Dawson's Creek (1998) - 65 trivia entries

Katie Holmes is the only actor/actress who appears in every episode

James van der Beek's surname means "from the creek."

It was mentioned during the narrative for Season 1 by Paul Stupin and Kevin Williamson that one reason the show used so much female pop/rock, was because a female voice blends much better with dialogue scenes than a male voice, which interferes with dialogue.

It's mentioned more than once during the Commentaries for the various episodes, that there was a saying in the Editing Room: "Cut To Katie". This referred to the process of editing; whenever there was a difficult or complicated scene they would cut to a close-up of Katie Holme's face because it was so pleasing and lit up the screen.

During the narrative for this episode, Kevin Williamson mentions that the show "Dawson's Creek" was originally written for North Carolina. Because they didn't want a Southern show, they came up with Cape Cod area outside of Boston. But during the Winter episodes, it's hard to get snow in the water in the real location of Wilmington, NC.

When Jen comes through Dawson's bedroom window (near the end), a GhostFace mask from the "Scream" series can be seen on the shelf Dawson uses for his movie props. One of the "Creek" creators, Kevin Williamson was the independent writer of the original "Scream." It's even plausible that this is an actual mask from the movie.

In one scene, Jen is talking to a stranger on the phone, who at one point says, "How's your grandfather?" This prompts Jen to check on her sick grandfather. This line was a reference made by co-creator, Kevin Williamson, to the original "When a Stranger Calls." Williamson used films like "When a Stranger Calls" and "Halloween" for the basis of his film "Scream," which happens to be the beginning premise of this episode.

Pacey talks about Emilio Estevez and the "great, cool duck movies he was in", those duck movies being "Champions", "D2 - the Mighty Ducks" and "D3". Joshua Jackson, who plays Pacey, played Charlie in that trilogy.

The scene where Jen is in Dawson's bedroom for the first time and Gram's calls for her, the woman standing in the doorway was not Mary Beth Piel. She was a stand-in, as they hadn't cast that character when the scene was shot. This is also evident in the scene where Dawson and Jen are standing outside of Jen's house after their "date".

When Dawson walks into Mr. Gold's film class, he passes by a large movie poster on the wall by the door. This is the movie poster for the film "I Know What You Did Last Summer," which had the screenplay written by Kevin Williamson, Writer and Creator of "Dawson's Creek."

When they first show the "Capeside High School", the scene was shot at New Hanover High School in Wilmington, for the pilot presentation. The real high school was never used again after that episode. Also, several of the classroom scenes in the pilot were shot in that real high school, including Ms. Jacob's English class with Pacey, and the science lab with Jen and Joey.

Kevin Williamson mentions during the Narrative for this episode that he grew up in a small town in NC that had a real Dawson Creek. After the show "Dawson's Creek" became really huge, they put up a sign for Dawson Creek in his hometown, but the sign kept getting stolen all the time.

When Dawson and Joey are watching his mother on the News, it was filmed at an actual local TV station. The man playing the Co-Anchor was an actual Weatherman. Also, when he speaks at the very end of the scene, it isn't the actor's actual voice, it was dubbed.

During the scene when Dawson rides up on his bike to talk to Joey walking along the road, they filmed the Dawson side of the scene in downtown Southport, and the Joey side of the scene in a Marina about a mile away. Southport, and the location of this scene was where they filmed "I Know What You Did Last Summer", a film that Kevin Williamson wrote the screenplay for.

Dawson's bedroom during the pilot was a set that was constructed in a warehouse only for the Pilot Presentation. They never used it again after that.

There was an alternate ending filmed for the original Pilot Presentation. In that ending, Dawson looks over from his bedroom window and sees his Mother kissing the Anchorman, and realizes she is having an affair. It was decided to not use that ending; because they wanted to use the storyline of Dawson finding out later in the show, for more episodes.

There was an alternate scene filmed for the Pilot Presentation, where Tamara is first introduced in the Video Store with Pacey and Dawson. In this alternate scene; the location was an actual Video Store located in Southport, about 50 miles away from Wilmington, NC. They decided to reshoot the scene using a smaller Video Store in Wilmington that didn't look like a chain. Once the show was picked up for a Series, they needed a Video Store location that they could use easily every week. Also, in the alternate scene Tamara is wearing a more conservative outfit of black that covered her quite a bit. They put her in a much sexier dress for the aired version. Tamara's wardrobe and the location were changed to give a better tone to the show.

