HAIL AND FAREWELL, DARIA ================================================================ An Essay about the "Movie Is It College Yet?" and the State of "Daria" Fandom at This Point in Time By Peter W. Guerin ================================================================ "There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will." --William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V, Scene 2 "Good-bye, kids." --Clarabell the Clown on the final episode of The Howdy Doody Show, 1960. ================================================================ She began literally as an after-thought for a show that was just getting itself off the ground. Mike Judge, who in 1992 had just spun off his newly-popular troublemaking duo of Beavis and Butt-Head from MTV's animation anthology series "Liquid Television", realized he didn't have a regular female character on the show, so he asked someone on his staff--Glenn Eichler--to make one for him. Instantly, as it were, a person popped into Eichler's mind who was someone loosely based on a friend he knew back in high school named Daria, whom almost everyone called "Diarrhea". Just a touch of Jeannene Garafolo's sarcastic humor was added to this person, and she made her debut telling someone "10,000 volts--up the butt." Five years later, in 1997, with "Beavis and Butt-Head" about to wrap up its run on MTV and Judge moving on to create "King of the Hill" for Fox, Eichler got together with Susie Lewis and pitched an idea to MTV's top brass: Why not spin Daria Morgendorffer off onto her own series? MTV was cool to the idea at first; they figured someone who was smart, cynical and anti-social couldn't carry her own show. Eichler and Lewis persevered, and MTV finally greenlighted the show. On March 3, 1997, "Daria" made its debut. At first the critics weren't too enthusiastic about the show; after all, how could you top Beavis and Butt-Head's pyromaniacal tendencies? However, the show began to develop a following, and Eichler and Lewis seemed vindicated. Now, after sixty-five regular episodes and one made-for-MTV movie "Is It Fall Yet?", Daria Morgendorffer, Jane Lane, Tom Sloane and the rest of the denizens of Lawndale say good-bye and wrap up five incredible years with yet another made-for-MTV movie "Is It College Yet?" The movie comes at a time when the fan community for the series is still reeling--in some ways--from the divisions that began to manifest themselves early on in the show's run. Mainly, the divisions have been over who Daria should fall in love with--Jane's guitar-playing slacker brother Trent, or the "poor little rich boy" himself, Tom. Running parallel to this dispute has been a similar conflict over if the show should have stuck with what it had going for it in its first season, or if it should have had its characters developed like they did. These disputes have polarized a fan community in such a manner that hasn't been seen since "Trekkies" argued over if "The Next Generation" was better than the original series. What distinguishes a masterpiece of art from others of its genre is that the artist decides to take risks, trying something that hasn't been attempted before in the medium of choice. Eichler and Lewis decided to do to "Daria" what other shows of its ilk like "Archie", "Saved by the Bell", "Square Pegs" and "Freaks and Geeks" didn't: Inject a healthy dose of reality, with a liberal dash of irony. Sure, Moose on "Archie" was dumb, but people tolerated him; Kevin Thompson is just as dumb, and he drives neurotic social studies teacher Anthony DeMartino up the wall, right eye bulging out and all. No one ever died on "Saved by the Bell"; in "Daria's" first season finale "The Misery Chick", football legend Tommy Sherman buys it, and Daria and Jane have to deal with the consequences. Archie Andrews fooled around with Veronica Lodge and Betty Cooper without anything worse than the occasional argument; from the end of the third season onward, Daria and Jane had to deal with Tom--first as Jane's boyfriend, then as Daria's--and the very devastating consequences it entails. ================================================================ What do people see in Daria when they watch the show? Odds are, they see something of themselves and the experiences they have or had when they are or were in high school themselves--even if it has been more than twenty years since they last had their noses in a textbook. The experiences Daria undergoes in the course of the series are the experiences most of us have gone through during the high school years. Frankly, we've been through the caste system Mankind had humorously labeled "class cliques"; it is as impersonal and upwardly immobile as that Hindu system of classifying people by their occupations in life or their physical condition. No matter what school you go to, the jocks and fashion plates are on the top; the nerds and geeks are in the middle; the Goths and Metalheads are somewhere on the bottom and the Special Education students are the "Untouchables". It is as inalterable as the three groups of the High, the Middle and the Low that George Orwell wrote about in his novel "1984". The aims of these groups are also inalterable and irreconcilable. The jocks and fashion plates want to