Lucky Strike

"Lucky Strike" was the sixth episode of the fifth season of Daria (episode number 506). It first aired on MTV on March 26, 2001.

"Lucky Strike" was written by Peter Elwell.

Summary
The teachers of Lawndale High, unable to reach an agreement with the school district (on whose behalf Ms. Li negotiates) go on strike. Students are still required to attend classes, however, Ms. Li having found substitutes ranging from the senile (Mrs. Stoller, who believes her charges are first graders) to the ephebophile (Ken Edwards, an unself-conscious and irony-free version of Vladimir Nabokov's Humbert Humbert.) After Quinn lets it slip to her mother that Mr. Edwards' attention to Tiffany in class borders on the inappropriate if not indecent, Helen calls the school to threaten legal action. Ken Edwards is summarily dismissed, and Ms. Li press-gangs Daria into service as his replacement.

Trivia
The name "Lucky Strike" refers to a brand of cigarette, Lucky Strikes, as well as to the teachers' strike being a lucky thing for improving the relationship between Daria and Quinn.

"Lucky Strike" and Fanfic

 * The Angst Guy gives Mrs. Stoller a small role in his alternate universe tale, "It Slipped Through My Hands, Like a Shadow, Like a Dream." While still a substitute teacher, she is not at Lawndale High for a strike, but for the special needs of that story's version of Daria, a developmentally disabled teen.
 * Ken Edwards is one of the two main characters, along with Tiffany Blum-Deckler, in the post-canon story Calling Calliope by Dennis. In the story, Ken is still working on the the book and his designs on Tiffany are not sexual.