Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

2. Jen suffers the effects of a heart illness (Dawson’s Creek, Episode 6.24:…Must Come to an End)

(Skip to 6.40)

1. Marissa and Ryan get into a car accident (The O.C., Episode 3.25: The Graduates)

You’ll notice some of my picks overlapped with my Top 10 Saddest Moments list because, well, let’s face it–death is about the saddest thing someone can experience.

But what I really tried to focus on here was the jaw-dropping aspect, which is why the overlapping scenes aren’t in the same order as my previous list. For instance, I think Jen’s death was more devastating (read: sad) than Marissa’s, but Marissa’s was more jaw-dropping (read: shocking).

Make sense? Feel free to disagree!

Kevin Williamson created this engaging drama, which chronicles a group of young friends’ passage from adolescence to young adulthood in the small coastal town of Capeside, Massachusetts. based on Williamson’s own experiences growing up, “Dawson’s Creek” focuses on fifteen-year-olds Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes), who have been friends since they were five and are trying to cope with the way their relationship is changing now that their hormones are raging. Add to the mix their friend Pacey (Joshua Jackson) and the new girl in town, Jen (Michelle Williams) and you can count on extra twists to their drama in their already turbulent lives.

Episode 01: Pilot
It is a shame this show came much too early in my life. Or I was just born way too late for it. While Dawson’s Creek took a tiny small place in my life, when I went to high school, I never saw the first season until I bought the DVD collection. And it is time for a rewatch and a few flashbacks of earlier moments of my life.
The pilot was good, though James Van Der Beek overacted a bit in his own show (especially when Dawson surprised his parents while making out) and it is a bit unbelievable that the teens (who are not even 16 years old in here) already have such big minds (especially Pacey, who says to Tamara [Leann Hunley] that he was the best sex she never had). This was one of the biggest problems I had with this show during the first four seasons, though I pretty much got into it very fast and wasn’t confused anymore with the start of the second season.
Other than that: It is really authentic. And even with the age the show already has, it is still realistic enough to be the love guide for every upcoming teenager in a small town somewhere on the east side of America. Van Der Beek overacted a bit and Dawson’s Spielberg obsession already sucks balls, Joshua Jackson was good, as well as Katie Holmes and Michelle Williams. The rest of the cast didn’t really have much screentime, and they are the adult ones in here, so they have to develop during the next couple of episodes.
The stories for the pilot were alright. Joey says that puberty hits, and they aren’t kids anymore, love comes into play, together with the talent of flirtation and all the rest. And of course Pacey had to kiss a MILF in the pilot, even the truly authentic teen series needs a bit of sex in the story – even though we didn’t see anything, and nothing happened. 7,5/10

Episode 02: Dance
Another good episode, and this time it is working better than the pilot. The “a little bit too much” from the pilot loosened up a bit in the second episode and made much more fun. Though some moments were really stereotype.
So, Dawson’s lands in film class due to a backdoor, while he is trying to get into the neighbor girl’s pants without screwing with her. The story couldn’t be more stereotype, but at least James Van Der Beek wasn’t overacting here and Michelle Williams was a really sweet girl with the feeling of her character. Also, Katie Holmes managed to get her role into realism, switching perfectly between having a secret involving Dawson’s mother Gail (Mary-Margaret Humes) and not showing her true feelings to Dawson, because she said herself, everything is changing for all of them. Or being honest to each other about their feelings. For that, Dawson’s “trouble” with Jen and her being “stolen” by Cliff (Scott Foley), wasn’t really interesting, it remains still the beginning of a bigger story, but it doesn’t feel like that.
Pacey’s flirts and kisses with Tamara was only a side plot, and I truly don’t know why Tamara – as a teacher – is about to ruin her career. But today there are a lot of teachers screwing around with their students; Dawson’s Creek was pretty much a harbinger, though there were cases, before the series went on the air.
Dawson’s parents are loving, but the secret Gail has isn’t moving and makes their relationship more and more unbelievable. But we are just in the second episode so far… 7,5/10

Episode 03: Kiss
Good episode, and again: better than the episode before. This time all the stories are working, though one is a romantic cliché, and the other was almost a waste of time.
If Dawson was only busy with the film shooting and the writers would have cut his “search for a kiss with Jen”, then this would be a Joey show, and the episode would have been a foreshadow of what Dawson’s Creek was during the last season: more a show about Joey than about the title character. And it was interesting to put another character beside Dawson in front of a story and actually having a lot of screentime (which isn’t happening to Pacey – he has only one storyline right now, and the writers only spend four minutes per episode with it).
The film shoot at the high school was partly interesting, though it brings Dawson a few winning moments; but his moments with Jen were great, and finally they kissed (this was the waste of time, one episode looking for the kiss can be too much sometimes). It just seems a coincidence that Pacey lost his virginity with Tamara at the same place (by the way: nice acting by Leann Hunley in that scene, in which she wasn’t sure about what she did at that moment), and what a coincidence Dawson filmed it.
Joey’s romance with the guy from New York was nice, though stereotype. Who doesn’t lie about the own name, age and background to have a nice time with a guy, who won’t even have interest in little high school girls? And, seriously, Katie Holmes was more than sweet in here – how could she marry Tom Cruise later on? 8/10

Episode 04: Discovery
Another good episode, though slightly weaker than the last one. At least it looks like the stories are up and running, together with Gail’s affair, from which Dawson finally knows about (he didn’t just have the guts to tell his father Mitch [John Wesley Shipp] about – which is totally authentic, btw). And the lovely relationship between Dawson and Jen gets better as well. Basically: I really liked the episode for its story continuing – they are told not too fast, not too slow (except Gail, but I can live with that), and they have always a bit of heart and emotion in it.
I am happy to see that Pacey had a bit more screentime in this episode, which results in Dawson filming his tete-a-tete with Tamara, which again results in Pacey telling Dawson about his “I got the girl this time” – very nice scene, showing that Joshua Jackson can act, and James Van Der Beek not so really. His reaction of Pacey’s confession was just… argh. And it seems like the story with Pacey and Tamara grows bigger, when he is starting to get jealous, as Tamara is hanging around with men her age… Well, it is a bit funny, but it is a storyline for Pacey and I don’t think the writers had something different in mind for him at that time.
Grams (Mary Beth Peil) has increasingly more screentime as well, and I like that. Though she could stop worrying about Jen, because she of all people should know that Capeside isn’t suitable for bringing kids on the deeper and uglier roads of life. But Jen and Grams have interesting talks together, which develops both characters – nice writing.
Dawson being felt betrayed by Joey was the weakest storyline in here, because it was predictable and a cliché. But it was necessary for him to learn more about Jen, so it was not that bad after all. 7,5/10

Episode 05: Hurricane
A strong episode with lots of stuff happening. Gail tells Mitch the truth and nothing but the truth, and leaves Mitch and Dawson back to let them think of their own. Though it was good to see a proper adult storyline for the first time of the series, it would have been nice to see Dawson thinking about his parents’ problems, even though he already was dealing with that topic in the last episode. But it seems to separated that first Dawson deals with his mother’s affair, then he drops it to do other business, and
when Mitch learns about it, he is the one dealing with this. What great moments would have been in the episode, when father and son trying to react together to Gail’s affair. But the scene with gale and Mitch was just awesome – really authentic and believable.
The rest of the episode was good as well, though I find it curious that Pacey’s brother Doug (Dylan Neal) develops interest in Tamara, and why the story about him not getting out of the closet, because he is scared. Sure, this storyline begins here and
develops with the time of the series, but it came too suddenly. We never saw Doug before and with his first appearance he already gets a story? Because I don’t think this will effect Pacey very much. But it means one thing: The writers tell stories not only for the teenager.
And Dawson and Jen having a break? Didn’t they just start dating? This seems like a stereotype storyline, but it was good that this didn’t take the bigger part of the episode. 8,5/10

Episode 06: Baby
Nice episode with interesting topics. The birth brings together all the storyline Grams had with the others, especially her “racist” opinions about Bessie (Nina Repeta) and her relationship with Brody. The scene in which Grams made kind of peace with Bessie, while she is in labor, bleeding and scared about everything was written very good and brought the two characters closer to the audience. And even with Joey worrying about the situation, remembering her mother, this story had even a more interesting meaning. Lifes are changing right now, and it is only a simple birth (exclude the small problems Bessie had) in the living room of the Leerys.
The rest of the episode, which includes Pacey and Tamara, was partly interesting though. Of course, somebody heard the conversation between Dawson and Pacey and of course the rumors are spreading like a virus. And of course everybody of Pacey’s surrounding learns about it (even Doug) and of course it was supposed to be funny, until the school board comes and threatens Tamara’s job in the high school. It just seems unbelievable that the school board is meeting that fast and that they don’t do any investigation, just because Pacey stormed into the session and told everybody that it was just his fantasy… Yeah, of course. Nice try.
The ending was nice, though. Tamara is leaving Capeside, Pacey says goodbye and Joey holds the baby on her arms – very sweet moments, but they don’t make the episode better. 7/10

