Daria is an American adult animated sitcom television series[6] created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn.

It centers on the titular character, Daria Morgendorffer, an intelligent, cynical high school student, again voiced by Tracy Grandstaff, coming back from her role in Mike Judge's earlier animated series, Beavis and Butt-Head.

The series centers on Daria Morgendorffer (again voiced by Tracy Grandstaff, coming back from her role in Beavis and Butt-Head), a smart, acerbic, somewhat misanthropic/cynical teenage girl who, along with her best friend, aspiring artist Jane Lane, observes the world around her.

The show is set in the fictional suburban American town of Lawndale, and is a satire of high school life, full of allusions to and criticisms of popular culture and social classes.

As the show's eponymous protagonist, Daria appears in most scenes with her immediate family (mother Helen, father Jake, and younger sister Quinn) and/or Jane.

The principal location used for the show (outside of the Morgendorffer home) is Lawndale High School, a public-education institution filled with flamboyant and dysfunctional characters.

The plots of Daria largely concern a juxtaposition between the focal character's blunted, sardonic cynicism and the values/preoccupations of her suburban American hometown of Lawndale.

[10] 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.

MTV senior vice president and creative director Abby Terkuhle explained that when that show "became successful, we ... created Daria's character because we wanted a smart female who could serve as the foil".

During production of Beavis and Butt-Head's final seasons, MTV representatives, wanting to bring in a higher female demographic to the channel, approached story editor Glenn Eichler, offering a spin-off series for Daria.

In 1995, a five-minute pilot, "Sealed with a Kick", was created by Eichler and Beavis and Butt-Head staffer Susie Lewis (although written by Sam Johnson and Chris Marcil).

Among 4 other animated pilots pitched to the channel, Daria performed the strongest in focus groups, especially among middle-school-aged participants - a fact that bothered MTV initially, as they felt their core audience at the time was instead 18- to 24-year-olds.

MTV planned an abbreviated six-episode sixth season, but, at Eichler's request, this project was cut down to a second movie, Is It College Yet?, which served as the series finale on January 21, 2002.

Co-creator Glenn Eichler, in an interview conducted after the series' run, stated: B&B were very strong characters, with a very specific type of humor and very loyal fans, and of course they were instantly identifiable.

I felt that referencing them in Daria, while we were trying to establish the new characters and the different type of humor, ran the risk of setting up false expectations and disappointment in the viewers – which could lead to a negative reaction to the new show and its different tone.

[18] During Daria's production, Grandstaff, Eichler, and Lewis had intentions of making a show where women appeared to be smarter and have it directed toward its female viewers, along with giving a voice to individuals who did not feel like they fit in.

[19] The first realization of how much the crew became attached to making Daria was after a five-minute pilot was created, showing how realistic the main character seemed despite being a digital creation.

Each episode was set to have a processing and completion time be nine months in order to fit making scripts, recording voice actors, and creating storyboards.

When describing why the show took longer than expected to be released on DVD after Daria's debut, Eichler recalls: That’s how long it took to clear all the music rights.

For example, one episode depicts characters dancing to Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" mere weeks after the song's release, whereas the sequence itself was designed and animated months earlier.

He compared it to an episode of The Twilight Zone where the astronaut comes home, and his wife can't figure out what's different about him, "... until it dawns on her that instead of a cool song from 1997 playing ... it's some tune she's never heard.

"[28] On the same occasion, Emily Nussbaum wrote at Slate 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; "[the finale is] a bit of a classic: a sharply funny exploration of social class most teen films would render, well, cartoonish.

[51] In late 2010, following the DVD release, Daria was licensed as a voice for Garmin and TomTom GPS systems; original putdowns and jokes were recorded.