Back in 2002, our television sets were graced with a new cartoon series. I would have been thirteen years old at the time. I don’t know about the states, but in Canada Clone High was a hit. Actually, according to IMDB the last 5 episodes never aired in the US. This series originally aired on Teletoon, a Canadian television channel for cartoons. Late night Teletoon was where it’s at. Along with Clone High, the viewers of Teletoon at Night got the privilege of watching other short run “adult cartoons”‘. These would be -Undergrads, Mission Hill, and The Oblongs. MTV eventually started to air this show, but was abruptly cancelled due to a character who portrayed the clone of Mahatma Ghandi. People in India were not happy with the character, and the differences between him and the real Ghandi. Of course, this is a cartoon and the clone was in fact a clone, and not a real adaptation to the legendary social activist. Alas, heads began to roll and the series was cancelled completely. Even in Canada we only got the first season.
Fans of the series can now rejoice, as a reboot is now on the way and I err ah, approve of it err ah, returning to television.
What is Clone High exactly? Some of you might have no idea. Some of you may be to young, or maybe you weren’t allowed to watch it. Maybe you didn’t live in Canada. Many reasons. Clone High is just like the name entails. It’s about a high school full of clones. These are the clones of many famous historical figures such as JFK, Abe Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra and of course Ghandi. Like many “HighSchool” TV series we have common issues, like highschool crushes, being yourself, embracing your ADD and saying no to drugs – or as in this series’ case, raisins. I guess smoking raisins isn’t cool. Just ask Clone Highs special guest star, comedy actor Jack Black.
Jack Black wasn’t even the only guest star. The series had a countless shelf of famous stars, voiced by the celebrity themselves. This would include Marilyn Manson, Tom Green, John Stamos, Mandy Moore, Ashley Angel from Otown, Dan Patrick and Chris Berman.
The series had its moments for sure, and it’s unfortunate that it didn’t get the air time it deserved. Silly comedy and historical and pop culture references from the early 00s era and before had been scattered within each episode. Even A history buff could enjoy picking up on the small Easter eggs sprinkled within each episode. A little slice of pie in the late night cartoons that made us laugh, and kept us up that much later, so we wont miss the latest episode – PVR and TiVo really wasn’t a thing back then so we had to actually wait until the show played to see it, and we couldn’t just record it. You kids have it much easier these days, lol.
Clone High was created by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who have also won an academy award for their work on Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. Lord and Miller have also spearheaded successful projects like the 21 Jump Street film series and The Lego Movie. Bill Lawrence the creator of TV comedy Scrubs will be joining the duo to help with the reboot of Clone High. Who knows what’s in store, and what will they do without the comic relief Ghandi. Clone High is available for your viewing pleasure on YouTube, and I will share a link below. The link will stream the complete first season, and this is including the 5 episodes that were not aired in the U.S.
I’m curious to see where this reboot goes, as the show kind of ended and the last episode left us wanting another season. Undergrads which also aired on Teletoon at night didn’t get recognized much outside of Canada, so it got the axe aswell, but creator Pete Williams is talking of a movie, after realizing his series was well loved by the Canucks of the North. Maybe Mission Hill, and the Oblongs will follow behind.
It kind of seems like Teletoon at Night was cursed. Many people loved their programs, but it was a Canadian broadcaster, and most of the cartoons flew right off the radar when it came to viewers in other countries. None of these shows went past the first season, and of course had competitors like South Park and The Simpsons sad really, but maybe us fans will see our faves once again. Lets see if Clone Highs and Undergrads reboots will give others that push. Actually I am surprised Oblongs didnt make it far considering the character Bob is voiced by Will Ferrell. I am happy that I will see a reboot of at least two of the shows I enjoyed for its short run while I grew up.
C.L. Muileboom 