Episode 07: Detention
Best episode so far – my a mile. Obviously a rip-off of The Breakfast Club, a nice copy of John Hughes’ film and lots of emotional stories in here. and with Abby Morgan (Monica Keena) the series introduces us to a new character. Like in every high school there is one real hard-ass bitch, doing everything for herself, not having friends for this and being the mean bitch everyone from the main character list hates – there are some nice stories coming up with her.
The detention episode was awesome. Finally everybody knows every feeling about anybody. Joey is in love with Dawson, while Jen thinks he is the right one for her compared to her past relationships in New York, and Pacey whacked off, because he has too much pressure going on “down there”. Most of the story could be considered funny, but honestly, this was just the next important step to the character’s relationship. And it was very nice from the writers not to include other stories, especially something with Doug, after we saw him the last two episodes, and maybe something about the failing marriage of Gail and Mitch (which I miss btw, this topic was missing last episode as well – and I miss Dawson reacting to the upcoming break-up of his parents).
The one think I didn’t find very amusing was the kind of overacting in some scenes, especially James Van Der Beek again. But I blame that on their not existing experience in the TV business and hope, this one gets better in the next season. Other than that, this was an almost excellent hour of television. 9/10

Episode 08: Boyfriend
A necessary episode for separating Jen and Dawson, so Dawson can be with Joey at the end of the season. And of course, after the little “break” they had a couple of episodes ago, their relationship is troubled again, after Jen’s ex Billy (Eion Bailey) comes from New York and wants her back. First: Why wants Billy Jen back at all and why was he coming from New York to do exactly that? Any reason at all? While Jen and Billy are flirting, Dawson and Joey are flirting and getting more and more together, so it was predictable that Jen wants to break up with Dawson, because she sees that life in Capeside is the same like in New York. Despite the predictable story, I liked the break-up scene between Jen and Dawson; this was one of the scenes James Van Der Beek actually acted well.
The side plots were a bit uninteresting, though. Joey can’t sleep because of “Rosemary’s baby” (hilarious) and gets drunk because she doesn’t get what she truly wants and what we know since the Breakfast Club episode. Nice that the series is handling alcohol as well in their stories, just the moral of the story was… yeah, where was the moral of the story?
The other plot with Gail and Mitch trying to find something to do was alright; after their story was absent for a couple episodes it was necessary to bring it back. But it just was free of highlights. Of course they are trying to save their marriage, of course they can’t trust each other right now, and of course they have troubles to find back to each other – predictable storylines, but authentic enough to look not stupid or boring.
Okay, it was a necessary episode, but it was a kind of boring one. 6,5/10

Episode 09: Road Trip
The episode was good and had a nice aftermath of Dawson’s and Jen’s break-up. While the boys go with Billy (surprisingly is he still there and wants Jen back, even though she said no to him) on a road trip, into a bar and trying to have fun with women, Joey has different problems with another guy and starts to revenge back – together with Jen, but the plan backfires. Both stories were interesting. Dawson and Pacey had a trip as real friends, which doesn’t happen very often, and both of them trying to find a way out of their teen life for a couple hours, which they managed to do so. Just Dawson’s flirt with Nina (Melissa McBride) was a bit stupid. Not only did Nina look like a 40-year-old, masked as a teen, but her interest in Dawson was way too unbelievable. And I would have wished to see Pacey in a little adventure; after his fail with Tamara and everything what came after he needs a little love story again – or at least a story.
Joey’s and Jen’s plan to humiliate Warren (Eric Balfour) was alright, though I hoped it would be more hilarious. When Joey talked to Abby, this was hilarious, but the rest was pretty boring. When their plan backfired, Jen and Joey didn’t seem to learn from their actions, and instead they are talking about Dawson. But after all they managed to be friends again.
The episode could have been better, when there weren’t some unbelievable stuff in it. 7,5/10

Episode 10: The Scare
A good episode, which actually had some suspense in it, not only because it was Friday, the 13th. Though the fact that the writers built in the story with the Ladykiller was really stupid and predictable. Of course the guy who talked to Joey was the Ladykiller, no wonders there. But their faces were hilarious at the end of the episode.
The rest was alright. Dawson’s séance in his house, together with friends and a stranger (where do all these one-episode characters come from – first Dawson’s flirt last episode now the girl who gets… troubles from her boyfriend) and all of them trying to put some relationship troubles into the night of scary happenings. Dawson’s night was well planned, and there was always the question of what he did to scare his friends and what didn’t he do (e.g. the calls and the letter for Jen). Only a bummer that the girls didn’t took revenge for one time and that Pacey didn’t do anything at all. The story with the “abusive” boyfriend was awkward, though. I don’t know why the writers put that in here (as opposite to all the fake scary moments?).
At least the little date story with Jen and Cliff is over now. Not only is Cliff a boring character, but it is realistic that Jen doesn’t want to be in a relationship now. 7,5/10

Episode 11: Double Date
A good episode and in one storyline a big foreshadow of what’s to come. This episode was evidence for the fact that the writers always wanted to bring Joey and Pacey together, even though they didn’t start that story here. But it will be necessary for later to understand why Pacey even likes Joey that much. Their story was interesting, because it was not only clear that Pacey has problems in high school (another on-going storyline during the next seasons), but their little trip into the nature was
interesting – both characters had a slight development and have to bring Dawson to choose over Jen and Joey, after Pacey told him he has to.
The double date story was good, too, but predictable. With Mary Beth (Meghan Perry) we have another one-episode character (and – again – connected to Dawson, this is not a coincidence anymore), and I thought Jen’s and Cliff’s date story is over – looks like it isn’t. But now it – again – looks like it’s over, after Mary Beth had the hots for Cliff. It was nice to let Jen and Dawson really talk with each
other, so that the season cliffhanger can be prepared – together with Pacey’s words to Dawson that he has to give himself some answers.
If you think about it, this could basically be the episode before the season finale, and I wished it would be, but there are two more episodes coming. 7/10

Episode 12: Beauty Contest
Excellent episode. Though it doesn’t really fit as the episode before the finale (like I said the previous episode suits better as the pre-finale), the beauty contest was a great story for character development and Pacey being a comic relief. And fortunately the writers choose to bring all the characters together in one story, instead telling their lifes apart from each other in different stories and locations. With everybody having the same story the episode is working way better.
I am curious why Joey is thinking that she will be stuck in Capeside and wants to get out of this miserable place – her feelings about her home didn’t come through before, so this comes a bit too fast and too suddenly (though her reasons were partly explained in the last episode). But with Joey being in the competition she had nice moments to think about her life in Capeside, together with her sister, together with what the others thinking about her, and together with her dreams. And her speech on the stage during the contest was really interesting. More breathtaking was her performance of “On My Own”, though I had to think of Rachel singing this song in “Glee”, but this just for the side.
Pacey as competition in the contest was hilarious. First he thinks that he can be funny, then he wants to win (but can’t, the judges won’t let him win, because… they don’t want him to win – nice view on favoritism and sexual racists), and then he gives his William Wallace impersonation – hilarious. 9/10

Episode 13: Decisions
Interesting episode, and kind of “spoof” of all the season finales offering a cliffhanger to let the viewers guess. How funny would it actually be, when Dawson’s Creek had a cliffhanger in its first season? But for that the series does take itself seriously and can’t bring any ironic episodes (The Scare was probably the only almost ironic episode in this season), which is a shame. So I have to rely my hope on Buffy again.
The episode was good. All the stories were concluded, before Dawson’s Creek doesn’t get a second season. Dawson’s parents are into their newfound relationship (already seen in the last episode); Jen’s grandpa dies (a story which I never saw in this season), but gets closer to her Grams; Pacey is still “just” the friend for everybody and risks his relationship to his family for just driving Joey to the prison to visit her father Mike (Gareth Williams); Joey talks to her father, both love each other (and the writers prepare something for the next season), while Joey and Dawson take the next, better first step, into their relationship. All in all, this season has a happy ending, it is the beginning of the friends finally really growing up and the end of the steps they took to start growing up. The first season was partly too brave, but now the characters can live the lives of adults-to-be.
What makes the episode really good is the fact that almost every story told during the first season gets the proper ending. Everybody was waiting for Dawson and Joey to happen, and everybody was predicting that Dawson and Jen won’t be holding much longer, while Pacey didn’t even had a real story in this season (except his “The Graduate” with Tamara, which was a separated story after all) and nothing needs to be concluded with him. And the fact that the writers wrote Joey’s father into the episode (to give her a closer, if this was the series finale, and to bring him into the story, if there is a second season), makes the episode even more important. Not just as a cliffhanger-free season finale. 8,5/10

Season average is 7,77. I rewatched this season in three days, thanks to the public library and much time right now for that. The second season is on my waiting list, as well as the rest of the series, which DVD collection is waiting for me at home. A rewatch of Surface is coming up and I hope to finish Nurse Jackie sometimes soon. The fall and winter breaks of all the current US shows is coming up as well, which gives me time to pick up my archive and get to a few British shows I have on my list.

