Way, way back in the early 2000s, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller -- who were fresh college graduates at the time -- pitched an animated show about famous historical figures cloned as high school students going through the everyday struggles of their mid-to-late teens to MTV. Titled Clone High, the series got picked up. Lord and Miller then teamed with Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence to work on the project, which only lasted for beloved episodes. With a reboot on the way, let's look at what made Clone High a cult classic.
Clone High followed the high school-aged clones of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Joan of Arc as they dealt with issues like puberty, romance and popularity. The show played out as a parody of the teen dramas of the time, such as Dawson's Creek and Beverly Hills 90210. However, Clone High's used its serious moments to shoot up the absurdity, using the over dramatization of events for extra comedic value.
What made Clone High work was the chemistry between the characters. While the clones held some semblance of the figures they were cloned from, they still acted as stereotypical high school students, with Abe as a lanky nerdy teen, Gandhi as a party animal and Joan of Arc as an angsty goth. The writing in the show often mixed in the personality of the actual historical figures in a way that worked for the show as a teen drama, while exploring just what it would have looked like to put those people together. For example, Cleopatra was a beauty-obsessed popular girl in an on-again, off-again relationship with rowdy jock John F. Kennedy. Overall, the comedy used its characters well and flowed naturally, making for an enjoyable experience
Clone High also featured a narrator who opened and closed the episodes, providing meta commentary on the episode's key issue. Each episode was, in a play on teen dramas, referred to as a "very special episode," mocking how the genre approached sensitive topics. That's not to say the show didn't look at more difficult topics. Clone High tackled but upped the ridiculous factor, such as when Marilyn Manson was brought in to sing about the food pyramid or Tom Green talked about ADD.
Unfortunately, Clone High ended abruptly on a cliffhanger due to a mix of low ratings and controversy regarding the depiction of Gandhi. There were discussions on how to change this in Season 2, with one idea being Gandhi was actually a clone of Gary Coleman. However, the show ended before any changes could be made. While there were plans for a comic, licensing issues meant the Clone High continuation never made it past page one.
With the reboot on the way, Clone High might finally be able to build on its cliffhanger, or at the very least bring the 2002 show into the modern day, tackling such subjects as smartphones and social media fame while taking full advantage of recent teen dramas.