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In the nascent stages of the WB Network’s development as a hub for teen-centric dramas, Dawson’s Creek made its debut in January 1998. This launch followed the groundwork laid by earlier series such as the wholesome family drama 7th Heaven and the TV adaptation of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The brainchild of screenwriting prodigy Kevin Williamson—famed for his work on two Scream films and I Know What You Did Last Summer—Dawson’s Creek marked a departure from horror. Featuring a cast of relative unknowns, it posed a gamble that ultimately paid off, particularly for the 20-year-old actor James Van Der Beek, who portrayed the titular character until he passed away on February 11 at 48 due to colorectal cancer.
Williamson described Dawson’s Creek as deeply autobiographical, with Van Der Beek’s Dawson serving as his alter ego—an aspiring filmmaker and gentle romantic navigating life in a picturesque coastal town. Van Der Beek’s performance exuded the charm of a storybook prince, even as the era’s oversized ’90s fashion threatened to overshadow him. During the intermission between the first and second seasons, Van Der Beek graced the covers of Teen, Teen People, and even the more prestigious Interview, alongside the likes of Parker Posey and Kim Basinger. The 1998 Fall TV Preview edition of Entertainment Weekly featuring Van Der Beek and his Dawson’s Creek co-stars symbolized their ascent to stardom.
As the series unfolded, Dawson began to feel less like the protagonist and more like an antagonist within his own story. The undeniable chemistry between Joshua Jackson’s Pacey and Katie Holmes’s Joey, likely fueled by their real-life romance, led to a seemingly ill-fated relationship. The dilemma: how could Dawson’s best friend and the object of his affection betray him? Yet, their undeniable cuteness begged the question—how could Dawson impede their budding romance?
In a bold narrative twist, the show’s writers chose to focus on Joey and Pacey’s summer escapade aboard Pacey’s boat, the True Love, leaving Dawson alone on his dock, a poignant scene of teenage heartbreak that remains memorable. Rarely do teen dramas of that era, particularly those that fueled passionate online discussions, push their lead character aside in such a manner. This audacious decision to explore Joey and Pacey’s relationship while challenging Dawson’s character was both a courageous move and an acknowledgment of Dawson’s increasingly irksome demeanor.
By the fall of 2001, weary of the perpetual cycle of potential Dawson and Joey reunions as they began college on opposite coasts, I stopped tuning in. Now, for the first time, I’m revisiting Season 5 through Again With This, a podcast I co-host with Sarah D. Bunting. We are both part of the team that founded Television Without Pity, a TV recap site initially named DawsonsWrap.com, inspired by the very show that initially united us. This explains why James Van Der Beek has occupied more of my thoughts over the years than for most who don’t know him personally.
As chance would have it, we’ve just reached the Season 5 arc that finds Dawson and Jen (Michelle Williams) rekindling their romantic attraction, dormant since Season 1. Sharing the Honeymoon Suite at a quaint New Hampshire inn during a local film festival where Dawson’s latest film has won a prize, Jen corrects his misapprehension that she isn’t attracted to him by kissing him. One commercial break later, Dawson’s not a virgin anymore. While Dawson and Joey’s tortured relationship has increasingly felt like an obligation for both characters as they talk around how and why they may or may not want it to be more, or less, or something, the version of Dawson partnered with Jen is a joy to watch. He’s comfortable, easygoing, and open to whatever path forward the two of them choose together. He’s not brooding, analyzing, or misusing vocabulary words one of the writers found in their new-fangled online thesaurus. He’s smiling. And — good though he was at a memorable ugly cry — he has such a nice smile!
Van Der Beek had a healthy post-Creek career, popping up in prestigious productions like Pose and Room 104, and genially spoofing himself in a series of Funny Or Die shorts (here’s one) and Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23. He hadn’t achieved the Oscar nominations like Williams or multiple headlining TV roles like Jackson, but it was easy to root for him. When he’d make headlines for seeming to share his wife Kimberly’s dangerous anti-vax views or for his own right-wing rants, rooting for him got a lot harder. But on social media, he seemed like someone who was still a good egg despite his worst and noisiest opinions: he thanked his Creek mom, Mary-Margaret Humes, for having sent him cookies for every birthday since his own mother’s death; he seemed like a happy and loving dad to his six beautiful kids.
Van Der Beek disclosed his colorectal cancer diagnosis in November 2024. The next fall, a staged reading on Broadway of the Dawson’s Creek pilot script was convened — to which all original cast members and some later ones committed — to raise money for F Cancer. Van Der Beek was too ill to attend in person — sending a video message in which he looked thinner than I, someone who have professionally studied his appearance for decades, had ever seen him. In November, he auctioned off memorabilia from Dawson’s Creek and his cult hit football movie Varsity Blues, and the fact that he had to while fighting for his life is a scathing indictment of this country’s shameful for-profit health insurance system.
In December, Van Der Beek told Today‘s Craig Melvin he felt “much better than [he] did a couple months ago.” I hope he did. I hope he didn’t suffer at the end. And I look forward to watching some of the best of Dawson in Dawson’s Creek in the weeks to come; it will help soften the blow of Van Der Beek’s loss.
Television Without Pity, Fametracker, and Previously.TV co-founder Tara Ariano has had bylines in The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vulture, Slate, Salon, Mel Magazine, Collider, and The Awl, among others. She co-hosts the podcasts Extra Hot Great, Again With This (a compulsively detailed episode-by-episode breakdown of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place), Listen To Sassy, and The Sweet Smell Of Succession. She’s also the co-author, with Sarah D. Bunting, of A Very Special 90210 Book: 93 Absolutely Essential Episodes From TV’s Most Notorious Zip Code (Abrams 2020). She lives in Austin.