remain on top; the nerds and geeks want to change places with the jocks and fashion plates and thus earn some recognition; the Goths and Metalheads want some respect; and the Special Education students--when they realize they are oppressed--want a society where everyone is equal in rights and privileges regardless of their physical, mental or emotional condition. The thing with Daria, though, is that she clearly doesn't fit into the caste system I've just described. She certainly is not a jock or fashion plate (the infamous moment toward the end of "Quinn the Brain" notwithstanding); she doesn't portray herself as a nerd or geek--at least not the kind someone like Charles "Upchuck" Ruttheimer III is depicted as; she certainly is not a Goth like Andrea or a Metalhead, and she certainly is not a Special Education student. I have met people who said they couldn't fit into any of the groups I have described, so this is not so unusual a case. Daria is a person who has that rare gift of seeing the world as it is and rejecting the premises it is based on. She is as quick to point out the megalomaniacal tendencies of Lawndale High School Principal Angela Li as she is in brushing off Upchuck's amorous advances. She finds justice in Kevin getting yelled at by DeMartino when he shows his incredible stupidity, and is as quick to find fault with DeMartino's rantings. She values the friendship she has in Jane but puts it to the test in the incidents with Tom. She views her family as shallow but has taken the bull by the horns to tell her sister Quinn, her mother Helen and her father Jake when they're in the wrong. She is a feminist, but doesn't subscribe to the firebrand style of feminism preached by überfeminist science teacher Janet Barch, preferring instead that of her aunt, Amy Barksdale. She may look like a girl, but she very much a woman, with wisdom that belies her age. ================================================================ Now Daria and her world are about to change as she faces the end of senior year, graduation and moving on to college. Indeed, quite a few questions have been raised during the course of the past five years; questions that may or may not be answered in the final movie. Those questions are: 1. What college will Daria go to?; 2. What will happen to Daria and Tom's relationship?; 3. What will happen to Daria and Jane's friendship?; 4. Who will win the long-simmering struggle for control of the Fashion Club--current Vice-President Quinn or current President Sandi Griffin?; 5. Who will be valedictorian--Daria or superstudent Jodie Landon?; 6. Will Daria and Trent ever fall in love?; 7. Will Trent's band Mystik Spiral stay together?; 8. Will Daria and Jane finally get revenge against Ms. Li for all the agony she's put them through by making them go to her "mandatory-voluntary" activities?; 9. Will Ms. Li finally get what's coming to her for arrogantly abusing her powers?; 10. Will wishy-washy English teacher Timothy O'Neill finally pop the question to Ms. Barch?; 11. Will Jodie and football team captain Michael Jordan "Mack" McKenzie finally stand up to their pushy parents?; 12. Will Helen finally stand up to her boss Eric Schreter? 13. Will Upchuck finally get a girlfriend, or get slapped with a sexual harassment lawsuit?; 14. Will DeMartino's right eye finally burst from all those years it bulged out?; 15. What will happen to Kevin's relationship with head cheerleader Brittany Taylor, and will they graduate, let alone go to college?; 16. Will Quinn be expelled from the Fashion Club when her mother orders her to take a part-time job, and how will she cope with her new friend Lindy's alcoholism?; 17. Will Jake and Helen get divorced? 18. Will Andrea speak more than a few words this time?; and 19. Will Aunt Amy make one more appearance, along with Aunt Rita? These questions will be answered as I review the movie. ================================================================ The central plot of "Is It College Yet?" revolves around Daria's dilemma regarding which college she wishes to go to, and whether she wants to continue her relationship with Tom; closely related is whether or not her "partner in crime" Jane will go to college as well. Daria gets some warning ahead of time that things are coming to an abrupt end with Tom during a trip to visit some college campuses with Tom and his mother, Kay. The focus of the entire trip centers on a visit to Bromwell University, which both Daria and Tom have applied for. They spend so much time at Bromwell that they give essentially short shrift to Daria's second choice: Raft University. Adding insult to injury, Daria finds out that she is on a waiting list for Bromwell but got accepted to Raft, while Tom made it to Bromwell, thanks in large part due to family influence. When not even a letter of recommendation written by Tom's parents changes Daria's luck in regard to Bromwell, she finally decides to cut her losses and dumps Tom. Some may question the wisdom of this move, since some may speculate that she was just rashly taking her problems out on Tom, but the reality of the situation is that Tom seems no different from the rest of his family: shallow and superficial, and that he was just putting on a façade of being on Daria's