Datedness of Daria: Difference between revisions

 
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{{quote|I don't really like to attach specific dates to events in this cartoon world... If I assign specific dates to events, the only purpose it serves is to get people upset about "violating canon," and I'm not sure what good that does anyone.|[[Glenn Eichler]] [http://www.the-wildone.com/dvdaria/glenninterviewsfull.html in an interview]}}
 
<br><br><br><br><br>[[Image:Datedness of parents.png|right|thumb|400px|Jake and Helen being Totally Radical]]
<br><br><br><br>As with any television show set in the "present day", there are specific elements that tend to limit the show to a certain chronological period. ''Daria'' is no exception, being firmly rooted in the period it aired, from early 1997 to early 2002.
 
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<br><br><br><br>As with any television show set in the "present day", there are specific elements that tend to limit the show to a certain chronological period. ''Daria'' is no exception, being firmly rooted in the period it aired, from early 1997 to early 2002.
 
For the most part, these are little details - such as cathode ray tube TVs and computers - but sometimes can be relevant to the plot or a character's backstory.
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The local cyber-cafe was robbed, and O'Neill laments that now people are cut off from online contact. Even by the second season of the show, characters would be logging on from home and the Internet would become far more present. These days, a cafe would have wi-fi for laptops as standard rather than boast about being "cyber" - and from 2010 in parts of the United States, "Cyber Cafes" referred to vitual gambling establishments.
 
alt.lawndale.com is also a joking reference to New York's hip alt.coffee restaurant, which [http://gawker.com/243637/and-now-its-dead-alt-coffee shut down in 2007].
 
===[[Malled]]===
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The name "[[Mall of the Millennium]]": in the late 1990's, the terms "2000" and "millennium" were used as buzzwords to show something was trendy or impressive.
 
The building itself is a nod to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mall_of_America Mall of America], which is still around but was newly opened when "Malled" was made.
 
===[[The Lab Brat]]===
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===[[Road Worrier]]===
 
Helen says Jake went to "one of the most famous festivals of the decade" - Quinn thinks she means Woodstock (August 1969) but it was actually the Altamont Free Concert (December 1969). It's not just the concerts that date this, as the joke relies on most of the target audience knowing that Altamont was badly managed, chaotic and violent and is seen as the symbolic end of the hippie era.
 
Trent refers to the music video for "Everybody Hurts" by REM, which ran in 1993, during a scene that's a deliberate copy of the same video.
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===[[Arts 'N Crass]]===
 
The contest is about Student Life at the Dawn of the New MilleniumMillennium - which has since been and gone.
 
===[[I Don't]]===
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===[[That Was Then, This Is Dumb]]===
 
[[Image:Hippy Jake.png|right|thumb|250px|(It didn't levitate)]]
 
 
The hippies' attempt to levitate the Pentagon is a reference to a real-life "attempt" to do so, during an October 21 1967 anti-war march. (They don't appear to be at the actual protest though, which - based on their 1972 college graduation date in ''[[The Daria Database]]'' - occurred before Jake and Helen were students at [[Middleton College]]).
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===[[The F Word]]===
 
Daria suggests Brittany can talk about the Taliban's draconian rule in Afghanistan. By the end of 2001, the Taliban had been deposed. However, thethey organisationretook stillcontrol existsof andAfghanistan thein point2021, aboutso theDaria's treatmentcomment ofhas, womenunfortunately, ingone Afghanistanback to being timely, at least remainsfor relevantnow...
 
===[[Of Human Bonding]]===
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===[[Sappy Anniversary]]===
 
The [[Buzzdome]] 'B' story makes the most sense if it occurs before the tech stock bubble burst in the fallspring-to-summer 2000. Amusingly, this story came out ''after'' the bubble had burst so this story was dated when it aired!
 
Jake doesn't understand the most basic things about computers or the Internet because he's ''old''. The further we go into the future, the more he'd have been required to use a computer and the Internet for work.
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The film opens with a montage of iconic moments and fashions of 20th century American colleges. The montage ends with the late 80s, whereas even a few years later the show would've had the grunge period of the early 90s.
 
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks had a massive influence on the States which was still being felt in early 2002, but they happened after this script was written so nobody in Lawndale has noticed.
 
At Lindy's party is a poster for "Cyber Doo 2001 Film and Multimedia".