Good News - Netflix Is Bringing Dawson's Creek Back. Bad News - It's Without Its Intro Song. BONUS - Best TV Theme Songs Ever
Today - "Dawson's Creek" is heading to Netflix — but don't expect to hear the show's iconic theme song, "I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole.
The popular teen drama debuted in January 1998 on the WB and ran for six seasons, launching the careers of Hollywood stars Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson and future four-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams.
Netflix announced Monday that the series will premiere on Nov. 1, but gave fans the heads up that they won't hear its instantly memorable theme song, a Billboard hit for Cole in 1997.
The streaming service confirmed to TODAY that viewers will instead hear Canadian musician Jann Arden’s "Run Like Mad" during the intro.
Arden's song replaced Cole's as the theme in the series' DVD and streaming releases due to rights issues.
Take with me if you will, a trip down memory lane. To simpler times. Before cell phones, and DVR's. When nothing was on demand and life moved at a slower pace, allowing you to take a moment to smell the roses.
It's a Wednesday night. You had an action-packed day at school followed by an extra curricular activity followed by a solid 3-4 hours spent on AOL Instant Messenger talking to the same people you just spent all day with, rehashing what Carson Daly fed you for music videos earlier that afternoon on TRL. Would anybody ever dethrone Limp Bizkit? God those guys were gonna stick around forever.
Your mom needed the phone so chat time was over. (Back then it was the internet or the phone, since both used the same line. Unless you were snooty and had separate lines). But it didn't matter because, again, it was Wednesday night and that only met one thing- Dawson's Creek on the WB.
If you were a teen in the late 90s - early 2000s and you didn't have a crush on Joey or Dawson (female and male respectively) what were you even doing with your life?
(Joey)
(Dawson)
Everybody wanted to pack up and head to Capeside, Massachusetts leaving all their troubles behind. The fictional Cape town couldn't be less Massachusetts if it tried, but that was the beauty of it.
I won't spoil the show's plot for the Stoolies out there whose nuts haven't dropped yet, just know that I highly recommend the show.
Dawson's Creek was Outer Banks well before Outer Banks. And knowing how you ate that show up like you did leads me to believe Dawson's Creek is set to blast off into space once again.
Joshua Jackson's career is about to be brought back to life again for the 4th time. Mark my words.
You can't keep a good man down.
There's just one glaring thing about this return to prominence that's not sitting right.
How do you bring back this iconic show and scrap the theme song?
Are you fuckin kidding me Netflix?
Are you guys suddenly broke?
Knuck up and pay the woman and give the people what they want.
Half of the beauty of the show was hearing "I DON'T WANNA WAIT… FOR OUR LIVES TO BE OVER…. DOO DOO DOO DOO DOOOOOOO…." kick in. It would raise the hair on your neck and put you in just the right mood to watch Joey find a new way to torment Dawson and build up sexual tension like you've never seen before.
Every week.
And this bullshit?
Though Arden's song feels less nostalgic, it turns out it was meant all along to be the "Dawson's Creek" theme. Paul Stupin, one of the show's producers, told the Huffington Post in 2012 that he personally asked Arden to record a new tune for the show in 1997.
But, shortly before the series debuted, the WB released a series of promo commercials featuring various pop songs. WB execs liked the one featuring "I Don't Want to Wait" so much, the network reached out to Cole and made a deal.
Stupin went on to explain that low sales for the original DVD release of the series led Sony to use Arden’s song across all future releases as a cost-saving measure.
Miss me with this horse shit Paul Stupin.
You're cheap and Netflix is cheaper.
Look, nobody and I mean nobody hates BMI and ASCAP as much as I. They're bloodsuckers who rape small and large businesses in the name of the artists and then give the artists a fraction of a % of those monies. But this show means a lot to a lot of people. And we've had a fuckin brutal year. Some good news like this is going to be like giving your kid a puppy with 3 legs for their birthday. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but wtf?
Hell, I'm willing to bet that Paula Cole would even take a discount if you had the balls to reach out to her. Talk about revival. She'd all of a sudden open the ears to a whole new audience, 20 years later. A new audience that would discover her catalog was littered with heaters.
I'm not a genius Netflix, but you're making me feel like one. Figure this shit out. Before the air date of Nov 1. Make it happen.
BONUS -
I'll save the definitive ranking for a separate future blog. But here are my all time TV theme song jams. Let me know what I missed por favor.
Sopranos - "Woke Up This Morning" by Alabama 3
The Simpsons - "The Simpsons" by Danny Elfman
Miami Vice - "Miami Vice" by Jan Hammer
Law & Order - "Law & Order" by Mike Post
The X Files - "X Files" by Mark Snow
The Jeffersons - "Movin On Up" by Janet Dubois
Succession - "Succession" by Nicholas Britel
Gilligans Island - “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island” by George Wyle
Growing Pains - "As Long As We've Got Each Other" by Dusty Springfield
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air - "The Fresh Prince" by Will Smith
Game Of Thrones - "Game Of Thrones" by Ramin Djawadi
Sesame Street - “Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?” by Joe Raposo
Cheers - “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” by Gary Portnoy
Full House - "Everywhere You Look" by Jesse Frederick
Family Matters - "As Days Go By" by Jesse Frederick
The Office - "The Office" by Jay Ferguson
The O.C. "California" by Phantom Planet
And the #1
Golden Girls - “Thank You for Being a Friend” by Cynthia Fee