Dawson's Creek

Crime and Punishment - S3-E15

Factual error: When Jack and Andie are talking at the dinner table about her cheating on the PSAT, Jack says, "Do you really want to get kicked out of school for cheating on something that has the world 'Practice' in front of it?" PSAT actually stands for Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, not Practice SAT. This is the same mistake that Pacey made in an earlier episode.

Season 3 generally

Factual error: During the Pilot of Dawson's Creek, Joey mentions to Dawson that they are about to "Start High School" soon, implying they are just entering High School for the first time. When Jen shows up in the taxi for the first time, they also tell her they are Sophomores as well as she. I assumed this must be a High School that begins with Sophomore grade, meaning Middle School in their area must have been 6th or 7th through 9th grade. The entire first two Seasons of the show are their Sophomore Year. But in Season 3, during their Junior Year Jen meets Henry, a "Freshman". He is repeatedly referred to in the show as a Freshman, although technically Capeside High is supposed to be 10th through 12th grade. This makes no sense timewise, as there are no Freshmen at that school. The main characters all started High School as Sophomores. Also-there is a trivia section on one of the DVDs that lists certain classes/teachers the main characters had as Freshman English, etc. But since they had those classes/teachers in the show, they were really Sophomores which further verifies there are no Freshmen at the school.

All Good Things... (1) - S6-E23

Factual error: In the third scene, when Doug stops Jack for speeding, both vehicles in the scene have North Carolina state safety inspection stickers in the lower driver side windshields, as opposed to a Massachusetts inspection sticker (which would be on the passenger side). (00:05:55)

Season 4 generally

Factual error: In the opening credits of season 3 and season 4, when all of them are on the swing, you can see a palm tree in the background. If the show takes place in Massachusetts, why would there be a palm tree? Palm trees don't grow in Massachusetts.

All Good Things... (1) - S6-E23

Factual error: When Jack is carrying Jen out of Pacey's restaurant, she bends her head down. You can see that her now very long, curly hair is real and has a natural part. But this episode was in reality filmed right after the preceding episodes in Season 6, not 5 years later. And in the later episodes of Season 6 Jen had dramatically shorter hair. Although in the context of being 5 years later Jen's much longer hair makes factual sense, in reality it isn't possible that she could have grown her hair out that quickly between the Finale and the episodes filmed before it. So how did she? The shorter hair didn't appear to be a wig. (00:26:20)

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Suggested correction: This isn't an error, it's someone questioning how short hair could have grown long-even if it were the case that here hair magically grew, it's not a mistake! It's also not a mistake to have natural-looking supplemental hair. That is the case here. The part may look natural, but you can see that a great deal of Jen's hair is actually a shorter length, all around her head. No one in their right mind would cut layers like this, because it doesn't blend cleanly and would be a pain to style. When you have layers, you cut them in a way that they move with the rest of the hair, not stand out. However, when you have short hair and you add extensions, this is exactly what happens, and you choose a style where you can more easily hide the shorter hair (like waves), as the stylist did here. When you know what to look for and re-watch the scenes, you will easily see Jen's shorter real hair (about chin length) is supplemented with longer extensions (to roughly mid-chest length). This looks much better than the scenes where the shorter hair is rather lumpily gathered at the back of her head and extended with a faux ponytail.

The Longest Day - S3-E20

Factual error: In the second segment of this episode, there is a scene where Joey bumps into Dawson on a street corner after she has just left the library. As they are talking, there suddenly appears in front of them a large square stone monument which describes the 'North Carolina' battleship. The 'North Carolina' is a large battleship that is permanently stationed at the pier in Wilmington, NC where the show is really filmed. They had to shoot around this large ship constantly, being careful not to let it show as they are supposed to be in Capeside, MA. However in this scene, they accidentally filmed right in front of the large square monument which shows several lines of writing. On screen you can read: "On the west side of the river a little south of the causeway was Beery's Shipyard, where the Confederate ironclad North Carolina." This is apparently in reference to the battle ship 'North Carolina' which is stationed nearby in their location of Wilmington, NC not MA. Oops. (00:16:25)

True Love - S3-E23

Factual error: When Joey is driving the light blue pick-up truck, Doug pulls her over to tell her Pacey is leaving town. Right before she pulls over, in her close-up there is a sticker on the lower corner of the driver's side windshield, which looks like it could be the North Carolina State Safety Inspection sticker (small square decal with a yellow emblem in the center, and blue writing along the top and down both sides of the decal), as opposed to a Massachusetts inspection sticker (which would be on the passenger side). (00:07:25)