When the kids all go to the Movies, they approach a small entrance to the Rialto Movie Theater. This was not an actual Movie Theater entrance, it was a phony set constructed for the scene. The phony marquee was actually supposedly a Real Estate Office down in Southport. The inside of the Movie Theater, however is much larger and is actually an auditorium called Thalian Hall, located in Wilmington, NC. This location doubled as the local "Movie Theater" in the show until they tore the Rialto down. Also, in the Season 2 Premiere episode, Dawson and Joey go on their first date to this same theater. (Run Time 26:16) The shot of the outside marquee is again a phony set. The title of the film "The Last Picture Show" was not real, but actually computer-generated special effects on the actual marquee. (Run Time 33:29).

The scene where Dawson walks in on his Parents in the living room, was shot with a different Actor playing Dawson's Dad for the Pilot Presentation. They recast the role once the show was picked up by the Network. Also, this alternate scene was actually filmed in the real location of Dawson's house. The two alternate scenes with the fake "Dad" were the only scenes filmed in the real house they used for Dawson.

The entire pilot presentation was filmed in 6 days. The presentation was not a completed episode, but rather a series of scenes (approximately 30 minutes total) that were designed to sell the show as a series to a network.

One of the creators, Kevin Williamson, had the set dressers put up/move around an "I Know What You Did Last Summer" poster in various sets in the first season (sets include: Dawson's bedroom, the "Play It" video rental store, and Mr. Gold's film classroom). Williamson was the screenplay writer of "I Know What You Did Last Summer," basing it on Lois Duncan's novel of the same name. The poster was used in Dawson's room because Steven Spielberg wanted his own posters limited to at least two in each set.

During the narrative for this episode, Paul Stupin talks about the town of Wilmington, NC where Dawson's Creek was filmed. Wilmington is such an old town, that every building has one ghost or another, and every one has a ghost story. There is an inn there called the "Wilmingtonian" where they all would stay while filming. This is a very old inn, and the room behind the front desk was supposedly haunted. One of the writers stayed there, and would be woken up in the middle of the night with the hairs on her neck standing straight out and she would sense a presence. Another writer who stayed in that room supposedly saw a figure in the mirror. There is also a restaurant in Wilmington where a waitress claims that once when she was working on the upper floor, she turned around and saw an apparition standing out on the balcony. It was a fellow dressed as a soldier.

Paul Stupin mentions this true story while discussing the show during the narrative for this episode. Once when Joshua Jackson (who played Pacey) was out swimming at night, there was a girl who was caught in some currents. He jumped in the water, swam out and brought the girl to safety. Joshua made the local newspapers as a "hero", and was known around Wilmington as 'the guy who saved the drowning girl'. The show also had a big ceremony on the set, where they gave Joshua a life preserver in honor of his heroic deeds.

All the 'Ice House On Fire' scenes in this episode were filmed at the very end of shooting, and were the very last scenes shot before the show was wrapped for Season 2. Apparently, in general when they need to shoot scenes with a harder to produce element like fire, they put them off until the very end so they have more time to prep them.

During this scene when Pacey is talking to his Father, the river behind them in the background is actually the Cape Fear River. The Cape Fear River is supposedly considered one of the most polluted rivers in the Country.

The Police Captain's office used in this scene, was actually the original Capeside High School principal's office, which they redressed. Right outside, behind Katie Holmes, was the hallway set for Capeside High School.

The actual location of the Ice House used in this scene, was a real bar and night spot in Wilmington, NC. Wilmington is a college town; and they occasionally had concerts at that bar, where the courtyard would be filled with kids and a band.

According to Paul Stupin during the narrative for this episode; the bugs down by the creek in the area by Joey's house were very noisy, and often they would have to remix and rerecord all of the dialogue shot there. Lots of times, they would have to completely replace the dialogue.

According to Paul Stupin during the narrative for this episode, the actual creek in front of Dawson's House was called "Hulett's Creek".

