Noggin / The N
Noggin is a television network for small children. Though it is commonly stated that Daria was seen in reruns from July 2002 through June 2006 on this network, Daria was actually shown on a sister network for eight to 14-year olds, The N. The N shared the same channel as Noggin, running from 3 pm to early morning every day.
In the beginning, when The N was looking for ways to appeal to its "tween" audience, Daria was deemed too "adult" and was therefore censored. Censorship was usually restricted to cutting out "bad" words (such as Jake's numerous "dammits" and the word "ass"), but many times The N went further and cut humorous lines with innuendo or even whole plotlines. At best, the deeper cuts led to jokes being ruined, such as the scene in "Lane Miserables" where Jake opens the door to Monique, thinking she's Quinn's date, and spouts, "Wow! I really don't know my kids!" The revised version on The N makes it appear as though Jake always knew that Quinn's "date" would be a female. At worst, the deeper cuts led to a reshaping of episodes that either removed a dimension or destroyed their clarity. In Is It Fall Yet?, all mention of Alison's come-ons to Jane Lane were cut out, which meant that viewers never got to see Jane ponder her sexuality. In "Lucky Strike," the entire subplot in which Quinn's substitute teacher hits on Tiffany is also cut. Without this scene, and the following scene in which Helen calls and threatens Ms. Li with a lawsuit, viewers have no basis for understanding why Ms. Li would force Daria to be a substitute teacher.
The numerous cuts created a backlash amongst long-time viewers of the series, while at the same time repeated airings brought new fans to the fandom. Over time, The N's censorship of Daria would prove cruelly ironic, as it began to show much more adult fare (such as Degrassi: The Next Generation), to the point where Daria became one of the tamer programs. It is possible that The N liked their animated shows to be pure in spirit and not so cynical or adult, but also that as The N began to rely less on public money and more on ad revenue, its executives chose to make their channel less geared toward education than escapism.
A Daria website existed for a time as part of the general websites for the above networks, but has since been discontinued.
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