THE SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT?

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How Adversity Helped Create Major Character Changes to the Cast of "Daria"
in the Movie "Is It Fall Yet?"

By

Peter W. Guerin

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"Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of 
York;/And all the clouds that lower'd upon our house/In the deep bosom of 
the ocean buried."

--William Shakespeare, "Richard III", Act I, Scene 1

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In my previous essay, "American Animation's Finest Hour", I had made the 
case as to why the Daria episodes "Fire!" and "Dye!  Dye!  My Darling" 
were a high water mark for American animation.  This essay will now focus 
on the made-for-MTV film that followed a few weeks afterwards entitled 
"Is It Fall Yet?"  I know this essay comes almost three months after the 
film first aired, but I wanted to wait until the controversies 
surrounding the movie died down.

The summer of 2000 saw quite a few things going on in television.  It 
began with the much-anticipated "Iron Chef:  New York Battle", slogged 
through two rather insipid "reality game shows", "Survivor" and 
"Big Brother", and wrapped up with the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in 
Sydney, Australia.  Amongst all this, MTV presented its third made-for-MTV
movie and its first animated made-for-MTV movie "Daria:  Is It Fall Yet?"  

Fans of Daria had waited all season long for this event.  Some were a bit 
disappointed that MTV decided to make it just a made-for-MTV event 
instead of a theatrical release (given the success of "Beavis and 
Butt-Head Do America" and the upcoming "Celebrity Deathmatch" movie, which
undoubtedly will also be a big success), but nevertheless there was much 
anticipation for this film.  Many questions were left hanging at the 
cliffhanger conclusion of "Dye!  Dye!  My Darling", mainly:  
1.)  Will Daria Morgendorffer indeed start a relationship with Tom 
Sloane, the now ex-boyfriend of her now ex-best friend Jane Lane?; 
2.)  If she doesn't, will she finally get the attention of Jane's brother 
Trent and start that relationship the 'shippers were hoping for?; 
3.)  Will Daria and Jane ever reconcile their differences?; 4.)  How will 
Daria and Jane cope being apart for the summer, the former being roped 
into being a counselor at the It's OK to Cry Corral, the summer camp ran 
by wishy-washy English teacher Timothy O'Neill, the latter at an artists' 
colony?; 5.)  How would the rest of the students and faculty of Lawndale 
High cope with the summer?  I shall deal with these questions throughout 
this essay.

Despite what you may have seen in the "Beavis and Butt-Head Christmas 
Special", where Daria is seen singing carols with a guy in the alternate 
future the angel shows to our favorite dolts, Daria was not scared off 
from guys by those two.  Sure, it rubbed her the wrong way when they began
their chant of "Diarrhea, cha-cha-cha!", but she realized it was a small 
price to pay for seeing them get hoisted by their own petard for her own 
amusement when their various schemes came to naught.  Anyone might have 
realized that Daria thought that Trent was all right when they first met 
in "The Invitation", and of course the fateful meeting of them by 
themselves in "The Road Worrier".  We are not given any clues as to 
whether Daria had any boyfriends back in Highland, but obviously no matter
what Beavis and Butt-Head did, it didn't turn Daria off from guys 
completely.  Of course, Daria's tolerance for men does get tested by the 
lothario antics of Charles Ruttheimer III, whom even the members of the 
Fashion Club address as Upchuck (of course, whether his antics will 
eventually lead him to getting a harassment lawsuit slapped on him is or 
course subject to debate).

For the first three seasons, we are led to believe that perhaps Daria and 
Trent would make an interesting couple.  However, toward the middle of the
third season, we get warning signs that perhaps Trent would not be an 
ideal match for Daria in "Lane Miserables"; at the end of that season, 
Daria gets some realization that perhaps she and Trent were not meant to 
be when he fails to deliver on some promised music for an English class 
project in "Jane's Addition".  It was in that pivotal episode that we 
first met Tom.  Almost immediately the reaction from the 'shipper crowd 
was almost unanimously vehement (with the noble exception of Diane Long, 
who said she was comfortable with what had happened).  Tom was seen as an 
interloper who was trying to break up Daria and Jane's friendship, and for
most of the fourth season they seem vindicated, especially given the 
events of the season opener "Partner's Complaint".  Those who thought that
Daria had accepted Jane and Tom's relationship were in for a rude 
awakening in that episode as there were signs that she was still 
essentially angry at them, especially when Daria decided to team up with 
Student Government President Jodie Landon for a economics project instead 
of Jane.

