The New Kid

"The New Kid" was the seventh episode of the second season of Daria (episode number 207). It first aired on MTV on March 29, 1998.

"The New Kid" was written by Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil.

Summary
After some gentle nudging from Jodie and the promise of web authoring software from her parents, Daria applies to be a photographer for the Lawndale High yearbook, where she meets photo editor Ted DeWitt-Clinton, a previously home-schooled teen who is remarkably sheltered yet savvy in unexpected ways. After some verbal fencing, they each let it slip that they like each other.

The subplot of this episode concerns Ted and Daria convincing Anthony DeMartino to cut Yearbook space for clubs and increase it for the school's charitable works and the like, and the efforts of the other students to restore space.

Daria's Reading Material

 * In the scene immediately after her first meeting Ted, where he said Daria's photographs remind him of Goya's paintings, Daria is shown in Jane's room reading a monograph on Goya.


 * In a subsequent scene, Daria is shown in her room reading Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet while Quinn complains to her of the new yearbook policy to reduce the pages alloted for sports and clubs.

Trivia
After Ted's parents, Leslie DeWitt and Grant Clinton, visit Jake and Helen to complain about Daria's "bad" influence on their son, Jake and Helen refer to the two of them as "hippies" in a derogatory manner. What's interesting about this is that just two episodes ago in That Was Then, This Is Dumb, they were visited by old friends who were still hippies and found themselves missing their own hippie days.

This is the first episode where Daria tries to date someone she has interest in, and without the emotional baggage that she had with Tom Sloane. Very few fanfics have ever presented Daria and Ted becoming a couple, however - for whatever reason, Ted hasn't grabbed people as a potential partner. (Ted and Stacy, by comparison, has been seen a few times)

Daria and Ted are targeted for harassment by Kevin, the Fashion Club, and Robert and his friends. While Kevin and the Fashion Club's plan is to stand there being annoying and Robert's unsure why he needs to harass Daria and the gang end up befriending Ted, this is the only time in the show that bullying rears its head. Normally, Lawndale High seems abnormally peaceful.

Mr Fun's Exciting World of Games is an incredible place, having an immersive virtual reality combat simulator in a suburban town in 1998! Whoa!

“The New Kid” and Fanfic
Ted appears in Wouter Jaegers' Dariarotica comic "Daria joins the triple cross club" where she mentions him as one of three men that really caught her fancy, saying that it was Ted's intellect that made him attractive to her rather than his looks.

On “The New Kid” the Episode

 * “The New Kid” summary at Outpost Daria
 * “The New Kid” transcript at Outpost Daria