Abruptly Amy

Abruptly Amy was a series of nine fanfics, eight of which ran during the fall of 2000. While Kara Wild wrote the initial pilot, she would be joined by C.E. Forman, John Berry, John Takis, Crazy Nutso, Mike Quinn, and Milo Minderbinder for the series.

Background
In late summer/fall of 2000, Kara Wild showed the pilot of "Abruptly Amy" to C.E. Forman, who loved it immediately. As the pilot hinted that eight episodes had been filmed, but never aired, Wild and Forman discussed writing these episodes. Soon Wild began to recruit other well-known writers to the series. The writers of the first eight would be Kara Wild ("A.A. A.O.K" and "A Very Amy Christmas"), C.E. Forman ("Corona, Corona" and "Double in Paradise"), Crazy Nutso ("Windy City Walkabout"), Mike Quinn ("Raiding the Bar"), John Takis ("Hot Head, Cold Fetus"), and John Berry ("Disaster Strikes"). The writers sought to write all of the episodes at once so that they could be "aired" once every week for eight weeks. However, delays on John Berry's part meant that there was a few-week gap between the first four and the second four. The last of the eight, "A Very Amy Christmas," premiered December 2000.

While Wild served loosely as the head writer/show runner, the writers tended to come up with their own ideas. John Berry ran with an "Evil Tom" plotline. Crazy Nutso dragged in several random "guest" characters. C.E. Forman developed a wicked nemesis for Amy, complete with a campy secret hideaway. Otherwise, all writers tried to stay true to the show's over-the-top, cliche-ridden tone. The lengths of the finished fanfics tended to vary, with Wild's being amongst the longest and Berry's being the shortest. Milo Minderbinder, meanwhile, offered to draw "screen captures" for each episode. Each author adopted a silly pseudonym, with Wild becoming "Carrie D. Wildly" and Berry becoming "Shawn Perry." Minderbinder became "Milo Mindbender," who wrote angry notes to "Alan Smithee" over each of his images.

Before "airing" the episodes, Wild created a few promotional advertisements, which she posted on the PPMB. Wild hoped that the promotional ads would stir up interest, but as the episodes appeared week after week, they met with muted interest. Wild and Forman were a little discouraged, having hoped that fan interest would spur them to finish the season.

Outpost Amy
However, Milo Minderbinder's interest was great enough that he offered to develop an "Abruptly Amy" fansite. The joke would be that it was created by Amy Terwilliger, an obsessed fan first mentioned in "In Search of Amy." Modeled after Outpost Daria, Outpost Amy contained the pilot, the making of special, the eight episodes, and the screen captures. It also contained character descriptions (written mainly by Wild and Minderbinder) and illustrations (Minderbinder). Wild created supplemental content for the site, such as a Jump the Shark page, a transcription of an actual T.V. Guide article, and "Amy on Daria." Minderbinder created "Abruptly Amy" products, such as DVD sets, action figures, and play kits. The rest of the site contained Amy-centric fanfiction and artwork.

Minderbinder also wrote and illustrated the ninth episode of the "Abruptly Amy," called "Crouching Lawyer, Hidden Agenda." Although "Abruptly Amy" never developed more than a cult following, it received attention from some unexpected places. One fan added it to the Daria page at Internet Movie Database, where it lasted for several days, until Wild notified them of the mistake. Minderbinder saved the page, and it exists at the Outpost Amy site to the present day. C.E. Forman noted in his interview with E.A. Smith that MTV employees were rumored to have read the fanfics. Some other fans even wrote fanfiction for the series.