However, things were literally turned upside-down in the episode "I Loathe
a Parade", when Daria helped Tom try to find Jane during a homecoming 
parade.  Some (I admit I was among them) just thought that Daria had just 
realized that Tom was not a threat to her friendship with Jane and that 
she would at least now tolerate him.  However, myself and others were 
indeed in for another rude awakening in the final two episodes of the 
season entitled "Fire!" and "Dye!  Dye!  My Darling".  After the 
Morgendorffers are forced to stay at a hotel while smoke and fire damage 
is repaired to their home (no thanks to "Mr. Homer Simpson with a College 
Degree" himself, Jake), Daria doesn't like the arrangements and stays at 
Jane's place.  While there she realizes that she and Tom have more in 
common than she first realized, which sets off the panic alarms in Jane's 
mind and some concern for both women's welfare in Trent.  Things reach an 
emotional climax when Daria botches Jane's hair dye job and Tom 
inadvertently kisses Daria.  About the only thing that can come close in 
emotional intensity to me is the pivotal scene in William Shakespeare's 
play "Hamlet", when seeing a play loosely based on his murdering his 
brother, King Hamlet, King Claudius shouts for some lights and leaves the 
courtyard in remorse.  However, in this situation, whatever proof Daria 
gets in proving that Tom was trying to steal Jane away from her (something
she says angrily to his face) is mixed with some feelings of guilt that if
she falls in love with Tom, she'll lose Jane as a friend anyway.  It a 
sense Daria gets a Phyrric victory of sorts when Jane bluntly announces 
that Tom and her broke up, and that Daria could have him.

It is this question of whether it is right or wrong for Daria to have a 
relationship with Tom that dogs us all throughout "Is It Fall Yet?"  In 
some sense, Daria for the first time senses some class distinctions in her
lot in life.  Sure, her family is well-off, but not as well-off as the 
Sloanes.  Perhaps it is partly because she doesn't think she can fit in 
with such a wealthy family and perhaps because she still has some feelings
of respect for Jane that leads her to break up with Tom.  It is not quite 
as dramatic as when Mamoru Chiba broke up with Usagi Tsukino in the "R" 
season of "Bishôjo Senshi Sailor Moon" (and Daria is not one to crawl to a
phone booth and cry her eyes out), but it is just as devastating.  For the
first time in her life Daria feels so utterly alone, so alone that she's 
willing to chance a trip offered to her by Trent to the artists' colony so
she and Jane can sort out their differences.  Any hopes the 'shippers 
might have had that perhaps Daria and Trent would at long last get 
together is effectively quashed when Trent sings "Betrayal" while driving 
the Tank up to the colony.  Despite some heated words, Daria and Jane do 
patch things up (in part to Jane's own emotional epiphany, which I will 
get back to momentarily), and Jane even playfully suggests she give Tom 
another chance.  Daria and Tom do get back together, with Tom pledging to 
"take things slowly" this time around.

All three characters who have been locked in what had been called "the 
eternal triangle" come out of this situation better and stronger 
individuals.  For Daria, she realizes that not everyone in this world is a
big, hypocritical jerk and that she can get along with people who don't 
quite share her views of the world (the dramatic moment when Daria helps 
her sister Quinn deal with her tutor David dumping her has to be one of 
the best moments in the show, ever).  Sure, she suffered some setbacks 
during the summer like being forced to be a summer camp counselor and 
failing miserably (at first) in helping a fellow outcast at the camp named
Link, but as Friedrich Nietzsche himself said it, "What doesn't kill me 
will make me stronger".  Eventually Link realizes that Daria was on the 
level about being like him and writes a letter to her asking for help in 
dealing with his stepfather.  Daria herself realizes (if she hasn't 
already) that she won't necessarily win every battle she wages against the
insanity of this world, and sometimes she won't even have the luxury of 
saving face.  Further, she does realize that she can at least get along 
with the people in her life; we see some early signs of this in the 
episode "Of Human Bonding", when she accompanies Jake on a business trip, 
and in the episode "Psycho Therapy", where she forces the rest of her 
family to face their own inadequacies while at the health spa they're 
staying at.