This scene of Andie and Pacey shopping actually took place in an area of Wilmington, NC that was called "Molly's Market". At the end of Season 4 or 5, the marketplace closed down. Dawson's Creek tore out all the market stuff and used the building as a location to build the bar which was a key hang-out for the College kids in later Seasons. (Hell's Kitchen?).

During this scene when Pacey is talking to Christie, he sits down on a bench by the water. In reality, directly behind where Pacey is sitting, across the river is a full-scale old Battleship which has been decommissioned and is currently a tourist attraction. (I believe this Battleship is called the "North Carolina"). Whenever they had to shoot in this Waterfront District, they were always careful to frame out the large ship and hide it from viewers. The Battleship was never seen at all in any episodes of Dawson's Creek.

Generally with Dawson's Creek, the scripts were generated in LA and sent down to Wilmington, NC about 7 days before filming. The director for that episode arrived at that time also, to prep the script. But during Season 2, they were so concerned about making the dialogue perfect the scripts starting showing up later and later to the point where sometimes they arrived only hours before shooting. Needless to say, the actors were becoming upset as they didn't have time to prepare properly and the director had to prep off of an outline. Fortunately, they resolved the problems and they didn't repeat themselves during Season 3.

During the entire Season 2, it's interesting to note that frequently guys in the program were shown wearing shirts or sweaters with either a single horizontal or multiple horizontal stripes design across the upper or chest area. If you notice closely; this happens quite a bit as the guys often have on a shirt, sweater, t-shirt, etc. with either a single wide or narrow horizontal stripe or a couple of horizontal stripes close together, etc. Sometimes the stripes even continue onto the sleeves. Apparently this was a very popular, trendy fashion for guy's shirts during that time in the late 90's. What's funny, is that you see it so often during the episodes on so many people. It's like they're all wearing the same shirts in this one exact style.

Joey is standing in front of the wall Pacey has rented for her, with his painted message on it. In actuality, that same wall still exists in Wilmington, NC. There was a production issue about not being allowed to actually paint on the wall itself. So in order to film this scene; they had to build a smaller, phony brick 'wall' over the real wall for Pacey's message. If you look closely, you can see the phony wall sticking out from the original wall.

This scene where Jack finally kisses Ethan, was originally longer. The part not aired included Jack walking away, going back over to Grams and Jen and breaking down emotionally. Unfortunately, the added footage had to be cut due to time constraints. According to Paul Stupin in this commentary, scripts for "Dawson's Creek" always came in long. The running time was only approximately 42 minutes long for each episode, but they had cuts coming in up to 55-60 minutes long. Therefore, a lot of editing had to be done including cutting out this portion of Jack's scene.

When Dawson and Nikki are walking along the outside corridor, the scene was actually filmed at the local college in Wilmington; the University Of North Carolina, Wilmington. Also, the big beautiful vista shots of the University in a number of scenes in this episode were filmed at the University of Richmond. As Paul Stupin points out in the Commentary, the College environment is constructed with a mixture of a lot of different locations.

Meredith Monroe was known for clowning around on the set while filming to raise morale. When morale on the set was low, she would run into the wardrobe truck and put on her red tights and homemade yellow cape with a big "F" printed on the front. She was "Captain Fun", and would jump around on the set making everyone laugh to get energy up again.

When Joey walks up to AJ's dorm room at Harvard, there is a large number 381 shown on his door. This may not be intentional, but it's interesting that the number could be broken down into 8+1=9 times 3, which equals 27. 27 has been a number used a few times on "Dawson's Creek", including two room numbers; and seems to have some signifance to the show.

When Joey and Dawson are lying on his bed talking, Joey has army-style boots on and Dawson has no shoes on, wearing only his socks. The reason for this odd arrangement is probably due to the fact that the director for this episode, James Whitmore Jr., wanted Katie Holmes to keep her shoes on so she could make a fast exit out of the room. He wanted to keep the scene short and sweet.

The Train Station shown in this scene was not a real Train Station. It was actually a building located in downtown Wilmington.

As Paul Stupin mentions in the Commentary for this episode; because Wilmington was so close to the ocean, the weather was constantly changing. When they talked to people on the crew; everyone down there seemed to know either someone whose house, shed, or garage was hit by lightning; or they knew someone who had been hit by lightning, mainly because of the wild weather, and the storms being so bad.

