You're Standing On My Neck

 

I am thinking that things do not bode well for the new year, and I'll tell you why. I found out back in August that they were finally going to release the TV series "Daria" on disc...

Today is January 7th, 2010. It is already been a whole week into the year, and the "Daria" TV series is still not up for sale yet! I can't begin to tell you how disapointed I am. Although his administration has very little to do with these sorts of things, I blame President Obama. He's getting blamed for everything else, anyway. You have to start somewhere.

I think that Daria represents what a woman today should feel about the Sick, Sad World around her, and that is incredulous and filled with disbelief at what is happening in the world today.

Imagine a television character that actually knows about and appreciates things like feminism and the Women's Rights Movement and the Suffragist Movement. Now imagine a television character like that that's isn't portrayed as annoying, ridiculous or cast in a negative light in some way. The only one that I can think of is Daria. (OK, there's Wonder Woman and Xena and few others, but really...)

There haven't been many cartoons or TV shows that were as funny or as intellectual, and that represented teenage angst as well as this show did. I only watched Daria a few times when it aired from 1997-2002, I became a fan when the show was in reruns. I always hated the fact that Daria was a spin-off of Beavis and Butthead, because I hated that show.

The Morgendorffers really were a typical suburban family. The mother and father were hilarious! And Daria and her sister Quinn couldn't have been more different, and they acted like they hated each. Quinn would not even acknowledge to her popular friends ("The Fashion Club") that Daria was her sister, calling Daria instead "that girl." I seem to remember there was an episode where Quinn stood up for Daria, though. They seemed to get along fine after Daria went to college.

I think that I would have liked Trent and Mystik Spiral a lot better if Daria had had a crush on me instead of him. At one point there was a love triangle between, Daria, Jane and Tom that was actually painful to watch, because you felt so bad for all of the characters.

After each episode they would roll credits on one half of the screen, and on the other half of the screen they would display characters from the show drawn in ridiculous circumstances. I always loved that part of the show!

When the show was running, rumors circulated that actress Janeane Garofalo provided the voice for Daria. (Daria's voice was actually done by Tracy Grandstaff.) Garofalo later said that she was flattered to be considered "cool enough" to be the voice. I wish that Jeannine Garofolo had really played the voice of Daria. I've always had a crush on Janeane Garofalo, too! [ 1, 2, 3 ]

Ever since I first became enthralled with the show, I've always had a huge crush on Daria. I mean, Daria had a bone collection and her bedroom had padded walls. What could be cooler than that? But in my humble opinion I've always thought that the real siren of the show was Jane Lane. Everybody knows that art chicks are the most attractive women in the whole world!

The TV show that Daria and Jane would watch was called "Sick, Sad World", which is officially my favorite imaginary TV show! I'm pretty sure that's where Rupert Murdoch got the idea for FOX News.

As far as the fan artists, This guy seems to be far and away the most dedicated. I really like these pictures by him: [ 1, 2, 3 ] He has even made a 3D Daria model, and his own Daria videos!

I've written about Daria before, and it's not like I'm the only one that feels this way about the TV show. There are lots of webpages about Daria. This site is devoted entirely to the DVD release, and has collected over 3,500 signatures. I love looking at the various Daria fan art at websites like outpost-daria.com and Sick, Sad World. (That's where I got all of the pictures from. This page has a bunch of great links, too.)

Mystik Spiral: "Every Dog Has Its Day"	Sick sad World [ 2, 3, 4, 5 ]
Dpod Commercial (This is awesome!)	Daria Tribute; with theme song
Daria metamorphosis	Daria & Quinn: Popular
The Emotional Trauma Cycle of a High School Student

All Hail Daria!