For Jane's part, she also emerges from the situation a changed individual.
We have seen Jane's flirty side on "The Invitation" and "See Jane Run", 
but now she realizes that flirtation does come with a price.  Her 
experiences at the colony also in some way change her perceptions of how 
the art world operates.  Her romantic and emotional opinions are severely 
challenged when she is almost forced into a lesbian relationship with 
Alison and then gets a blunt statement from her about how the world of art
works on the "you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours" principle that 
makes Jane realize that many artists (if not all of them) are 
hypocritical.  Jane realizes that there are bigger and more important 
matters than quarreling over a guy, and that mending fences with her 
"partner in crime" is among the most important.  Martin J. Pollard, at his
Outpost Daria Web site, infers that the peace is tense between the two, 
but there doesn't seem to be anything within the movie that supports this 
assertion.  I seem to agree with Michelle Klein-Häss when she asserted at 
the #Daria+ chat room that if Jane and Tom would split up, that Jane 
would encourage Daria to go out with her.  At first she did it in a 
hateful, resentful mood, but toward the end of the movie, she seems to be 
over the situation and actually encourages a reconciliation.  I think 
that despite sharing Daria's cynical attitude about life, Jane is a 
forgiving person at heart, and she would not be the kind to engage in 
"tit-for-tat" by being pissed off at Daria and Tom like Daria was when 
Jane was going out with him.  I think that also goes for Trent as well, 
despite Michelle's assertions in her fan fiction story "Tapped In" that 
Trent harbors some grudge against Tom.  I think Trent is big enough 
emotionally to realize that the three people he cares for the most in his 
life got burned in this situation and would do his best to reconcile all 
three of them.  We see him actively in this role in "Fire!", "Dye!  Dye!  
My Darling" and "Is It Fall Yet?"  Despite his inadvertently singing 
"Betrayal" on the ride up to the colony, Trent still values Daria as a 
friend, if not a lover.  It should also be noted that he preserved his 
friendship with all three individuals throughout the season.

Tom himself has undergone changes.  He is no Upchuck, since he 
realizes that he has hurt two people he cares for as a consequence of his 
actions.  I have always asserted that Jane seemed to be the more outgoing 
individual in the Daria/Jane friendship, and in some ways Tom himself is 
like that as well.  We've seen some of that in "I Loathe a Parade" as well
as in "Is It Fall Yet?", but even Tom has his limitations, and as Clint 
Eastwood said it in "Dirty Harry", a man has to know those limitations.  
He has pledged to go slower this time in getting Daria acclimated to the 
bigger world that's out there, and that will provide some fodder for the 
fifth season.  It is a question of whether he will recognize Daria's own 
limitations and be careful not to cross those limitations.

In a sense, we have seen changes in virtually all the characters in the 
show in the movie.  Perhaps the most dramatic have been among Quinn, 
social studies teacher Anthony DeMartino, Jodie and her boyfriend, 
football captain Michael Jordan "Mack" MacKenzie.

