Season 1: 1997
| Title | MTV's original airdate | Production code | Ep # |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Esteemsters" | March 3, 1997 | 101 | 2 |
| It's the first day of school for Daria and Quinn Morgendorffer, who have just moved with their parents to Lawndale from Highland (the land of Beavis and Butt-head). The second Quinn steps out of the car, she instantly shuns out Daria – Quinn gets asked out and befriended by the equally shallow members of Lawndale High's Fashion Club: Sandi Griffin, Stacy Rowe and Tiffany Blum-Deckler. Meanwhile, everything else is pretty typical for Daria: she's ignored by the other students. Next, the girls are subjected to a psychological exam with the school psychiatrist, which Daria blows off with the most sarcastic answer possible: "A herd of beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains." Later, Daria is singled out for humiliation by her psychotic history teacher, Anthony DeMartino and is introduced to her dim-witted classmates, the village idiots Brittany Taylor and Kevin Thompson (who both appeared in the black-and-white pilot "Sealed With a Kick"). Later, Daria's workaholic mother Helen receives a phone call at home informing her that Daria has a low self-esteem. She is scowled at by Helen and her father, Jake, both demanding what was wrong with her while Quin worries that if Daria is malfunctioning socially and mentally that it will dent her reputation. Daria assures them that it is a mistake, she does not have a low self-esteem, however, she has "low esteem for everybody else." The next day, Daria is stuck in an after school self-esteem workshop taught by Lawndale High's neurotic, wimpy English/Drama Horizons teacher Timothy O'Neil. When Daria tries to make sense of Mr. O'Neil's psychobabble, she is advised by a fellow student to ignore him and just "enjoy his soothing voice". When walking home after class, Daria is acquainted with the student from self-esteem class, an equally cynical artist named Jane Lane who also was just as weary towards poseurs and idiots. As the days go by and the class drags on, Daria and Jane (who's in several of Daria's other classes) begin forming a friendship, but when Daria reaches the breaking point over her parent's concern for her progress, they hatch a scheme to pass the exit test and get out of the class once and for all. (This is no problem for Jane, who has deliberately taken the class six times and knows the answers by heart.) Unfortunately, it works too well: Mr. O'Neill is so impressed by their "rapid progress" that he wants to publicly congratulate them at the next school assembly. Daria and Jane agree to his request, but when the time comes for them to make a speech, they do things their way: Jane causes a scene by faking a "self-esteem relapse" and running off the stage in a sob fit while Daria launches into a cliché-ridden acceptance speech that pointedly thanks "her sister, Quinn" – Daria's sister's revenge served cold. Quinn is humiliated and (just that day) becomes slightly socially outcast (though this recovers in "The Invitation", as if the incident did not happen at all). Daria's live form of humiliation is only the tip of the iceberg, as Daria fulfills her wish of making her family suffer by guilt-tripping them into attending a U.F.O. convention.
First appearances: Quinn, Helen and Jake Morgendorffer; Mr. DeMartino, Ms. Li and Mr. O'Neil- the psychotic faculty of Lawndale High; Jane Lane, Daria's sarcastic, dry best friend; Sandi Griffin and Stacy Rowe, Fashion Club Members; Kevin Thompson, Lanwdale High Q.B. and his girlfriend, cheerleader Brittany Taylor Guest appearances: Ms. Manson, Lawndale High's psychiatrist; Corey, a Quinn admirer; Artie, a rumored alien abductee; the Sick, Sad World reporter, a woman with an exaggerated accent; Old Man featured on Sick, Sad World, a blind elder Trivia: One student is shown wearing a The Head T-shirt. |
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| "The Invitation" | March 10, 1997 | 102 | 3 |
| When Daria helps her classmate Brittany Taylor with an assignment in art class, Brittany thanks her by inviting her – "just this once" – to her upcoming Saturday night party. (Of course, it's a back-handed compliment, as Daria was only invited because Brittany promised "not to invite any more really attractive girls.") Daria doesn't want to go, but is eventually persuaded by two people: Jane, who sees it as an opportunity to get some really great sketches; and Quinn, who's deathly afraid that Daria will do something to embarrass her (which, naturally, proves to be the biggest incentive of all). After turning down Helen and Jake's offer to drive them to the party, Quinn gets a ride with Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie—three members of the football team who have become Quinn's biggest admirers (slaves to her every whim) – while Daria and Jane get a ride with Jane's musician brother, Trent, on whom the normally stoic Daria appears to have more than a passing interest. Unfortunately, Jane only has a brief opportunity to kid her about it before arriving at the gate house for Crewe Neck, the gated community where Brittany lives. Daria's on the guest list, but Jane is not; however, they're able to slip past the guard when Jane distracts him with some of her "life drawing" sketches. The party itself is your typical teenage bash: music, munchies, and making out in the laundry room. While Daria and Jane are given a tour of the house by an obnoxious flirt "Upchuck" (who only got invited because he dissected Brittany's frog in science class), Quinn is waited on hand and foot by Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie, but immediately goes into hiding once she sees Daria and Jane arrive. Daria, however, is not about to let her off the hook that easily; besides, she figures, torturing Quinn is the only fun she's likely to have at the party. Quinn finally bribes Daria to leave her alone when she starts telling embarrassing stories to Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie (also promising them photos of Quinn in a chubby stage). Satisfied, Daria tracks down Jane (who had slipped off to the make-out room with a boy she had met) and both leave the party, just one step ahead of both party crashers and the cops (who were called by a neighbor upset about the noise). As the party ends, Upchuck drives up and gives Daria, Jane, and Quinn (who was left rideless when Joey, Jeffy, and Jamie beat each other up) a ride home.
