Trivia / Dawson's Creek

• Actor Leaves, Character Dies: Monica Keena (Abby Morgan) didn't want to be on the show and so Kevin Williamson suggested the character be killed off, which Keena was on board with.
• All There in the Manual: There was a lot of information about the characters and show that was only available through the show's official (and sadly now defunct) interactive website "Dawson's Desktop" where fans could browse through Dawson's computer and click on icons to find out interesting info(including diary entries that weren't revealed in the show proper).
• California Doubling: The show's setting was Capeside, Massachusetts, though primarily filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, which would also became the filming location of One Tree Hill (which might as well have been Dawson's spiritual successor) though was actually set in North Carolina.
• Completely Different Title: This was the case in several Spanish-speaking countries, since the original title could be difficult (or confusing) to pronunciate in those ones.
  • Dawson crece (Dawson Grows) in Spain. Not really 'completely different', since it probably was choosen for the phonetical simlarities and for mainting Dawson's name on the title.
  • Amigos y amantes (Friends and lovers) in Cuba.
  • Amores juveniles (Young Loves) in Ecuador.
  • Subverted however in the rest of South-America, where the original title was mantained.
• Dawson Casting: The Trope Namer. In the second season, 22 year-old James Van Der Beek (Dawson), 26 year-old Kerr Smith (Jack), and 29-year-old Meredith Monroe (Andie) play high school sophomores, who are typically 15 or 16. The series finale got quite a few jokes about the five year Time Skip in the final scene being a genius move, as suddenly everyone looked only five years older than they were supposed to, rather than ten years.
• Directed by Cast Member: Kerr Smith and Joshua Jackson each directed an episode during the show's sixth and final season. Smith has almost no lines in the episode he directs; Jackson doesn't even appear during his, probably to help him focus on his debut as a director while directing celebrities Adam Carolla and Drew Pinsky As Themselves (not to mention an about-to-be-famous Jensen Ackles).
• Executive Meddling: Zigzagged. The show was famous for its use of "I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole as its theme music; shortly before the series premiered, the network cut promos set to Paula Cole's song, and generated so much buzz they asked the creators to Throw It In! Of course, having the song over the credits of an incredibly popular Teen Drama turned the song into a Breakaway Pop Hit, and when time came to re-license the song, Sony could no longer afford it. Streaming and DVD releases of the show therefore switched to "Run Like Mad" by Jann Arden, which had actually been Kevin Williamson's intention in the first place.
• Executive Veto: Supposedly, Dawson was originally meant to be gay like the creator Kevin Williamson but Executive Meddling vetoed the idea and Jack was created instead. The World Was Not Ready.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Versions of the original "I Don't Want to Wait" credits needed to be hunted down by hand. To resolve this, Cole recorded a new version of the song, the "Artist's 20th Anniversary Edition", for her 2016 live album, The Bright Red Feeling, and wrote Loophole Abuse into her contract to make sure it could be retconned back into the show. This version returned to Netflix in 2021.
• Milestone Celebration: the show's 100th episode, in Season 5, involves (most of) the characters visiting Miami, FL on Spring Break and features an appearance by then-ultrapopular One-Hit Wonder M2M.
• Playing Against Type: Michael Pitt, who would go on to play psychopathic characters such as Jimmy Darmody and Mason Verger, plays awkward jock Henry. Coincidentally, Michael Pitt regards his time on the show as an Old Shame.
• Renamed to Avoid Association: Averted; Nellie Oleson shares her name with a character from Little House on the Prairie, an entitled and highly attractive girl who serves as a rival to the narrator. Considering the similarities between the characters, it's a wonder Williamson was able to get away with it.
• Star-Making Role: Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek and Joshua Jackson — in that order. (Jackson — the only actor with credits that predate this show's debut, due to his involvement in all three films of The Mighty Ducks — was, ironically, the last of them to get a Creator page.)
• Throw It In!: Dawson's infamous crying face wasn't scripted. James Van Der Beek was genuinely crying.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Upon having got hired back to write the finale, creator Kevin Williamson started scripting it with a clear vision that Joey and Dawson would end up together. After penning the first half, he changed his mind and wrote the rest of it with his new decision after being told that internet polls favored the other pairing (much to the chagrin of some fans who believed those polls were hacked to make the other pairing look more popular then it actually was).
    • In 2022 and 2023, respectively, it was revealed that Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes protested Dawson and Joey ending up together, as they wanted their characters, Joey and Pacey, together. They got their way.
  • Before leaving the series, Williamson was planning to pair Dawson with Andie at some point. He was reportedly unhappy to find out she'd been Put on a Bus. (Notably, Andie did film scenes for the series finale, though they were left on the cutting-room floor; her Suspiciously Similar Substitute is handwaved out entirely.)
  • The creators originally wanted the theme music to be Alanis Morissette's "Hand In My Pocket" but the network never cleared the rights to it.
  • Charlie Hunnam, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Scott Speedman, and Adrian Grenier all auditioned for Dawson.
    • Hunnam later auditioned for Season 5 character Charlie. It was here that he met his wife Katharine Towne, who also auditioned.
  • Selma Blair almost got the part of Joey.
  • Jason Biggs auditioned for Pacey Witter.
  • Katherine Heigl auditioned for Jen Lindley.
• Write Who You Know:
  • The big 6 (Dawson, Joey, Jen, Pacey, Andie, Jack) all have aspects of Williamson himself as per Word of God.
  • Joey was based on Williamson's childhood best friend.

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