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I just think our emerging hormones are destined to alter our relationship and I'm trying to limit the fallout
—Joey to Dawson

Pilot is the series premiere and first episode of Season 1 of Dawson's Creek.

Synopsis[]

EMOTIONS IN MOTION -- At the onset of their sophomore[1] year of high school, Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek) and his best friend, Josephine "Joey" Potter (Katie Holmes), battle with the knowledge that their lifelong friendship may be changing. Adding to Joey's confusing emotions is the arrival of the radiant Jennifer Lindley (Michelle Williams), who appears to be "the girl next door," but has an air of mystery surrounding her as she harbors a dark secret from her past. Rounding out the clique is Pacey (Joshua Jackson), whose gift for sarcasm is topped only be an over-confident knack for stumbling awkwardly unprepared into adult situations.[2]

Summary[]

Dawson Leery and Joey Potter finish watching E.T. in Dawson's bedroom on the Saturday night before they begin high school as sophomores. Now that they're fifteen and in the full throes of puberty, Joey feels she needs to go home and sleep. Dawson disagrees, pointing out that they're just friends and that she's been spending the night in his room since they were seven. He is convinced that they will maintain their friendship as it is. Joey spends the night.

The next day on the dock behind his home, Dawson is shooting a scene for his student horror film Sea Creature From the Deep (which he plans to enter in the upcoming Boston Film Festival). Things go wrong when Joey (playing the heroine) and Pacey Witter (playing the monster) start bickering. Suddenly a cab pulls up in front of the house right next to the Leery residence, and beautiful blonde Jennifer Lindley emerges. Dawson does not recognize her as his neighbors' granddaughter from New York until Jen introduces herself. She has come to help her grandmother care for her grandfather, who has recently had major heart surgery, and she'll be starting school with them tomorrow as a sophomore. Dawson and Pacey speculate on Jen's virginity as they head into Dawson's house, and interrupt Mitch and Gale Leery, Dawson's parents, making out heavily in the living room. Gale collects herself and heads out to her job as co-anchor of the evening news at the local television station. Dawson and Pacey head over to their part-time jobs as clerks at Screen Play Video. After being put in his outsider place by haughty Nellie Olson, the daughter of the store's owner, Pacey is overwhelmed by a sexy thirtysomething woman who enters the store. She is Tamara, new to Capeside, and she playfully flirts with Pacey while checking The Graduate out for rental. Arriving home from work, Dawson joins Jen sitting on the dock by their homes and invites her up to his room, a shrine to Dawson's idol, Steven Spielberg. Joey climbs up the ladder to Dawson's bedroom, which is her regular means of entrance (and exit) to the Leery home, in time to listen unseen to the getting-to-know-each-other banter of Dawson and Jen. After Jen leaves, Joey enters Dawson's room to find him scrutinizing video of his mother's newscast to support his new theory that she is having an affair with her co-anchor Bob.

Over breakfast the next morning, Jen's Grams, a church-going woman of strong faith, warns her curious granddaughter that Dawson and Joey (non-churchgoers both) are "the wrong element." Jen shocks Grams by declaring herself a devout atheist. At Capeside High, Dawson eagerly helps Jen get situated, while Joey shows little response to Jen's overtures of friendship. When asked directly, Joey assures Jen that she and Dawson are just friends, and adds that she sees how much her friend is attracted to the new girl. Dawson suffers his first high school disappointment when he is denied enrollment in Mr. Gold's film class on the technicality that he is a mere sophomore, but is soon elevated when Jen agrees to go on a "semi-date" with him to the movie house that night. This excursion has come about due to Pacey's happy discovery that Tamara from the video store the day before is Ms. Jacobs, his English teacher. Pacey flirtatiously asks her if she wants to rent "Summer of '42", but her response is that she's going to the movie house. With thoughts of "losing his virginity in a high-level fantasy fashion" racing through his head, Pacey corrals Dawson into the movie house outing. Dawson in turn, once Jen is locked, convinces a reluctant Joey to make the evening a foursome.

Tension mounts before the movie as Jen and Grams quarrel over Jen attending church, Dawson has a heated discussion with Mitch about the recent over-emphasis on sex that has been placed in the Leery household, and Bessie Potter teaches her tomboy younger sibling the art of applying lipstick. At the Rialto movie house, Pacey quarrels with Mr. Gold, Tamara's companion, and ends up punched in the face by an annoyed moviegoer; and Joey succeeds in creating discomfort by asking Jen if she is a virgin (Jen replies "yes") and later, after observing Dawson nervously taking Jen's hand as the movie begins, if Jen is a size queen (this question goes unanswered). An angry Joey tells an angrier Dawson that he needs to grow-up, stop living his life as if it were a movie, and start seeing the reality in front of him.

