Esteemsters: Difference between revisions
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|specialguestvoices=
|writtenby= [[Glenn Eichler]]
|directedby= [[Ken Kimmelman]]<br>[[Paul Sparagano]]
|transcript= [[Esteemsters/transcript|transcript]]
}}
'''"Esteemsters"''' was the
Broadly speaking, the plot involves Daria's and her family's arrival in [[Lawndale]]. The major characters and conflicts that would come to play out in the series are introduced. Daria is forced into a self-esteem class when her savage wit is mistaken for low self-esteem.
{{quote|Daria and Quinn arrive at their new school. Quinn makes friends easily. Daria does not. |MTV website summary}}
==Plot Summary==
The Morgendorffers have just moved from [[Highland]] to [[Lawndale]] and it is the first day of school for teenage sisters [[Daria Morgendorffer|Daria]] and [[Quinn Morgendorffer]]. Their father, [[Jake Morgendorffer]], drives them to school. He stresses that they may have a period of adjustment to their new surroundings, especially for Daria. Arriving at [[Lawndale High School|Lawndale High]], Quinn is immediately noticed and greeted by some popular girls, including [[Sandi Griffin]] and [[Stacy Rowe]]. Quinn is asked on a date by [[Corey]], while Daria gets out of the car and walks into school without a look or comment from the other students. During the school tour by the principal, [[Angela Li]], Daria displays her cynical side, making sarcastic comments on Ms. Li's statements.
Both girls, as new arrivals, are subjected to a psychological test consisting of inventing a story based on a picture of two human silhouettes. Quinn immediately creates a nice typical teenage story. Daria, on the other hand, gives sarcastic answers to the questions ("A herd of beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains") to the annoyance of [[Margaret Manson|Mrs. Manson]], the school psychologist. In history class, Daria is able to "concisely and unemotionally" sum up the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, a task given by her teacher, [[Anthony DeMartino]]. Daria's correct answer is in stark contrast to the answers of classmates [[Kevin Thompson|Kevin]] and [[Brittany Taylor|Brittany]], who say that Manifest Destiny fueled the Vietnam War, "Operation: Watergate", and/or the "Vietcong War", fueling Mr. DeMartino's wrath.
That evening, as the Morgendorffers are having dinner at home, both daughters talk about their day: Quinn is the new vice-president of [[the Fashion Club]] and has been invited to the pep squad, while Daria only makes cynical observations about her fellow students and teachers. The school calls [[Helen Morgendorffer|Helen]] regarding the psychological test the girls took, and Daria has to attend a [[Self-Esteem Class|self-esteem class]] after her sarcasm was mistaken for low self-esteem.
The following day, at self-esteem class presented by the English teacher [[Timothy O'Neill]], Daria is confused by the expressions used. When she asks Mr. O'Neill, he refuses to explain them. Another student sitting behind Daria, [[Jane Lane]], tells Daria that Mr. O'Neill doesn't even know their meaning and advices her to relax, telling Daria that she has already taken the class six times. After school, Daria and Jane befriend each other as they walk home and talk calmly about self-esteem class and other topics. Arriving Home, Daria is surprised her mother is there, having taken the day off to be with her daughter, and they end up going shopping, mainly for Helen's wardrobe.
The next day, prompted by O'Neill's advice during self-esteem, Daria convinces her family to go to [[Pizza Forest]], a kid's restaurant where singers, dressed as animals, try to join families in singing: Quinn is bored, and Jake and Helen are uneasy, but Daria seems to be enjoying her family's discomfort.
[[Image:Quinn's shame.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Quinn being singled out by Daria as payback]]
Some days later, as Daria is at Jane's, they agree to use Jane's memorization of the self-esteem exam questions to pass the exam three weeks early. They do so during the following class, answering O'Neill's questions with upbeat, stock answers. Mr. O'Neill is so impressed with the girls graduation three weeks ahead of schedule that he decides to announce it at a school assembly. At the assembly, while on podium, Jane fakes sudden embarrassment and runs off stage amidst laughter from students. Daria, on the other hand, gives a small speech about self-esteem, concluding with a big thanks for ''her sister Quinn'', in front of all their colleagues (taking revenge on Quinn earlier stating that she is an only child). Quinn is furious that Daria has addressed her in front of the whole school and, that evening, at home, she raves and dramatically declares she will lock herself in her room for the rest of the life, in typical teenage fashion. This decision, however, lasts only until she takes a call from another male student, [[Matthew]], which immediately lifts her spirits.
Having graduated early from self-esteem class, Daria is able to convince her parents to spend even more time together: this time, they attend the UFO convention being held at Lawndale. While Daria is much at ease and Helen and Jake go along, Quinn refuses to enter the geeky space, until being contacted by [[Artie]]...at which point she runs to be with her family.
