Daria Morgendorffer began as a minor character on the iconic MTV animated series, "Beavis & Butthead." She was briefly the super smart foil for the doofus stars of that program in a couple of crucial episodes. But it was clear there was much more to explore in her mind and her world and she graduated to her own series in short order.
In a perfect sense of reversal, the resulting program was arguably the most brilliantly crafted program ever offered by MTV, save perhaps some of the documentary news programs they occasionally presented.
Daria moved with her family to Lawndale, a suburban Everytown U.S.A. setting with her overachieving, overworking parents and her spoiled brat and scholastically challenged fashion plate sister, Quinn. Where Quinn had no problem finding a place to fit in at this new locale, with new pals and boyfriends aplenty, Daria was instantly marginalized, even from her younger sib, who denied even being related to her as they both attended the same high school! Luckily, she found a friend in "self esteem" class, artistic outcast Jane Lane, and the instant simpatico created meant a case of permanent bonding between the two, which stood them in good stead throughout the run of the series.
The intelligence of the show was rooted in the constant annoyances created by the situations Daria faced and her matter-of-fact methods of reasoning her way out of them. There were a series of stock characters, from faculty to fellow students, but this only added to the appeal of the program, as they could be relied on to provide actions and reactions that moved the stories in different ways, and gave a certain stability to the plots.
Daria's severe sense of irony and her withering view of what the world was all about was fodder for nearly every episode of the program and provided most of the truth and the humor for it. Kudos to the two lead voices: Tracy Grandstaff who gave v/o to the bespectacled title character, and Wendy Hoopes who was talented enough to portray Daria's mom, her friend Jane, AND her main nemesis, Quinn!
The show had something to say about families, dysfunction, sibling rivalry, the school system, athletics, mall culture, trendiness, television, greed, love, entertainment, friendship and our country's values as a whole, and maybe that was all summed up in the title of the popularly watched television show within the show: "Sick Sad World." Still, they somehow managed to perform a musical episode, so how sick or sad could it truly be?
There's still a need for Daria... and looking at the current programming on MTV, perhaps now more than ever! Any chance of new episodes for our favorite critic/genius?
In a perfect sense of reversal, the resulting program was arguably the most brilliantly crafted program ever offered by MTV, save perhaps some of the documentary news programs they occasionally presented.
Daria moved with her family to Lawndale, a suburban Everytown U.S.A. setting with her overachieving, overworking parents and her spoiled brat and scholastically challenged fashion plate sister, Quinn. Where Quinn had no problem finding a place to fit in at this new locale, with new pals and boyfriends aplenty, Daria was instantly marginalized, even from her younger sib, who denied even being related to her as they both attended the same high school! Luckily, she found a friend in "self esteem" class, artistic outcast Jane Lane, and the instant simpatico created meant a case of permanent bonding between the two, which stood them in good stead throughout the run of the series.
The intelligence of the show was rooted in the constant annoyances created by the situations Daria faced and her matter-of-fact methods of reasoning her way out of them. There were a series of stock characters, from faculty to fellow students, but this only added to the appeal of the program, as they could be relied on to provide actions and reactions that moved the stories in different ways, and gave a certain stability to the plots.
Daria's severe sense of irony and her withering view of what the world was all about was fodder for nearly every episode of the program and provided most of the truth and the humor for it. Kudos to the two lead voices: Tracy Grandstaff who gave v/o to the bespectacled title character, and Wendy Hoopes who was talented enough to portray Daria's mom, her friend Jane, AND her main nemesis, Quinn!
The show had something to say about families, dysfunction, sibling rivalry, the school system, athletics, mall culture, trendiness, television, greed, love, entertainment, friendship and our country's values as a whole, and maybe that was all summed up in the title of the popularly watched television show within the show: "Sick Sad World." Still, they somehow managed to perform a musical episode, so how sick or sad could it truly be?
There's still a need for Daria... and looking at the current programming on MTV, perhaps now more than ever! Any chance of new episodes for our favorite critic/genius?