Quinn's change has to be the most dramatic.  For four years there has been
a not-too-quiet power struggle between her and Fashion Club President 
Sandi Griffin; however, since they were more or less evenly matched, this 
struggle went nowhere.  The situation is not unlike how George Orwell in 
his famous political satire "1984" described the ongoing war between the 
three superstates Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia:  "It is like the battles 
between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that
they are incapable of hurting one another."  However, getting a low score 
in her PSTATS test serves as a wake-up call, a call that is only 
reinforced when her tutor David--in dumping her shortly after they finish 
their summer together--calls her shallow and warns her that her looks 
won't last forever.  This realization hits her like a blow from a 
sledgehammer to the back of her head.  This realization--along with the 
taunts of Sandi and the other members of the Fashion Club--become too much
to bear for Quinn, and she is forced to ask Daria for advice, even 
breaking down and crying in front of her.  However, as in the situations 
Daria, Jane and Tom faced, Quinn does indeed emerge a stronger person as a
result.  When asked a question by Mr. DeMartino (co-incidentally, it is 
the same question he asked Daria in the very first episode "Esteemsters" 
in regard to Manifest Destiny), she actually gets the question correct, 
though, like Daria did, she added her own wry (if that word can be applied
to her) commentary.  While it is speculative at best as to whether Quinn 
will indeed change for the better like she did at the end of 
Martin J. Pollard's fan fiction story "Sins of the Past" or as in 
Michelle Klein-Häss's "Lawndale, CT Continuum" stories from "So Turns 
the Wheel" onward, there has been a change in her.  While it is not as 
physically traumatic as being raped, it is almost as emotionally 
devastating because Quinn has been bested at the game she knows how to 
play best:  using other people.  It is of interest to see if Quinn will 
use her new-found intelligence to get the upper hand in her power 
struggle with Sandi or whether he will treat "The Three J's" with more 
respect in the past (also finally breaking down and admitting to everyone 
that Daria's her sister would help as well :-) ).

Mr. DeMartino's change was perhaps more comical than dramatic, but 
nevertheless he is not the person he was before the movie.  After dealing 
with people who just don't give a damn about their education like star 
quarterback Kevin Thompson and head cheerleader Brittany Taylor, DeMartino
becomes a hero in the eyes of the kids at the summer camp when he shouts 
down a bully, then leads the kids in a rebellion and leads them outside to
play.  While he has always had some respect for Daria and Jane, perhaps 
now he will realize that there are other students who care for their 
learning as well.  I think all of us, when we are at our jobs, begin to 
think after a while that we're not just appreciated for what we're doing, 
but then something happens that restores our faith in the rest of 
humanity's ability to recognize that what we're doing is essential.  I 
have always felt that DeMartino and Jake were two sides of the same coin, 
given that both had terrible childhoods and both easily get irritated 
(though DeMartino's is perhaps more emotionally virulent and Jake is just 
clueless).  In a way, Jake has undergone some changes as well, since he 
is not as clueless as he used to be and actually got a joke toward the end
of the film.  As for Helen, perhaps she won't be as iron-fisted as she's 
been in the past, but perhaps that is wishful thinking on my part.

One scene that really surprised everyone was when Mack finally got the 
time to see Jodie.  As has been pointed out by many people, Jodie seems to
be pressured to prove herself given that she's among only a handful of 
African-Americans in Lawndale (getting undue pressure from her father 
Andrew doesn't help, either), thus her life is full of extracurricular 
activities and volunteer projects.  If there is ever a poster child for 
why we should be against the increasing trend in many states and school d
istricts in including volunteer work as a graduation requirement, Jodie is
it.  Mack is frustrated because he doesn't get a chance to see the woman 
he cares for.  Thus, he decides to take some initiative in the situation.  
After earning enough money to pay back his father for a loan he made, Mack
quits his job as an ice cream truck driver (a job he gives to Kevin and 
Brittany after they're fired from their life guard jobs), goes to a soup 
kitchen where Jodie is volunteering, and professes his love for her.  It 
will be interesting to see how their relationship will develop during the 
fifth season.

 In a sense, it was a summer of discontent for almost all the denizens of 
Lawndale, some more than others.  However, it seems the overriding lesson 
we get from this movie is that we should value the friendships and 
relationships we have in our life.  Daria and Jane, in their own way, 
realize that in the summer they spend apart from each other.  It is true, 
as the old saying goes, that absence makes the heart grow fonder.  Their 
friendship has been sorely tested, almost ended, but they both emerged 
stronger persons for it.  Tom himself realized that the two people he 
values the most were being hurt by his actions and did his best to make 
amends.  Quinn realized that there is more to life than fashion and 
beauty.  Jodie and Mack finally got together, in a way.  Even DeMartino 
changed for the better in his own fashion.  It will be interesting to see 
if these changes hold up in the fifth season, but, rest assured, nothing 
will ever be the same ever again.

