And I’ll be running out this morning to buy my copy!
Best 100 bucks I’ll ever spend!
We had a glimpse at the artwork and learned some of the details in September but now I’m excited to examine it first-hand.
Check back later today for more details!
UPDATE
After going to three different stores, I finally found it!
First I went to Barnes & Noble, my go-to store for this stuff, but they didn’t have it and the guy even said there were limited pressings and Barnes & Noble as a whole company was only getting about 100 copies!
Borders didn’t have it either but then I found it at Best Buy.
Given how long it took to me to find a copy and what the Barnes & Noble guy said, I suggest buying it online (assuming you don’t have an urgent need to get it immediately, as I did).
It’s packaged like a scrapbook or picturebook with the thick pages often used in children’s books. Most of the pictures we have seen before either from promo shots or because they were taken as screen grabs from the episodes.
There’s an episode guide for each season as well as pages dedicated to each of the main characters with both a character bio and an a credits list for the actor. The character bios, titled The Life and Loves of _____, were very detailed in terms of both plot and personality for Dawson and Joey, but focused more on personality for Jen and Pacey and more on plot for Andie, Jack and Audrey. Andie and Jack also shared a page while Audrey had her own. Audrey had the shortest blurb, though, and Andie’s wasn’t much longer.
As gorgeous as it looked and as comprehensive as it seemed, I of course found several flaws.
Some of the pages would be for season X but they’d have pictures that weren’t from that season. The episode descriptions were vague (though that’s typical) and the text as a whole suffered from poor grammar and weak writing. But, worst of all, are the factual errors
Call me nit-picky but I have to get these off my chest. They’re kind of insulting since they are obvious errors to fans of the show and really makes you wonder who they have writing these things and checking them.
Here are some of the errors I found:(1) They said Gail and Mitch split because she goes to Philadelphia for a job. Well, she does go to Philly but they split before that because Mitch couldn’t get over her affair. (2) They said Dawson’s rejection drove Joey to Pacey romantically but actually a lot of time elapsed between Dawson’s rebuff and Joey developing feelings for Pacey. (3) They said Dawson broke up with Gretchen but she broke up with him. (4) One of the episode descriptions randomly refers to Jen as Jennifer, even though none of the others do and only Grams ever called her that. (5) They said Joey broke up with Pacey because of her feelings for Dawson but Pacey actually broke up with her and it had more to do with his feelings of insecurity. (6) They said in the series finale Joey finally admits she loves Pacey but she had admitted it many times in seasons past. She was really admitting that she *still* loved him. (7) They said Andie cheated on her college entrance exam but it was actually the PSATs. (8) They said Joey threw a surprise birthday party for Pacey, but it was really his family that planned it and she had no choice but to go along with it. (8) They said Pacey sailed around the world for a year after skipping graduation but it was neither the world nor a year. I forget where exactly his trip went but it was only for a few months. (9) They said Jack dated Toby during his senior year of high school but their first date wasn’t until the prom and they didn’t really start dating until after that. (10) I don’t remember Andie being short for Andrea but I *could* be wrong. (11) They refer to Jen as Jennifer on her character page but use Andie and not Andrea on her character page. (12) They said Jen and Pacey get advice on their love lives from touring musicians but it’s actually Jen and Audrey who do.
Again, perhaps these are really silly things to complain about but, being a journalist, I have trouble settling for less than 100 percent accuracy.
Moving on to the special features, these take 3 forms: a DVD, a CD and some factoids in the book. The book contains a few pieces of both interesting and ridiculously random trivia (Jack was voted best athlete in the senior class poll vs. the population of Capeside is 35,000). There’s also recipes–yes, recipes–from each of the characters, which is completely odd since these were never mentioned on the show. They could’ve had them relate to The Ice House or Leery’s Fresh Fish or Pacey’s restaurant but there’s no logic behind these. The CD contains 5 songs, including the theme song. I know the last song, Five For Fighting’s Superman, was definitely on one of the previously released soundtracks but I’m not sure about the others without looking it up.
The DVD special features include a few deleted scenes and the alternate ending to the pilot, all of which are available on a prior season release (I think it’s season 1). There’s a trivia game called “Final Exam” and I remember something similar being on another season’s set. But these did seem like new questions (based on clips, two of which included One Tree Hill’s Chad Michael Murray in his Dawson’s Creek role of Charlie), some of which were kind of obvious and others that would be difficult for a casual viewer. I, of course, rocked it but will admit I got 2 or 3 obscure questions wrong. I still ended up being a “Bona Fide Capesider” or something like that.
