Greg Berlanti is the one who came up with Pacey kisses Joey. I'm going to excerpt a few paragraphs from the book "Billion Dollar Kiss" page 6

"As the day progressed and the story process did not, moving from constructive to
dialectic to something less collegial, twenty seven year old Greg Berlantii, a former producer's assistant who had just started writing TV the year before said something that changed all our lives: "Pacey kisses Joey

I'll condense the rest....They were against it initially but Berlanti was so impassioned on his idea he swayed the other writers.

So, yes it was Greg Berlanti who broke up Pacey and Andie and it was Greg Berlanti who broke up Hannah and Bright.

The author of "Billion Dollar Kiss" is Jeffery Stepakoff who was one of the new writers. In his opinion the kiss saved the show. Which I disagree with. The new crop of writers had no idea how to follow Kevin Williamson. As I said before the show lost 1.4 million viewers per episode season 3.

I don't think even Berlanti and Stepakoff envisioned Pacey and Joey at the end. They did a pretty good job of destroying that relationship season four. (Promicide)

I think around season four the network decided Katie Holmes was going to be the next IT GIRL and that is when the series swung to her being the main character as she was seasons 5 and 6.

I also suspect the network may have been behind the release of Meredith Monroe who in my opinion was much better looking than Katie Holmes (even thought they tried to hide it) and a much better actress.

I can't even conceive of Katie Homes pulling off the bathroom scene with Joshua Jackson. at the end of season two.

Another great Meredith Monroe scene was when Jack came out to his father. Her, Kerr Smith and the late David Dukes. Nailed that scene, some of the best acting on the show.

The thing is if Meredith Monroe was available when KW needed her for 2 or 3 weeks instead of one day; you most likely would have had a different ending.

Wow, I never knew any of this! I had no idea he was directly involved!

Maybe he did tinker with PJ but never intended for it to be long term. He created a monster essentially!

So true about Katie being the IT girl.

Yes, Kevin wrote a DJ and PA ending and then changed it at the last minute. I remember when those spoilers changed drastically. Excellent point about Meredith Monroe and if she was available for the finale more, we would have gotten our ending. That is very frustrating to think about!

Thank you for the fan fic link!

I will never get over what was done to PA in season 2 and DJ for that matter. I had no idea Berlanti was directly involved, no idea! Now, more than ever, it seems he learned not to do that to Ephram/Amy but of course, slipped up with Bright/Hannah. I remember reading something about him thinking it should have been a Dawson/Joey ending. I had absolutely no idea he played a part in the beginning of Pacey/Joey and destruction of Pacey/Andie. Berlanti was a big part of season 2. He was the reason in many ways that we received such amazing Pacey/Andie scenes. Then he throws it all away by forcing Pacey/Joey and destroying Pacey/Andie? That sucks so much!

Wow, that blows me away. I had no idea that Greg Berlanti came up with the idea of Pacey kissing Joey. The end of Season Three of Dawson's Creek didn't “save” the show, it ruined it. The way that Pacey and Joey got together and Dawson’s reaction to them getting together ruined all of the characters and the relationships and the friendships on the show were never the same after that. Pacey and Joey’s relationship was based on deception and betrayal, and yet a lot of people bought into it and blamed Dawson and/or Andie for everything. Putting Pacey and Joey together also divided the fanbase and it created a lot of animosity here between the Dawson and Joey fans and the Pacey and Joey fans, and I still have hurt feelings about how hateful some people were to each other and to me personally because of that ill conceived love triangle. I also hated the character assassination that the writers put Andie through, and I hate that Meredith Monroe was written off the show because her character was completely ruined to the point where she was hated and some people here at Fan Forum actually had the gall to write that they should kill her off or have her commit suicide! Needless to say, I went through the roof when someone posted that on the Dawson’s Creek board here when I moderated it! Andie was a much better girlfriend to Pacey than Joey ever was, and she was a wonderful person who had been through a lot, but her character was purposely destroyed in Season Three, as was Dawson’s character. I hated how Joey/Katie Holmes became the IT Girl of the show that everyone praised, because I found Joey to be incredibly selfish and heedless of the feelings of the people that loved her. I also agree that Meredith Monroe was a much better actress than Katie Holmes, and I hated how the show became the Joey Potter hour in the later seasons. Even after all these years, I’m still bitter over what was done to all of the characters on Dawson’s Creek in Season Three to accommodate a Pacey and Joey paring.