History Series / DawsonsCreek

[[caption-width-right:350:The core cast of Seasons 2-4: from left: Jen, Dawson, Pacey, Joey (sitting), Andie, Jack]]

I don't want to wait... for out lives to be over!\\

Will be yes or will it be sorry?"''

-->- "I Don't Want to Wait", written and sung by Paula Cole

--> ''"I don't want to wait... for our lives to be over!\\

!!Tropes:

The eponymous Dawson Leery (Creator/JamesVanDerBeek) is TheIdealist and TheMovieBuff with a long-standing [[JustFriends platonic]] friendship with TheCynic Josephine "Joey" Potter (Creator/KatieHolmes), the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, whose DisappearedDad and MissingMom have left her and her older sister Bessie (Creator/NinaRepeta) running a restaurant by themelves. When not attending high school, Dawson works in a video-rental store with BookDumb BromanticFoil Pacey Witter (Creator/JoshuaJackson). When the elderly Evelyn Ryan (Creator/MaryBethPeil) ends up hosting her granddaughter, Jen Lindley (Creator/MichelleWilliams), a New York HardDrinkingPartyGirl who ReallyGetsAround and was sent away to break her of her habits, Dawson's life gets thrown for a spin. Add to this the shaky marriage between his parents Mitch (Creator/JohnWesleyShipp) and Gail (Creator/MaryMargaretHumes), and we have all the ingredients for a ComingOfAgeStory. Later additions to the starring cast include TallDarkAndHandsome NaiveNewcomer Jack [=McPhee=] (Creator/KerrSmith), his CuteBookworm sister Andie (Creator/MeredithMonroe), and GenkiGirl Audrey Liddell (Creator/BusyPhilipps).

* HollywoodNerd: Joey Potter.

* [[HasTwoMommies Has Two Daddies]]: [[spoiler: Jack and Doug raise Jen's daughter Amy.]]

* [[RememberTheNewGuy Remember The New Guy]]:

* {{Herald}}: a character whose role was to issue the CallToAdventure to the main cast and throw off the status quo showed up every year. Season 3's was Eve the stripper; the fourth had Drue Valentine and Gretchen Witter; and in the fifth and sixth seasons there started to be a bunch because every character would have their own.[[note:In Season 5, Jack had Eric, his closeted fraternity brother; Jen had Charlie; Pacey had Danny the chef and Alex the executive; Dawson had Todd the director and fellow auteur Oliver; Joey had Professor Wilder, Charlie and Audrey.[[/note]] But Season 2's characters were PromotedToOpeningTitles: Andie and, to a much greater extent, Jack. And Season 1's? Jen Lindley.

** Creator/HarryShearer makes a guest appearance as Principal Green's [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons replacement]].

* PrettyWhiteKidsWithProblems: The inspiration for the TropeNamer.

* UptownGirl: This is how Pacey views Joey, though it's mostly in his head.

* AbsenteeActor: There are a lot of episodes when characters don't show up: Andie was PutOnABus in the seventh episode of the fourth season and replaced with Audrey in the fifth, and the adult characters (Mitch, Gail, Bessie and Grams) might go several episodes in a row without appearing, before being relegated to the guest cast with the show's ReTool in the fifth season. It hit a nadir in the sixth season: of 26 episodes, only 12 actually feature all six of the main (IE teenaged) characters. Despite this, all actors are credited for all episodes.

** Joseph [=McPhee=], father to Andie and Jack, is simply never mentioned again after the episode when Andie herself is PutOnABus. The {{Doylist}} motivation was the untimely death of David Dukes, who played him. That said, Andie's departure, and Mr. [=McPhee's=] acceptance of his son's homosexuality, meant that the character's natural arcs had been resolved, allowing the show to pretend there was no {{Watsonian}} need for him to appear on screen. He is last mentioned in a holiday episode, vacationing in Europe with his children.

** Season 6 drops a DramaBomb near the end with the news that someone has a medical condition: specifically, [[spoiler:Grams has breast cancer]]. The GrandFinale, which takes place after a TimeSkip of five years, does not have that character mention this whatsoever.

* SocietyMarchesOn: By modern standards, the show does not seem particularly racy, which is very different from how MoralGuardians reacted to it when it came out. Additionally, the Season 3 Finale, "True Love," is famous for its landmark gay kiss, the first "passionate" one to air on primetime televison... which lasts all of half a second and truly does not seem exceptional. (It may also be overshadowed by the "Dawson crying" MemeticMutation, which is much more relevant to modern viewers -- even today, it's the trope picture for the Live-Action TV section of "{{Narm}}".)

Its gimmick was to show teenagers as well-spoken individuals with [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness vocabularies]] that would make [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvin]] dizzy, rather than resort to the usual TV [[TotallyRadical teenspeak]]. Fans of the show praised its respectful portrayal of how teens talk and think. Others were less enthralled by the characters' habit of twisting every minor thing into [[ContemplateOurNavels a soliloquy on life's mysteries]]. It was also accused, [[SocietyMarchesOn especially at the time]], of being ''obsessed'' with sex, though it's [[FairForItsDay fairly tame]] today (which may or may not prove aforementioned accusers correct).

* StuffedInTheFridge: according to a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgCMDmMXuFc 20th-anniversary retrospective]] aired by ''Entertainment Weekly'', the character to die in the series finale was chosen specifically because it would help the remaining characters complete their {{Character Arc}}s.

* AsHimself: Season 6 features Jack Osbourne (''Series/TheOsbournes'') in two episodes, and ''Radio/{{Loveline}}'' hosts Drew Pinsky and Creator/AdamCarolla in another.

