Daria: not a nerd, just smartBy Helen Lee, posted June 24, 1998 She's smart, cynical, and has a better sense of irony than Alanis Morissette-which makes it all the more amazing that "Daria" (Mondays at 10:30 pm ET on MTV) is actually the product of two of the nation's best known morons. Originally created as a foil to Beavis and Butt-head, Daria got her own show last year. And she hasn't looked back since. "Part of the process of growing up is that you find out eventually that all those things people have been telling you-that if you eat the right foods and study for school, you will triumph because you've been doing things right," says Glenn Eichler, the show's story editor. "Part of the disillusionment of coming of age is that this isn't really true. The stupid football player is going to be a lot richer than you." This is exactly what "Daria" is all about. It's the story of teenager Daria Morgendorffer, who moved away from Highland where she amused herself by hanging with Beavis and Butt-head. Now she lives in Lawndale, a bigger town with none of the squiggly lines or distorted views of her old hometown. Her new world includes two hyper career-oriented ex-hippie parents plus a sister, the cute and popular Quinn. Daria gets a new best friend, Jane Lane, an artist who sees the world in the same way she does. How do they spend their time? They watch their favorite TV program, "Sick, Sad World." The move gave Daria a whole new town to make fun of. It includes Kevin and Brittany, the ditzy football player-cheerleader couple, and the Fashion Club--a group of three girls who do a lot of bonding, as long as it means they're getting their teeth bonded. Daria even has a love interest--sort of--in brooding musician Trent Lane. Lawndale High includes some well-meaning instructors, too. In the very first episode, which aired March 1997, Daria was forced to attend a self-esteem class taught by English teacher Mr. O'Neill. This experience led her to quip in her monotone way, "I don't have low self-esteem. I have low esteem for everyone else." She's well known to Principal Angela Li and Margaret Manson, school psychologist. That's because Daria's--well, different. She's intelligent, for one thing. She's funny, for another. She doesn't wear makeup, she won't compromise and she has an uncanny ability to see the world as it is-senseless, brutal, dim. For example, in the season opener earlier this year, students were assigned to create a poster reflecting student life. Daria and Jane's entry was a picture of a beautiful young girl looking into a mirror, accompanied by a verbal message about bulimia. School officials loved the poster, except for the text. They asked the girls to take it off, but both refused. This type of action has caused fans to call Daria the "anti-phoniness poster girl." "A lot of fans seem to have taken her as a role model because nothing fazes her," says Eichler. "But it's just that she has her irony and cynicism as a defense mechanism. She's a full-blown character, more than the casual viewer would notice." Susan Lewis Lynn, producer of the show, adds, "The thing about Daria is that everyone has these feelings in high school. Even Quinn has these feelings. So I don't think it's about creating this complete loser. She really kind of represents the feeling everyone has." Some critics have called "Daria" a triumph of the geeks, but Eichler and Lynn vehemently deny this. Lynn says, "They obviously don't know us very well. It's not like they've done research. They've asked us questions about our past, but we haven't revealed anything. We actually have two homecoming queens on our staff. So it's obviously not a 'Revenge of the Nerds' sort of thing." Eichler adds, "We wanted to do a certain kind of show where you had to listen to the dialogue and humor was going to be fairly subtle. And you needed a modicum of intelligence to follow it. 'Beavis & Butt-head' had a rabid following, and we knew this wasn't going to be for them. Some people, though, watched that show for the satire-and they'd get 'Daria.'" Top of page |