Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series created by Kevin Williamson which debuted on January 20, 1998, on The WB and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. Filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, at EUE/Screen Gems studios and on location around Wilmington, Southport, and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Many scenes were filmed at UNCW, including William Randall Library and Alderman Hall, which served as the facade of Capeside High School. Other college scenes in the fifth and sixth seasons were shot at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. It portrays the fictional lives of a close-knit group of teenagers through high school and college. The program, part of a new craze for teen-themed movies and television shows in America in the late 1990s, catapulted its leads to stardom and became a defining show for The WB. The series ended on May 14, 2003.