Why James Van Der Beek’s Kids Can’t Watch ‘Dawson’s Creek’

You don’t have to wait for your life to be over to hear how James Van Der Beek feels about his kids watching him in the 1998 teen drama “Dawson’s Creek.”

In a pretaped episode of “The View” that aired Dec. 4, the actor shared his thoughts on letting his children see his early acting work.

Guest host Abby Huntsman, a super fan of the show, couldn’t resist asking: “Do you let your kids watch the show?”

“I do not,” he stated. “It’s a great show, I love the show, I think other kids can watch it. I don’t think my kids need to watch their dad pretend to go through puberty. That’s my stance on it.”

Huntsman also referenced the infamous “crying Dawson meme,” a reaction shot from the show that became iconic online. In 2021, TV critic Sarah D. Bunting told Vox that the meme was on the “Mount Rushmore of GIFs.” The image was also previously associated with broken URLs on the Huffington Post (now HuffPost).

Huntsman asked if he uses the meme in his own family texting chains.

Van Der Beek didn’t directly respond to Huntsman’s question, but mentioned a conversation he had with his daughter when she first got a phone. He sent her a meme of himself dancing because he thought it was “cool,” and the actor said his daughter “immediately” sent him back the infamous image of him crying.

Van Der Beek, who was on the show to promote his new special about cancer awareness, recently revealed to People that he had been privately battling colorectal cancer, a diagnosis he kept a secret until then.

“I’ve been privately dealing with this diagnosis and have been taking steps to resolve it, with the support of my incredible family,” the Dawson’s Creek actor said.

He added that he’s currently “feeling good.”

“There’s no playbook for how [to] announce these things, but I’d planned on talking about it at length with People magazine at some point soon … to raise awareness and tell my story on my own terms,” the actor said in a caption on Instagram.