Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series about the lives of a close-knit group of friends in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, beginning in high school and continuing into college.

Tomboy Joey, who lost her mother to cancer and whose father is in prison for drug trafficking, lives with her older sister Bessie, who runs the restaurant The Icehouse.

Dawson and Joey dance around a growing attraction to each other, but their dynamic shifts with the arrival of Jen Lindley, who has moved to Capeside from New York City to live with her grandparents.

The series explores the characters' coming-of-age, dealing with topics such as first love, death, coming out, homophobia, class differences, mental health, and divorce.

Joey finds herself drawn to Jack, who initially reciprocates her feelings, but comes to realize he is gay, which puts him at odds with homophobic classmates and an intolerant father.

The two-part finale, which is set in the year 2008, finds everyone is reunited in Capeside for a special wedding, but the happy reunion is cut short after the group learns that one of their own has been harboring a heartbreaking secret.

[6] Stupin liked his idea and asked him to come back the next day and pitch it to Columbia TriStar Television, prompting Williamson to write a 20-page outline for Dawson's Creek that night.

[6] Left unused, Columbia TriStar Television sent his scripts to newly founded The WB network who was looking for fresh ideas for their programme after launching supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[6] Williamson went for a meeting with then-chief programmer Garth Ancier and entertainment president Susanne Daniels who loved his script and picked it up for The WB's new Tuesday night lineup.

[6] Procter & Gamble Productions joined in as an original co-producer of the series, but sold its interest in the show three months before the premiere when printed stories surfaced about the racy dialogue and risqué plot lines.

[6] Known for his appearance in The Mighty Ducks series, playing a young and aspiring hockey player, Jackson was initially considered for the main role of Dawson Leery.

[6] A regular off-Broadway performer, Van Der Beek impressed Williamson with his "cerebral and internal" quality, citing "that nervousness that made it seem like he was pre-thinking and over-thinking and over-compensating constantly like he was insecure.

"[6] Actors Charlie Hunnam, Adrian Grenier, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Scott Speedman also auditioned for the role of Dawson, while Adam Brody read for Pacey.

[13][14] Michelle Williams, who had acted in Lassie, Species, and in guest spots on TV sitcoms,[15] impressed Williamson when she auditioned with a heartfelt scene in which her character Jen Lindley goes in and sees her grandfather lying in the bed, transforming herself "into this broken child who just needed to be fixed".

[25] Some of the scenes shown during the opening credits and miscellaneous scenery shots throughout the early episodes were filmed in Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, as well as Masonboro.

[23] Other prominent exterior shots include Alderman and Hoggard Halls on the University of North Carolina Wilmington campus, serving for Capeside High School.

Dawson's Creek generated a large amount of publicity before its debut, with several television critics and consumer watchdog groups expressing concerns about its anticipated "racy" plots and dialogue.

[8] Syndicated columnist John Leo said the show should be called "While Parents Cringe", and went on to write, "The first episode contains a good deal of chatter about breasts, genitalia, masturbation, and penis size.

[58] Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "That's Kevin Williamson's genius — just as Scream did with slasher flicks, Creek simultaneously works as a teen soap (you can't help but get caught up in the Dawson-Jen-Joey triangle) and comments ironically on the genre (witness the digs at the overly earnest 90210 and Party of Five).

"[51] Jeff Simon of The Buffalo News opined, "This is the way wildly bright 15-year-old kids dearly want to talk, which puts Dawson's Creek into a higher class of realism entirely.

"[61] The Sacramento Bee noted the show does not appear to glorify teacher-student romances as "Pacey's great adventure is not seen by the others as a triumph, and in the end, both he and the teacher pay for [their liaison].

"[62] John Carman of 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.

[79] 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 friend of Dawson, Joey, and Pacey's who had previously moved away and returned to Capeside for a visit.

[32] Instrumentation of the episodes was generally overseen by executive Paul Stupin, music supervisor John McCullough, and co-producer Drew Matich who helped artists rise to fame and made pivotal creative decisions.

However, Morissette decided not to have it used as the theme after Dawson's Creek was picked up, prompting Stupin and McCullough to approach different artists for original material to use.

[84] Starting with the third season, "I Don't Want to Wait" was also dropped from the opening sequence of the DVD releases due to budget reasons and was replaced by "Run Like Mad" from Canadian folk artist Jann Arden, a regular music contributor to the series.

[91] In an article for BuzzFeed News, Sandi Rankaduwa wrote about why the show resonated with young people who came of age during the era of Columbine and 9/11, saying "At a time in teens' lives when they're tasked with trying to understand their place in the world, events unfolding around them were becoming increasingly senseless.

So it's not entirely surprising that a show featuring confused, outsider teens who seemed more self-aware than the adults around them became comfort food for so many young Americans...but despite its nostalgic elements, Dawson's Creek managed to portray a warts-and-all world in which viewers watched smart, stubborn, and emotional characters search for stability, and seeing them both struggle and succeed in a controlled space became therapeutic.

[98] In 2018, Kristen Baldwin of EW argued, "Without Dawson's (and its original lead-out, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), we would never have the hyper-verbal, pop culture-obsessed teens of Riverdale— not to mention Felicity and Charmed (1998), Popular, Freaks and Geeks (which was actually pitched as 'the anti-Dawson's Creek') and Roswell (1999), Gilmore Girls (2000), Everwood (2002), or 2003's One Tree Hill and The O.C.

As EW's Chris Nashawaty wrote in 1997, on the eve of Dawson's premiere, 'Williamson shows teens a reflection of how they want to be seen: witty, urbane, and always armed with a perfectly barbed, sarcastic comeback.