First appearances: Joey, Jeffy and Jamie, three sycophantic Quinn admirers who follow her every command; Jodie Landon, Lawndale High's model student and her boyfriend, Lanwdale High football squad's captain, Michael "Mack" MacKenzie who strongly dislikes Kevin who deemed him the nickname "Mack Daddy" – both Jodie and Mack make Lawndale High's couple of African American sweethearts; Claire Defoe, Lawndale High's down-to-earth art teacher; Charles "Upchuck" Ruttheimer III, an obnoxious flirt who attempts to turn on both Daria and Jane but fails; Tiffany Blum-Deckler, the Fashion Club's third member Guest appearances: Crewe Neck Gatehouse guard, who attempts to track down Jane so she can teach him life drawing; Brittany's neighbor, an angry man who complains about the volume of her party; Crewe Neck residents, Brittany's other neighbors who are harassed and competed in trivia by Daria and Jane who play "rent-a-cop" at the gatehouse while the guard is absent – including a snotty elderly woman and a man who plays "Name That Tune" with Daria and Jane |
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| "College Bored" | March 17, 1997 | 103 | 4 |
| During a visit with their old friends, Doug and Susan, Helen and Jake become concerned about Daria and Quinn's chances of getting into good colleges, so they insist that the girls take a college prep class at Lawndale High. One of the requirements of this (rather lame) class is to visit a college, and Jake and Helen naturally pick their alma mater, Middleton College. When they arrive, they're greeted by a tour guide named Heather, and they just barely have time to start the tour when Jake is distracted by a water balloon thrown from his old dorm window. Swept up in a wave of nostalgia, Jake takes Helen to visit his old hangout, leaving Daria and Quinn with the tour guide. The tour doesn't last much longer, as Quinn decides to investigate the fraternity/sorority scene on her own. Daria and Heather then retreat to Heather's dorm room, where Daria gets a much more realistic view of college life: sitting around and watching television, working a stupid part-time job, begging your parents for money, and helping the college students with their term papers (for cash, of course). Meanwhile, Jake gets a little too into the college scene as he tries (with no success) to act cool and "hang" with the college guys, while Helen reminisces about college life... and tears off after the girls (Quinn, specifically) when she remembers how college guys acted around women. They find Quinn at a frat house, where she had been made "keg queen" and was busy wrapping the guys around her little finger; eventually, the whole family is tossed off the campus when security finds out that the two underage girls were wandering around the campus unsupervised (even though Daria had stayed with Heather the tour guide the whole time). Back at home, Quinn receives a letter of acceptance to Manatee College in Florida, which makes Helen and Jake ecstatic... until they read the fine print, and discover that Manatee has no classes, just beachfront accommodations and costs $10,000 per semester. Furthermore, Daria decides to quit doing the college students' term papers, as it was getting to be too much work (not to mention the tiny little detail about Helen not letting her keep the money). Daria decides that the whole college experience kinda sucked, but is heartened when Quinn dumps the instructor of the college prep class when she finds out what a "making-out scholarship" is really all about.