side. However, if the old-guard Daria/Trent 'shippers had their hopes raised that Daria would come running back to Trent, they were dashed when she didn't--at least as far as the movie was concerned. If the statement made at the "TV Guide" Web site is to believed, and that a spin-off series featuring Trent and Mystik Spiral is in the works, perhaps Daria will make some cameo appearances and perhaps renew the whole 'shipper debate. Until then, be prepared for a ton of fan fiction where Daria--while at college--decides to "wise up", get back together with Trent and run away to Mexico with him to get married; either that, or Daria and Tom meet while on vacation, and Daria realizes that Tom isn't so bad after all. Either of those events could happen, or something completely different. Jane, for her part, has been in a dither about whether she should submit a portfolio to Boston Fine Arts College (BFAC) or not go to college at all. She initially decides to lean in the latter direction when she receives two rejection notices from some other colleges she applied to and some concern from Trent, but with some prodding by Daria, Jane relents, submits a portfolio and is accepted to BFAC. Thus our two heroines will be in college in Boston, with a chance to meet up during weekends. The main plot and the principal subplot help serve to finally close the debate on the great 'shipper controversy; it's like Glenn told every faction in this mess to take a hike. It also serves to finally put the Tom controversy behind both women. When Daria dumps Tom, Jane is entirely supportive of her, a diametric turnaround from the situation that had existed in "Fire!", "Dye! Dye! My Darling" and "Is It Fall Yet?" Both Daria and Jane emerge at the end of the film better friends than ever, and better equipped to handle whatever life throws at them. They may have "sold out", as Trent told Jane when she applied to BFAC, but not to the extent that Trent feared; their core values are still intact. Both of them have also matured in this situation; however, if maturity is defined as adapting to the adverse situations life throws a person's way and going on with his/her life despite those adverse situations, Daria and Jane are definitely more mature than their peers--or their elders, and have been for quite a long time. The door was effectively opened to these possibilities when Daria told Tom she'd like to remain friends and meet up with him during vacation. The most important matter is that Daria realizes that she doesn't need a man to be happy. After the debacle with Trent, the Daria/Tom/Jane love triangle and a relationship with Tom, Daria realizes that she will need some more time until she can fully commit herself to a man. That is not a weakness on her part rather than a strength. She realizes that she can't have a relationship with a guitar-playing bum or a superficially shallow "rebel poseur"; there is someone out there for Daria, but who it is will probably remain a mystery. ================================================================ Two other closely related subplots concerned Jodie split between going to Crestwood--which is what her father, Andrew, wants--or Turner, which is what she wants, as well as Kevin and Brittany's own post-high school plans. Jodie clearly is seen to have reached a breaking point as far as Andrew's pushing her is concerned. Her dilemma is made even worse when she is accepted by both colleges, and she winds up breaking down and crying in front of Mack, who decides to confront Andrew about this situation. Jodie has had it playing the good "token black person" in Lawndale High; now she wants to be at a place where she can be accepted by her peers, but Andrew refuses to accept the situation until Mack speaks to him about it. After a discussion with Jodie and Michele--his wife--Andrew finally realizes that he has made Jodie unhappy and agrees to her choice of Turner. As for Kevin and Brittany, Kevin has found out that (no surprise) he's being left back, while Brittany and the rest of the cheerleading squad are going to Great Prairie State College. Kevin beats around the bush for as long as he can until he finally admits that he's been left back. Brittany, however, promises to remain faithful to Kevin; how long that will last of course will probably never be known. ================================================================ Of course no "Daria" episode or movie could be complete without something involving Quinn and the Fashion Club. First, Quinn takes a job at Governor's Park restaurant as a hostess in order to pay off a credit card debt, where she meets college student Lindy; next, Stacy Rowe makes a wish at her birthday party that pushy Fashion Club President Sandi Griffin would shut up, which leads her to coming down with laryngitis. While on the job, Quinn finds out to her horror that Lindy is an alcoholic. Lindy sneaks in a drink no matter where she goes--at a party, at a movie theater, even on the job. It is while taking a drink on the job that Lindy pays the price for her habit and is fired. Quinn tries to force Lindy to admit to her problem, but doesn't succeed. Later on, Lindy shows up at the Morgendorffer residence, tells her a tall tale about being able to control her drinking