Awesome

I finally got the Daria video today and sat through all three episodes plus pilot in one sitting. Awesome! I'd never seen anything pre-season two before so it was quite overwhelming to see three retro episodes in one fell swoop.

One thing that puzzled me is how Daria later managed to get seen as unrelated to Quinn when they have so much contact in the first couple of episodes. Also Daria is much more forward and scheming in the early episodes, especially that whole thing with Kevin in the pilot, and her grin was quite bizarre, I was thinking "Wednesday", like was Daria's cheesy grin meant to be sinister and manic? I suppose it was but it looked kind of borderline.

Hey, I thought Daria on C5 had finished, but I just saw tomorrow's schedule and it's still on! "The Morgendorffers go camping in a bid to reduce Jake's stress levels " is what it says in the BBC listings. Brilliant! But according to the ep guide that's a first season episode? I thought C5 just said a few days ago they don't have the rights to repeat season one again? Weird, but fantastic! I hope large doses of Daria aren't toxic as I seem to be heading for overdose city here with a total of five new-to- me episodes in two days. I'm going to have caught up with 30% of the first season in one weekend, pretty good going really.

The shops here are filing the Daria video under "adult cartoons" by the way, same as Beavis and Butthead, and it has a PG rating (for the benefit of US readers, that means "Parental Guidance: some scenes may be unsuitable for young children") I thought the write-up on the back was good a pretty good summation of Daria. It was nice to see Daria without ghosting for a change, she looks so much better in a clear picture, her pores are really cute.

-Shez.

But which is her best side?

In article ,

The pilot was a lot closer to a more cerebral B&B than what we've come to know, and Jane's presence was almost undetectable. I didn't like the pilot a lot aside from than the novelty of seeing the show's humble origins. As for the first couple of "real" episodes, it is interesting to see how characters have changed not only through intentional decisions of the writers & producers, but also how they've evolved on their own. Like Jake, who didn't really do a whole lot in the first shows and hadn't developed any of his "dead father" issues. And the Fashion Club, meanwhile, were merely uninvolved extras. Finally, I can't help but wonder if Ms. Manson was intended for a recurring role, the way she continually shows up in the books, has her own quirky personality (classifying Daria as having problems just because Daria pissed her off.), etc. I also wonder if Mrs. Bennett, the economics teacher is also headed toward the netherworld of discontinued TV characters.

On Sun, 17 Jan 1999 06:55:55 GMT, [email] wrote:

The way that Ms. Manson has shown up in the books, I'd speculate that she'll eventually make a return appearance. (Andrea's increased presence -- particularly her "The Adventures of Queen Hecuba" comic strip in "The Daria Database" -- is also a good sign.)

They'll continue to find uses for her, I think. She did show up in "Fair Enough", after all, and that was late in the second season. I also think we'll see the Buzzcut-like Ms. Morris again, because not only did she show up in the "Database", she's a delicious character to use (can't have a parody about high school without the ridiculously intense P.E. teacher, right?).

Additional characters I'm pining to see (and see again):

• The Morgendorffers ("Mom" and a "Mad Dog" flashback)
• The Barksdales (Amy, Rita, and "Mother")
• The Lanes (Amanda, "Dad", Penny, Summer, and Wind)
• The Taylors (Brian, Steve, Ashley-Amber, and Vivian)
• The Thompsons (Doug and Charlene)
• The Landons (Andrew, Michele, Rachel, and Evan)

Oh, and getting the full names of Ms. Morris, Stacy, Tiffany, Joey, and Jeffy wouldn't hurt, either.

I don't ask for much, do I? :-)

Martin (to send e-mail, remove the "nospam" from my e-mail address) ---- "Don't worry. Today it's brains, tomorrow pierced tongues, then the next day, pierced brains." - Jane Lane ---- Outpost Daria: Your Online Database for All Things Daria! http://systech.simplenet.com/daria/

Another thing that struck me about the first episode or two was how Daria is more proactive and sadistic, eg. conning her family into taking her on horrible outings just so that she can make them squirm, and deliberately making Quinn's life a misery (though perhaps this was in revenge for Quinn disowning her) by naming her in assembly and hobnobbing with her at a party. Meanwhile, Quinn takes sadistic pleasure in watching boys beating the crap out of each other in an attempt to win her favours - this was even her favourite daydream!

Something that didn't crop up that I was expecting was Daria's bedroom. We don't see it at all in the first 3 episodes, whereas I was under the impression from previous list discussion that the padded walls and the room's former inmate were explained in the opening episode when the Morgendorffers moved to Lawndale. But in fact the move is barely mentioned at all, and the series opens after it has taken place, with Jake driving the two girls to their new school.

-Shez.

In article ,

I don't think the bedroom is seen or mentioned at all until "This Year's Model", episode 6. The whole schizophrenic mother scenario is explained then, too.

Shez wrote:

It's nice that they made a video, but if you'd gotten a chance to see it as it originally aired, you'd've noticed that the folks who made the video went cheap and didn't put in the cool music that adds so much to the show, IMHO. (I know, I know, it's nitpicking, but you really can notice a difference.) I wonder if they'll ever come out with more, or maybe a DVD compilation??? (HINT, HINT) Hey, if SP can plunk its first season on 3 DVDs, I'm sure OH can do better than that!

I think it was meant to look a little strange, but then again, remember, it *was* the pilot-- they didn't have much nailed down then.

I think you'll like that one. It's one of my faves, actually-- especially the Lane Family Reunion. <g> (I've been to reunions like that. Wooo, scary!) And the image of Daria telling her spooky story by the fire is really cool. ("Fire! Mmm heh heh!")

Well, the show gets a TV-PG rating here as well, whatever that means. I wonder, does anyone pay any attention to those little ratings critters, considering that a recent study showed that networks consistently underrated their shows for things like violence? Ah, isn't self-rating grand?

rich.

"How can we be lying if we're on television?" -- Olly.

paperpusher of spam

Better still, it says on the label "Vol 1", which implies they will be releasing more than one! Mind you, if C5 repeat all the episodes again after all I won't need to buy them.

Yes, this is why it would be better to tape them off-air instead, apart from the poor picture quality of C5 of course. Or maybe I could dub the broadcast soundtrack onto the pre-recorded videos to combine the best of both worlds.

A weird thing with the video is the slow motion ad bumper segments, we don't see those at all on Channel 5, as Daria is shown in one piece, with no ad breaks at all. I think this may be to do with it going out in a daytime children's tv slot despite the PG rating. AFAICT broadcasters aren't allowed to put ad breaks in the middle of daytime children's TV shows in the UK, only between shows. I think it's something to do with having to go easy on exploiting small and gullible children with high pressure selling. So anyway, I guess it's a good thing that C5 rate Daria as a kids show, as it means we don't have to sit through any ads, whereas going by the bumpers in the video it looks like US broadcasters are dividing the show into three parts, which must be really annoying.

-Shez.