The highlight of the special features was “Creek Daze,” a retrospective with creator Kevin Williamson. There’s also a similar feature on the season 1 set but this was definitely a new interview. Most of the information has been heard time and again and is readily available elsewhere but it’s still a treat to hear it directly from him and seeing the clips mixed in. He mostly talked about starting the show and finding the cast and the flack the show got from critics (both in the industry and parents groups, etc.). But it was the first time (Paley Panel coverage aside) that I heard him address three major decisions: making Jack gay, killing Jen and having the series end with Joey and Pacey back together. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t in tears by the end (mostly from the Jen stuff, but still).
I think I covered everything but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Enjoy the pictures below and keep your fingers crossed for Beverly Hills 90210: The Complete Series!
TeenDramaWhore 
OOH I want it.
Thank-you so much for the in-depth analysis, because I won’t be buying this. I already own the entire series in DVD’s 🙂 …but I am still sad thinking I might miss some special stuff from this boxset :(… And I don’t think you are being nit-picky about the errors. You would think they would get a fact checker for this kind of thing. And Andie was short for Andrea, It think her dad used to call her that, maybe… I know someone did lol. My favorite special feature from my boxsets was the season 3 set’s map of Capeside. I thought it was pretty cool to have an interactive map that really put all the pieces together for me. I always wanted to live in Capeside when I was younger so you can imagine how fun it was to have that 🙂
You’re welcome, Alyssa. I have all the individual seasons (plus the finale) *except* for season 6. But I still bought the complete series (obvious lol) and still want to get season 6. But I understand why you’re not getting both and it makes sense. It’s why I haven’t started a GG or OTH collection–I’ll just get the complete series when they–hopefully–come out. (In a perfect world, I’d get all the individual ones, too, just so I can have the comfort of knowing I have all that’s available.) The O.C. I still need to get in general and for BH90210 I’ve already started my collection with each season as they come out but will absolutely get a complete series, if they do one.
Anywayyy, thanks for the back-up on the errors. They really just should hire a fan to proof these things, and they would catch all those errors and the errors I’ve seen on DVDs for 90210, etc.
I think I remember the Capeside map. I know Guiding Light has (maybe had now) one on their Web site for their town and it was really cool. I think it’s a great idea to give people a sense of how the town’s laid out. I never would’ve guessed, though, that Capeside had 35,000 people in it. I always imagined it being much smaller and I think that’s the impress they gave us.
Well the population could be another error considering that most people that don’t live in small towns don’t realize how small their populations really are.
And I love having the boxsets. I forgot that I have the DC series finale along with the season 6, and if I’m not mistaken the boxset does not include the extended version that the separate DVD does.
I think I went overboard on the shows I have on DVD lol… I have all 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls, all of DC, seasons 1-4 of OTH, seasons two and three of Grey’s Anatomy, and all of The O.C. (Which are the ones that I have watched the most, I think they are a little worn out lol). The first one I got was the first season of DC for a present and it just grew from there lol. But once I realized that I could watch them legally online I stopped, and because I don’t have the money anymore 😦
Season 5 doesn’t have special features, I don’t think, so it’s entirely possible the extended finale isn’t on the season 6 one. I was surprised, though, that the extended version wasn’t a special feature on the complete series set. I thought it would be for sure since a lot of people don’t know about the separate finale DVD. They just redid the DC Web site and it’s not even advertised there.
I love YouTube but other than that, no watching illegally. I just can’t do it. (Not judging you, just saying.) I look forward to the day I can have my own library of books and DVDs. It is seriously my dream!
Thank you so so so much for this! I was just in Target today and saw it and wanted it sooo bad. I too have all 6 seasons and the series finale, and in a perfect world I would have this too. But, I tend to buy EVERYTHING I like on DVD so it’s more practical to save my money for it. Though I have a strong urge to but the boxset of Charmed too. ( 1-7 Gilmore Girls, 1-3 Veronica Mars, 1-8 Charmed- not the book version though :(, 1-4 OC, 1-7 Buffy the Vampire Slayer- boxset, 1-6 OTH, 1-2 Gossip Girl, 1-2 Tru Calling, 1-4 Angel, 1 of Dollhouse and some other odds and ends)
Sad that I am missing some special features however, especially the quiz b/c I LOVE those. I would be just like you very nit-picky with all the pics and facts. Yeah, Andie was Andrea I think her dad said it in maybe one episode.
Sounds dumb that they combined Jack and Andie to one page however, seeing as he was on the show for almost the entire run, and Audrey was on only about the same time as Andie (I’m pretty sure Andie was on longer).
