Planet Daria: Difference between revisions
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==Background== |
==Background== |
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[[Image:PDtitle.gif|right|Reproduction of the |
[[Image:PDtitle.gif|right|Reproduction of the original site logo]] |
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In his famous speech made on May 9, 1961, Newton N. Minow of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) called the media of television a “vast wasteland”. This media scarcely only a dozen or so years old as of this date of this speech, but it was already stale. The human creativity in this landscape had already evaporated away from the hot, arid winds of endless game shows and westerns. From that time forward, the occasional moistening dew from an Alfred Hitchcock or a Rod Sterling would swiftly be baked out of the ether by the searing excesses of cop shows, sitcoms, docu-dramas and a seemingly endless stream of commercials. |
In his famous speech made on May 9, 1961, Newton N. Minow of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) called the media of television a “vast wasteland”. This media scarcely only a dozen or so years old as of this date of this speech, but it was already stale. The human creativity in this landscape had already evaporated away from the hot, arid winds of endless game shows and westerns. From that time forward, the occasional moistening dew from an Alfred Hitchcock or a Rod Sterling would swiftly be baked out of the ether by the searing excesses of cop shows, sitcoms, docu-dramas and a seemingly endless stream of commercials. |
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Cable television arrived in the late ‘70’s, and the hopes that many more channels would provide more diverse and interesting entertainment were dashed as cable merely expanded the borders of the wasteland. MTV arrived with the advent of cable, with the fresh new format of music videos, but by the end of the 1980’s these were as dry, stale and commercialized as the 128 channels of crap around them. Beginning in the ‘90’s, the format of MTV slowly changed from music videos to vapid reality programming and empty “pop” news programs. In the ever expanding landscape of the wasteland, MTV was becoming as inimical to intelligent life as Death Valley.</p> |
Cable television arrived in the late ‘70’s, and the hopes that many more channels would provide more diverse and interesting entertainment were dashed as cable merely expanded the borders of the wasteland. MTV arrived with the advent of cable, with the fresh new format of music videos, but by the end of the 1980’s these were as dry, stale and commercialized as the 128 channels of crap around them. Beginning in the ‘90’s, the format of MTV slowly changed from music videos to vapid reality programming and empty “pop” news programs. In the ever expanding landscape of the wasteland, MTV was becoming as inimical to intelligent life as Death Valley.</p> |
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Yet, occasionally in the wasteland, small rivers of creativity would spontaneously form and flow. MTV created an animation division, and the early part of the ‘90’s, |
Yet, occasionally in the wasteland, small rivers of creativity would spontaneously form and flow. MTV created an animation division, and the early part of the ‘90’s, Beavis and Butt-head made their debut. Not particularly highbrow entertainment, but by mocking the very wasteland that created them they proved to be humorous and entertaining. Soon other animation followed this success. Then, in 1997, an interesting spin-off from the ''Beavis and Butt-head'' series arrived.</p> |
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During this time, an adjacent landscape appeared, and this new media already in danger of becoming a wasteland in its own right. This was the commercial Internet, and with it came in 1993 the World Wide Web. In less than five years, this new media was already on its way to becoming a desert of commercial websites, endless ads, spam and porn. But from all this, a digital stream emerged, and crossed over into the plain of its much older and more analog neighbor.</p> |
During this time, an adjacent landscape appeared, and this new media already in danger of becoming a wasteland in its own right. This was the commercial Internet, and with it came in 1993 the World Wide Web. In less than five years, this new media was already on its way to becoming a desert of commercial websites, endless ads, spam and porn. But from all this, a digital stream emerged, and crossed over into the plain of its much older and more analog neighbor.</p> |
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All three sites died in a sudden mass extinction in second half of 1998. [[Sick, Sad World]], hosted by [[Wraith]] and [[alt.lawndale.com]], hosted by [[Katherine Goodman]] have remained intact, un-updated, and yet preserved, as if in amber, in their 1998 state. But Planet Daria has completely vanished, leaving behind only tiny fragments of long dead links. |
All three sites died in a sudden mass extinction in second half of 1998. [[Sick, Sad World]], hosted by [[Wraith]] and [[alt.lawndale.com]], hosted by [[Katherine Goodman]] have remained intact, un-updated, and yet preserved, as if in amber, in their 1998 state. But Planet Daria has completely vanished, leaving behind only tiny fragments of long dead links. |
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Other giants rose as these behemoths came crashing down. [[Lawndale Commons]], hosted by [[Michelle Klein-Hass]] and [[Outpost Daria]], hosted by [[Martin J. Pollard]] absorbed the fan base of these sites, and Outpost Daria recovered most of the art, stories and transcripts of the original Planet Daria and alt. |