First appearances: None. Guest appearances: Heather, a Middleton College student who first appears perky but later appears cynical and negative, and enjoys hanging out with Daria; Doug and Susan, a couple who are friends with Jake and Helen and have their daughter, Romona, read S.A.T. prep picture books; Romonica, Doug and Susan's three-year-old daughter; the Middleton Bursar who tells Jake how much college enrollment for both Daria and Quinn costs, which leads Jake telling Helen they should decide which one should attend college (Daria, while Jake says Quinn can go to a beauty school); the 'Push Comes to Love' college prep course adviser who attempts to hit on Quinn (which Daria quips as a "make-out scholarship"), though Quinn later throws a soda in his face; The characters in the prep course student's (Kevin, Brittany, Quinn, Jane and Daria) college fantasies, which, in Kevin's are intimidating football players which are twice his size and a beautiful blonde woman who joins Kevin in a fit of snickers at Brittany, who is deemed as a "child"...in Brittany's there is a singing emcee and several models wearing gowns and graduation caps and bodyguards who carry Kevin away...in Quinn's, three male roommates, one dressed as a preppie, the other as a cowboy and the last one wearing a towel...in Jane's. there is an art critic praising Jane's art...and in Daria's, a professor who wants Daria to be a college teacher herself so he can use her dormroom to carry on affairs with underclassmen |
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| "Café Disaffecto" | March 24, 1997 | 104 | 5 |
| The students of Lawndale High sell objects door-to-door to raise money for a new café after the old one is burglarized, and Daria finds an effective way to fight back after Principal Li punishes her for not selling chocolate to a grossly obese woman. | |||
| "Malled" | March 31, 1997 | 105 | 6 |
| Daria and Jane's economic class go to the Mall of the Millennium to learn about "mall economics", where Daria A) gets visibly sick from the smell of Brittany's perfume along with the sight of Brittany and Kevin making out, B) becomes a record-setting shopper at a doo-dads store, C) uncovers a secret market research project that earns all her classmates gifts to keep quiet and D) finds Quinn playing hooky and blackmails her for a ride home. | |||
| "This Year's Model" | April 7, 1997 | 106 | 7 |
| A modeling agency comes to Lawndale High to recruit female students, and end up picking Quinn as one of the candidates, before zeroing in on stupid Lawndale High QB Kevin Thompson. | |||
| "The Lab Brat" | April 14, 1997 | 107 | 8 |
| For a class project for the man-hating science teacher, Ms. Barch, Daria is paired with jock Kevin (who is more interested in watching football on the Morgendorffers' TV than working with Daria) while Brittany works with resident pervert, Charles "Upchuck" Ruttenheimer, who blackmails her under his command. | |||
| "Pinch Sitter" | June 9, 1997 | 108 | 9 |
| Quinn is chosen to babysit for an ultra-conservative family's children, but Daria steps in when Quinn has a date, and gets some ideas about psychological control. | |||
| "Too Cute" | June 16, 1997 | 109 | 10 |
| Quinn is afraid she's not cute enough and wants plastic surgery after seeing a classmate with a nose job, but Dr. Shar's clinic is dangerous and expensive. Meanwhile, Kevin is chosen by man-hating teacher Ms. Barch to disguise himself as an ugly man and chart people's reactions. | |||
| "The Big House" | June 30, 1997 | 110 | 11 |
| After Daria and Quinn get caught sneaking in the house past curfew, Helen and Jake set up "Family Court" and sentence their kids to groundings. Meanwhile, a roller hockey game at school is coming up and all of the students are betting that their high-strung history teacher, Mr. DeMartino, will have his next heart attack in his rematch against classic rock DJ, Rock and Roll Randy. So Daria takes action to ensure she can witness the spectacle for herself. | |||
| "Road Worrier" | July 7, 1997 | 111 | 12 |
| Daria travels with Jane, Jane's brother, Trent, and Trent's friend, Jessie (both make up half of Mystik Spiral), to Alternapalooza while Quinn begins her travels there with her Fashion Club friends but ends up going outlet shopping instead. | |||
| "The Teachings of Don Jake" | July 14, 1997 | 112 | 13 |
| The Morgendorffers go camping after Jake suffers a burst blood vessel in his eye due to stress over money. Meanwhile, Jane and Trent try to survive a hostile family reunion. | |||
| "The Misery Chick" | July 21, 1997 | 113 | 14 |
| Famed Lawndale High quarterback and all-time jackass Tommy Sherman dies in a freak accident while visiting his alma mater, prompting Jane to avoid Daria for a while and everyone else to dub Daria "The Misery Chick" and ask her for advice on coping with sadness. | |||
Read more about this topic: List Of Daria Episodes
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