Storytelling Engine: Tom Sloane

The final part of the Daria storytelling series concerns Tom Sloane. Tom, of course, was not an original character, only showing up at the end of Season Three, but becoming a major figure in the lives of Jane and Daria over the last two seasons.

Tom Sloane is an example of what happens when a) you don't give a character distinct characteristics that differentiate him or her from everyone else, and b) you begin to tinker with the storytelling engine. If you throw too many wrenches in the engine, it doesn't work as well.

At some point in the series, Glenn Eichler and the other Daria writers decided to give Daria a romance. The decision was deliberately made to make him Jane's boyfriend first, according to Eichler, as no guy would ever ask Daria out and Daria could get to know Tom as he was at least in Jane's proximity and she could get used to him

The first problem with Tom was that he was never well-differentiated from Daria or Jane. Tom's main attributes were:

1. intelligence, and
2. coolness, in the sense of being composed and self-controlled.

Daria was intelligent. Jane was cool. Tom ended up borrowing traits from the protagonists, and he never had any other attributes. Eichler decided that he would attempt to make "rich" as a character attribute in an attempt to inject discussions about social class into Daria...but he never did anything with it. Aside from a few episodes, Tom's wealth is never discussed in a serious or substantial way. It's mentioned only in passing as a plot impediment or as a source of incomprehensible jealousy by Daria.

Worse, Tom's coolness simply reminded fans of the "one true pairing" of Daria/Trent. If Tom's a cool guy...well, so was Trent, and why couldn't Daria and Trent be together forever? Tom was a thumb in the eye of the Daria/Trent relationshippers, simply reminding them what they had missed.

When "Dye! Dye! My Darling!" came out and everything went to hell, we saw Tom and Daria make foolish decisions. For Daria, it was rather uncharacteristic, but she was forgiven as the show's protagonist. Not so for Tom, and a real jones for hating Tom among Daria fans blossomed fully. How could you really like a character who had done that to Jane?

In order to make Daria/Tom/Jane happen, core traits of Daria and Jane had to be ignored. Daria uncharacteristically dropped her guard. It can be explained as a part of Daria's raging hormones, but Daria never had any raging hormones before, so why start now? As for Jane's semi-cool, that was thrown completely out the window, as Jane became more like the Glenn Close character in "Fatal Attraction". Jane acted more and more irrationally, and what's worse, all of her suspicions about Daria and Tom were finally confirmed.

But in order to have a continuing series, this mess had to be repaired. Jane inexplicably forgives Daria for her betrayal. Eichler points out that there have been cases in real life where such betrayals have been forgiven -- George Harrison forgave Eric Clapton for stealing Harrison's wife -- but when you're talking about the world of pampered rock and roll stars to use as an example, you're making a real reach.

The end of Season Four was a real stretch for the fans. Somehow, all of these contradictory actions had to be reconciled. We had to believe that Jane and Daria moved on as if nothing had happened, and that Tom and Daria were a real couple.

Eichler stated that he made Tom wise, in order for him to be good for Daria. However, it seems that Eichler made Tom wise by making Daria stupid. In "Sappy Anniversary", Daria believes that Tom is taking her for granted on the flimsiest of evidence. In "The Story of D", Daria mopes over her story and Tom enters his "wise lecturer mode" while Daria, in her own words (almost), acts like a jerk. In "My Night at Daria's", Daria leaves Tom a note saying that they should break up because of her actions in standing Tom up without notice. (Whatever happened to the forthright Daria of Season One? She might have been kidnapped and shoved in a closet.)

Most likely by the end of Season Five, Tom had lost whatever fans he had. "Perfectly wise Tom" was beginning to become a bore.

By the time Daria finally breaks up with Tom in "Is It College Yet?" it's almost an anticlimax. Daria fandom simply shrugs its shoulders and says, "What took you so long? We were already bored with him!" If Tom had been given some other defining character trait, he might have been differentiated from being a somewhat more confident version of Daria, with Jane's coolness. Unfortunately, Tom couldn't be saved. Too much tinkering with the storytelling engine had to be made to get Daria and Tom together, and when they finally got there, there wasn't enough compelling about Tom to maintain anyone's interest.

(* * *)

Are there any lessons to be learned about the Daria/Jane/Tom triangle? There might be a few:

1) Be very careful of "One True Pairings". Eichler should have been aware that most Daria fans saw Daria and Trent as the One True Pairing. Even though he stated in an interview that Daria and Trent had almost nothing in common, he should have disillusioned Daria more thoroughly.

2) Don't break your universe to get a romance started. Jane and Daria had to act in uncharacteristic ways, and the results of the fallout led to an unsatisfactory resolution.

3) Don't make protagonists too stupid to make other characters smart. Intelligence is not a zero-sum game.

4) If the series would be just as fine without the major tinkering, don't tinker.. Or "If Tom disappeared completely from Daria, would he have been missed?" (There's an Iron Chef in there somewhere.) I feel the answer would have been "no". There were a lot of great episodes in those first three seasons, not so many in the last two. Eichler was already looking for new ideas for stories at the end of three seasons; he would have probably been better served with MTV not forcing him to use a free lance writing staff rather than for Eichler to conclude he had to start a romance that didn't work.

In my opinion, the storytelling engine had not run dry at the end of Season Three. But of course, we'll never know.