Dawson walks Jen home, each apologizing for the disastrous evening. Jen stops Dawson's attempt at a goodnight kiss, but does assure him she finds him cool. Pacey encounters an apologetic Tamara on his way home. When he heatedly calls her on her earlier flirtation with him, they both are surprised by their passionate kiss that follows. Back in Dawson's bedroom, he and Joey try to sort out the night's events and their relationship, which Dawson now acknowledges is changing. Friendship is restored when Dawson proves comfortable enough to tell Joey about his daily "walking the dog" activities. Happily paddling down the creek back home, Joey spies co-anchor Bob and Gale Leery exchange a more-than-friendly kiss as he drops her off from work.[3]

Starring[]

James Van Der Beek as Dawson Leery
Michelle Williams as Jen Lindley
Joshua Jackson as Pacey Witter
Katie Holmes as Joey Potter
Mary-Margaret Humes as Gale Leery
John Wesley Shipp as Mitch Leery
Mary Beth Peil as Evelyn Ryan
Nina Repeta as Bessie Potter
Recurring cast
Mitchell Laurance as Benjamin Gold
Leann Hunley as Tamara Jacobs
George Gaffney as Bodie Wells
Ed Grady as Mr. Ryan
Guest starring
Nicole Nieth as Nellie Oleson
Co-Starring
Ted King as Bob Collinsworth
Rick Forrester as Big Guy
Evan Kelly as Roger Fulford

Quotes[]

I’ve seen you burp, barf, pick your nose, scratch your butt… I don’t think I’m getting “a thing” for you
—Joey to Dawson
What is with this When-Harry-Met-Eighties crap? It doesn’t apply to us. We transcend it
—Dawson to Joey
Wit. We like that around here
—Dawson, to Jen
Dawson – Show some respect man, she's somebody's mother
Pacey – I have it on pretty good authority that mothers have excellent sex lives

Locations[]

Trivia[]

  • Nellie's dad owns the video store where Pacey and Dawson work.
  • Dawson and Jen met before, when they were kids
  • Tamara kisses Pacey
  • Dawson asks Joey jokingly if she has a crush on him and she lies
  • Joey discovers Dawson's mom is having an affair
  • Joey and Dawson have the same conversation about Spielberg and the Oscars in the season four finale.

PRODUCTION NOTES

  • The first script and revisions were ready in August 1997[4]
  • The episode was shot on 16mm film "to treat the pilot like it was an independent film" for a "nostalgic feel" and "to drive home the fact that Dawson was a budding filmmaker."[5]

ADAPTATIONS

BROADCAST

  • The series premiere episode was watched by 6.75 million people upon its original airing on the WB.[6]
  • For The WB's final night of television, before The CW takeover in 2006, the pilot episodes of its original series Felicity, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creek were broadcast[7] before officially saying goodbye with a 60 second montage. Dawson's Creek would be the last show to ever air on the network.[8][9][10]

Films[]

WATCHED
E.T. (1982)
Waiting for Guffman (1996)
REFERENCED
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Psycho (1960)
The Graduate (1967)
Summer of '42 (1971)
Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
Swamp Thing (1982)
Gandhi (1982)
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
Forrest Gump (1994)

Music[]

hey pretty girl | BODEANS
jen arrives
as i lay me down | SOPHIE B. HAWKINS
dawson joins jen on her dock
tubthumping | CHUMBAWAMBA
jen meets nellie in school; pacey in class
mercy me | SAY-SO
dawson, jen and joey in the cafeteria
good mother | JANN ARDEN
bessie gives joey lipstick
i'll stand by you | THE PRETENDERS
joey rows down the creek

Photos[]


screenshots

Videos[]

Media[]

Rewatching the Dawson's Creek pilot 20 years later (EW • MARCH 2018)
43 Thoughts You Have Watching the Dawson’s Creek Pilot 20 Years Later (COSMOPOLITAN • JAN 2018)
25 Years Later, the Dawson's Creek Pilot Is Surprisingly Timely (PRIMERTIMER • JAN 2023)

Notes and references[]

  1. This was retconned at the beginning of Season 2Season 1 clearly starts in summer and ends after one semester in autumn/winter. However, Season 2 starts in the summer and the gang is starting their sophomore year, in retrospect making Season 1 the first semester of their freshman year
  2. "Pilot" official synopsis archived from The WB on dawsons-creek.com
  3. Pilot - Official Summary
  4. I am so grateful that 20 years ago we premiered Dawson’s Creek. I am so honored to have been a part of it :) such wonderful memories. Such wonderful friends. Such incredible fans. Thank you all! ❤️ (January 2018)
  5. 'Dawson's Creek' at 25: Creator Kevin Williamson reveals the storyline he'd never tell now Yahoo! Entertainment (January 2023)
  6. Ratings Ryan — Dawson's Creek (WB): Ratings Recap
  7. The WB’s Night of Favorites and Farewells/Dawson’s Creek Introduction (September 17, 2006) on YouTube
  8. The WB To Air Pilot Episodes Of Classic Shows On Final Night
  9. The WB's Night of Favorites and Farewells Intro (2006) on YouTube
  10. The WB’s Night of Favorites and Farewells-Sign off Montage (September 17,2006) on YouTube
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