Clone High ‘Escape to Beer Mountain; A Rope of Sand’: Those Familiar Feelings

Back in November of 2002, MTV aired a new animated series about high school called Clone High (co-created by Scrubs and Cougar Town creator Bill Lawrence). Due to poor ratings from a misguided public controversy (a poster with the Ghandi character in Maxim magazine) and poor support from the network, the show was pulled from American televisions before the last five episodes of the 13-episode first season aired. The powers that be didn’t realize what a masterpiece they had on their hands; Clone High is one of the most brilliant satires I’ve ever watched, taking a high-concept premise, and making it infinitely relatable by infusing it with light-hearted but wildly intelligent parodies on life in high school. But after its 13-episode first season finished airing in Canady in February of 2003, Clone High ended its run, never to be seen again until a DVD release years later, and now here in our Second Look at the series.

The opening theme song lays out the basic premise behind the odd collection of historical figures that make up the cast of the show (and gets further detailed in the first few minutes). Clone High is the creation of the Secret Board of Shadowy Figure, and the result of a 1980s government project to clone the most bright and famous minds in history, including Abe Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Ghandi, Cleopatra, and JFK, who are now in high school and dealing with the familiar issues of identity, love, and acceptance. The school is run by Principal Scudworth (and to a degree, his robot butler, Mr. Butlertron), a completely insane scientist bent on turning the clones into his own personal devices for conquering the world.

But the lives of the clones are at the heart of the show. Abe Lincoln is an insecure, awkward teenager who’s in love with the Cleopatra, the hot, self-centered popular girl. Abe is best friends with Joan of Arc (the feminist emo girl) and Ghandi, who just wants to be accepted by everyone. Joan of Arc is secretly in love with Abe, but isn’t confident enough to say the words to his face (a classic high school love triangle scenario). And to top it off, Cleopatra is dating the horny, misogynistic popular JFK (another classic high school triangle).

‘Escape to Beer Mountain’ opens with the most ubiquitous high school quote ever; “This year is going to be different.” Abe, Joan & Ghandi are walking to the first day of class, catching up on their summer stories – but mainly noticing that Joan of Arc now has a nice rack. The first scene sets a perfect tone for the series, quickly revealing a knack for hilarious, adult dialogue – “Did you go to breast camp?” – combined with some great cliched high-school references (Joan was at summer camp, Abe hasn’t adjusted to his growth spurt, Ghandi’s dreaming of being the cool kid), and the recognition of its place as an animated show with some familiar gags.

What’s really striking about the first episode is how many high school situations it could reference in a single episode, from Teen Crisis Hotlines to love triangles, and even adults trying to understand youth culture… all in 21 minutes of animated comedy, and does it all without any of it feeling stale or underdeveloped. Even the animation speaks to the crisp quality of the writing: the minimalistic backgrounds and general lack of movement (outside of talking mouths) in the animation give great importance to every movement made, and are textbook examples on how to punctuate a joke physically.

It all makes for a beautifully scripted, perfectly executed half hour, and even manages to make the most predictable of plot twists emotionally engaging. Near the end of the episode, Cleopatra is faced with making a choice between the jerky jock (JFK) or the nice guy (Abe) and calls the Teen Crisis hotline looking for advice. Of course, the only person working it is Joan (who started it because Abe said he liked girls who did community service to not appear shallow), and she points Cleo in the direction towards Abe, the man she’s desperately in love with. And even though Cleo ends up with JFK anyway, its pretty clear that Abe’s not interested in Joan (and has no idea that she’s interested in him).

While there’s a lot of love talk in the air, the episode is really about acceptance, the one thing we all start seeking in high school – and end up chasing for the rest of our lives. Scudworth learns the terrors of being a high school student (partially by severe beatings by a mentally challenged Genghis Khan, who mistakes him for a pinata), and Abe doesn’t get Cleopatra because he’s now a big loser – although Van Gogh’s portrait of a naked Ghandi will help alleviate this a little, plus she passes him a note with the word ‘luv’ in it, so things are obviously not over there.

When it comes to comedy pilots, the best among them are always those that have a strong grip on their characters (see Cheers and Friends for two great examples) and a confidence in their form of story-telling. Clone High was a genius combination of historical satire, high school comedy, and quirky pop culture humor, and nails its voice and tone in one of the best first half hours of comedy you’ll ever see. Too bad we’d only get 12 more.

Grade: A

Other thoughts/observations:

– the voice cast for the show was incredible. Will Forte (Abe), Christa Miller (Cleopatra), Michael McDonald (Ghandi), Nicole Sullivan (Joan)…. the list goes on and on. And yes, just about everybody from Scrubs makes an appearance. In the pilot, it’s Donald Faison, who voices George Washington Carver.

– there are too many funny bits of dialogue, but a few always stick with me: “Where can I find the mist?”… “Fine. I’ll just wait for you by the gauze”…. “these pot stickers probably aren’t made with real crab…. I stand corrected.”

– From the police officer who refers to ‘underage drinking’ as a physical entity, to Genghis Khan not being able to stop telling liquor store managers that he’s not 21, the drinking portions of Clone High are the funniest.

– the Clone High theme song is one of my favorites of all time. Turn of the century MTV emo-rock at its best.

– My favorite character on the show is JFK. “It’s like My Two Dads, except more gay”; “I invaded her Bay of Pigs”; and my favorite, “Get outta my dinghy!!!”

– It’s funny how this might be the most toned-down episode of the show, in terms of its weirdness. Things get a lot more left-field as it goes on, but still remains faithful to its parody of afterschool ‘special’ episodes of television, even when an entire episode becomes a rock opera, and another features the murder of Ponce de Leon by random pieces of garbage.

I hope you enjoyed the first installment of this Second Look series! Feel free to leave thoughts/comments/reactions/memories of ‘Escape from Beer Mountain’ below, and stop back next Tuesday when Clone High elects a class president in a high-stakes election.