Daria - Reception and Legacy

Reception and Legacy

By 1998, Daria was one of MTV's highest rated shows, with the network's manager Van Toffler viewing her as "a good spokesperson for MTV, intelligent but subversive".

During her popular run on MTV, Daria was part of the Cool Crap Auction in 1999, giving an overview of the goods for auction and talking "live" to the winner of one prize. Daria and Jane also hosted MTV's Top Ten Animated Videos Countdown, poking fun at MTV's cheap animation. At the end of the series run, she had an "interview" on the CBS Early Show with Jane Clayson.

Daria received positive reviews during its run. John J. O'Connor of The New York Times wrote of the series' premiere, "With this new series, Daria triumphantly gets the last laugh" and "As far as MTV and Beavis and Butt-head are concerned, Daria is an indispensable blast of fresh air. I think I'm in love." Daria received a ratings share between 1 and 2 percent, about 1 to 2 million viewers.

G.J. Donnelly of TV Guide, writing about the series' finale, lamented, "I already miss that monotone. I already miss those boots. ... Even at its most far-fetched, this animated film approaches the teenage experience much more realistically than shows like Dawson's Creek." On the same occasion, Emily Nussbaum wrote at Slate.com that "the show is biting the dust without ever getting the credit it deserved: for social satire, witty writing, and most of all, for a truly original main character". She particularly singled out for praise that all the characters were heading "to very different paths in life, based on their economic prospects", giving the show an ambiguous end; " a bit of a classic: a sharply funny exploration of social class most teen films would render, well, cartoonish."

Internet reviewer Doug Walker listed this as his favorite TV show in his list of his 20 favorite TV shows, stating that the show "WAS high school" and that out of all 66 episodes, he only found three he didn't like. AOL TV ranked Daria the fourteenth Best School Show of All Time, describing it as "a witty parody of the teenage experience". In 2002, TV Guide ranked Daria number 41 on it's "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list.