Because the weather was so bad, and it was raining for days, they had to keep putting off filming the Graduation scenes. The opening scene in this episode, the Practice Graduation was shot either the last day or the second to last day of filming because of the rain. All week long, the weather was awful and kept raining, which forced them to delay the Graduation scenes.

During this scene, Joey is giving her Graduation speech. At the end of the speech, she asks that everyone 'take a part of Capeside with them on their way through life'. Alan Cross wrote this speech, and Katie Holmes acted it about 99% of the original script. But she requested a slight change at the end. Originally, Alan had written the speech to be more personal about Joey, and end with her asking everyone to 'take a memory of me with you as you go through life'. But Katie Holmes felt that it shouldn't really be about her, but more about the spirit of the Community, the Class and the town of Capeside. So she had the speech changed at the end to say 'take Capeside with you wherever you go' instead.

Pacey's English Teacher in this episode was named "Mr. Kasdan". This was actually a deliberate reference to John Kasdan, who was one of the writers on "Dawson's Creek" that year. He wrote the episode "Unusual Suspects".

During this scene, Dawson's parents give him a watch with an inscription for his graduation present. The inscription reads "If you will it, it is no dream" or something similar. Alan Cross, who wrote this scene, explains during the commentary that he originally intended to use a line from a Beatle's song "All You Need Is Love" for the inscription. But the show felt that although that would be appropriate for his parent's generation, they needed something more profound. So Alan bought a book of quotes, looked through them and finally ended up improvising the aired version of the inscription.

This episode where Joey and Pacey finally sleep together, was originally planned to be much later in the season. Looking at the broad story arcs planned for the season, the writers realized that there was no big event happening in the show during the earlier time period. Normally, something of great interest has to happen on a fairly regular basis during the season. So they moved the episode up in order to fill the gap.

Most of the filming of the 'Perfect Storm' water scenes in this episode was done in a holding pool at a cement factory, about 4-5 miles from the studio in Wilmington, NC. They would shoot all night for the water scenes.

In the opening scene when Joey and Pacey are returning to Capeside on Pacey's boat, they had to shoot the scene 3 times because the boat was rocking too much. Production finally sent to LA for a special "Steady Cam" sort of rig, and it finally worked on the 3rd shoot.

This kiss between Andie and Jon had to be edited to appear more passionate than it did originally. Apparently the male actor was gay in real life, and this affected the chemistry between the two while kissing.

Originally Dawson's love interest for this Season had been planned to be Pacey's younger sister, but when they pitched the idea to the network, they hated it and thought it inappropriate. Therefore, the storyline was turned into Pacey's older sister Gretchen Witter.

During the 4th Season, there were a lot of parties in various episodes. Generally episodes were structured to have some sort of party or get-together in the 3rd or 4th act. This was done in order to intersect the various storylines in a realistic and visually interesting manner.

Originally, they were thinking of actually moving the show "Dawson's Creek" to another city in order to send off the main characters to Boston for College, etc. Cities considered as locations for College, etc. were Montreal, Vancouver, Baltimore, Austin, and San Diego. Baltimore ended up being the easiest city to 'fake as Boston'. But ultimately it was decided that it was simply too expensive to move the show; so they ended up sending their main characters to Boston, but actually keeping the show in Wilmington, NC and filming there during the 'College Years'.

When Joey and Dawson are talking before they leave on their respective trips, Joey makes a comment about getting it right "in another life when we are both cats". This line was also made famous by Penelope Cruz in the movie "Vanilla Sky", starring her and Tom Cruise. Ironically, Katie Holmes is now married to Tom Cruise; and in the beginning of the Vanilla Sky movie when he is running through Times Square he goes by a large poster of none other than Katie Holmes. Bit of a coincidence?

During Pacey's 'Urban Legend'; the Diner Owner named Vic is Richard Fullerton, the same Actor who played the Prison Guard when Joey went to see her Father during the first season.

