Memories of Dawson kept Under the Dome

The homage to Dawson’s Creek at Screen gems

Two weeks ago, I was in North Carolina visiting the set of Under the Dome (Mondays at 10/9c on CBS and Global). Some of my younger colleagues, however, were much more excited to be in the same Atlantic-based Screen Gems studios where two other shows had once been shot: Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill.
There was a quest of sorts to find the original Dawson’s sets. Folks at the studio assured everyone that those had long since been struck. There was one artifact still clinging to one of the exterior walls of the studio, however: a Dawson’s mural.

And a sad, washed out little memorial it was. Faded and peeling, you’d have thought the show aired in the ’70s, not from 1998 – 2003. It was enough, however, to provoke a few twenty-somethings on this particular press junket to get up at the crack of dawn on getaway day just to search for some wall in downtown Wilmington where Pacey used to pace or something.
I’m way to old to have any such personal connection to anything that was once on The CW, but I understand the pull of a show that meant something in one’s youth. I’ll never forget the TCA press tour set visit to the Paramount lot, where we were shuttled and marched through the set of Star Trek: One of the Damn Sequels. I think it was the one where there was a Madam Captain and a monkey man as a bartender.
Rob Salem from the Toronto Star was in on that caper and nearly passed out from excitement. Walking the space craft hallways–which was pretty cool–was like a trip to Lourdes for the guy. I took a picture of him standing in Seven Eats Nine’s cubby booth thingy and he started speaking in tongues.
Course, I get all star struck from meeting guys like Dave Thomas from Rocketship 7, or, don’t get me started, Dick Van Dyke. What I wouldn’t do to trip over Rob Petrie’s ottoman. Everybody has their buttons.
As for the Under the Dome sets, the diner, where the interviews were conducted, was pretty cool and realistic, as you can see below.