It should not have worked. In January of 1998, the fledgling WB network pulled back the curtain on a new teen drama created by a horror writer and starring four mostly unknown young actors. Despite its challenges, Dawson’s Creek became a proper cultural phenomenon. During its six season run, it spent a lot of that time as a high school version of a “water cooler show,” the type of program that demanded to be seen and talked about the next day among a particular generational cohort that still considers it a preciou touchstone. The tortured love lives of Dawson, Joey, Pacey and Jen made for exceptionally compelling viewing, and there’s a reason the show remains a streaming staple that is constantly being rediscovered and turned into trending topics and memes a full quarter century after it first premiered. Dawson’s Creek stands as all-time great television. This is how it came to be

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