Daria and animals

I've noticed that animals on Daria never seem to appear as pets or just as friendly animals, but always under unusual or even bizarre circumtances.

The only regular character I can ever remember having a pet was Sandi, who mentioned her (unseen) cat Fluffy in the context of overdosing on foundation (!).

Quinn is said to love "cute" animals but her job at a pet store in "It Happened One Nut" was a comedy of errors - escaping snakes, birds, hamsters.

Daria almost ran over a dog in "Throught a Lens Darkly".

Animals have often been portayed in bizarre circumstances on "Sick, Sad World", and have been mentioned by Jane and Daria in connection with animal-mauling TV shows and videos.

Jake has had his problems with squirrels.

Doesn't anyone in Lawndale have a dog that chases sticks or a cat that rubs against your ankles? Or even a normally mischevious pet who digs holes in the garden or scratches the furniture?

Maybe Eichler and crew hate animals? Any ideas?

Or have I forgotten an episode or two?

(No animals were harmed in the creation of this message. )

M Man

Hw�t! We have heard of the glory of [email] (MMan37x) that wrote news:[email], on the day of 20 Aug 2001:

And he spent the rest of the day puking. Back in the first season Sandi could walk up to Daria and Jane and talk with them without panicking, and she used words like "puking." What a change a few seasons make!

According to MTV's Daria site, the dog in question is named 'Pugsly' and was modeled after Susie Lynn's pet bulldog. Now *there's* a trivia question.

Daria also had her problems with squirrels (in "Road Worrier"). ^_^

A couple of visiting characters had pets - Jake and Helen's hippie friends, Willow and Coyote, have a german shepherd named Leary, and Penny Lane has a parrot, Chiquito. At the end of "Through A Lens Darkly," we also see someone (presumably a dogsitter) walking a horde of dogs.

My guess is that Eichler et al. don't hate animals, but that they couldn't see a way to give any of the regulars a pet without turning it into an "oh, how cute!" situation, which kind of goes against the whole grain of 'Daria.' Putting animals in peril just fits the theme of the show better.

Mark Steese a/k/a Corvus Marinus

Ah, the squirrels--the longest subtle "Running Gag" in the series. Let's see, when they were either shown or mentioned, does anybody know when these moments happened in what eps? I'll take a gander at some:

"Road Worrier" - One "saw" Daria peeing in the woods

"One J At A Time" - Jake, Tom, and Jamie caught a pesky squirrel

"Dye! Dye! My Darling! - Jake mentioned one while reading the paper the night after "The Moment"

"College Bored" - Just a guess, but for some reason, I think it was a dead one that Jake ran over in the road, even though they didn't show it-it would be a good guess to me

"Esteemers" - Yeah, somebody was dressed in a squirrel *costume*, but still...

Well, those are some of my guesses, and I'm sure they're more. Your turn. Thanks.

"SGall23241" wrote in message news:[email]...

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Don't forget the It's A Nutty, Nutty, Nutty, Nutty World's mascot Filbert in the episode "It Happened One Nut"! Or Daria complaining about the squirrels at the bus stop in that same episode either.

Firah

Well, Sandi seemed a little apprehensive approaching Daria, and got talked out of 10 dollars besides. Maybe Sandi was afraid to approach Daria in "Quinn the Brain" because she figured she'd somehow lose another 10 dollars. :-)

Sandi really didn't seem afraid of Daria in "Lucky Strike", though. She openly read "Waif" during class discussions, and referred to Daria as "that weird girl" after Quinn admitted Daria was her sister. Seems like a bold thing to do considering Daria had told Sandi her D-minus really should have been an F; Daria could have changed her mind about the grade.

Good one!

I never saw the Willow and Coyote episode.

I'd forgotten about Chiquito.

Yeah, I thought of that, but why not have a pet that makes trouble or gets in the way? One could imagine Jake complaining about doghairs on the sofa. Or Sandi could have tripped over Fluffy in "Fat Like Me" instead of that toy car (which I thought was a bit contrived). I guess Chiquito fits my description, but only in one episode (and personally, I have trouble thinking of a bird as a "pet". YMMV)

It just seems that pets are way more common where I live than in Lawndale. And the Lawndalians have bigger yards.

M Man

M Man wrote:

I think Sandi was trying to crush Quinn in that episode. Didn't work, of course.

Well, in the case of FLM, I don't think the writer wanted to put Fluffy in a situation where we might see Sam and Chris attempting to hurt it.

Oh, and I had birds as pets when I was a child. I had two parakeets. First it was Patty (she died when I was about 8), then it was Patrick. He lived longer than Patty. So I can see birds being pets more easily than you might be able to.

Belle Book

Yeah, it seemed Sandi was so hellbent on humiliating Quinn she threw caution to the wind in that scene.

... which is why I said YMMV. I know some people like birds and that all birds aren't as troublesome as Penny's Chiquito.

I just tend to think of pets as animals that play with string or chase sticks, sit on your lap or rub against you affectionately, that sort of thing.

