<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> External links </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Website </Td> </Tr> <P> Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series about the fictional lives of a close - knit group of friends beginning in high school and continuing in college that ran from 1998 to 2003 . The series stars James Van Der Beek as Dawson Leery, Katie Holmes as his best friend and love interest Joey Potter, Joshua Jackson as their fellow best friend Pacey Witter, and Michelle Williams as Jen Lindley, a New York City transplant to the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, where the series was set . The show was created by Kevin Williamson and debuted on The WB on January 20, 1998 . It was produced by Columbia TriStar Television (renamed Sony Pictures Television before the sixth and final season) and was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina . </P> <P> Part of a new craze for teen - themed movies and television shows in America in the late 1990s, it catapulted its leads to stardom and became a defining show for The WB . The show placed at No. 90 on Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" list in 2007 . The series ended on May 14, 2003 . During the course of the series, 128 episodes of Dawson's Creek aired over six seasons . </P>

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