In Episode 5-8 "Hotel New Hampshire", Dawson meets a film-maker named "Oliver Chirchick". There is a shot of Oliver sitting at a small table at the Film Festival, with a sign saying "Meet The Director" and his name printed underneath. (Run Time 14:27). Interestingly enough, there is a crew member on Dawson's Creek with the name Alissa Chirchick, Production Secretary. (End Credits). Also in Episode 5-12 "Sleeping Arrangements", Pacey's girlfriend from the Summer cruise to the Caribbean shows up to where he is living on the boat. He announces her name as "Melanie Shea Thompson". (Run Time 00:31). Again, it is interesting that there is a crew member on Dawson's Creek with the name Melanie Shea, Assistant To Mr. Kapinos, Executive Producer. (End Credits). These names are too specific and unusual to just be coincidence. Apparently this is an inside joke, used as 'Easter Eggs' by naming characters after crew members.

The video montage Pacey shows Jen is to the tunes of Alanis Morrisette's "One Hand In My Pocket". The producers for "Dawson's Creek" originally wanted this song to play in the opening credits for the show but Morrisette said no.

The scene towards the end, where Joey and Pacey are watching "The Creek" from her NYC apartment, was the actual last scene shot for the entire Series. Also during that scene, when Pacey is shown crying while watching "The Creek"; those were actual tears from shooting the very last scene of the entire Series. Joshua Jackson was really crying, not just acting.

When Joey is watching "The Creek" on her TV in NYC, the show ends and you can see "Directed By Dawson Leery" on the screen. Right after that, you can see a page of credits for "The Creek" and they appear to be the same names, crew members as for 'Dawson's Creek'.

In this scene; when Pacey, Dawson and Joey are in the car driving back from the hospital, they aren't actually driving. This scene was filmed using something called a "Poor Man's Process"; which involved shaking the car a little, and a crew person holding two lights behind them to simulate headlights. This scene was actually shot on a soundstage, and could be fit in easily at virtually any point in the filming schedule. Normally scenes like this are shot with a car being towed on a trailer, but in this case that method was too expensive for their TV budget.

During this episode; we see Mimi Rogers playing Jen's Mother, when she comes to visit Boston. But in Season 3, during the Thanksgiving episode; Jen's Mother was played by Mel Harris.

When Joey goes to her Professor's house to talk to him about her final, he mentions that she left 27 phone messages. Interesting coincidence; because Joey and Audrey's dorm room was 27 in both years, and Pacey's hotel room in New Orleans was also 27. The number 27 apparently has some significance to the show, as they seem to be using it a lot.

When Pacey and Denise go back to his hotel room in New Orleans, you can see that the room number is 27. Interesting coincidence, because Joey and Audrey's dorm room for both years was 27.

When they are filming Natasha's scene, there is a close-up of the marker board. You can read the film title "Wicked Dead", the Director's name "TODD" and on the bottom line, the name "Frank Perl for "Camera". This is obviously an inside joke, as Frank Perl was the Director of Photography for Dawson's Creek.

After Joey finishes her email to Dawson, she clicks on her Address Book on her laptop. There is a brief shot of several names and email addresses. Again, the next morning Joey checks her laptop for email responses. To her surprise, she receives several email replies because she accidently sent the email to the Worthington Campus instead of Dawson. Again, you can see a brief shot of the names and addresses listed as responses. In both these shots, most of the names listed are actually crew members and management of "Dawson's Creek", as can be referenced in the Credits.

When Joey is using her laptop to email Dawson, she opens her Address Book when finished to send the email. You can see a partial list of addresses, and if you look closely they are mostly names of crew members for the show. The names listed are: Alan Hartley; Bill King; Elizabeth Clay; Jane Beck (Art Department Coordinator); Julie Delaney (Key Hair); Sandra Allen (Key Make-Up). When Joey gets up the next morning, she checks her laptop for responses to the email she thought she had sent to Dawson. Again, the list of people responding appears to be crew/management-related for Dawson's Creek. Names are: Caleb Womble (Production Coordinator); Chad Graves (1st Assistant Director); Dale Williams (Associate Producer); David Hartly (Unit Production Manager); Frank Waldeck; Greg Prange (Producer); Heather Brannon (Assistant Production Coordinator); Linda Jasper; Michael Jefferson (2nd Assistant Director); Vikki King; Roger Lively (Paymaster); Frank Perl (Director Of Photography); Larry Long (Production Sound).