M Man

M Man wrote:

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Ah, like dogs or cats. I'd love to have a cat, but my mom's allergic to them, so I can't have them.

Would you mind telling me what YMMV means, please?

Belle Book

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary - meaning that the topic is one that admits of legitimate differences of opinion.

Yeah, dogs and cats are definitely my favorites. I'm allergic to cats, too, unfortunately, but I like them enough to allow the neighbors' cats to hang around me outdoors. I'd be constantly sneezing if I had one indoors.

M Man

M Man wrote:

Ah. I see now. I never came across that acronym before, that's why I asked.

Sorry to hear you're allergic to cats like my mother, but at least you can be around cats in the outdoors.

Belle Book

[email] (MMan37x) writes:

Maybe the writers are extreme animal rights activists who don't think animals should be imprisoned by humans and forced to be pets. :-)

Aaron

Possible reason why pets aren't around in Daria: *nothing* that isn't absoutly necesary to the plot is visually shown in Daria. Have you ever noticed how bare the show is? The backdrops never change, tables always have the same knick-nacks on them. This is why, as someone else said, you can listen to the show and do other stuff at the same time. I guess the budget is so low, the animators can't draw in anything extraneous.

Kristi

x~x~x~x~x Fanfic, pictures: www.gurlpages.com/ofnone

WWDD (what would darwin do?)

I don't think I'd recommend that. Watch carefully and there's a lot going on with facial expressions - some of it subtle. Example - Stacy's look back at Upchuck after the torn-dollar trick in LITPL as the FC was leaving. You could see something was going to come from that.

I'll bet others can come up with more examples.

Or ... what would Daria do? :-)

M Man

Speaking of which, how do you think Daria would react to the Thornberrys? ;-)

I think that Quinn (Morgendorffer) and Debbie (Thornberry) trying to out-cool each other would be worth watching :)

It's occurred to me that there would be serious mutual non-comprehension between the Morgandorffers and the Thornberrys -- the Morgandorffers are quintessentially civilized, while the Thornberrys are adventurers. I could see Jake getting into the total coolness of the Thornberrys' way of life, but also being utterly terrified at the details. Even Debbie Thornberry, who doesn't actually _like_ gadding about the world in quest of footage of rare animals, is well-adapted to it -- she's both brave and physically competent; she's a bit spoiled only by comparison with Eliza.

I could see Debbie wanting to hang out with the Fashion Club, but I don't think she could deal with all the social intrigue -- for all her claims to sophistication, she's in many ways an innocent where the behavior of other people is concerned. Daria and Eliza are both highly intelligent, but their personal styles are totally different -- Daria's a sedentary intellectual, Eliza's one of the most adventurous of her whole family.

The image of _either_ Daria or Quinn trying to deal with Donny is priceless.

This strikes me as a good fanfic notion. I can even see the premise ... Helen's firm would be hired to do some sort of legal work for Nigel and Marianne. (Oh, btw, it's pretty obvious that the Thornberrys have some significant source of income, probably from a combination of family wealth, grants, and their show -- you can't buy and maintain something like their amphibious ATV mobile home, all their cameras, or all the shipping fees they must have to pay wtihout some major dough). Possibly, this might involve some rare and endangered critter livng in the vicinity of Lawndale (which is why they'd be hiring Helen's firm -- local talent). We know from other eps that there is some fairly wild country within the radius of a fairly easy bus trip and drive.

In article , [email] (Ofnone2153) wrote:

WWDD (what would Daria do?)

Hw�t! We have heard of the glory of [email] (Ofnone2153) that wrote news:[email], on the day of 29 Aug 2001:

No, I never have, actually. Admittedly all the episodes aren't as visually busy as "I Loathe A Parade," but there's quite a bit of background detail in most of them (e.g., the Buddha in Ms. Li's office, the stuff written on the blackboard in Mr. O'Neill's classroom, Jane's artworks).

In point of fact, this is wrong. Certainly a lot of the backgrounds are reused, but some are different in every episode (Mr. O'Neill's blackboard, Ms. Defoe's classroom) and the settings are varied quite a bit; in the first season alone there was Brittany's house, Middleton College, the coffeehouse in "Cafe Disaffecto," the Mall of the Millennium, the Guptys' house, the Rx Plex and Dr. Shar's office, the diner in "Road Worrier," etc. The budget for Daria may be limited, but the writers and animators have shown considerable imagination.

Well, as my example above demonstrate, I disagree with this. Besides, if I only listened to the show, I wouldn't be able to see Sandi! ^_^

Mark Steese a/k/a Corvus Marinus

The blackboard in DeMartino's classroom is more interesting than O'Neill's, I think.

The stores in downtown Lawndale and in the mall are interesting to look at, too - Ace Hardware, Lackluster Video, etc. :-)

Sometimes they re-use backgrounds in interesting ways. The diner in "Road Worrier" was used again in "Boxing Daria" as Daria and Jane's meeting place after Daria's near-crash.

Actually, w.r.t. Sandi, there's a case for watching the screen and muting the sound ... :-)

M Man