• A publication at my alma mater, North by Northwestern, has an interview with Kellan Lutz (George, 90210).
• Kristin has Gossip Girl spoilers.
• The Vanessa-Olivia aspect of the Gossip Girl threesome and Alex-Marissa on The O.C. are included in E! Online’s Hot Girl-on-Girl Action gallery.
• The O.C.’s Chrismukkah episodes made TVGuide.com’s list of Best Holiday and Christmas TV Episodes.
• It figures: when I move away from Chicago, Peter Gallagher (Sandy, The O.C.) starts doing solo-shows there. Darn! (I did pass him on my campus once but realized too late that it was him!)
• One of the tabloids has a short piece on a “Dawson’s Creek love curse.” (See image 7.) Notably and conveniently absent is Joshua Jackson (Pacey) since he happens to be in a committed relationship.
• Jack (Kerr Smith, Dawson’s Creek) is included in E! Online’s Gays on TV gallery.

• Be sure to check out The CW’s site for all the new video content this week.
• Media Life Magazine has an interesting Q & A on the future of The CW and the Huffington Post has a much harsher take on it.
• Beverly Hills 90210 season 8 came out on DVD today.
• The Los Angeles Times has a feature and (a spoiler-filled) photo gallery on 90210’s fashion.
• The Gossip Girl threesome made Zap2it’s list of Top WTF? Moments for November.
• Gossip Girl’s season 1 Thanksgiving episode made Zap2it’s list of “classic Thanksgiving episodes and specials.”
• Blake Lively (Serena, Gossip Girl) stars in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, which comes out Friday.
• Lively appeared on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night.
• Parade.com has an interview with Lively.
• Leighton Meester (Blair, Gossip Girl) recorded a Christmas song.
• Meester appeared on It’s On With Alexa Chung today.
• Examiner.com has another article on Sophia Bush (Brooke, One  Tree Hill) and Austin Nichols (Julian, One Tree Hill) participating in an USO tour.
• There’s a quick reference to The O.C. in this recap of last night’s Heroes episode.
• Fringe, starring Joshua Jackson (Pacey, Dawson’s Creek) will be going on a 7-week hiatus.

Part 1

8. A drunk Johnny falls off a cliff (The O.C., Episode 3.14: The Cliffhanger)

7. Mitch gets into a car accident (Dawson’s Creek, Episode 5.03: Capeside Revisited)

Come back tomorrow for two more deaths no one saw coming.

• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says 90210 is “succeeding.”
• TVGuideMagazine.com has 90210 casting spoilers.
• The New York Times has an article on the webseries trend, which mentions Jennie Garth (Kelly, Beverly Hills 90210) and The Broadroom.
• I watched Grey’s Anatomy for the first time last night and saw that James Pickens Jr. (Henry, Beverly Hills 90210) is in it.
• Beverly Hills 90210 on DVD made EW.com’s Holiday Gift Guide. (I heard Dawson’s Creek is in there, too, but I can’t find it.)
• Brian Austin Green (David, Beverly Hills 90210), Ed Westwick (Chuck, Gossip Girl) and Jessica Szohr (Vanessa, Gossip Girl) are all included in PEOPLE.com’s Couples Watch.
• PEOPLE.com has an interview with Szohr about her style compared to Vanessa’s.
• Blake Lively (Serena, Gossip Girl) will host Saturday Night Live on December 5.
• Kristen Bell (Gossip Girl, Gossip Girl) was a presenter at the American Music Awards.
• Examiner.com has more on the Sophia Bush (Brooke, One Tree Hill) and Austin Nichols (Julian, One Tree Hill) appearance on a USO Tour.
• James Lafferty (Nathan, One Tree Hill), Robert Buckley (Clay, One Tree Hill) and Eric Balfour (Eddie, The O.C.) are all starring in The Legend of Hell’s Gate: An American Conspiracy.
• There’s an interesting reference to The O.C. in this Huffington Post piece.
• SoapNet will air the two O.C. specials–The O.C.: Obsess Completely and Welcome to The O.C.: A Day in the Life–Tuesday at 1 and 2pm.
• Joshua Jackson (Pacey, Dawson’s Creek) will star in UFO, a film based on a British television show.

It’s been far too long since I last used my Breville juicer:

After yesterday’s Dawsonsgiving splurge, I thought I’d get right back on track by making some green juice this morning. Green juice is a great post-splurge breakfast– it provides my body with lots of nutrients and enzymes, without all the fiber– so my body can keep working on yesterday’s massive feast without piling on more to digest!

Here’s what went into my juicer:

And here’s what came out:

Green juice always tastes better when it’s served in a pretty glass.

This one was actually VERY tart! I guess my apple-to-lemon ratio was way off!! I ended up using my favorite trick to get it down– I stuck a straw in my glass, aimed it directly to the back of my throat, then gulped it down– without really tasting it!

Next time, I’ll be more conscious of how much lemon I put in… it seriously sent chills down my spine it was so tart!!

I have to say, though, I have yet to drink a single sip of coffee this morning, and I have a TON of energy! I’m seconds away from bouncing off walls right now! I love that effect of green juice.

And I need that energy…  I was up until midnight watching this:

Yep, we watched the ENTIRE first season of Dawson’s Creek yesterday. All 13 episodes!! Whew!

I seriously don’t get why anyone found Dawson attractive, though… am I missing something??

Oh, and Yasha thoroughly enjoyed Dawsonsgiving, too:

She was DESPERATE for turkey!! (we haven’t had a real one in our house for years, so she was EXCITED!!!!) Can’t you tell?

In memory of last week’s loss of the one and only Jackie Taylor, I thought the next few days should be reserved for revisiting other shocking deaths in the teen drama genre.

Some of these death scenes were shocking because they came out of nowhere.

Others blew us away simply because of who it was that died.

In other cases, it was the pure tragedy that chilled us to our bones.

This week, we pay tribute.

10. Scott accidentally shoots himself (Beverly Hills 90210, Episode 2.14: The Next 50 Years)

9. A drunk Abby falls from a pier and drowns (Dawson’s Creek, Episode 2.18: A Perfect Wedding)

I can’t find a clip but, trust me, it’s shocking.

Come back tomorrow for another drunk fall and a car accident!

Happy Sunday!

Or rather… Happy Dawsonsgiving!!!!!

We had an early morning here at our home– we had LOTS of cooking to do! I brewed up a big pot of coffee, and we got right to work.

Somehow I managed to slice my finger within two seconds of peeling my first potato…

Meanwhile, our friend, Brad, bravely got his hands dirty prepping the turkey:

Thank goodness for Brad– we would have been turkey-less for sure if I was in charge of that! We used a really cool Hefty oven bag to roast our turkey, and it worked out perfectly! A mere two hours in the oven, sealed in that bag, and our turkey was thoroughly cooked and moist! I didn’t taste it, but it smelled good!

Brad was also kind enough to make us some of his famous cookies: Bacon Chocolate Chip. Yep, you heard me. BACON-chocolate-chip cookies!!

See those big chunks of bacon?

The verdict? They were surprisingly tasty!! I think I still prefer regular chocolate chip cookies…. but there was something uniquely gourmet about these suckers. Maybe it was the brown sugar and sea salt that Brad used to roast the bacon? Our house smelled sweet and salty the rest of the day!  

Here’s what our final dinner spread looked like:

It was a total feast!!

Here’s my over-ambitiously filled plate:

In lieu of the traditional green bean casserole (which I have never cared for!) I made sauteed green beans with caramelized onions, garlic and salt. So simple, but WAY tasty! And the homemade mac n’ cheese and garlic mashed potatoes were SO worth it.

And here’s what my plate looked like after I was totally stuffed:

Yeah, my eyes were definitely bigger than my appetite…

But somehow I managed to make room for pumpkin pie about an hour later:

That gingersnap crust I made was a total success! Holy yum.

While none of our food was modified to be “healthier,” I don’t feel too guilty about today’s feast. Personally, I like to eat the real versions of my favorite food during special occasions, such as this one. I figure, it only happens a few times a year, and I’d rather be satisfied eating the real thing, rather than trying to come up with a slightly healthier, but less satisfying alternative. I’ve found this is what works best for me. Obviously, we each need to come to our own conclusions on how to handle holiday gatherings…

After a dinner party like this, my strategy is to send home as many leftovers as I can with our guests, to prevent any possible temptations for me later. Whatever I don’t send home, I save for my husband. I plan on going right back to my regular routine tomorrow, so I don’t get sucked into a 6-week holiday HOG-fest!!! With all the temptations we are faced with from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, sticking to a routine is my best defense against holiday weight gain. Research says we gain one permanent pound each year after the holidays– let’s NOT fall into that statistic this year!!

Honestly, I think as long as we keep ourselves accountable for our choices, the holidays can be enjoyable AND not affect our waistlines.  After all, the most important part is that we enjoy our friends and family, right?

And maybe some Dawson’s Creek…

Reader feedback: How do you handle the holidays? What’s your favorite dish to bring to holiday parties?

1. Dawson’s Creek: Episode 3.19, Stolen Kisses

While denying feelings for each other, Pacey and Joey share a moment in bed. (Skip to 5.15)

2. The O.C.: Episode 1.07, The Escape

While denying feelings for each other, Ryan and Marissa share a moment in bed.

