Follow-up Questions (Set #1) with Glenn Eichler KW = Kara Wild GE = You know who KW: Does Jake have any siblings? GE: I think he was supposed to have an older sister. KW: A fan asks: Was there a specific reason why you chose not to mention her? Or, for that matter, to not give "face" time to other family members, like Grandma Barksdale? GE: The show was about Daria and her immediate family and friends, and with 13 episodes a season you didn't want to spend, say, five of them on ancillary characters. Sometimes when you create a show bible (even a really rudimentary one like ours) you put in facts about the characters that you never quite get around to using - like Jake's having a sister. (If, in fact, that sister was even in the bible.) KW: What were the ages of Helen and her sisters in "I Don't" (when Daria was 16)? GE: Helen's about 45-46, Amy's about 40, Rita's about 48-49. KW: Was this always how you saw the age order? I'll confess, I had Helen pegged as the eldest sibling, based on her tendency to boss people around and the natural parallel it would form between her and Rita and Daria and Quinn. This question spurred other fans to ask about the respective ages of Wind, Summer, and Penny Lane circa "Is It College Yet?". GE: That was always the age order. In boomer families where the children came of age in the late '60s/early '70s, it was very common for the oldest child to get swept up in the social changes of the time, even maybe losing their footing a bit, whether that meant dropping out of school, becoming a huge druggie, getting into a bunch of bad "all you need is love" relationships, or having any number of other experiences that their parents considered scandalous. It was also common (but of course not universal) for the second child, having seen the travail of the oldest, to react by going pretty far in the other direction, opting for structure, et cetera. So yeah, Rita is the oldest, with her hard-earned scars of the '60s, and Helen is second - even though to someone born in the '70s it might look more logical the other way. I used to have a piece of paper on my bulletin board spelling out the ages of Jane's brothers and sisters so I wouldn't forget them... unfortunately it's gone now. Penny would be mid-to-late '20s, Wind 30ish, Summer a year or two older than Wind. Summer is the Rita of that family... but there's no Helen. KW: What does Amy do for a living? GE: Magazine writer? How does that sound? KW: Sounds pretty plausible, although it would raise the question of why Daria didn't seek her advice in "The Story of D" when she tried to publish one of her stories for the first time. Have you given much thought to other aspects of her life? While most fans know that Amy isn't just an older Daria, we still see her as most likely to represent where Daria will end up 20 years down the road. Has Amy absorbed any of the life lessons that Daria, during the show, was in the process of learning? We know she likes to read and drives a mean car, but beyond that she's somewhat of a cipher. GE: I've given virtually no thought to Amy's life - in "I Don't" she was portrayed as being cool and together, and what fun are those people? Seriously, I'm glad she became what TV executives call an "aspirational" character - her fans wish they were her - but I don't think about her at all. As for whether or not she's a magazine writer, it's just possible she may be a public relations account exec, in which case there's a certain amount of self-loathing percolating around her psyche somewhere. She may have driven away from that wedding and right over a cliff. KW: How many months apart in age are Daria and Quinn? GE: I used to know this... I think they're about 14 months apart, putting them one school year apart. But I'm sure we cheated that whenever it was convenient. KW: A fan asks: Did you ever come up with specific months for their birthdays, or is that something else you prefer to keep loose? GE: Definitely want to keep that loose. I'd like to keep my OWN birthday loose if I could. KW: How can the Lane family afford such a large house in a tony suburb like Lawndale when it seems as though Vincent and Amanda Lane don't have real jobs? GE: The inside of the house is a disaster area. Did you ever read "Running With Scissors?" It's kind of like the doctor's house in that book. I won't even go over there any more. GE: Still puzzled by the fans' hostility to "Fizz Ed," BTW. KW: Actually, quite a few fans like that episode. I myself have nothing against it; the only thing I would have wanted different would be to see Quinn and the Fashion Club's reaction to imposed sugar-soda drinking and neon shades. The initial hostility/disappointment, I think, was caused by the sense of letdown the fans felt after "Is It Fall Yet?", which was really strong and emotional. In the months after it aired, fans were deep into discussing what the new developments would mean for Season Five (ex: Would Quinn's embrace of her intelligence put her on the fast track to the honor roll? Would we see more of Tom's family? Would Jane scarcely be able to hold back her resentment towards Daria, in spite of her urging that she "go ahead and date Tom"?). "Fizz Ed," while generally a solid episode, didn't do much to address these developments. Since fans didn't yet know the plotlines of episodes that followed, many, rightly or wrongly, saw this as an oversight. There was also some sentiment that, while "Fizz Ed" was written to be in the spirit of Season One, it made Daria more passive/reluctant than she would have been in a Season One episode. If that's the case, it may have had more to do with Tracy Grandstaff's vocals for Season Five Daria than it did with the writing. Daria's voice lost a lot of inflection between Season One and Five, and one thing that bothered me about several of the later-season episodes was that, when she was supposed to be expressing conviction or making a witty comment, Daria sounded half-asleep and a little whiny. In any event, now that we've seen all of the episodes, many people have gone back and re-evaluated "Fizz Ed," and appreciate its humor and insight. While it might not make everyone's Top Ten list, it was by no means an episode worthy of hostility. For the record, I also enjoyed "Daria!" and "Depth Takes a Holiday." GE: Well, I really appreciate everything you wrote above. As far as Tracy's vocals go, in Season Five I finally gave up doing the voice directing myself, and even though I supervised the track layout (where individual line readings are selected and timing tweaked), the performances were not the same as they would have been had I been in the booth. Doing "Is It Fall Yet?" was the production equivalent of adding three episodes to the end of Season Four - or, to put it another way, eliminating any down time between Seasons Four and Five. I was used to having 8 or 12 production-free weeks to get the script pipeline going, so in order to keep Season Five scripts at a high level, I had to give up the recording studio time. That's probably why Daria's voice "devolved" that season, and it's regrettable... but it was the only way to produce the show and the movie. (Or it seemed that way at the time.) I'm pretty sure I went back into the studio to supervise the recording of "Boxing Daria," but maybe not. A lot of it really is a blur. March 30, 2005