===[[The Daria Diaries]]===
The events of "Esteemsters" are supplemented by entries from Daria’s notes, as given in ''[[The Daria Diaries]]''. We learn:
* Daria had to ride in the moving van because Quinn's clothes were taking up too much space in the car. The movers let her be their lookout while they did a "quick errand in the warehouse district" (i.e. stole stuff)
* Daria stole the front door knob from their old house, as a memento of Highland
* Daria and Quinn had a brief quiz to do for Manson, with the former deliberately giving disturbing answers. (The quiz warns that writing on the back may see you labelled as a "delinquent personality", to which Daria added "It's far too late to worry about that")
* When she went to Jane's house, Jane got her to help barricade the front door in case the bank tried to foreclose on the house (Mr and Mrs Lane had forgotten to leave any mortgage payments). Daria met Trent for the first time that day, and he fell asleep in mid-conversation.
==The original script==
An earlier draft of the script is available online (see links) and in it:
* A deleted scene in the Morgendorffer's car has Quinn and Daria arguing about popularity that ends with Quinn asking if Daria's making fun of her (she is) - "No! Er, I don't think so," answers Jake.
* Instead of drowning out Jake's pep talk with music, Daria and Quinn have to listen to his increasingly bitter rant about his father sending him to military school at age 8, "and of course Mom was far too scared to say a word. ... I swore if I ever had a son--" At this point, Daria, apparently unbothered by all this coming out, gets him back on track.
* [[Corey]]'s unnamed friend is named [[Jason]].
* Li's introduction to Laaaawwwwndale High goes on longer, with cheerful admission of the order and security, that you didn't notice any metal detectors "because they're designed right into the front doors", and a tacit admission that she'll just talk to someone who knows a judge if she wants a court order for your locker. During this, Daria makes a comment to [[Backgrounder#Priscilla|Priscilla]] and it's the second time it happens that Priscilla moves away from her.
* DeMartino is "somewhere between Christopher Walken and Mickey Rourke i.e. he's eerily menacing and just may be insane." He was meant to pause for a long enough time after saying "Class..." to make it unnerving ("we only know he's alive because he's blinking"), and Daria was saying "excuse me?" because of another, similar odd pause. While trying to coax an answer out of Kevin on a Manifest Destiny war, he refers to the "Daria's unsolicited comment about the MEXICANS, while obviously meant to be INFLAMMATORY".
* Kevin is described as a ''half''back rather than quarterback and "natural leader". Both these things are laughable wrong!
* Helen agrees on the phone that the self esteem class is a good idea ("you're the expert"). Jake's response of "that really stinks" was intended to go into a more controlled "how can a ''great kid'' like Daria have low self esteem?" - leading into the gag of Helen's cry of "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?"
* O'Neill was intended to be a "fresh scrubbed young teacher" and he has a lot more guff he himself doesn't understand in his opening scene ("finding the centre of your you-ness"). When Daria says Helen's look "stands proudly and proclaims "I am"" in the finished episode, she's quoting O'Neill from here. Daria's "something that will really make them suffer" line is originally a punchline to her first saying her idle daydream is to make her family suffering "for what they've done me", while O'Neill first thinks is a funny joke and later, when he learns it's not, asks if it's "been that bad?" before giving up.
* Jane is "nihilistic, enervated, nasal as a son of a gun". Speaking of nihilistic, there's a cut line about how she has a better way to feel special "but I've never been any good with assault weapons".
* When Quinn says "I'm an only child", originally it was because she and "Boy" could see Daria heading to Self-Esteem Class. Quinn explicitly states later she thinks nobody will ask her out "if people found out about ''you''" (and, as in the finished ep, they ask her out anyway!)
* [[The Head (backgrounder)|"The Head"]] is named as "Mousy Kid" and scripted as taking feverish notes about what O'Neill is saying - something [[MTV Animation]] skimped on actually animating.
* Speaking of, Eichler actually wrote in that everyone is standing up to leave the room "but I assume we can't animate that"
* Jane hadn't seen Sick, Sad World until Daria introduced it to her. She describes it as "every day there's a new bunch of losers, totally humiliating themselves" which bears self-esteem class; "that's just the same loser humiliating himself over and over."
* That is indeed [[Coach Gibson]] on stage as "The Daria Diaries" implies and he's explicitly "corrupt"; before we learn the $400 bake sale money was stolen, Li turns to Gibson to say $400 seems "an awful lot for five footballs, doesn't it?" and when Gibson shrugs, we see his gold chains and the glint off a "diamond pinky ring".
* Jake was hoping to meet prospective clients before he was dragged to the UFO con and so is walking around with a [[Jake Morgendorffer Consulting]] badge there.
==Timeline headaches==
The calendar in the Morgendorffer house is at [[May 12]]. This would mean the school year is already well into its run, that Daria spent most of her sophomore year at [[Highland High]], and that "[[Road Worrier]]" can take place during August as "[[The Daria Diaries]]" says it should. This, however, clashes with parts of "The Daria Diaries" which includes an assignment from March, Fashion Club entries from February & March, and diary entries from the autumn. "[[Depth Takes a Holiday]]" has to happen ''before'' October 31st, and we can't easily cram every episode between "Worrier" and "Depth" into two months...