It’s good enough for OneSixNine!  We’re not going to Capeside, MA, which should be obvious to anyone who understands how OneSixNine works… we’re Cheshire-bound!  Hopefully we’ll find some cute next-door-neighbor who is secretly pining for us and have several years of back and forth over dating or not dating, only to decide to (SPOILER ALERT!) settle down with Joshua Jackson (pre-Fringe) and say a tragic farewell to our resident bad-girl-gone-good as her life comes to a shocking end (before she marries Heath Ledger, whose life ALSO came to a tragic end… THE CURSE OF DAWSON’S CREEK?!)

The Soon-to-be-Former Mr & Mrs Van Der Beek

Anyways, JVB filed for divorce TWO days ago, making our voyage to his hometown very timely.  Not to mention that he’s 32 and did a guest stint on How I Met Your Mother in 2008, so this will be a perfect set-up for Elle.  I’m putting my wingwoman skills to the test, for all you who doubted me!  (I’m looking at you, Wally East.)

New to Six Degrees of Teen Dramas? Here’s how to play!

Last Week: Leonardo DiCaprio

This Week:

Cameron Diaz

Have at it!

So, what does one do when they are assigned a 20 page research discertation on  ” How the Marriage (or lackthereof) of your parents has affected your own expectations or values regarding marriage, methods of dating, and relationships”…

They lock themselves in Borders and start thinking… that’s what.

So as I sit here, I recount the aspects of my familial experience that I didn’t realize when I was a child, but can definitely see looking back through photos of Christmases and birthdays past. Then I start to realize that despite the over-all incredibility of my parents relationship, I mean really, these two are the definition of a great marriage, it wasn’t until recently that I started to give in to the notion of what relationships are actually about.

It took me a very long time to realize that a relationship isn’t just healthy because he’s “nice to me sometimes” and “there are only a few things I don’t like”, that “nice to me sometimes” wasn’t enough and that those “few things I don’t like” were a few too many. I spent tons of time clinging to my independence, until I realized that it was possible to have someone I could depend on who allowed me to be independent.  The long and short of it is that I never realized that “boyfriend” was a role that didn’t necessarily need to be filled by someone that in reality I hated. The idea of a boyfriend whose morals, values and behavior, didn’t make me want to vomit, was beyond me. It took me until this past summer to realize that relationships aren’t supposed to be tumultuous reruns of  the third season of “Dawson’s Creek” and that I wasn’t going to get stuck with someone who had “only a few things I didn’t like”  and that in fact, it was possible to find someone who, fit exactly what I was looking for, because of their flaws, not in spite of them.

I really do consider myself so lucky, in addition to an incredible job, a great college experience, a great family and many unbelievable friendships, I have been given the gift, the one many women spend their college and post-grad years looking for, a relationship that is essentially, in it’s simplest form, completely natural, all encompassing, and totally incredible.

I’m not saying we’re perfect, because trust me, we’re not. We’ve been together for a while now, and kissing even longer than that, and we still hit our teeth together most of the time, we can’t stop laughing at the most inappropriate moments, we fall asleep when we’re supposed to be spending quality time together, we argue because he’s late, or bicker because I’m being ridiculous.  But, at the end of the day, we have developed this private culture, all our own, a culture made up of phone calls while we’re running to class, Starbucks dates on Friday afternoons, Tuesday night dinners, and car rides, one that includes laughing at people we shouldn’t be laughing at, him coaching basketball with my dad, or me stopping at his mom’s office in the school before I leave work each day. It seems a little monotonous, but I like knowing for certain that Thursday nights will be spent at his house, watching primetime TV with his mom, and that Friday afternoon, he will always be late for our coffee date, by at least 15 minutes, which happens to be just enough time for me buy our coffees and sit down, finally giving me an opportunity to pick up the tab for one of our dates.

All of this sounds like a movie monologue, and that’s not what I’m going for… What I’m trying to do is make a point about the point in your life where someone comes along who is great enough to make you stop being so damn complacent and start realizing that you deserve something good, and someone whole,  someone that you don’t have to fix, that you deserve a relationship that doesn’t need any figuring out. At that point, you find a relationship that is easy, obvious, and effortless. It may have been the stirring of the coffee machines, or the lighting in Borders, or my own curiosity that made me realize right then,  that’s what my parents marriage taught me. They raised me to be independent, but set an example of interdependence. They brought me up to function, fully, and effectively, and totally successfully, on my own, but then by their example, showed me that once you have yourself figured out, its ok to find that need for nothing, natural, quiet, exciting, fulfilling, companionate type of love, and spend your time first, giving in to it, and then giving it everything you have.

• Brian Austin Green (David, Beverly Hills 90210) will be returning to Smallville.
• There’s a small feature on Brett Claywell (Tim, One Tree Hill) in the Dec. 1 issue of Soap Opera Weekly (my old stomping grounds!).
• Leighton Meester (Blair, Gossip Girl) was a presenter at mtvU Woodie Awards.
• Rachel Bilson (Summer, The O.C.) is mentioned in this article on How I Met Your Mother.
• MTV has an interview with Olivia Wilde (Alex, The O.C.)
• News Blaze has an interview with Nikki Reed (Sadie, The O.C.)
• Variety says Busy Philipps (Audrey, Dawson’s Creek) might “break through.”
• I should’ve mentioned this a while ago: Julie Bowen (Aunt Gwen, Dawson’s Creek) is one of the leads in Modern Family.

and i’m so happy that I could cry, like Dawson.

• The CW’s Web site has launched a store with accessories and clothing seen on Gossip Girl and 90210.
• PEOPLE.com has more on the Leighton Meester (Blair, Gossip Girl) coverstory in Glamour UK.
• Two Tori Spelling (Donna, Beverly Hills 90210) films–Mother May I Sleep With Danger and Co-Ed Call Girl–made AOL’s list of Most Awesome Lifetime Movie Titles Ever.
• Rihanna has refuted reports that she’s dating Tristan Wilds (Dixon, 90210).
• MTV has several articles jointly featuring Kellan Lutz (George, 90210) and Nikki Reed (Sadie, The O.C.), all related to Twilight and New Moon.
• Zap2it and AOL have interviews with Benjamin McKenzie (Ryan, The O.C.).
• Olivia Wilde (Alex, The O.C.) stars in Fix, which starts tomorrow in some areas. Perez Hilton posted a pretty picture of her.
• AOL also has a video interview with Joshua Jackson (Pacey, Dawson’s Creek).
• After separating in June, James Van Der Beek (Dawson, Dawson’s Creek) and his wife are getting a divorce.
• The Dawson’s Creek Web site now has a trailer advertising Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Series. It’s pretty cool.

Bueno no exactamente como uno esperaria, la “actriz” fue captada mientras filmaba escenas de su proxima pelicula que solo viendo la ropa se nota que estara igual de aburrida, no es que tenga que andar enseñando de mas o como modelo de victoria secret, pero esa pijama que lleva es por demas ñoña y aburrida, pobre se nota que estaba muy incomoda al intentarse tapar con su sueter, claro quien quiere lucir las piernas de jamos que tiene .

click en las pics para agrandar

As far as I know, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift do not hate each other. In fact, they appear to be on rather friendly terms in this YouTube video. At one point, Miley even referred to Taylor as her “best friend.”*

*Although, to be fair, she’s also applied that term to her dad, Nick Jonas, her YouTube talk-show co-host Mandy Jiroux, Liam Henson, the “Leslie” of “See You Again,” and, of course, God. Miley may have more “best friends” than any pop star in history.  

So there is no obvious enmity between the two of them, but I feel like there should be. It seems to me that there should be a Highlanderesque, there-can-only-be-one vibe to their relationship. There can be no peaceful coexistence between these two stars.

From where I sit, these two are completely interchangeable. They’re both young singers who sing bad country-infused pop songs about what kind of shoes they wear. They both sing primarily for a vast audience of girls between the ages of 11 and 19. They both dated a Jonas Brother. They’re both from small towns. They’re both (ostensibly) wholesome. They both play the “gosh-I’m-just-so-overwhelmed-by-all-this-attention-since-I’m-from-a-modest-small-town” card, even though they’ve each spent over 25% of their conscious lives as superfamous sensations.

This seems like it should create a natural rivalry. And yet, even with a music media that loves pitting artists against each other unnecessarily (Britney vs. Christina, *NSYNC vs. Backstreet Boys, The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones, Kanye West vs. 50 Cent), not very much has been made of these two as potential rivals. In fact, most people don’t seem to consider them very similar at all.

It’s a hard claim to prove, but it seems obviously true to me that people generally like Swift more than Cyrus. The reason why this is a tricky point to make is that it seems almost irrelevant. For one, they are both very popular. Miley Cyrus’ Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus sold almost 2.5 million copies in 2007, and her first sans Hannah solo record, Breakout, debuted at #1 last year. Taylor Swift sold over four million albums last year alone. Trying to determine which of them is more popular is kind of like trying to figure out if Bill Gates is richer than Warren Buffet, or vice versa: They’re both doing very well.

