Daria; the complete animated series

Daria is an animated television series that ran on the cable network MTV from 1997 to 2002. Created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn, the series about a smart, acerbic, and somewhat misanthropic high school girl was a spin-off of MTV's animated Beavis and Butt-head (1993-1997). The series was widely praised for versatile storytelling and for well-drawn characters, took many satirical jabs at high-school life, and was full of allusions to and criticisms of popular culture, especially then-current pop music.

Daria centered on a smart, overtly sardonic, and extremely pessimistic upper-middle-class teenage girl, Daria Morgendorffer, dealing with day-to-day life in her suburban American town, Lawndale. In a 2005 interview, series co-creator Glenn Eichler described the otherwise unspecified locale as, "a mid-Atlantic suburb, outside somewhere like Baltimore. They could have lived in Pennsylvania near the Main Line, though. For comedic and illustrative purposes, the show's depiction of suburban American life was a deliberately exaggerated one. Lawndale was filled with archetypes, and Daria herself served as the series' observer.

In The New York Times, the protagonist was described as "a blend of Dorothy Parker, Fran Lebowitz and Janeane Garofalo, wearing Carrie Donovan's glasses. Daria Morgendorffer, 16 and cursed with a functioning brain, has the misfortune to see high school, her family and her life for exactly what they are and the temerity to comment on it."The series follows Daria through her high school years, ending with her graduation and acceptance into college. Daria and her best friend Jane Lane share their droll observations about their school and life. Though Daria initially has a crush on Jane's brother Trent, who plays guitar in a local rock band, her attraction remains unrequited, as she never reveals this to him.

The dynamics among the characters change during season four, when Jane begins a relationship with Tom Sloane, son of one of the town's richest families. Though Daria is hesitant to accept Tom at first, she and Tom find themselves becoming closer, culminating in a kiss in the season finale. The emotional and comedic turmoil among Jane, Tom, and Daria was the centerpiece of the TV movie Is It Fall Yet? Its fueled with some of the subsequent final season's stories.