Some of these mistakes are frustrating because they were such key elements to the plot! Overall it does look pretty awesome, and i will OF COURSE be getting it! Andie isss short for Andrea, I remember from an early episode when Pacey found Andie picking up pills for herself, but passed them off as her mothers, saying “we have the same name, Andrea McPhee ” Also, when you mentioned the recipes i remembered i had seen this http://www.dawsonscreek.com/cookbook/ which i thought was completely odd because they never mention a cookbook in the show!
Ang, you’re quite welcome. The Jack-Andie-Audrey point is an interesting one. I was torn between being upset that Jack didn’t make the cover (or his own page) and thinking it was fitting that it was just “the core 4” on the front. A lot of times, and I think this is the case here, shows are just evaluated and “remembered” in terms of their beginning but Jack more than proved his worth. I’d love to know what Kerr Smith thinks! I’m sure he’d give a very PC answer, though.
🙂
No, I said that wants I realized that I could watch them LEGALLY (not illegally)that I stopped buying the DVDs. lol Like The WB website and other sites like that.
All this talk of DC is giving me the urge to pullout my boxsets and have a marathon lol … I used to have one every summer, but I didn’t this year for some reason.
Manda: Thanks for the reassurance on the errors and the Andie/Andrea help. I vaguely remember it now but at first I was like whaaaaaaaaa? I am completely boggled by the cookbook thing now! I’ve spent so much time on that site and never even noticed it. The recipes are directly from there! But it’s still so completely bizarre that, of all the “special features” or info they could give us, they decided to take this random Internet-only thing. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff on that site that never played a role on the show and I imagine tons of fans don’t even know the site exists. So to take something from it, something as random as that and not even give any explanation, and put in such valuable space is just…wow. But thank you for solving the mystery!
Alyssa: Whoops, misread there. Sorry! Do you watch on TheWB.com a lot? I, too, have an urging to watch! It’s been DC overload this week when you consider it’s no longer on TV and really out of the media and I’d love nothing more than to just watch episodes and relive it all. If you did have your marathon, what would you watch?
Well, that is a good question. I always think about that before I decide to do a marathon. I used to just be ambitious enough to watch the entire series, but I no longer have that kind of time and focus, unless I pace myself (which never seems to work lol) I’m sure being a hardcore BH, 90210 fan (which has an overwhelming number of episodes) you probably have marathons where you watch only certain seasons or storylines, much the same for me. I’m thinking about starting a DC love triangle marathon. Which means I will watch all the key episodes pertaining to the epic D/J/P triangle. It will most likely start with the first season ep where Pacey develops a small crush on Joey then move into the more serious season three feelings that developed. I love going back to watch those ones, because everytime I go back I find new reasons to not just accept JP, but actually really love them together 😉
Well, I can’t remember the last time I did a marathon for DC or any of the shows. I guess watching SoapNet all day–weekdays and weekends, mind you–counts as a marathon, though! I can’t imagine watching the entire series at your own discretion. I need a TV schedule to get me through it and keep me focused lol. But I know what you’re saying about watching certain seasons or storylines. The storylines aspect of it applies to me. For all the shows, there’s some sets of episodes that are just must-see whenever they air, so if I were to watch the DVDs, it would be those –but I’d have a hard time narrowing down the list to make it actually doable. The D/J/P triangle as it plays out in season 3 is one of my favorites (I don’t care for the season 1 episode) for DC. As a PJ fan, it’s so great to hear that you’re coming to love them!
wow i just read about this separate finale ending?! I never knew about this, and im kinda peeved that its not on the series boxset! I guess i’ll just have borrow someones season 6 and check it out 😛
Oh no, it’s not a separate ending. It’s just the extended version of the finale–meaning, it contains scenes that were cut/deleted from the original airing. Most notable, IMO: Meredith Monroe’s appearance as Andie. Definitely worth watching if you can get your hands on it!
:O wow, defiantly on the search for that now!
Manda, actually I’m not entirely sure that the extended episode is included on the season boxset, but it for sure is when you buy the separate finale DVD.
Thanks! I’ve never noticed it on the separate finale DVD, but now i’m going to check it out next time i’m watching it 🙂
Could someone please explain to me what the Season Finale extra DVD is? I’ve been trying to do my research on the DC DVD sets and trying to decide whether to get the individual box sets or this one as a whole. Before reading articles I was going for the individuals, but finding out that I could get them all for a lower price and have all of the information sounds better.
If the extended finale DVD is a must have, I could probably just buy it separate. Although, me being a collector of ‘sets’ of things, I might just buy all of it. xD
Regina: On the Series Finale DVD, they have an extended version of the finale (in addition to the cut that aired on TV). In the extended version, the most noteworthy addition (IMO) are scenes with Andie. There’s also an extra Joey-Dawson scene and probably others that I don’t remember. The complete series set doesn’t come with the extended version. Let me know if you have any other questions!