* InformedAttribute: Joey's "It"--beginning with the college years, Joey went from merely being seen as very pretty to an absolute knockout whom no heterosexual male in her vicinity could resist falling in love with.

* JerkJock: Averted with Jen's boyfriends Cliff (Season 1) and Henry (Season 3), and Jack himself when he joined the school football team.

** Andie is written out of the show halfway through Season 4, and only returns in a few (cut) scenes in the SeriesFinale.

** Audrey doesn't appear in the finale despite being a major character since Season 5.

** Joseph [=McPhee=], father to Andie and Jack, is simply never mentioned again after the episode when Andie herself is PutOnABus. (The {{Doylist}} motivation was the untimely death of David Dukes, who played him.) That said, Andie's departure, and Mr. [=McPhee's=] acceptance of his son's homosexuality, meant that the character's natural arcs had been resolved, allowing the show to pretend there was no need to mention him anymore.

* ButtMonkey: A large part of Pacey's characterization is the belief, driven at least partially by his family, that he's worthless and will amount to nothing (even by the relatively low standards of House Witter). This actually becomes a plot point by contributing to his breakup with Joey: ''she agrees'', and is quietly accepting of his screw-ups instead of taking the "YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre" route, which is what Pacey himself would prefer she do. (Which is not to say that it gets better: the first time he offers to cook for his friends, after having been trained by a 5-star chef and the day before he is promoted ''to'' chef in his own right, they literally force him to serve partially-raw chicken simply because it will distract from the awkwardness of finding out that Jen and Dawson's WillTheyOrWontThey has taken a turn for the "TheyDo".)

* DistantFinale: The finale took place five years after the previous episode.

* [[RememberTheNewGuy Remember The New Girl]]: Gretchen, Pacey's sister that we've never heard of before Season 4, although he did mention having at least two sisters in Season 3.

* SelfParody: The TimeSkip finale shows Dawson grudgingly at work on an overwrought teen drama entitled (wait for it) ''The Creek'', based on his own life.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: As mentioned in the introduction. the main characters were very articulate for... anyone. This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] often, most clearly in "High Risk Behavior"

** A pretty unsubtle one at Kerr Smith, who never really hid how uncomfortable he was with playing a gay character - one of Dawson's minions reminds him that he still needs to tell one of his actors that his character is going to come out, and warns that he's going to hit the roof.

* AbsenteeActor: There are a lot of episodes when characters don't show up: Andie was PutOnABus in the seventh episode of the fourth season and replaced with Audrey in the fifth, and the adult characters (Mitch, Gail, Bessie and Grams) might go several episodes in a row without appearing. Despite this, the actors were credited for all episodes.

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]: Abby Morgan acts like a stereotypical Libby...except she isn't popular at all and has no friends whatsoever aside from her on-again, off-again friendship with Jen. Strangely enough she's briefly seen with a GirlPosse in "Be Careful What You Wish For" but later in the same episode Abby herself admits being an outcast and that no one likes her.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Deputy Doug, played with [[spoiler: until the end of the series.]]

* AscendedExtra: It's believed that Jack and Andie were not meant to last past the second season originally. In later seasons, Audrey in Season 5, who was added to the opening credits the following season.

* HotterAndSexier: as mentioned above, the show had a reputation for being preoccupied with sex: in addition to the WillTheyOrWontThey between Dawson and Joey, Jen explicitly lost her virginity at 14, Pacey wanted a TeacherStudentRomance, Bessie was pregnant out of wedlock from an interracial relationship, and Dawson's parents were recovering from Gail cheating on Mitch. And that's just the first season! Having said that, the show, for all intents and purposes, {{deconstructed}} these things: Dawson's waffling between Jen and Joey causes him no end of trouble, Jen's use of SexForSolace shows her insecurities, Pacey's relationship with Tamara Jacobs led to [[RealityEnsues completely predictable repercussions]], Bessie and Bodie face scorn, and Mr. and Mrs. Leery spend more than a season wrestling with their marriage. Besides, high-schoolers caring about sex is merely TruthInTelevision. The public objection to ''Dawson's Creek'' wasn't so much that it admitted to teen sexuality, but rather that it refused to ''glamorize'' it.

** Andie and Jack's father is simply never mentioned again after that same episode, due to actor David Dukes' AuthorExistenceFailure.

** Joseph [=McPhee=], father to Andie and Jack, is simply never mentioned again after the episode when Andie herself is PutOnABus. (The {{Doylist}} motivation was the untimely AuthorExistenceFailure of David Dukes, who played him.) That said, Andie's departure, and Mr. [=McPhee's=] acceptance of his son's homosexuality, meant that the character's natural arcs had been resolved, allowing the show to pretend there was no need to mention him anymore.

** The show's title -- "Dawson's Creek" -- references the fact that the Leery and Potter houses are on the banks of a small river in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. When the CastHerd moves to Boston for college in Season 5, the creek stops being a factor. Later, the same thing happens to Dawson: the heart of relocated social circle is ''Joey''. 6x03, for instance, has Dawson only appear in the very last scene, with no lines (though it sets up a SequelHook for the next episode, which revolves around him).

** Early in Season 4, the central six are preoccupied with applying to college (which, in America, is done in one's final year of secondary school). BookDumb Pacey is convinced he won't be admitted anywhere, and concerned that the gang will break up, but Joey counters with the "CaliforniaUniversity" trope:
--> "I mean, you know, maybe I'll just go to one of those fictional colleges. You know, like on those lame high school TV shows that go on for way too long, and then just in time to save the franchise, all of sudden it turns out that there's this amazing world-class college just right around the corner where all the principle characters are accepted."