Daria (TV series): Difference between revisions

(There are now reports that MTV will be reviving the series with the tentative title of ''[[Daria & Jodie]]''. Please follow the wiki link for updates.)

''Daria'' is the story of Daria Morgendorffer, an intelligent loner in the world of popularity obsessed teenagers who attend [[Lawndale High School]].

Daria faces pressure on two fronts: from her very cute, very popular and very shallow sister [[Quinn Morgendorffer]] and her parents workaholic mother [[Helen Morgendorffer]] and father [[Jake Morgendorffer]], a clueless man with an unfortunately short fuse. Daria's parents want her to be more popular and more outgoing, a path which Daria rejects.

However, the Daria/Tom relationship is not meant to last, not surviving the final season. Daria breaks up with Tom in the final episode of the series, "[[Is It College Yet?]]" This episode has Daria and her classmates graduating Lawndale High School and going into separate ways. Daria and Jane will be going to separate colleges in the Boston area, ensuring that their very close friendship will last even after the end of the series.

Daria was the result of a production edict from MTV president [[Judy McGrath]], that ''Beavis and Butt-head'' needed at least one smart teen and female characters in it. The on-air promo department decided to merge the two demands and create a smart female foil that could tolerate the two eponymous leads. [[David Felton]], with input from [[Mike Judge]] and [[John Andrews]], created the character in the episode "[[Scientific Stuff]]", her first speaking appearance. (As episodes aired out of order, her first appearance was as a background character)

She was voiced by [[Tracy Grandstaff]], who would voice Daria in nineteen different episodes of ''Beavis and Butt-head'' and all of the ''Daria'' episodes. Daria also appeared in most issues of the [[Beavis and Butt-head (comics)|spin-off comic book]], to which Glenn Eichler acted as a consultant. While her behaviour and personality differs from that of ''Daria'' in several instances - she was more willing to volunteer for things, for example (see "[[Walkathon]]"), and [[Beavis and Butt-head issue 1|some]] [[Dear_Diarrhea,_Number_Two|issues]] of the comic had her as a humourless know-all - her intelligence and outsider status was there from the start, and she would also show her sarcasm, craftiness, and mercenary streak in other episodes & issues.

[[Image:dariasketch.jpg|thumb|300px|left|An early Daria design, from the ''Complete Animated Series'' DVD]]

[[Image:janesketchfirst.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Jane's design from the same period.]]

When ''Beavis and Butt-head'' was in the latter half of its run on MTV, [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-garrett-andrews/daria-the-untold-tale-par_b_5449805.htmlMcGrath - who wanted to bring more girls to the network - ordered [[MTV Animation]] to pitch cartoons for a female audience]. Four original pilots would be created by outside creators. MTV also asked [[Glenn Eichler]], who worked on ''Beavis and Butt-head'', to create a spinoff series based around Daria. In an interview with [http://www.avclub.com/articles/mike-judge,13875/ The Onion AV Club], ''Beavis and Butt-head'' creator [[Mike Judge]] said that MTV had mentioned the idea to him and he was surprised to find out they were doing it without his involvement, using some people he wasn't keen on (though he viewed Eichler as a good choice); he believes "I think they were trying to show that they could do something without me".

Production began in 1995. The initial designs and style were different from those of the finished show, more similar to ''Beavis and Butt-head'' in look and tone: the characters had a 'muddier', more comically grotesque look to them. It was then decided to further seperate ''Daria'' from its parent show and to give it a clearer, simpler visual look, in order to appeal to potential female viewers that might have been turned off by the muddy, cluttered-line look of ''Beavis and Butt-head''. [[Karen Disher]], Edward Artinian, and Willy Hartland were placed in charge of character design for the new show and refining the look. [[Susie Lewis]] added input to the character design, usually regarding character clothing and fashion. [[Sam Johnson]] and [[Chris Marcil]], working on the pilot, [https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/10/youre-standing-on-my-neck-the-life-and-death-of-th.html viewed it like working on ''Frasier'']: the smart character leaving the "goofy world" and that her spinoff needed to be more true to her character than the parent show. During production, a planned brother for Daria become [[Quinn]].

A short animated pilot, "[[Sealed with a Kick]]", was created by with Karen Disher as production designer and Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil as writers. The pilot was never aired and was never intended to be a completed cartoon. The animated characters are not colored, with different voices for main characters (like Kevin). Disher's designs of the main characters would further change between the time of "Sealed with a Kick" and the airing of the first new episode, and some parts of the characters were altered: Daria became less proactive in the series, for example.