Another complication to the claim is that, like comparing the fabulously wealthy, at such stratospheric levels of fame, the differences in “popularity” become hard to precisely quantify. Pretty much everyone is aware of both Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift. Some are fans of one. Some of the other. Some of both. Some of neither. Some are indifferent. Some people kind of like “Party in the USA” and “See You Again,” but really like “You Belong with Me.” Some people don’t really like Miley, but haven’t heard enough of Taylor’s music to make a judgment. Etc. Suffice to say, comparing their popularity is complicated.

So I guess I’m not trying to make a quantitative claim about popularity; I’m more concerned with their cultural status.

A celebrity’s “cultural status” is the value they have to us—the common folk—as public entities. For example, if I say something like, “Man, I hate my boss. He’s dumber than Lindsay Lohan!” then you know to think, Oh, he thinks his boss is really stupid, because Lindsay Lohan is perceived to be a very dumb celebrity, despite the fact that I myself know little to nothing about Ms. Lohan, and certainly not enough to make a proper assessment of her intelligence. Similarly, if I say, “That guy’s girlfriend is trashier than Paris Hilton,” then you’ll (accurately) conclude that Wow, his girlfriend is VERY trashy. I’m not saying these perceptions are inaccurate, just that their accuracy is secondary to the signals they’re supposed to send.

Somehow, despite all of their similarities, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift send totally different signals. Taylor Swift is generally perceived to be innocent, sincere, sweet, kind, naïve and down-to-Earth. Miley Cyrus, however, is perceived to be a vapid, slutty, shallow, ignorant, oblivious product of the Disney machine, who doesn’t deserve her fame. So, despite the fact that they both have their songs played on the radio at a similar rate, and they both regularly perform on TV, Swift is better-liked than Cyrus; people view her much more favorably. In fact, one website voted Miley the worst celebrity role model of 2009. The worst! She finished ahead of Kanye West, for fuck’s sake!  

I’m not saying that there aren’t reasons for this. If you Google “Miley Cyrus controversy,” you will get results about Miley stripping, pole-dancing, making fun of Asians, making fun of gays, taking inappropriate photographs for magazines, and not dressing her sister appropriately for Halloween (as if that is somehow her responsibility). If you Google “Taylor Swift controversy,” you will pretty much only get stories about Kanye—a controversy in which Swift was the most innocent of victims.

The problem with this logic, however, is that all of Miley’s “controversies” are pretty mild in actual fact. Her “stripping” photos didn’t reveal anything that wouldn’t be revealed in a bathing suit (not that I’ve ever seen them or anything). Contrastively, Vanessa Hudgens had multiple photos leaked of her naked, and her reputation is more or less intact, despite appealing to the same crowd (although she did do “Sneakernight,” for which I would forgive War Crimes). Her “pole-dancing” really stretches the definition of “pole-dancing”—it’s more like “dancing in the vicinity of a pole.” Compare her “pole dance” with this one, for example. The worst thing she did was take some stupid pictures making fun of “Asian eyes,” but it’s not like Taylor Swift hasn’t taken some stupid racially insensitive pictures of her own. They’re young girls; they do stupid things—we can let these things go.

It’s not really true, then, that Miley’s behavior has been so deplorable. People are just more keen, for some reason, to latch onto her peccadilloes than they latch onto Swift’s. This is really an effect of our different perceptions of the two figures, not its cause.

To get at the root of the issue, I decided to turn to the only die-hard Taylor Swift fan I know: my sister. My sister has been right on occasion, and I figured she was closer to the situation, so I asked her why people like Swift more than Cyrus. She said a lot of things, including “Miley’s obvs a skank,” and “I hate her,” but she said at least one thing that seemed relevant: “Taylor just seems very genuine and honest. I just think it’s a quality that she has, where you just want to protect her.”

This seems pretty clearly true: It’s hard to come up with a public figure who is seen as more wholesome and innocent than Taylor Swift. Why? Part of this perception comes from her lyrics. The fact that she writes her own songs—and is often very forthcoming about what (and who) inspired a song—seems to point to a heart-on-her-sleeve vulnerability.

Of course, Miley Cyrus writes most of her own songs as well.* That qualifier of “most,” though, is very important. A few weeks ago, Cyrus gave an interview in which she was asked which Jay-Z song she had in mind in “Party in the USA” (for those unfamiliar with the song, one of the lyrics simply goes: “And a Jay-Z song was on, and a Jay-Z song was on…”). Her response: “I don’t know. I didn’t write the song.” She also went on to say that she had “never heard a Jay-Z song” and that she “doesn’t listen to pop music.”**

*Although I suspect most people don’t buy that her input in the creative process is all that substantive.

**The fact she used “pop music” to describe Jay-Z upset some people, but to me it just signals that she was using “pop” broadly, in a way that would comprise most “popular” acts. But the fact that she was using the broad definition and STILL claimed not to listen to pop music is very intriguing. I like to think that when Miley’s in private, she listens exclusively to experimental jazz and math rock, but she probably just means country music.

Now, a lot of people didn’t like this answer. Some even called it “self-destructive.” At first, even I was unsettled. But really, why? It’s not a secret that she didn’t write the song. For some, this is somehow a sign of dishonesty. But that’s fucking ridiculous. “Party in the USA” is literally a song about partying in the USA. There is no other way to interpret it. That sentiment is so broad and inclusive that no one writer can have domain over it. Accusing someone of being dishonest for singing it without writing it is like accusing someone of dishonesty because they didn’t write the Happy Birthday song. It’s not a song about Miley’s personal taste; Jay-Z and Britney are picked because they are popular acts (who happened to have tours and albums coming up when the song was released) who are likely to be played at parties in the USA.

What I suspect upset people the most is how honest she is in her answer. She doesn’t stammer or stutter or feel trapped by the question; she just tells the truth, because she doesn’t find it embarrassing. People are disturbed by this frank admission of something pop stars aren’t supposed to admit: that their songs are not personal expressions, but embodiments of clichés.

One of the more interesting, if unknown (for good reason, it’s a bad song), Miley Cyrus songs is “East Northumberland High.” The song is basically about a high school sweetheart she has outgrown. The refrain goes, “Just because I liked you back then/Doesn’t mean I like you now.” When this song came out, she was 14. In other words, she was singing a song about someone she had grown apart from after high school before she would have completed her first year of high school. The fact that the song is so obviously not true for the singer matters less than the fact that it expresses some simple sentiment that an audience can relate to.

Even the songs she writes are like this. She was writing songs about guys who fail to notice her and hanging out with her girlfriends while she was a star of one of the most popular shows on TV. This would be like me writing an album of songs about what it’s like to grow up in the African wilderness.

The fact that Cyrus is so obvious about this disconnect—that she doesn’t even try to hide it—must bother some people. It makes them feel like she is disingenuous, or even manipulative. At the very least, it makes them feel like she is a pawn of the Disney company or Hollywood Records, who could easily be replaced by some other pre-teen with a mediocre voice and a fetish for Jesus.

On the other hand, Swift’s songs strike people as much more personal because they seem to actually describe her life. But it’s a little silly to claim that her songs are any less generic than Miley’s. Cyrus has a song about partying in the USA; Swift has one about a boy she likes. Cyrus has a song about a girls’ night out; Swift has one about a really bad breakup. The fact that some of the stories Swift writes about are based on her actual experiences only obscures this fact—just because you were once in love doesn’t make the line “you’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess” any less bland. 

It’s also just as absurd for Swift’s fans to get the impression from her songs that her life is like theirs. It’s true that some of her songs were written prior to her fame, but in the last four years, her life has changed radically. She’s dated a Jonas Brother and someone from “Twilight.” For many of her fans, that probably seems like a perfect fantasy world.

I’m not trying to say that Cyrus and Swift are trying to deceive their fans or pretend that they are something they’re not. They’re only doing what all artists do: trying to make personal expression relatable and compelling to others. They’re just doing it in a very simple and superficial way, as is pop music’s tendency (here pop music being defined narrowly). This generally leads to clichés.

People like Taylor Swift because she seems to live the cliché. She is innocent and wholesome and completely unaware that the sentiment of “You Belong with Me” was trite when it was the plotline of the first season of Dawson’s Creek. Miley Cyrus, though, seems not only aware of this, but okay with it. And people find this manipulative and dishonest, and assume that Miley is a pawn or an act.

I, for one, think it’s more honest. It’s very hard—though not impossible—for me to believe that Taylor Swift is as naïve and enthusiastic as she seems. It’s much easier for me to accept that Miley Cyrus doesn’t like Jay-Z, but is willing to sing about him because other people like him. And what’s wrong with a singer who wants to appeal to our tastes?

Did you know SoapNet airs 54 hours of teen drama each week?

(8 hours per weekday X 5 weekdays) + (7 hours per weekend day X 2 weekend days)

40 + 14

54!

Add in the 3 hours each week we get on The CW, and that’s a whopping 57 hours of teen drama goodness in a seven-day period!

