In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the fledgling MTV was mostly attracting a very male demographic, and with the development of Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head, the male dominance was surely set to continue. So MTV set B&B‘s producers with a task — get us more female viewers, dudes! And thus began the development of one of the most iconic ‘90s female characters: Daria Morgendorffer. To think that we might not have had Daria if not for some executive request for female viewers! The horror!
Yes, Daria started out as a mandate and side character on Beavis and Butt-Head, the smart, witty, female foil to the two male teenage chuckling delinquents. The idea was that she would be a combination of Janeane Garofalo and Darlene Conner from Roseanne. The name Daria came from Mike Judge, who knew a girl in school called Daria that people would call “Diarrhea,” hence Beavis and Butt-Head chanting “Diarrhea, cha, cha, cha” at her character.
When MTV wanted a show led by a female protagonist, some of the producers of B&B thought perhaps Daria would be a good option for a spinoff show. So, they put a demo together and pitched Daria along with a handful of other female shows to executives, and Daria was the one that stood out to them. At that point, it was time to put together the team to actually bring the show to life, and Mike Judge didn’t want to have anything to do with it, already being knee deep in B&B and another animated series in development, a little show called King of the Hill.
So, Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis, both working on B&B at the time, were poached to head over to further develop Daria into an actual television series, and on March 3, 1997, the pilot episode aired on MTV, though it had been in development for years prior. Animation takes a lot of time, people. The show was a hit pretty much instantly, garnering positive reviews from critics, and actually bringing those female viewers over to MTV like the executives wanted.
Daria was essentially a satire of high school life, with Daria herself serving as the misanthropic outsider observing all of the exaggerated shenanigans of those around her, from her vain sister Quinn, to the jocks at school, to even her parents. She and her best friend Jane gave turn-of-the-millennium teenage girls someone on TV to relate to, with the two girls’ love triangle with Tom demonstrating how they felt like real people and not caricatures, despite the people around them being exaggerated stereotypes. That’s how it felt in high school, you know — you’re the normal one, everyone else is ridiculous.
Over 65 episodes and two TV movies, Daria made it kind of cool to not be part of the typical cool crowd. The show has had a lasting impact, and a spinoff series featuring the character of Jodie was announced in 2018. Comedy Central ordered it to series as of June 2020, though as of April 2021, the actual release date is still TBD, so we’ll believe it when we see it. The new show will focus on Jodie as a Gen Z recent college graduate. Will it be able to capture the zeitgeist like Daria in the late ‘90s? Also TBD.
Were you a Daria fan? What are your favorite memories from watching the show on a tiny box TV in your bedroom? Let us know in the comments!
- The show required a nine-month lead time, from scripts to voice acting to storyboarding, to finally the animation itself, which was done in Korea.
- Tracy Grandstaff voiced Daria in both Beavis and Butt-Head and Daria, though apparently there was pressure to replace her in Daria with someone with more voice acting experience. In the end, though, producer John Andrews convinced The Powers That Be to keep her on.
- In a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-creator Susie Lewis was asked where she thought the characters would be today. She stated she thinks Daria would be writing for a late-night talk show. You can see a video with some updated drawings and details on the other main characters here.
- The show was originally supposed to end with season five, but when MTV asked if the creators could come back and do a half-sized season six, instead they negotiated for a final television movie called Is It College Yet? which aired on January 21, 2002.
- A spinoff based on Jane’s brother Trent’s band Mystik Spiral was commissioned and written by co-creator Glenn Eichler, but when MTV closed its animation department in 2001, it was dropped. A script for the pilot was featured on the 2011 DVD box set for Daria.
- The show required a nine-month lead time, from scripts to voice acting to storyboarding, to finally the animation itself, which was done in Korea.
- Tracy Grandstaff voiced Daria in both Beavis and Butt-Head and Daria, though apparently there was pressure to replace her in Daria with someone with more voice acting experience. In the end, though, producer John Andrews convinced The Powers That Be to keep her on.
- In a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-creator Susie Lewis was asked where she thought the characters would be today. She stated she thinks Daria would be writing for a late-night talk show. You can see a video with some updated drawings and details on the other main characters here.
- The show was originally supposed to end with season five, but when MTV asked if the creators could come back and do a half-sized season six, instead they negotiated for a final television movie called Is It College Yet? which aired on January 21, 2002.
- A spinoff based on Jane’s brother Trent’s band Mystik Spiral was commissioned and written by co-creator Glenn Eichler, but when MTV closed its animation department in 2001, it was dropped. A script for the pilot was featured on the 2011 DVD box set for Daria.