and gives Quinn a mirror she promised to make for her. This was perhaps the only disappointment in the entire film--the situation wasn't resolved. Lindy didn't get involved in a DWI, get killed or killed someone else; neither did she tearfully admit to her problem and started going to AA meetings. But perhaps Glenn was making a point with this and several other unresolved issues left hanging at the end of the movie--that in real life, unlike in sitcoms or cartoons, problems are not always resolved and hanging threads are not always neatly tied up into a cute little package with a cute little bow on top. Give Quinn some credit for trying her best to handle this situation with some of the maturity we've seen from her in Is It Fall Yet? and "Lucky Strike". I say "some" only because we saw Quinn backpedal a bit during the graduation scene when she decided to wear a ballcap and sunglasses when Daria began delivering her award acceptance speech; one wonders if she began claiming to everyone that Daria was her cousin again afterwards. :-) As far as the Fashion Club's concerned, if anyone was hoping that Quinn and Sandi would finally have a catfight over control of the club, they were bitterly disappointed. With Sandi sidelined by not being able to speak and Quinn on her job, the Fashion Club barely is able to function. Stacy's botched attempt to fix things by using a "curse remover" (which Tiffany Blum-Deckler drinks by mistake) only makes things worse. When Sandi finally makes a list of demands to Stacy to show she's sorry, she quits the Fashion Club, finally showing some backbone. However, the other three members also quit--only to agree to meet the next day about what to do with their new spare time. Whether the Fashion Club really is no more or not will probably never be known except in the annals of fan fiction. Also, it effectively ended the Quinn-Sandi struggle at a draw. I have always held that both of them are too evenly matched, and like the three superpowers in George Orwell's 1984, neither side can truly defeat the other. ================================================================ There were quite a few other subplots in the movie that should be dealt with quickly. The most important of those was the situation between Mr. O'Neill and Ms. Barch. Ever since that moment in "Fair Enough" where Ms. Barch read Mr. O'Neill's fortune, those two have been an odd romantic item. When Ms. Barch misinterprets Mr. O'Neill's hesitancy as a marriage proposal, Mr. DeMartino tries to counsel O'Neill into abandoning the situation, only to have it incredibly backfire against him when Barch actually likes O'Neill getting some "backbone" into his character. All DeMartino gets for his pains is a black eye. It is a shame we didn't get to see the actual marriage, but it will certainly serve as more grist for the fan fic mill. I do have to admit as an O'Neill/Barch 'shipper myself that having all these moments in this film did satisfy my own 'shipper cravings. :-) The graduation scene itself was a tad bit disappointing, if only that Daria blew her big chance to tell off Ms. Li, the teachers and her fellow students. I was really hoping she'd announce that she had uncovered a scandal involving Ms. Li embezzling school funds, with police officers arriving to drag Li off stage in handcuffs. However, what she did say--saying that high school sucks while thanking her friends and family--did drive home the point that Daria has had it with the superficiality of high school life and is moving on to bigger and better things. Also, winning an academic award certainly came as a big shock to Daria, perhaps deflating her chances to get even with Li. Finally, it was no surprise that Jodie was valedictorian; even C. E. Forman in his fan fic "No Picnic" has Daria admit that it was Jodie's to have since she had all those extracurricular activities. Those who were hoping for a horse race between Daria and Jodie for the honor were left disappointed. There were some other things that were only briefly covered or not covered at all. Upchuck finally got some action with a girl--and it was none other than the Goth queen herself, Andrea. There was no appearance by Mystik Spiral at all; Jake and Helen didn't get divorced; Amy and Rita didn't show up, either; Andrea only spoke a few more words; Helen didn't tell off Eric, and DeMartino's right eye didn't burst. ================================================================ I think the overall theme of the movie is that no matter how much things do change, they always remain the same in some sort of manner. Daria and Jane manage to maintain their friendship despite the double turmoil of deciding where to go to college and another romantic break-up. In fact, Daria and Jane score one more moral victory against the craziness that is life--only this time the enemy isn't their parents, fellow students or an inane school administration and faculty, it's their mutual antagonist (so to speak), Tom. Some may come away from this movie feeling vindicated that their view of Tom as a manipulative, spoiled rich boy has been validated, but not necessarily. Daria has come to realize that its better to earn one's way into a good college rather than rely on family connections, and if her family's