This includes Beverly Hills 90210, The O.C., One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl and 90210.

Imagine if we could add in Dawson’s Creek!

Some might call this teen drama overload.

I just call it bliss!

I miss Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There’s a great song for all the Buffy fans out there called just that. I miss Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There’s a line in the song  that talks about the cast and it goes, “I think about them often, like a friend who moved away.”  I’d be lying if I didn’t ask myself from time to time, what would Buffy do? Or how would Xander handle this situation?  To be honest, I really like that song.  It’s not like it’s amazing or anything, but it’s open and very revealing.  Most Buffy fans are smacked down for loving this show because the main character is called Buffy.  But it’s my favourite show of all time.  How I Met Your Mother runs a good race, and is certainly in my top 5.  Here’s how it pans out for me TV wise.

5. Supernatural
4. Lois & Clark
3. How I Met Your Mother
2. Dawson’s Creek
1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer

But I keep coming back to that line. I think about them often, like a friend who moved away. So I started thinking about the friends who’ve moved away.  The real ones.

Last night, I went through some old pictures and yearbooks.  It was one of those nostalgic nights where quotations & faces were scattered across my bedroom floor and I was the piece connecting it all together.  I watched an old video of some of the footage I shot & cut back in college.  And then I remembered.  I was the one who moved away.  I was the one who uprooted my life and moved downtown into the city, where suburbanites dare not follow.  I know that time goes on and things change and all things pass away. I just realize that the thing that changed the most was me.

Somewhere along the way, I guess I grew up.  I moved away from all the things that kept me a child and, just, grew up.  Which is weird to say because I feel the same.  But the greatest link to our past is often from our friends.  So I got off the floor and moved over to my computer, pulling up my e-mail contacts.  I found some of those people who made a real difference at difficult times and wrote to them.  I won’t add their names because that would be wrong, but they know who they are.

They’re the people I don’t talk to any longer.  And the people who meant a great deal to me at some point and are now gone.  They’re people like you, who read my blog effortlessly every day and I’m not sure who you are or why you read, but I’m glad that you do.  You bring a sense of urgency that forces me to write.  And I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that.  And because of that, you’ve become a part of me, even now,  36 entries into this daily opus of everyday living.  So again, thank you.

I miss Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And I guess I miss that boy-child I used to be before I got a life and grew into the man I am this morning.  It’s funny.  You make plans your whole life to grow up, and when it happens, it surprises you.

“Never fear growing old; there are many who have never had the privilege” Anonymous

• Be sure to check out The CW’s site for all the new video content this week.
• We don’t have ratings yet for last night’s One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl as Nielsen (the company responsible for them) had technical difficulties today.
• The CW Source has podcasts for last week’s OTH and GG.
• MTV has an article on the Blake Lively (Serena, Gossip Girl) feature in Nylon.
• Gossip Girl and 90210 are included in TVGuide.com’s sweeps roundup for this week.
• The Los Angeles Times has a spoilish interview with Jessica Stroup (Silver, 90210).
• PEOPLE.com has a short blurb on the Silver storyline in tonight’s episode.
• EW.com has a spoilish interview with AnnaLynne McCord (Naomi, 90210).
• AdAge has an article on 90210’s partnership with Ford for the Warriors in Pink campaign.
• Modern Salon has an article on copying 90210 hairstyles, but only includes Stroup and Shenae Grimes (Annie).
• Kellan Lutz (George, 90210) said he turned down the lead role in Twilight.
• In an article on Heather Locklear’s return to Melrose Place, 90210 is mentioned a bit. And this one mentions Laura Leighton (Sophie, Beverly Hills 90210).
• E! Online has an interview with Jennie Garth (Kelly, Beverly Hills 90210).
• In the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, McCord’s Naomi is made their list of Top TV Bitches. The EW.com version also includes: Brenda (Shannen Doherty, Beverly Hills 90210), Julie (Melinda Clarke,  The O.C.), Busy Phillips (Audrey, Dawson’s Creek) for her role in Freaks & Geeks and Jessica Walters (Tabitha, 90210) for her role in Arrested Development.
• There’s been conflicting reports that The CW will air the remaining episodes of The Beautiful Life, which starred Mischa Barton (Marissa, The O.C.).
• PEOPLE.com has an interview with Nikki Reed (Sadie, The O.C.).

T.V. reruns and tv on dvd have made it possible for people to watch any show produced almost since the beginning of programming at their leisure. Such channels as TV Tropolis have made it their business to air nothing but reruns. And for myself personally, tv on dvd is a huge obsession. But that is not what this post is about… today the focus is Dawson’s Creek.

I bring this up because it recently came to my attention that the above mentioned channel plays reruns of Dawson’s Creek everyday at 1pm (why must I be a school?!) and it got me thinking about teen dramas. It seems to me that every teen drama has a specific generational appeal. Now, I am of the Gilmore Girls’ generation, and I will defend the excellence of that show until I die, while Dawson’s Creek represented the group of kids before me. But after the show ended, many years after, I began watching reruns and fell in love with the show. It has so many good things going for it, I mean the show itself was created and written by Kevin Williamson (creator of the Scream franchise). There is the show opener, a song everyone can identify. And the dialogue, the characters all talked in a very high brow manner, and I feel justifiably represent the bottom end of Generation X.

But why are teen dramas and Dawson’s Creek important? They are a reflection of their times. When you go back and watch these show,s the pop culture references, the love you had for the cute boys on the show, the clothing, they all bring you back to a time when you were facing the same challenges as the kids on tv. Not every plot was realistic, but I feel this show and Gilmore Girls was in a way, moreso than shows now like Gossip Girl and the new 90210. However, it could also be that I have outgrown the ability to understand the teen drama because it is not representative of my current life experiences. But, this is why I am obsessed with them, because although your highschool years are short, and better left in the past, they remind you of a time when life was idealistic and full of possibility.

That aside, I will always stand by W.B. teen dramas. And right now, I hear the Dawson-Joey-Pacey love triangle calling my name. Da da daa da da daa…

Here is a little finale montage to make the day better.

There is nothing better than I good montage… I buy in everytime. I feel tingly all over…

It all started last year when I was walking through the electronics section of Wal-Mart. Not looking for anything in particular, I do a double take when I see this:

Yes, Season 1 of Dawson’s Creek for $13.88. I’m thrown back 10 years when it first aired on the now defunct WB (oh the good ‘ol WB). Remember this? Don’t mind the Portuguese subtitles…

I could not resist at $13.88 so I bought it– my first TV on DVD purchase. The familiarity came rushing back as i went through the Dawson-Joey-Jen-Pacey saga. Of course when it ended i was left wanting; the ever dependable capitalistic drive left me searching for Season 2. I couldn’t find it most places and the places that did carry it were selling for $40-$50. Off to eBay (always successful) and found a copy for $15. That was many months ago and I’ve been going through it quite slowly. I’ve only been watching on and off as life got busier and the nostalgic novelty was wearing off.

But, last week I was walking around in BestBuy and guess what I saw? Every single season of Dawson’s Creek… for $17. Yes, I did it. I had myself a $50 splurge and grabbed Seasons 3, 4, and 5!  Mind you, I stopped myself from buying the final Season 6 and left it on the shelf. Moderation, right? Ha!

Now I am well stocked and I have a lot of teenage angst to go through…

i was in such a state of melancholy this weekend. so while i tried to be productive, i got sucked into my old dawson’s creek dvds. joshua jackson can always make my day better <333.

With the Paley Center’s “Dawson’s Creek: A Look Back” panel and the release of “Dawson’s Creek: The Complete Series,” I’ve been on a DC high the past week and a half.  Imagine my delight in finding someone who was not only just as enthusiastic but also chock full of insider stories only true fans like TDW readers could appreciate. And when you combine that with the fact that this guy is also partly responsible for introducing Beverly Hills 90210 to the world, well, that pretty much makes him a teen drama god.

After reading all the DC and 90210 goodness executive producer Paul Stupin shared with me, you’ll never want TDW’s stroll down memory creek to end!

TeenDramaWhore: How was the Paley Center panel?  How did it come about?

Paul Stupin: It came about for two sets of reasons. The first was that there are a  lot of die-hard Dawson’s supporters and fans out there that could support such a event. And the second key element is Sony is planning to issue this monumental all-seasons of Dawson’s DVD collection.

TDW: Yeah! It came out yesterday and I went to three different stores and finally found it!

Stupin: I just think it’s the coolest thing ever. So it was a good opportunity to call some attention to the DVD collection while at the same time having an event for the fans. It was really fun for me because when I did Dawson’s, I look back on it as a very special and rewarding time in my life and to be able to talk about it and see some cast members and see Kevin [Williamson, creator] again was just a blast.

TDW: I’m sure. I wish I could’ve been there!

Stupin: Yeah, you would’ve liked it!

TDW: Oh, I’m sure. Well let’s go back even further, to 1997-1998, and Kevin Williamson comes to you with this idea to make this semi-autobiographical show. What made you come on board?