On the ''Complete Animated Series'' DVD, Glenn Eichler says that developing the characters in the first seasons was "open season" and there wasn't as much planning "as people believe", with the show developing haphazardly. In the same feature, [[Anne D. Bernstein]] said the writers were left to develop "naturally", with little interference from MTV. In interviews with [[Kara Wild]], Bernstein said she had to "make up a ton of stuff" about the ''Daria'' characters for the ''[[The Daria Diaries]]'' book as that type of background material hadn't been created beforehand ([[Peggy Nicoll]] would do the same for [[The Daria Database|the second book]]), and Eichler [http://www.the-wildone.com/dvdaria/glenninterviewsfull.html also stated in interview] there wasn't much forward planning or grand arcs - for reasons of time and money, if they decided on a script, they had to produce it. For those same reasons, the ''Daria'' crew had to go to local drama schools and pick up first-time actors to fill out the voice-acting cast.

Further development came near the end of the third season, when the Daria/Trent plotline (a major part of the show) was ended and the character [[Tom Sloane]] was introduced, leading to Daria having a boyfriend during the fifth year. Eichler has stated that this major change was out of a desire to evolve Daria as a character by giving her a long-term relationship, "and of course it would provide us with some fresh storylines, always welcome after 39 episodes". Tom was first introduced as ''Jane's'' boyfriend, partly for the same reason of creating fresh storylines ("the situation would allow us to explore and test Daria and Jane's friendship").

==Production==

{{quote|I hope that gives you an indication as to how little planning of "season arcs" there actually was.|Glenn, [http://www.the-wildone.com/dvdaria/glenninterviewsfull.html a 2006 interview]}}

Production of each half-hour episode supposedly took ten months to a year, from concept to post-production. According to Glenn Eichler, all of the episodes for a season were roughly created and designed over the same time frame.

Many of the voice artist who provided voice talent for the episodes were found in New York. Tracy Grandstaff (Daria) had been a staff member for the MTV editorial department and had written for MTV as well as voiced characters other than Daria for ''Beavis and Butt-head''. Other actors had roles in local productions in New York City, or were found at high schools in the area, such as [[Jessica Cydnee Jackson]] (Jodie).

[[MTV Animation]] was the production company, and the design and storyboard work was done in the United States. At least during the first two seasons, [[Rough Draft Korea]] did 95 percent of the actual animation. Supposedly, one or two of the Season One episodes were done by [[Plus One Animation]]. In Season Three, animation of the episodes was placed back in control of Plus One Animation, although other episodes might have been done by Rough Draft Korea (or whoever could animate the episodes the most inexpensively). Both Rough Draft Korea and Plus One Animation are based in Korea.

''Daria'' ran on MTV from March 3, 1997 to January 20, 2002. It consisted of five seasons of thirteen episodes apiece, as well as two film-length episodes.

All website material was written by [[Anne D. Bernstein]].

The show was quickly found to be popular. In early 1998, ''The New York Times'' [http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/11/business/beavis-and-butt-head-s-feminine-side.html?scp=2&sq=Beavis%20and%20Butt-head&st=cse reported that] ''Daria'' was one of MTV's highest rated shows, with the network's manager Van Toffler viewing her as "a good spokesperson for MTV, intelligent but subversive", and that MTV had found most audiences responded well to the character. (One of the few audiences that didn't were 18-24 year old males.) The investment company Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum credited ''Daria'' and ''Beavis and Butt-head'' as helping to fuel MTV's growth in the 1990s to a general entertainment network and to encourage other networks to make cartoons like ''South Park'' & ''King of the Hill''. [http://web.archive.org/web/20120417100449/http://outpost-daria.com/media_art19.html ''Teen Magazine''] readers voted Daria for the magazine's "Killer Cartoon" award in February 1999. In a later ''Times'' article [http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/27/tv/spotlight-daria-smart-alienated-and-dating.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm spotlighting ''Is It Fall Yet?''], MTV executive [[Abby Terkuhle]] attributed the success to how Daria "says things that most people just think". and, from what his six year old daughter told him, because the characters "make fun of their parents".

''Daria'' received positive reviews during its run. John J. O'Connor of ''The New York Times'' [http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/03/arts/teen-ager-s-scornful-look-at-cuteness.html wrote of the series' premiere], "With this new series, Daria triumphantly gets the last laugh" and "As far as MTV and ''Beavis and Butt-head'' are concerned, ''Daria'' is an indispensable blast of fresh air. I think I'm in love." Daria received a ratings share between 1 and 2 percent, about 1 to 2 million viewers. Kathy M. Newman [http://books.google.com/books?id=H3USAr6i1e0C&pg=PA186&dq=daria+morgendorffer#v=onepage&q=daria%20morgendorffer&f=false wrote that], although ''Daria'' was "not a huge hit by network standards", it became "a signature show" for MTV: "intelligent and subversive — an unusual combination for prime time television." [http://web.archive.org/web/20120420000911/http://www.outpost-daria.com/media_art23.html Anita Gates for the ''New York Times''] admitted, when giving the show a favourable review, that she wished she'd ''been'' Daria as a teenager.

