but it includes all episodes up to the end of Season Four and, because it is unofficial, is freer with both criticism and praise. A less thorough book from about the same time, aimed at teens, is Meet the Stars of Dawson's Creek by Grace Catalano, which has more about the show than the title would imply. Andy Mangels's From Scream to Dawson's Creek: An Unauthorized Take on the Phenomenal Career of Kevin Williamson (Los Angeles: Renaissance Books, 2000) (ISBN 1-58063-122-3) covers the show well but omits later seasons.

Other references include:

• "The best (and worst) 1999 had to offer". Dayton Daily News. January 2, 2000. 5C.
• Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. 8th ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. (General information on the show and Young Americans)
• "Cheers and Jeers". TV Guide. Issue 2619. v. 51, n. 23. June 7, 2003. 14.
• Tamara Conniff. "Music plays an important"?and profitable"?role in 'Dawson's Creek'". The Hollywood Reporter. April 17, 2002. (The show's sound)
• Robert Crane. "Twenty Questions: Kevin Williamson". Playboy. v. 45, n. 9. September 1998. 138. (Interview with the show's creator)
• "Dawson's Creek's low aim". (Editorial). The Cincinnati Post. September 22, 1997. 8A. (Editorial denouncing Procter and Gamble's role in the show, P&G being a Cincinnati company)
• Maureen Dowd. "Puppy Love Politics". The New York Times. June 9, 1999. A31. (Humorous mention of politicians)
• Jeffrey Epstein. "Unbound". The Advocate. August 31, 1999. 34. (Kevin Williamson profiled)
• Amanda Fazzone. "Boob Tube: NOW's Strange Taste in TV". The New Republic. Issue 4515. v. 225, n. 5. June 8, 2001. 26"35. (NOW's endorsement of the show)
• Matthew Gilbert. "'Dawson's Creek': A flood of hormones". The Boston Globe. January 20, 1998. C1. (Review of premiere)
• Matthew Gilbert. "Dawson, pals talk out into the sunset". The Boston Globe. May 14, 2003. D1. (Review of finale)
• Lynn Hirschberg. "Desperate to Seem 16". The New York Times Magazine. September 5, 1999. 42.
• John Kieswetter. "P&G execs reviewing family TV". The Cincinnati Enquirer. August 6, 2000. A1. (P&G considering its role in producing the show)
• John Kieswetter. "Readers divided on 'Dawson's'". The Cincinnati Enquirer. February 24, 1998. (Cincinnati viewers' reaction to the premiere)
• Caryn James. "Young, Handsome, and Clueless in Peyton Place". The New York Times. January 20, 1998. E5. (Review of the premiere)
• Ted Johnson. "Dawson's Peak". TV Guide. Issue 2345. v. 46, n. 10. March 7, 1998. 18"24. (Cover story on show's early success)
• Ted Johnson. "His So-Called Life". TV Guide. Issue 2345. v. 46, n. 10. March 7, 1998. 25"29. (Profile of creator Kevin Williamson)
• "Kevin Williamson: he's a scream". TV Guide. Issue 2337. v. 26, n. 2. January 10, 1998. 30. (Profile of creator Kevin Williamson)
• Phil Kloer. "'Dawson's Creek': Teens get wet". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. January 20, 1998. B1. (Review of premiere)
• John Leo. "TV sleaze worse than ever". Las Vegas Review-Journal. January 25, 1998. 4E. (Column criticizing sex on television)
• Gareth McGrath. "Creek's Hot Properties". Wilmington Star-News. June 14, 2003. (Sale of props used on the show)
• Shawna Malcolm. "Casting Off". TV Guide. Issue 2615. v. 51, n. 19. May 10, 2003. 40.
• Jay Mathews. "'Dawson's Creek' site mecca for teens". The Cincinnati Enquirer. July 18, 1999. Travel section, p. 6.
• "The Merchants of Cool". Frontline. PBS. February 27, 2001.
• Joe Queenan. "Dumb and Dumber". TV Guide. v. 46, n. 15. April 11, 1998. 18.
• Lynette Rice. "Interest in 'Creek' Rising". Broadcasting and Cable. June 16, 1997. 25.
• Ray Richmond. "Youth ache 100 episodes". The Hollywood Reporter. April 17, 2002. (Part of special section commemorating 100th episode.)
• Matt Roush. Review of Dawson's Creek. TV Guide. v. 46, n. 6. February 7, 1998. 16.
• Pamela Redmond Satran. "15 Signs You're Too Old to Watch Dawson's Creek". TV Guide. Issue 2442. v. 28, n. January 3, 15, 2000. 17.
• Tom Shales. "Stuck in the Muck". The Washington Post. January 20, 1998. D1.
• Maxine Shin. "If Dawson and Buffy Are Gone, Can I Still Be Young?" New York Post. May 20, 2003.
• Alessandra Stanley. "A President-to-Be And His Rosebud". The New York Times. September 10, 2004. B1.
• Kevin D. Thompson. "'Dawson's Creek' runs its course tonight". The Palm Beach Post. May 14, 2003.
• Ken Tucker. "The Big Kiss-off". Entertainment Weekly. Issue 544. June 9, 2000. 58"59.
• Josh Walk. "Pop Goes the Teen Boom?" Entertainment Weekly. Issue 599. June 8, 2001. 26"35.
• Andrew Wallentsein. "'Creek' to make splash on TBS". Daily Variety. March 19, 2003. 3.
• Ron Weiskind, Barbara Vancheri, and Rob Owens. "If We Were In TV Land". Dayton Daily News. October 28, 1999. 8C.
• Jeffrey Zaslow. "Straight talk". USA Weekend. July 10, 1998. 22.