Capeside, Massachusetts
This bucolic Cape Cod community is the setting for the adventures of four impossibly precocious teens—Dawson Leery, Joey Potter, Pacey Witter, and Jen Lindley—as they navigate the often bumpy path that takes them through high school and beyond.
POINTS OF INTEREST: The Leery residence, Leery’s Fresh Fish, Capeside High School, and The Icehouse (for one great season, the scene of so much over-the-top drama).
LIVABILITY: It looks lovely and pleasant, but roiling beneath all that is a Peyton Place-esque mélange of romantic infidelities, inappropriate teacher-student relationships, and a surprising amount of illegal drugs.
REAL-LIFE INSPIRATION: Series creator Kevin Williamson, who says the show is partly autobiographical, grew up in the small coastal town of Oriental, North Carolina.
SHOOTING LOCATION(S): Much of the shooting took place at a state-of-the-art production facility (the largest in the U.S. outside of California) in the seaside community of Wilmington, N.C.; many exterior shots were captured in several neighboring towns. Scenes of cast members at college were shot at Duke University, in Raleigh.
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