However, I think this summer has also been for some fans full of 
discontent.  If "Fire!" and "Dye!  Dye!  My Darling" sparked controversy 
on the message boards, "Is It Fall Yet?" engendered just as much, if not 
more.  There were elements of the anti-'shipper crowd who rubbed it in 
the faces of the 'shippers, while the 'shippers held on to some slim hope 
that Daria would soon realize the "error" of her ways, drop Tom like a hot
potato and come running back to Trent.  Angry words were exchanged, 
friendships ended with perhaps more finality than Daria and Jane's, 
messages were "elfed" from the message boards when things got too hot to 
handle.  What we need to do is step back and remember that this is only a 
television show, not a life-and-death struggle.  Hell, even those 
"Trekkies" who liked the original series better than "The Next Generation" 
finally learned to bury the hatchet with those who liked the second series
better.  What is missing here is the appreciation that Glenn Eichler and 
his production team have made three masterpieces of American animation, 
something that isn't seen much outside the realm of anime.  Granted, we'll
perhaps never see Stacy Rowe pilot a EVA unit from "Neon Genesis 
Evangeleon" (all apologies, Austin Covello :-) ) or Daria fill in for 
Sailor Mercury like she did in my very first fan fiction story "The Misery 
Senshi Neo-Zero Double Blitzkrieg Debacle", but the series has shown it 
can maturely handle typical teenage situations in the realistic style of 
shôjo anime like "Here is Greenwood" and not with the schmaltz of 
something like "Saved by the Bell" or "Archie" (though, thankfully, the 
series depiction of a high school principal in Angela Li is no more or 
less close to reality than Amos Weatherbee is in "Archie" or Richard 
Belding in "Saved by the Bell"; I know of some high school principals 
who would cringe at some of the policies Ms. Li gets away with).  Glenn 
Eichler deserves to be enshrined along with the other masters of animation
like Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, George Pal, Art Cloakey, 
Robert McKimson, Fritz Freling, William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Craig 
McCracken, Genndy Tartavosky, Rumiko Takahasi, Tex Avery, Hayao Miyazaki, 
Leiji Matsumoto, Osamu Tezuka, Mike Judge, Matt Groening, Katsuhiro Otomo,
Naoko Takeuchi, Jay Ward, Bill Scott, Don Bluth, Faith and John Humbley, 
CLAMP, GAINEX, John Kricfalusi and Ralph Bashki.  Never before, and 
perhaps never again, has there been a show that has striven to 
realistically show teenage life for what it is, and not the sugar-coated 
pap we get from "Archie" and "Saved by the Bell".  "Daria" is the type of 
show that anyone who felt isolated and alone in the caste system 
humorously known as "high school cliques" can relate to (a point I drive 
home effectively in my fan fiction story "Triumph of the 'Retart'").  
Somehow, when you're at the bottom of the social ladder, you can take some
amusement from seeing the members of the upper rungs self-destruct in 
front of your eyes, but you also have to realize it can happen to you as 
well.

In conclusion, as Dorothy said in "The Wizard of Oz", "I don't think we're
in Kansas anymore, Toto".  For us and the residents of Lawndale, they're 
not in the same old world they've been in the past four years either.  
Most of us have matured immensely given the situations that have 
transpired.  Given that we'll have at least one more season of "Daria" 
(hopefully two more) to see what unfolds, the journey ahead will be 
interesting.  If the old saying "A journey of a thousand miles begins with
one step" is true, "Is It Fall Yet?" was one small step for an animated 
series, one giant (perhaps, a quantum) leap for all of animation.  And if 
it is a quantum leap, let's just hope we don't have to deal with Dean 
Stockwell hitting a hand-held computer upside its casing along the 
way. :-)

Once again, I would like to thank everyone I've got to know over the past 
two years or so since I entered the Daria fan community; if it weren't for
people like you, I wouldn't know how to carry on in life.

I am also respectfully dedicating this essay to the person who was the 
closest thing I ever had to an Aunt Amy in my own life, my late high 
school friend Kristin Graziani.  A day doesn't go by without my thinking 
about her.

On that note, I now go forth gently into that dark night.

Peter W. Guerin
Hudson Falls, New York
November 25, 2000
8:44 PM