Stupin: Well, that’s not exactly how it happened but I can tell you. I had read an early draft of this film that he wrote. At the time, it was called Scary Movie but that was going to turn into Scream and they used the original title for something else. I had read a draft of that and I had really responded to the writing. One of the things I loved about it is not only did it have some smart thrills and chills but it also had this great sort of teenage/20-something dialogue. I just loved his voice and I loved the different perspectives that he had brought to the horror genre so I pushed really hard to his agent for Kevin and I to sit down. Originally, I wanted to run two areas by him. The first area was sort of a younger X-Files-esque kind of show and the second one was just a really smart, young ensemble sort of show that could tap into younger characters’ voices. I had ran programming at Fox, so the idea of doing a family show was kind of not on the board because Fox had Party of Five. So we started to talk about potentially doing a show about a number of younger characters who live on the same street. Then Kevin sort of went away and came back and sort of pitched to me a bunch of characters living on the same creek, which, of course, was semi-autobiographical. What made that so interesting is that it specified the idea and made it something unique and took us to a place I had never seen before. And the other thing that made that original pitch so exciting was the characters. He pitched to me the characters of Dawson [James Van Der Beek] and Joey [Katie Holmes] and Jen [Michelle Williams] and how that triangle would work. And then as we were talking about that, we came up with the idea of incorporating another character into the mix who could be a confidante for Dawson and that’s how the character of Pacey [Joshua Jackson] originated.

TDW: I think you really hit it when you said the show was unique. There are a couple of specific things that people are still talking about today and they really want the inside details of how it happened. I know you guys went over a bit of this at the panel but I’d love to hear it from you yourself.  So if we can just go over a couple of different storylines, I’d love to hear what you guys were thinking and the genesis of those. So the first one is in season 2 when we have Jack [Kerr Smith] announce that he’s gay [Episodes 2.14 & 2.15, To Be Or Not To Be... & ...That Is The Question].

Stupin: I think there were two reasons for that. The first reason is it was a great way to integrate in a gay character on our series and to do it from the perspective of the kids we’d come to know and love on the show from the get-go. So the thought of involving Joey in a relationship with Jack and seeing that relationship take a completely unexpected turn and then understanding the emotional impact it would have on Joey’s character, and what it would do to Dawson and Pacey–all that seemed really interesting. And at the time, the thought of integrating a gay character and following that journey seemed really powerful and a way to tap into a whole set of emotions that would make our show even more memorable. One of the things that I love about Dawson’s is that it sort of wore its heart on its sleeve. Not only did it capture the voices and that sense of teenage yearning and teenage love and first-time love, and the power and the strength of all that, with love comes heartache as well in many stories. I think it enabled us to tell a really emotional and powerful story for a character that we’d really come to enjoy in the form of Jack. So that was one element to it and I think for Kevin it was a very personal story as well, and it was a way to again put a whole different perspective on the teen ensemble drama in a way that it hadn’t been done before. The second element to it was the fact that when Joey started that relationship with Jack, it was not going to go on forever. The key relationship in our series was what was going on between Joey and Dawson and Pacey, so the Jack character, that romance, was ultimately going to come to an end. And I think there was the thought of what a powerful way to see the relationship head south when the character starts to realize an insight into his own sexuality.

TDW: Going back to the Dawson-Joey-Pacey relationship, I read in Jeff Stepakoff’s book “Billion-Dollar Kiss” that Greg Berlanti–whom I adore–was the one to suggest putting Joey and Pacey together. I was wondering how accurate that story was in the book.

Stupin: Well, at the top of every season, we’ll sit and we’ll talk about [our plans]. We take a couple of weeks and we talk about each character and where we were going and what the sort of macro-issues were that we want to cover over the course of that particular group of 22 episodes. And Greg was definitely a part of that and the thought  of telling sort of a whole Joey-Pacey romance did in fact come out of that, absolutely. But I think you can go back, you can look at the pilot and you can look at the chemistry–and I did, in looking at the pilot last week–you can look at the chemistry between Joey and Pacey and you just know they’re sort of two peas in a pod and sooner or later that element of the triangle is going to get explored. So it’s definitely true what Jeff had in the book but I think that Greg was building from the seeds that were established in the original conception of the show, to tell you the truth.

TDW: Right.  Going to a more somber note: this probably came early on for you guys given how you plan the season but a lot of people were really surprised and devastated when in the 5th season Mitch [John Wesley Shipp] died [Episodes 5.03 & 5.04, Capeside Revisited & The Long Goodbye].

Stupin: Yes.

TDW: I’m wondering what the idea for that was. We never knew if it was casting reasons or storyline-dictated.

Stupin: It wasn’t really casting issues. The thing with Mitch was every year we would figure out a way to have 1 or 2 sort of emotional stories between Dawson and his mom and dad. In the first season we had all that great stuff with her affair with a newscaster. That was just sort of natural. The second season we have the story with mom and dad trying the open marriage, and it’s arguable as to how memorable that actually was. It seemed like such a fresh idea. I’m not sure that it translated quite as well as the idea initially seemed. And then after that, when the inter-relationships between the teenagers grew ever-more prominent and people became much more invested, it felt like the parents–though still important–were not quite as much a part of the storylines. So that’s when we would always try to include them, to have them in different things, to have great sort of Dawson-mom, Dawson-dad scenes but I think we were straining a little bit. And I think that when we got to the point of deciding the fate with Mitch, it seemed like we weren’t using him altogether that much in the series, in the seasons. We were using him but we weren’t using him in a huge way. There weren’t any financial or casting considerations. It really did come from the creative angle, in terms of how would it affect Dawson’s character if in fact this happened to his dad, and exploring that, and exploring the unexpected tragedy of it seemed like another way to really heighten the exploration as to who Dawson was, so that’s basically where that came from. And I remember talking to John Wesley and mentioning that the one thing that this would provide is that it was going to take the Dawson-father storyline to a really heartbreaking sense of conclusion and, at that point, we weren’t using him as much as we had in the past.

TDW: How does that contrast, then, to the decision in the series finale [Episodes 6.23 & 624, All Good Things... & ...Must Come To An End] to have another death and this time it be Jen?

Stupin: It was so interesting last week; it came up that in a way it was a great book-end for the series. It frankly never occurred when we were talking about the beginning or the end of the show but one could argue that the series began with a catalyst and that was the arrival of Jen. And the series ended with a catalyst as well, and that was the departure of Jen. And the one thing that I think that it did is it really brought a sense of emotional resonance and power to that final episode, because one of the things with a final episode you want to be able to do, you want to be able to end a series in a satisfying and emotional and interesting way. And if we essentially had the last episode in history for Dawson’s Creek, we could talk about and we could explore issues of mortality involving some of our characters. Then when we talked about it, if we were going to be dealing with the characters’ mortality, she seemed like the most natural character in which to explore that.

TDW: Going back to the catalyst idea, it could be extended that that was really what it took for Joey to finally make up her mind between the two boys.

Stupin: Yeah, I think a little bit. I think the interesting thing was the series sort of ends twice. It ends in the episode before then [Episode 6.22, Joey Potter And The Capeside Redemption] where we get the sense that finally Dawson and Pacey are going to be friends and Joey did actually get to Europe. And I think that had a sense of closure. Then we took it another step and went to a sort of even more sort of larger-than-life ending of exploring who she was going to end up with. I think that was the big question: who was she going to end up with? And I think that that was handled pretty well, too. Like I personally love the thought that what this show was really about was not the romance of Dawson and Joey but about the strength and depth of that friendship and how that friendship was going to exist forever.

TDW: So if you had to answer the question, in your heart of hearts, do you think Dawson belongs with Joey in a platonic, friends soulmates sense and Pacey in the romantic soulmate way?

Stupin: In my heart of hearts, I think we ended it the right away. I think that what she did have in the romance with Pacey was as powerful as the friendship with Dawson. And I think that we were able to come up with a sense of satisfying closure for both of them. ‘Cause I will tell you, weirdly enough, when I was looking at The Sopranos–I’ll weirdly liken it to the conclusion of The Sopranos, at least from my weird perspective, because I was a fan of that. I like to think, in my mind, that Tony Soprano is still out there–maybe it wasn’t going to last forever, but maybe he’s still out there with his family, still dealing with the issues and still dealing with all the balls he was juggling. And in my mind, I like to think that Dawson and Joey are still out there in our alternate TV universe, still communicating with each other and still sharing the inner-most aspects of their hearts and still dealing with their friendship as adults, and that Joey and Pacey still have that romance. Because I feel like what we were able to come up with was, for me, an emotionally-satisfying conclusion for both stories which doesn’t let anyone down. And I know there are people who think Dawson and Joey should’ve been together romantically and I totally understand that point of view but I think we did the right thing.

TDW: Well, as a Joey and Pacey fan, I completely agree with you!

Stupin: Well, I can tell you this: that decision wasn’t made until the last hour was being shot and so if you look at the first hour of that final two-hour, I think at that point we were leaning toward her ending up with Dawson and so there are a few, I think, little cues–for the life of me I don’t remember exactly–that were set up to lead us in that direction and then, frankly, in the last hour, when the last hour was being shot–because it wasn’t shot as a two-hour; it was shot as two separate 1-hours–that when we came up with that conclusion, it caused us to shift things around a little bit. So I’ll tell ya, we were undecided up until the very last minute ourselves.

