Decorated director, producer, and writer Kevin Williamson is the genius behind some of Hollywood’s most beloved TV shows and movies, having notably created the teen drama sensationsDawson’s CreekandThe Vampire Diarieswhile penning the screenplays forhorror classics likeScream, I Know What You Did Last Summer,andThe Faculty.With a career spanning over thirty years, it’s safe to say Williamson knows exactly what he’s doing when it comes to crafting captivating stories with engrossing characters.
Williamson is back with a brand-new small-screen hit withThe Waterfront, aNetflixoriginal series that focuses on the Buckley family as they struggle to keep their North Carolina fishing empire afloat after suffering personal setbacks. The show is already making quite the streaming splash, and fans can’t help but wonder whether the colorful family is based on real people or if it’s an entire work of fiction; let’s check out the creative history behindThe Waterfront.
The Waterfront
The Deeply Personal Origins of the ‘The Waterfront’
When it comes to crafting his many Hollywood hits, Kevin Williamson is never one to shy away from using his own personal experiences for a little inspiration. In 2025, the illustrious creator returned to his roots for the crime dramaThe Waterfront.Set in the coastal town of Havenport, North Carolina, the series centers on the Buckleys, a prominent fishing family whoseempire begins to crumble after their patriarch Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany) suffers two heart attacks, forcing his wife Belle (Maria Bello), daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist), and son Cane (Jake Weary) to try and keep the business afloat.
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The Waterfrontis heavily inspired by Williamson’s real-life family backgroundand his childhoodin North Carolina, with the TV titan basing the character of the surly Harlan Buckley on his actual father Wade, who was a hard-working fisherman. Much like Harlan, Williamson’s father “got tempted to do some things that weren’t so legal and got him in some trouble”, herevealed to Netflix Tudumin an interview. However, Wade never ventured into the world of organized crime despite his run-ins with the law, with Williamson declaring, “My dad was a very, very good man. He was a fisherman.”
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Just like inthe knockout Netflix series,Wade was a seasoned fisherman, and his mother Fayee worked at a hotel, and Williamson grew up living and breathing all things ocean-related. Hetold Time.com:“I come from a family of fishermen — not just my dad, but the entire family. Everyone I knew was a fisherman.” When things began to dramatically slow down for Wade in the ’80s due to overfished waters and increasingly strict environmental regulations, the Williamson patriarch struggled to provide for his family as his livelihood began to disappear, backing him into a corner:
“Someone came along and said, ‘If you do this one thing, you may make all this money.’ And it was hard to say no. He got caught, he served his time, he got out, and I graduated.”
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Wade was ultimately arrested for conspiracy to traffic 20,000 pounds of marijuana, serving less than a year behind barssince his arrest was part of a larger-scale sting operation that resulted in the arrest of many dangerous criminals: “They didn’t just arrest my dad. They arrested a whole bunch of people. It was part of a cartel. They were the low men in the operation.” The coastal community was left shaken by the shocking crime, but Williamson knew his father was only trying to help him and his loved ones; he would use this dark and complicated time in his family’s history as direct inspiration forThe Waterfront,revealing to ScreenRant:
“I was inspired by my dad, the greatest man who ever lived, and he was trying to put me through college.He was trying to support his family, and he made a decision. And he ultimately was caught, and he paid the price, and he went to prison.”
Holt McCallany (Mindhunter)had some pretty big shoes to fill when tackling the role of Harlan Buckley, since he was heavily based on Williamson’s actual father, and the actor told Tudum he felt an intense “responsibility” to properly play someone so important to Williamson. “I knew it was a deeply personal story for Kevin and that I had a crucially important part in that story. I really wanted to do the role justice.” Based on the response from audiences and critics so far, McCallany has more than risen to the occasion when playing the complex family man.
Wade passed away before production onThe Waterfrontwas fully completed, but all eight episodes ofthe engrossing crime dramapay tribute to the man who powerfully shaped Williamson’s personal and professional life. The series has steadily climbed Netflix’s Top 10 TV Shows list and currently sits at the number two spot, further cementing Williamson’s status as one of the entertainment industry’s most exciting visionaries. Williamson spoke of his latest small-screen triumph to Tudum and reflected on what his father would think of the finished product:
“I think he would be so thrilled. I’m sorry he’s not here because I think he would love to be sitting here watching Holt play him. I think Holt is the perfect version of what I think he would be even though it’s fictionalized. He carries the swagger that my dad had. He has that sense of humor that my dad had and the dryness.”