When the show ended, G.J. Donnelly of ''TV Guide'' lamented, "I already miss that monotone. I already miss those boots. Even at its most far-fetched, this animated film approaches the teenage experience much more realistically than shows like ''Dawson's Creek''." On the same occasion, Emily Nussbaum [http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2002/01/requiem_for_daria.html wrote at ''Slate''] that "the show is biting the dust without ever getting the credit it deserved: for social satire, witty writing, and most of all, for a truly original main character". She particularly singled out for praise that all the characters were heading "to very different paths in life, based on their economic prospects", giving the show an ambiguous end; "the finale is a bit of a classic: a sharply funny exploration of social class most teen films would render, well, cartoonish."

During the show's run, one critic complained that the series was "particularly insidious" because it offered "a corrupt role model" for teenagers. Kathy Newman [http://books.google.com/books?id=H3USAr6i1e0C&pg=PA186&dq=daria+morgendorffer#v=onepage&q=daria%20morgendorffer&f=false disputed] that, saying that the [[Daria fandom]] was "refreshingly sincere" and optimistic. Rather than encouraging nihilism "the show has become a way for dealing with nihilism" and the fandom enabled alienated youths to bond with each other and express creativity.

The characters are still known well enough that [[Crossovers#Drawn Together|''Drawn Together'' could cameo Daria]] (albeit as an "unpopular" character) in one episode in 2007, and that ''Jezebel'' magazine could run an [http://jezebel.com/5550875/an-open-letter-to-heidi-montag-from-quinn-morgendorffer?skyline=true&s=i open letter from "Quinn"] as an article in May 2010. Following the DVD release, Watsky & The GetBand would go on to use Daria as the setpiece for [[A Love Story]]'s music video, complete with some commentary from Daria; internet reviewer The Nostalgia Chick would compare ''Daria'' to the 90s film ''She's All That'' in [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/team-nchick/nostalgia-chick/32202-shes-all-that a review of the latter], with ''Daria'' episode "[[Through A Lens Darkly]]" held up as better.

Internet reviewer Doug Walker, aka the Nostalgia Critic/That Guy With The Glasses has cited this show [http://channelawesome.com/dougs-favorite-tv-shows-part-2/ as his favorite TV program]. He was conscious that this might seem "a really weird choice" since he doesn't often mention it in his content, but praises it for accurately reflecting high school and the students - "I ''knew'' these people, I grew up with these people" - as well as dealing with difficult teenage issues, reflecting the feel of the late 90s, and for showing that Daria's cynical attitude, while cathartic, was not always right. He also said that while he was worried it may have become dated, contemporary teenagers have told him that it hasn't and that "these people. are still around". He said that there were only three episodes he didn't like: [[Depth Takes a Holiday]], [[Daria!]] and [[Life in the Past Lane]], mainly for their irrelevancy.

In promotion of the Region 1 DVD, MTV started a ''Daria'' Facebook page and aired reruns on [[MTV2]] and LGBT channel [[Logo]]. (The show would later appear on [[Hulu]] too.) The show appeared to have done well for Logo, as repeats continued and were included in marathons. The Facebook page would go on to have hundreds of thousands of fans and in summer 2011, they started to hold caption contests and fanart competitions on it. The blog [[MTV Clutch]] would also flag up ''Daria''.

NavTones would create a [[Daria GPS Voice]] in 2010, with Tracy Grandstaff reprising her role.

Grandstaff, Eichler, and Lewis had all been asked in interviews where they felt the cast would have turned out. For the show's 20th anniversary, ''Entertainment Weekly'' [http://ew.com/tv/daria-20-years-later/catching-up-with-the-daria-gang/ had Lewis write up explicit status quos for the cast] and had Karen Disher drew 2017 versions of them for "[[Catching Up With The Daria Gang]]". (Daria, as Grandstaff had believed should happen, was working on a comedy talk show just like Eichler had done.) Lewis admitted to ''Weekly'' that she'd had these thoughts in her had for a while. This is, so far, the most fleshed out 'post canon' idea and possibly the final word on the original continuity.