Avast and Ahoy There!

"Just Add Water" was aired for the first time nine years ago today, near the end of the third season. Though it has not been counted as anyone's favorite episode, one thing you can say about it: Tom Sloane is nowhere in sight. This was the last pre-Tom episode.

It appears that "Just Add Water" was derived from two major sources: the 1997 movie Titanic and the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. The parallels between the Princess Fairy's drunken captain and the Exxon Valdez's drunken ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, have been commented on before. The Titanic link, with the standing-on-the-bow-railing scene (marvelously interrupted by Janet Barch, who has a great part here), is also pretty clear. Daria and Jane, though, do nothing. It fits their character, but it's disappointing nonetheless.

Too bad about Kevin and Brittany, stuck in open waters in that creaky lifeboat with no oars during a violent thunderstorm. Someone needs to write an AU in which they . . . well, you get the idea.

Sixteen years ago this day, the Mall of America was opened, the very structure that just about almost probably certainly gave birth to the Mall of the Millennium in Daria. Even the internal diagrams are similar.

The pilot episode for Daria, "Sealed with a Kick," was completed thirteen years ago today. Speaking of the pilot, a very curious observation has been made about a possible connection between Daria and the movie called Welcome to the Dollhouse. Click here and see what you think of it.