not as wealthy as the Sloanes, then forget them and the fancy cars they rode into Lawndale in. Quinn changed and not changed in her own unique manner. The rest of the cast likewise faced considerable challenges--some of them won, some of them lost, but isn't that the way life is? There are some fans, however, who feel that life shouldn't be that way. Glenn himself was aware of that in some measure in an interview "Toon Magazine" Associate Editor Michelle Klein-Häss conducted announcing the end of Daria. In essence, Is It College Yet? may be the biggest wake-up call to a group of fans since William Shatner shrieked "Get a life!" at the Trekkies in that infamous "Saturday Night Live" sketch. Glenn was showing some weariness over the continued 'shipper bickering, the overall direction of the plotline, and what the show's concepts of good vs. evil were. I've said it before and I'll say it again--if it was decided to freeze time and just have Daria and Jane triumph mercilessly over Lawndale High in every episode (like they seemed to do in Season 1), the show would have become as predicable as "Beetle Bailey" or "Garfield" or any other cartoon or comic strip that recycles the same old jokes over and over again. I'm also sorry to say to 'shippers of almost all stripes that their fondest wishes didn't come true. If you can't stand unrequited love, then you should steer clear of such shôjo anime as "Kimagure Orange Road" and "Maison Ikkoku", where romantic relationships, love triangles, unrequited love and failed relationships are seen in spades. Unfortunately, that's how it works in real life as well. Who here among us didn't have a failed first romantic relationship? Who here hasn't had to deal with the pains of unrequited love? For that matter--and Glenn himself pointed this out--there are no clear-cut heroes and villains on Daria; Ms. Li and Sandi are no more or less evil than the Soup Nazi and Neuman the Mailman on "Seinfeld" were. It would be more accurate to say that every character has had his/her positive AND negative traits exposed on the show, as if the series were a Greek or Shakespearean tragedy where all the shortcomings of the characters are revealed. Frankly not only has the emperor been revealed not to have any clothes, but the entire court and the entire kingdom as well. Therefore to all the fans out there, now that this series is over, let's let bygones be bygones. We can either choose to quibble over whether Daria and Trent were meant to be together until the Universe comes to an end, or we can like come to some truce and agree to disagree like the fans of the various "Star Trek" series. The ball is now in your court, "Daria" fans. ================================================================ Now that the end is here for "Daria", we can look back at a series that was unique in the annals of American animation, a series that perhaps came closer to the style of Japanese anime known as shôjo or girls' anime than to a typical teen show or a soap opera. Glenn Eichler has earned his place in the pantheon of American animators with the Walt Disneys, Bill Plymptons and Chuck Joneses of the business and certainly must have made his old boss Mike Judge proud. "Is It College Yet?" is a fitting end to a spectacular series. While some people may be looking for the next best thing to come down the pipe, we have this movie that neatly sums up what Daria has faced for all these years: Having to put up with the junk life deals out. It is said that a tragic hero only becomes tragic when he accepts his/her fate and what life deals out to him/her; Daria accepts her fate and what life has dealt to her with her trademark deadpan look and monotone voice intact. Reality in the form of Laertes might have taken a swipe at her with its point-envenomed epée, but the poison doesn't work on Daria, since she's long developed her own antidote. Therefore, hail and farewell, Daria Morgendorffer; we don't know what the road ahead might lead to, but she certainly has the skills to take whatever may come. ================================================================ On a related note, this will be the final piece of work I will write about "Daria", ever. I decided to quit writing "Daria" fan fiction last year, and this will be my final "Daria" essay. However, I will still continue to be in the "Daria" fan community, posting the occasional message at the Paperpusher's Message Board, chatting with everyone at the #Daria+ IRC chat room, and I will still continue to write fan fiction on other shows (right now, I'm writing a series of "Ed, Edd n Eddy" fics). So, don't think of this as "Good-bye"; instead, as they said in the "Masters of the Universe" movie, think of it as "Safe Journey". :-) Therefore, on that note, "Will the last person in the room please turn out the lights?" Peter W. Guerin Hudson Falls, New York January 22, 2002 7:30 PM ================================================================ This is the end/Beautiful friend/This is the end/My only friend/The end/ Of all our elaborate plans/The end/Of everything that stands/The end/ No safety or surprise/The end/I'll never look into your eyes again. --Jim Morrison, The Doors, "The End" ================================================================