Daria (animated series)

Daria first appeared as an episodic character in the cartoon Beavis and Butt-head , where she, with her intellect and tediousness, created a contrast with the two main characters. It is believed that it was communication with them that gave Daria some severity. During the Beavis and Butt-head final season in 1997, MTV turned to screenwriter Glenn Eichler, who created the character of Daria, with a proposal to make an independent series about her.

The short pilot episode, Sealed with a Kick, was created by Glenn Eichler and Beavis and Butt-head Suzy Lewis. MTV gave the series green light, and Ashler and Lewis became its executive producers.

The first episode of Daria , entitled " Self Esteemors " ( Eng. Esteemsters ) was shown on March 3, 1997 (approximately nine months before the end of Beavis and Butthead ). Now, having received the main role, Daria has further developed her cynical and harsh character.

Most of Daria's episodes have an independent plot based on situations in which a cynical, cultivating her dissimilarity to others rests boring pupil living in a typical provincial American city. The series shows the school years of Daria and ends with her admission to college. To enhance the comic effect, American everyday life is deliberately distorted. Londale - the city in which Daria lives, is inhabited by all kinds of stereotypical characters, which is very cleverly emphasized by Daria herself. Daria and her only school friend, the talented artist Jane Lane , exchange views on popular and fashionable hobbies of their peers, as well as solve the problems of socialization, finding their place in the world.

In the first seasons, Daria is in love with her older brother Jane Trent , a musician, her feelings remain unspoken. In episode 13 of season 3, Daria is convinced of Trent's laziness and irresponsibility, and by hints they acknowledge their incompatibility. Relations between the characters change in season 4, when Jane begins dating Tom Sloan , a young man from one of the richest and most influential families in the city. At first, Daria was sharply opposed to Tom, but over time, they began to converge, while the relationship between Tom and Jane deteriorated. The emotional and comical relationship of Daria, Jane and Tom became one of the main plot lines of the remainder of the series.

Daria has a fairly large number of characters, the main ones are listed below:

Daria Morgendorffer ( born Daria Morgendorffer ) is the main character.

Quinn Morgendorffer is the younger sister of Daria, vice president of the Fashion Club.

Jake Morgendorffer is the father of Daria and Queen, an unsuccessful business consultant.

Helen Morgendorffer ( born Helen Morgendorffer ) is the mother of Daria and Queen, a super-busy lawyer.

Jane Lane is a classmate and best friend of Daria, a talented artist.

Trent Lane ( born Trent Lane ) - brother Jane, musician, idler, with whom Daria was in love for the first three seasons.

Amanda Lane ( Eng. Amanda Lane ) is the mother of the Lane family, a supporter of free education.

Vincent Lane is the father of the Lane family.

Wind, Penny, Summer Lane ( Wind, Penny, Summer Lane ) - Jane's brothers and sisters.

Jodie Landon ( Eng. Jodie Landon ) - a classmate of the protagonist, an excellent student, warden, activist, "an exemplary African American teenager."

Brittany Taylor is a classmate of the main character, the leader of the support group, the stereotype of “stupid blonde”.

Kevin Thompson ( Eng. Kevin Thompson ) is a classmate of the main character, an American football player, Britney guy, the stereotype of a “stupid athlete”.

Mack Mackenzie ( English Mack Mackenzie ) - a classmate of the protagonist, the captain of the school team and friend Kevin, a friend of Jody Landon.

Sandy Griffin is a classmate of Queen, president of the Fashion Club, competing with vice president of Queen for popularity.

Tiffany Blumdeckler, Stacy Row ( English Tiffany Blumdeckler, Stayci Row ) - Queen's classmates, members of the Fashion Club.

Tom Sloane is a friend of Daria from the end of the fourth to the last season, a smart guy from a rich and influential family with whom Daria decided to break up at the end of the series when she entered college .

The series consists of five seasons with 13 episodes in each, as well as two full-length cartoons. The first of them, “ Is autumn coming soon?” "( Eng. Is It Fall Yet? ), Aired in 2000 and describes transitional events between the fourth and fifth season. The second full-length film, titled “ And Soon College?” "( Eng. Is It College Yet? ) Was created at the insistence of Glenn Eichler instead of the sixth season planned by MTV management and, released in January 2002, became the series finale. A five-minute pilot episode titled “ Sealed with a Kick ” was not included in the series in any of its parts. It was made by the authors using minimal means, in fact representing a voiced black and white storyboard and was not intended for a wide screening.

One of the objectives of the series is to show stereotypes of pop culture . For this, Daria with her cynicism, antisociality and emphasized intellectuality is opposed to typical adolescents of her generation.

In Daria, such aspects of modern culture are ridiculed as the problems of self-perception and fashion, the advantage of sports over science and creativity, the conformism of the Daria generation. For example, “Fashion Club” is a school society consisting of four schoolgirls obsessed only with fashion and their popularity.

Daria often watches on television the show “ Sick Crazy World ” ( English Sick, Sad World ), which is a parody of modern sensational programs about the strange, perverted and supernatural. Almost always, the show itself is not shown, only a screensaver to it, and then someone takes the remote control and turns off the TV. The ad screensavers of this show themselves are filled with absurdity, hyperbole and oxymoron .

