Daria Morgendorffer was initially a minor character in
Beavis and Butthead. Around the time
Mike Judge was leaving
MTV/
Viacom to make
Beavis & Butthead Do America and
King of The Hill for
Fox,
MTV decided to commission more animated shows. Some of the MTV employees who had worked on B&B proposed the show which became
Daria. On the strength of a black and white pilot version (with early versions of the characters) a partially-animated show series was made.
To date, there have been five series of the show which maintains a high standard of writing and has a large international fanbase. There have also been "special features" such as a "Daria Day" on US MTV, and a feature-length episode is imminent. The heavily stylised artwork is like a cross between Archie comics and Roy Lichenstein paintings. Characters are drawn in different styles which reflect their personalities. (Such as the "corny" parents, the barbie-doll Fashion Club, and the deranged Mr. Dimartino)
All the animation is handled digitally. The majority of shots feature only facial animation, which is superimposed cheaply using CG in post-production. There are usually a lot of establishing shots with music (there are usually over a dozen snippets of pop songs throughout the show). In fact, music plays an integral part in the show, and the fictional band Mystik Spyral have recorded a bunch of songs, and even had the excellent and Spinal Tap-like "Crop Circles" covered by other bands.
The official Daria website (www.mtv.com/daria) also deserves a mention, as it is maintained by the creators of the show, and contains a wealth of additional information, behind the scenes stuff and audio. There is even a weekly column written by Daria. The show makes a valiant attempt at merging the bubblegum MTV aesthetic with subtle, cynical humour, and for the most part succeeds.
If by some strange twist of fate you can't get MTV, Channel 5 or Paramount, you may be able to track down streaming versions of the show on the web, which MTV seem to be cool about.
MTV have announced that there will be no more series of Daria in future. Apparently the writers' desire to allow their characters to age meant that all the scenarios pertinent to the characters as teenagers were exhausted. So they quit while they were ahead.