==Animation and Technical Errors==
Mr. O'Neill mistakenly calls Jane Daria after she runs off the podium. However, this is likely due to Mr. O'Neill's inability to remember names (he didn't even recognize Jane despite her having taken the self-esteem course six times).
When Daria and Jane go to meet with Mr. O'Neil after class, the bridge on Daria's glasses is missing in several shots.
==Trivia==
The episode would set the tome for the series and introduce several characters and their characteristics, as well as other themes and references which would later be used both in canon and in countless fanfiction works. Among them are:
* Jake's initial characterization is established, namely his lack of capacity to recognize sarcasm or humour.
* Helen is already working long hours, a characterization that will continue through the run of the series.
* The first and only appearance of the self-esteem class.
* The first appearance of Principal Angela Li, already displaying a unhealthy degree of paranoia and reverence for Lawndale High School.
* The first appearance of the characters [[Kevin Thompson]] and [[Brittany Taylor]] outside of the pilot, [[Sealed with a Kick]].
* The first appearance of [[Anthony DeMartino]], shown with his distaste for stupid or ignorant students.
* The first and only major appearance of school psychologist Margaret Manson, who would go have a much more diversified history in fanfiction than she ever had in canon. However, she would later be seen as a background extra in two episodes from the fifth season, and was seen in The Daria Database. This was also the character's only speaking appearance.
* The first appearance of lasagna as the Morgendorffer usual main dinner course.
* The first time Quinn refers to herself as being an only child.
* The first appearance of [[Sick, Sad World]].
* The first appearance of [[Artie]], pizza parlor employee and self-proclaimed alien abductee.
There are four other new students in the first-day tour of Lawndale High. All four hang around as voiceless [[backgrounder|background characters]]; "[[Shaggy]]" and "[[Scarlett (character)|Scarlett]]" have proven popular because of their distinctive looks.
Brittany and Stacy's voices are noticeably different. Brittany doesn't have her trademark high-pitched, squeaky voice.
This episode has the single reference to Daria's old show ''[[Beavis and Butt-head (TV series)|Beavis and Butt-head]]'', when Helen refers to how Daria shouldn't want Lawndale to be "[[Highland]] all over again". (The girl says it can't be "unless there's uranium in the drinking water here too") Neither [[Beavis and Butt-head|Beavis, Butthead]] nor any character or setting from Highland will be mentioned during the entire run of ''Daria''.
Corey's line, "Hey, beats algebra, though, doesn't it?", is very similar to what [[wikipedia:Frontier Middle School shooting|Barry Loukaitis]] is alleged to have said after he shot and killed his algebra teacher ("This sure beats the hell out of algebra, doesn't it?"). This is an eerie coincidence rather than deliberate: the line is in the script dated January 26th 1996, while Loukaitis' murders happened on 2nd February.
=="Esteemsters" and Fanfic==
"Esteemsters" has a curious place in the hearts and minds of ''Daria'' fanfic writers. See [[Esteemsters and Daria Fanfic|"Esteemsters" and ''Daria'' Fanfic]] for an extensive discussion of this topic.
Also, while Daria was almost certainly joking when she said Highland had uranium in the drinking water, fanfic after fanfic has worked off the premise that she was telling the truth.
==Transcript==
[[Esteemsters/transcript|Transcript]] originally from [[Outpost Daria]]
==External Links==
* [https://sites.google.com/site/dariatranscripts/101-esteemsters Transcript] at [[Daria Transcripts]]
* [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lMUMYIFRVRR_ICyYNqhHyT9YJwuxld_U Original script]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20110926170414/http://www.outpost-daria.com/fanfic/ep101_esteemsters.html Novelization] by [[Martin J. Pollard]]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20111015202013/http://outpost-daria.com/essay/rl_daria_temporal_analysis_project.html “The Daria Temporal Analysis Project”] by [[Richard Lobinske]], a superb and useful essay offering a chronology of the <i>Daria</i> series that places “Esteemsters” in, most likely, fall 1997.
* [http://dariaphans.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html The Daria Fandom Blog, March 2007 archive]. The entry for Saturday, March 3, 2007, is “In Honor of the 10th Anniversary…” a long and critical essay about “Esteemsters.”
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20111015195649/http://outpost-daria.com/essay/cef_this_show_sucks.txt "This Show Sucks"] A critical essay by [[C.E. Forman]]
* [https://archiveofourown.org/works/17623430/chapters/41550263 Episode Analysis] by [[WellTemperedClavier]]
{{succession box | title=[[List of Daria Episodes|Daria Episodes]]<br/>"Esteemsters," Season 1, Episode 1 | before=[[Sealed with a Kick]] (pilot) | after=[[The Invitation]] | year=(101)}}
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