Other giants rose as these behemoths came crashing down. [[Lawndale Commons]], hosted by [[Michelle Klein-Hass]] and [[Outpost Daria]], hosted by [[Martin J. Pollard]] absorbed the fan base of these sites, and Outpost Daria recovered most of the art, stories and transcripts of the original Planet Daria and alt.lawndale.com sites.</p> |
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This alone is all that remains of Planet Daria as of the date of this writing.</p> |
This alone is all that remains of Planet Daria as of the date of this writing.</p> |
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There he discovered the message board. First, the author used the screen name of Frank Black, but when “Quinn the Brain” aired in March of 1998, he changed is screen name to Milo Minderbinder, after realizing Daria was reading “Catch 22” on her bed in that episode. Hence he joined other fans of the show; Azalea, Splendora, SMC, Chris Smith (Kane), the Historian, Ms. Wild, Dr. Belch, and many others.</p> |
There he discovered the message board. First, the author used the screen name of Frank Black, but when “Quinn the Brain” aired in March of 1998, he changed is screen name to Milo Minderbinder, after realizing Daria was reading “Catch 22” on her bed in that episode. Hence he joined other fans of the show; Azalea, Splendora, SMC, Chris Smith (Kane), the Historian, Ms. Wild, Dr. Belch, and many others.</p> |
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But the site kept moving, and the bookmarks on each fans browsers struggled to keep up. Rowena originally used several of the free services, starting with freemall.com, earthlink.net and welcome.to, and then moving to opni.com and finally geocites.com. Planet Daria was a victim of its own success. Free hosting in those bygone days meant you got maybe 5 or 10 megabytes of hard drive on the host server, and paid dearly for any overage. The |
But the site kept moving, and the bookmarks on each fans browsers struggled to keep up. Rowena originally used several of the free services, starting with freemall.com, earthlink.net and welcome.to, and then moving to opni.com and finally geocites.com. Planet Daria was a victim of its own success. Free hosting in those bygone days meant you got maybe 5 or 10 megabytes of hard drive on the host server, and paid dearly for any overage. The back-end machines of that time were large, slow beasts with maybe 10 to 20 gigabytes total available storage. If you wanted more than that, you had to pay, or hire [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mnemonic_(film) Johnny Mnemonic].</p> |
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As for the lack of artifacts from these earlier sites, it should be remembered that in these pioneering days, due to the lack of space overall, leaving a site meant all files were deleted. Or, where the service didn’t bother removing the old files, an inevitable disk crash on the site would.</p> |
As for the lack of artifacts from these earlier sites, it should be remembered that in these pioneering days, due to the lack of space overall, leaving a site meant all files were deleted. Or, where the service didn’t bother removing the old files, an inevitable disk crash on the site would.</p> |
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==Ted== |
==Ted== |
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On March 29, 1998 [[The New Kid]] premiered on MTV. Featuring Daria’s first “date”, instead of the dream hookup with Trent the fans were all waiting for, it showed instead a clumsy, awkward Daria thrust into a social situation that she didn’t handle well at all. Instead of Daria, triumphant, the fans met, well, themselves. Ted was too much like most prom dates for comfort, or, to male fans, too much like their reflection in the mirror (The author falls into the latter category). There was stunned silence, and then during the ensuing [[Drought]], much reflection on if the show had already “jumped the shark”. It would be late June when the next half of the season would be shown, and reveal to all if any such shark jumping had indeed taken place. There was plenty of time for the fans to get on each |
On March 29, 1998 [[The New Kid]] premiered on MTV. Featuring Daria’s first “date”, instead of the dream hookup with Trent the fans were all waiting for, it showed instead a clumsy, awkward Daria thrust into a social situation that she didn’t handle well at all. Instead of Daria, triumphant, the fans met, well, themselves. Ted was too much like most prom dates for comfort, or, to male fans, too much like their reflection in the mirror (The author falls into the latter category). There was stunned silence, and then during the ensuing [[Drought]], much reflection on if the show had already “jumped the shark”. It would be late June when the next half of the season would be shown, and reveal to all if any such shark jumping had indeed taken place. There was plenty of time for the fans to get on each other's nerves.</p> |
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<p> And they did.</p> |
<p> And they did.</p> |
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* [http://www.outpost-daria.com/essay/mkh_mo-1298.html A Question of Gratitude], an essay by <b>Michelle Klein-Hass</b> |
* [http://www.outpost-daria.com/essay/mkh_mo-1298.html A Question of Gratitude], an essay by <b>Michelle Klein-Hass</b> |
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[[Category:Websites]] |
[[Category:Websites]] |
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