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DC After Capeside High
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Entertainment Weekly
On the Air-the latest news from the TV beat
by Lynette Rice
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Class Consciousness
It's graduation day at Capeside High on May 16, which means producers of The WB's Dawson's Creek will have to find a way to keep Dawson, Joey, Pacey, and Jen together without making it seem like the fourth season of Beverly Hills, 90210, when most of the Hillsters ended up enrolling in California U. "We did not want to suddenly have a world-class university materialize right down the street from Capeside where they magically all decide to attend college," says executive producer Paul Stupin. "It's been very important to Dawson and Joey and others to get out of Capeside when they [go to college]. We're going to be true to that ambition." Since productions's expected to remain in North Carolina for financial reasons and "to keep that sense of East Coast tradition and beauty," says Stupin, expect most of the graduates to end up in the "Boston area," with two of the characters attending the same college (producers won't divulge which one) and Joey (Katie Holmes) opting for a different institution. It's unlikely Pacey will take the scholastic route, but Dawson may have to decide whether or not to attend a West Coast film school. Whatever the final destination, producers won't let a little distance get in the way of Dawson and Joey's on-again, off-again love affair. "Fate may take them in different directions, but it's ultimately quite possible the relationship will survive," Stupin hints. Maybe Dawson will install a ladder in his dorm-room window.