Glenn Eichler

Daria creator Glenn Eichler as a cartoon character, seen in "Fair Enough" and "I Loathe a Parade"

Glenn Eichler is a comedy writer and producer. He is known as the chief writer and producer of Daria. He wrote or co-wrote fourteen episodes, wrote both Daria TV movies, wrote the bulk of Mystik Spiral's songs, and served as story editor.

Before Daria

Glenn Eichler served as the managing editor of the American humor magazine National Lampoon. It is not known how long he served in this capacity, but he was editor as least as early as 1983. A notice in the weddings section of The New York Times mentions his upcoming marriage to Michele Tomasik on September 24, 1983. (Ms. Tomasik was the editor of The Daria Diaries.)

In addition to his work with National Lampoon, Eichler was a freelance writer for Esquire, The Village Voice, and The New York Times. Non-B&B television work from Eichler before Daria included story editor positions at UPN cartoon The Mouse and the Monster and MTV Animation production The Maxx. He also served as the writer for the 1992 Mystery Science Theater 3000 documentary This is MST3K.

Eichler and MTV

Glenn Eichler in Daria: Behind the Scenes

Glenn Eichler mentions how he got started with MTV in an interview.

Well, I guess Beavis was my big break. I was an editor at National Lampoon, during MTV's youth, and came over to MTV as a promo writer, and Beavis happened to come out of the promos department, because a very creative producer there, named John Payson, found Beavis, at I believe the Spike and Mike's Twisted Film Festival. To make a long story short, the little short that Mike Judge produced got a big reaction immediately from MTV viewers, and they wanted to rush into production and start making cartoons, but they didn't have a staff, so they used the promo writers as the writers, and that's how I became a cartoon writer, I guess.

While working under Mike Judge as a Beavis and Butt-head writer, Eichler is credited with three of the episodes and as a "consultant" for Marvel Comics' Beavis and Butt-head comic. When MTV decided to create a Beavis and Butt-head spinoff featuring the Daria Morgendorffer, they sought out Glenn Eichler for assistance and were able to use Daria, a character which had not been created by Mike Judge.

Furthermore, Eichler met many of the future writers of Daria who were then working as writers for Beavis and Butt-head, such as Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil. Tracy Grandstaff was a voice artist on Beavis and Butt-head, voicing Daria, Cassandra, and other Mike Judge characters. Grandstaff would eventually voice Daria during the run of Daria's own series.

Other writers with whom Glenn Eichler worked on Daria, such as Peter Gaffney, were known through Eicher's days as a National Lampoon editor.

During his time working at Beavis and Butt-head, Eichler would edit Beavis and Butt-head: This Book Sucks and The Beavis and Butt-head Ensucklopedia. He also wrote Bill and Hillary's 12-step Guide to Political Recovery in 1995 with the British comedy group Spitting Image and wrote Dr. Katz's Me at a Glance in 1996.

He would also write one episode of Married With Children before beginning work on Daria.

After Daria

After Daria finished, Eichler stated that he was "just keeping busy". He worked on MTV pilots based on "Mystik Spiral" (which have never been aired) and Hey Joel (which was briefly a cartoon series). He also worked as a Creative Consultant on the animated television programs W.I.T.C.H. and O'Grady. He wrote episodes for programs such as Big & Small and The Emperor's New School.

Eichler then served as a writer/producer on The Colbert Report, a show mocking right-wing American news with Stephen Colbert taking on a fictional persona as a conservative blowhard. It is on the Comedy Central network in the United States. The show's writing team, including Eichler, wrote the book I Am America (And So Can You!), credited to Colbert's character. Eichler has won two Emmy Awards as part of The Colbert Report's writing team.

In 2009, Eichler completed writing a graphic novel with Nick Bertozzi called Stuffed. Eichler followed up in 2011 with Mush! Sled Dogs with Issues, with Joe Infurnari.

Eichler is currently a writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Interview with Kara Wild

Kara Wild did a series of interviews with Eichler over the course of 2005 and 2006, covering continuity details, creative intent, shipping, and production. The interview is collected at Kara's DVDaria website (Wayback).

Daria episodes written by Glenn Eichler

• Esteemsters
• Cafe Disaffecto
• This Year's Model (co-writer)
• The Teachings of Don Jake
• The Misery Chick
• Arts 'N Crass
• Write Where it Hurts
• Through a Lens Darkly
• Daria!
• Jane's Addition
• Partner's Complaint
• Dye! Dye! My Darling
• Is It Fall Yet?
• Fizz Ed
• Boxing Daria
• Is It College Yet?

Appearances as a Daria Character

• entry at the Glitter Berries site
• DariaWiki entry on real-person fiction