TDW: Wow. Well, switching gears slightly, you spoke about Dawson and the way he would communicate with Joey. Going off that, both Kevin Williamson and James Van Der Beek are on Twitter these days. I was wondering, had the service existed when the show was on the air, how do you think Dawson would’ve used it, if he would’ve used it? As I said, They’re both on it now, and Dawson was very much a storyteller.

Stupin: Well, I think Dawson might’ve used it to express his emotions. I think he might’ve used it as a shorthand way of communicating with both Joey and Pacey. It’s certainly easier to communicate things to someone by Twitter than it is necessarily in real life. He might’ve, at some point in our storytelling, he might’ve used it to express something that he might not have been so willing to express in person.

TDW: When you look back on the show and the television landscape then and now, what do you think the show’s legacy is?

Stupin: You know, I think for me it’s–well, first of all, I’m so proud of the show. I think the characters were amazing. I think their stories were amazing. I think the quality of the writing, the quality of the direction was–of course I’m biased but I think it was just top-flight. And I really do think it took the young adult teen genre and elevated it from just a niche kind of show to something universal and iconic. I think adults could look at it. When we were doing it we never looked at it as just a teen show.  We looked at it as just a smart, interesting, relationship show that happened to deal with teenagers and though our core audience was teenagers, it was written for everybody, for people in their 20s, their 30s, their 40s. And I really think it managed to transcend all of that and bring an element of quality and exploration to the genre that really took it to the next step.

TDW: Do you have a favorite episode or storyline?

Stupin: You know, I’m so biased. It’s like trying to pick if you have 120 kids which one’s your favorite. But I think for me there are certain sort of moments that I love. There’s certain episodes, like the pilot because it introduced us to that world, and I remember so much of it almost like it was yesterday. The first season-ender when Joey went to visit her dad in prison, I loved that. I loved the detention episode [Episode 1.07, Detention]. A lot of them are some of the original ones. But then I think I love the episode when they graduated high school [Episode 4.22, The Graduate]. I thought that was just sensational. I love the one-hour ender as well as the two-hour series finale ender. I think there’s so many. The episode where they studied and it was an all-nighter [Episode 2.07, The All-Nighter]. The episode where Joey had to enter the beauty pageant [Episode 1.12, Beauty Contest]. I just love all of those.

TDW: Well, conversely, do you have a big regret or something you wish you did differently?

Stupin: Yeah. My biggest regret would probably be, as I think about it–and it was a mistake we made–was the character of Eve. Remember that character?

TDW: Yeah. You guys even have a joke about that in the episode before the series finale.

Stupin: Yeah. I don’t think the first episodes of season 3 really were as memorable as the other episodes. And I think that whole notion of “Is she Jen’s sister? Is she not?”–I don’t think that was that effective. I don’t look back on that run of episodes as my favorites.

TDW: Yeah, I think the fans do agree with that.

Stupin: Yeah, but you know what, we turn it around.  In the middle of that season we turned it around with–

TDW: With Joey and Pacey.

Stupin: Yeah, with Joey and Pacey. And that certainly helped get us back, I think, to our roots.

TDW: Going more to your history, I know you played a bit of a role with the creation of Beverly Hills 90210.

Stupin: Yes, I did.

TDW: What influence, if any, did that show have on Dawson‘s Creek?  If you learned anything from how viewers took to what was really the first teenage show, as Dawson’s Creek is largely considered the next step in the genre.

Stupin: Well, two things. And it’s an interesting question. The first thing: when I hired Darren Star to write 90210, I felt as if his voice was just so unique in terms of his ability to write characters and come up with dialogue and wit that seemed like it would be a particularly good fit if he put into teenager characters’ mouths. So in a way I think that when I read Kevin’s voice, I felt some of it was the same in terms of being clever and sharp and smart and pop culturally-savvy. I felt like I had found another voice who was capable of taking the genre to the next step. So I felt like both Kevin and Darren brought originally a really unique sense of humor and sharpness to their creation of characters and dialogue. So I think there was a similarity there. The one issue that I took away from 90210, that was very effective in 90210, was the mix of issue-oriented episodes and personal inter-relationships. Though, when we jumped into Dawson’s, we veered away from doing the issue-oriented episodes and explored further just all of the great inter-relationships.

TDW: Going further ahead to the rest of the genre and the teen dramas that are on today, do you think Dawson’s Creek influenced them?

Stupin: I’m sure it did, though I can’t say–you know, again, I’m biased. I don’t know. In my mind, I’m undecided as to what the next real step in the genre is after Dawson’s. I’m not sure what it is. I haven’t watched enough of the shows. I hold, of course again I’m so biased, but I hold everything up to the prism of Dawson’s. I don’t know if any of them that have come since have quite represented that cultural milestone that Dawson’s did.

TDW: Do you think Dawson’s Creek would fly on The CW today? Because it’s so different than what The WB was.

Stupin: Yeah. I’m not sure. I’ve often thought would I be able to sell Dawson’s today? Would I be able to pitch that as a series and get it going, and I’m not altogether sure. Because now, when you look at Dawson’s, we sold it off the strength of the characters and off of the strength of Kevin’s voice being so fresh. Now, I think that the networks are looking for slightly higher concepts. So I’m not altogether sure that a Dawson’s would be able to sell today.

TDW: I have to ask, then, why do you think the 90210 spin-off sold?

Stupin: Oh, I see, are you talking about bringing able to bring it back, for instance?

TDW: Well, no, not for it to be a spin-off. But the 90210 concept today is working.

Stupin: Well, I think the 90210 concept–everyone, myself included, has fondness for that original show. The thought of sort of putting two new outsiders into that world and bringing the  show back is a great way to hook people into a whole new group of characters, and I think it was a great idea. The thing with Dawson’s is I don’t know if bringing the world of Dawson’s Creek back with a bunch of new characters would generate quite the excitement. Because I think when you think about the show, you think about Dawson and you think about the very unique 3 characters, the 4 characters we had, and the actors that played them. And I’m not sure if it was brought back again–I certainly wouldn’t want to redo it with a new Dawson or a new Pacey. So the question would be could we go back to Capeside with a whole new group of characters, and I’m not sure we would be able to put together a new group of people as memorably as we did originally.

TDW: Right. You know, they say lightening strikes once.

Stupin: Right. And you know, I’m afraid you always run the risk of–when you make a sequel to a movie that’s not as good, it kind of reflects negatively on the original movie.

TDW: I completely agree.

Stupin: And I like to think of all our episodes as being so special, I’m not sure it’s something you could bring back.

TDW: Well, my biggest disappointment right now is that Dawson’s Creek is no longer on any channel in America.

Stupin: Really? You know, they gotta get on that! Wasn’t it running like forever in the early morning hours?

TDW: It used to be on TBS. When I was in high school, it used to be on at like 10am. And then they pushed it to 4:30am, 5:30am and then it just faded away there and now it’s not on at all.

Stupin: I’m not sure what the design is on that because I always like to know that Dawson’s is out there.

TDW: I know, I know. It saddens me that it’s just not in repeats anywhere anymore in this country.

Stupin: You know what, those things tend to be cyclical. Maybe in the future you’ll be channel surfing one night. Knowing you, you’ll know way before then but maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

TDW: Fingers crossed.

Stupin: Exactly.

TDW: Well, let’s bring it back and finish on today. You’re with Make It Or Break It on ABC Family. Just looking at your career over the years, what is it about Make It or Break It that you’re here now?

Stupin: Well, what I love about Make It Or Break It is I’m a big fan of the genre, having originally developed 90210 and then developed Dawson’s. When I left to become a producer, I never really thought that my first real success would be in the same genre as 90210 because I actually never thought that lightning would strike twice in that genre for me as quickly as it did. But after I ran Dawson’s, you know, for six years, I developed a real love for the genre. And the thing that I love about Make It or Break It is the idea. It’s a fresh idea, it’s a fresh world. And it provides a pretty unique prism in which to explore sort of teenage relationships in a really unusual way. I mean, these girls aren’t normal teenagers. They’re elite gymnasts and there are rules against relationships as they’re pursuing their passion. How do they deal with that? And how do we deal with the same elements of teenage love and relationships and heartbreak but from a whole different perspective? And I love that about it, and I also love the relationships between the main characters and their parents and their parental figures. I think they’re a really organic element to the show and give us an opportunity to deal with really unusual family situations as well. So that’s why I love it. And also the gymnastics is just really cool. It’s a lot of fun just to see the gymnastics.

TDW: Oh, the gymnastics is just phenomenal to watch.

Stupin: So I think that Make It Or Break It is just such a special show. We’ve done 10 episodes and I think it’s just starting to get its sea legs. I think it has a huge successful life in front of it, I hope.

TDW: Well, best of luck to you on that!

Stupin: Thank you!

Come back next Sunday for another exclusive interview!

TDW Interview Index