One of the skits is related to the grunge band of Trent, Jane’s brother, The Mystic Spiral . The group often speaks at various events, and its members sincerely hope that someone will “notice” them, although they have no reason for such hopes. One of the recurring jokes associated with The Mystical Spiral is that the author of the texts, Trent, is an openly poor poet. Another joke is related to the name of the group: Trent constantly mentions that he would like to rename the group. Indifferent to change, Trent is a stereotypical representative of Generation X. For many episodes, Daria had an affection for him.

As for the names of the series, these are almost always puns for famous phrases (“pinch hitter / Pinch Sitter” (pinch hitter - replacement player in baseball, Pinch Sitter - replacement of the nanny) or an allusion to the names of films, books or music groups.

At the end of each series, when the final credits are on, you can see the heroes of the series depicted in the roles of other characters. Starting with Tiffany as Pokemon and ending with Quinn's regular fans - Joey, Jeffy and Jamie as the three main characters in the movie Oh, where are you, brother? or Jane as the Statue of Liberty .

Based on the series in 1998, the scriptwriters of the series wrote two illustrated books. Written in these books was taken into account when creating the following seasons of the project:

• English The Daria Diaries by Anne Bernstein; MTV, 1998 - ISBN 0-671-01709-8 / rus. Anna Bernstein. Daria's diaries
• English The Daria Database by Peggy Nicoll; MTV, 1998 - ISBN 0-671-02596-1 / rus. Peggy Nicole. Daria Database

Based on the series, there are two computer games:

• 1999 - Daria's Sick, Sad Life Planner
• 2000 - Daria's Inferno

• In episode 1-01, Helen Morgendorffer mentions High Land (where, according to Daria, the water contains uranium) - this is the only reference that Daria was in the Beavis and Butthead series .
• In the same episode (1-01), the chain of hoaxes “she is my cousin” begins, which will be resolved in the episode “Lucky Strike” (# 5-06).
• In episode 2-06, Daria and Jane go to the cinema for a retrospective screening of the movie "Last Supper", filmed in 1930 by Russian director Andrei Zakharinsky. In fact, such a movie never existed.
• Most of the actors who voiced the heroes of the animated series were hired among MTV staff, as well as in schools and colleges in New York .
• Apart from Daria herself, no other heroes of Beavis and Butt-head appeared in the series. Glenn Eichler in an interview said that Beavis and Butthead were very strong characters with a special sense of humor and their appearance in Daria , where the authors wanted to develop characters with a completely different sense of humor, could provoke a negative reaction from the audience ^[1] .
• After the series gained popularity, there were rumors that Daria was voiced by Janine Garofalo .
• The series periodically uses an expression from the main musical theme You're Standing On My Neck, written by the Splendora band: "You are standing on my neck."
• In episode 4 of the 3rd season of the Daria Dance Party , Miss Lee director says: “Children, we will have a school disco in two weeks. We have a special security regime, and if anyone wants to smuggle a bucket of pork blood, just forget about it. ” This is a reference to Stephen King’s novel “ Carrie ”.
• Daria's height is 5 feet 2 inches, that is 157 cm (8th episode of the 3rd season).
• In scoring a full-length cartoon Is autumn coming soon? A lot of celebrities took part: Carson Daly voiced Quinn's summer tutor, punk rock singer Bif Naked voiced Jane's girlfriend at an art camp, and rock musician Dave Grohl voiced a teacher at that camp.
• In the feature film Is autumn coming soon? at the meeting of the camp “Crying is normal” Mr. Anthony DeMartino, a history teacher, annoyed by the imprisonment of children in the classroom during a therapy session, smashes a window with a torn washstand, after which the group goes for a walk. This is a reference to Ken Kesey’s novel, “ Above the Cuckoo's Nest .”
• In the feature film. And college soon? Stacy, tired of Sandy's chatter, made a wish that she would shut up, as a result of which Sandy fell ill with laryngitis. Quinn, after listening to Stacy’s story, remarks: “What a horror! Just like in that film, when the old woman cursed a man and he began to lose weight, although I did not understand what was terrible in this. " This is a reference to the film based on the novel by Stephen King's " Losing Weight ".

In early summer 2011 there was news of the allegedly planned film adaptation of Daria by MTV. Actresses Aubrey Plaza and Ellen Page were chosen for the roles of Daria and Jane, respectively ^{[2] [3]} . In fact, MTV simply suggested a hypothetical casting of actors; there have been no news of any shootings so far ^{[4] [5]} . A comic movie trailer was posted on the humorous CollegeHumor website.

• Daria on the Internet Movie Database
• Is It Fall Yet? (English) on the Internet Movie Database
• Is It College Yet? (English) on the Internet Movie Database
• Daria on Big Cartoon DataBase
• Official page on MTV website
• Daria Wiki Series Encyclopedia
• Outpost Daria (site archive) is the largest and oldest fan site (English)
• S-C's Fan Site fan art by artist SC
• Sick, Sad World Series Description and Reviews (Eng.)
• MTV Daria Rus TV series fan site (Russian)
• Daria Fan Club TV series fan site (Russian)
• Daria on Facebook Facebook fan group
• Daria Morgendorfer bookshelf - fan site with descriptions of books mentioned in the series (Russian)
• Why this generation needs Daria? - An interview with the creator of the series, Glenn Eichler. _(eng.)
• Truth or Daria? - Interview with Anna Bernstein. _(eng.)