The Kids Are Alright (1) - S6-E1

Factual error: When Joey is talking to the Professor, he mentions that her Birthday is the next day. Dawson also helps Joey celebrate her Birthday early at Midnight that night. Clearly this is some time in early Fall, when the Semester first starts at Worthington; probably August or September. But during the Season 5 Finale, Bessie hands Joey her Passport which has Joey's Birthday listed as May 13, 1983. Also, in previous years of the show, Joey's Birthday was never shown to be in the Fall. She didn't even start learning to drive until later in Season 3. (00:07:40)

All the Right Moves - S6-E12

Factual error: When Harley talks Joey into calling Eddy's parent's home in Worcester, Joey picks up the old dorm phone that has a handset cord attached. This doesn't make sense, because since Joey is calling long-distance to Worcester she would be more likely to use her cell phone which probably has a pre-paid plan. The old black phones are standard land lines, that come in the dorms; but the roommates both have cells and they also have a more modern wall phone.

The Te of Pacey - S4-E12

Factual error: When Joey and Pacey go down to the Basement to talk, they catch Dawson and Gretchen kissing on the basement couch. They are lying on the bottom cushion of a couch raised above the floor. But when Pacey is talking to Gretchen about it in the kitchen during dinner, he says something about "Catching her and Dawson making out on the Basement Floor". He definitely uses the word floor, but Dawson and Gretchen weren't down on the floor - they were up on the couch. (00:23:25 - 00:26:05)

The Song Remains the Same (2) - S6-E2

Factual error: Towards the end of the episode when Joey and Dawson are arguing about their relationship, Joey makes a statement that "Dawson bought the Champagne" referring to their romantic time on the movie set earlier that evening. However, when they were having that drink on the porch of 'Dawson's House' on the movie set; Dawson explained to Joey that the Champagne was from a free gift basket, one of many given to Directors before they start production on a new film. Therefore, Dawson never bought the Champagne, he simply stole it from the gift basket. (00:36:45)

Coming Home - S4-E1

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Joey and Pacey have arrived back at Capeside, and are getting things ready to get off the "True Love," in one shot you can see the microphone clipped to the back of Joey's shorts.

More mistakes in Dawson's Creek

Jen: Do you remember when you were ten and your Mom wouldn't get you that candy bar that you really, really wanted? Didn't you ever just... Swipe it?
Dawson: No.

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Parental Discretion Advised - S2-E22

Trivia: Paul Stupin mentions this true story while discussing the show during the narrative for this episode. Once when Joshua Jackson (who played Pacey) was out swimming at night, there was a girl who was caught in some currents. He jumped in the water, swam out and brought the girl to safety. Joshua made the local newspapers as a "hero", and was known around Wilmington as 'the guy who saved the drowning girl'. The show also had a big ceremony on the set, where they gave Joshua a life preserver in honor of his heroic deeds. (00:06:10)

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Show generally

Question: Jack and Andie are brother and sister in the same grade...but does the show ever explain how that came to be? Are they twins or was Andie moved up because she is so smart?

Answer: It's only explained once in the series. Jack says to Andie "I tried to start kindergarten without you", meaning Andie was smart enough to start school early.

Answer: They are not twins (Jack is older than Andie). It is possible due to when birthdays fall in the school calender for non-twin siblings to end up in the same grade. Say that you have to be 5 on Sept 1 to start Kindergarten, you are born on Sept 2, 2000 and your little sister on Aug 30, 2001. Sept 1, 2005, you are 4 years and 364 days and can't start. So Sept 1, 2006, you are 5 years and 364 days and your sister is 5 years and 1 day, and, voila!, you're both in the same grade.

Answer: The writers have said they are not twins and Jack is older. Although they were both born in 1983. In some states, like Massachusetts, it's a district decision when a child under 6-8 can start kindergarten, so there's no age deadline. In January 1988, Jack and Andie would both be 4, turning 5, and the district then allowed Andie to start kindergarten with her brother. It has nothing to do with Andie being smarter or moved up a grade, a point she alludes to in response to Jack saying he tried to start kindergarten without her (s04e04). As a side note, there was talk among the writers about whether to make Jack older or younger and they ultimately decided to make him older. The writers put in an inside joke about that when Andie says she is "definitely the older sibling in this relationship" (s04e04). It's also an inside joke to the fact that Meredith Monroe (Andie) was almost 2.5 years older than Kerr Smith (Jack). Monroe was 18, turning 19, in 1988.

Bishop73

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