A year after Bill Lawrence's Scrubs premiered, Lawrence and two others made Clone High for MTV. The series was the definition of "meta"; much of the dialogue is self-reflexive, numerous Scrubs allusions are made, the animation is cheap (I believe that speaks to the quality of the shows it parodies) and even the theme song poked fun of numerous teen show cliches, all of which were lampooned in the show's plots (and often commented upon by the characters). The theme song also sets up the show's premise so that the action can begin right away without having to devote actual screentime to explaining why all these clones are going to school together.
In the 80s, a board of Shadowy Figures commissioned some scientists to dig up famous leaders from history and clone them. I don't think the exact purpose for the clones was ever explicitly given (it was at least hinted at, and it was extremely absurd), but that didn't matter because the clones weren't ready for their purpose yet. First, they had to complete high school. Under the supervision of the deranged Dr. Cinnamon Scudworth as their principal (embodying the mad scientist and uncool authority figure archetypes), figures like Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi, John F. Kennedy, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Julius Ceasar, George Washington Carver, Vincent Van Gogh, and Sigmund Freud live like modern teenagers, as they try to survive the social hell that is high school.
Some of the clones were fortunate enough to be attractive and/or popular, such as JFK and Cleopatra, and they rule the social scene. Most of the rest are geeky or strange (I'd be willing to bet that most of the characters in the show were somewhat strange in their youth in real life). Some characters embrace their clone heritage, which makes them outcasts; George Washington Carver is a science nerd obsessed with peanuts, Van Gogh is a tortured artist. Along the same lines, Marie Curie's DNA was mutated because of her work with radiation, and her clone is severely deformed. Other characters, like Abe Lincoln and Ghandi reject who they were because of all the pressure associated with living up to their predecessors. Abe is afraid to take charge and lead, and prefers to remain in the background while Ghandi became an annoying partier.
The various episodes take on cliches from meldramatic teens shows; class elections, proms, and film festivals are various school events that we see. In other episodes, two characters who hate each other are forced to share a bedroom (with hilarious results), a nerdy clone is allowed to come to a cool party if he can get beer (with hilarious results), and one character runs through an airport to declare his love for another (with hilarious results). Finally, the show has some very VERY special episodes (every episode is jokingly referred to as a "very special episode" in the pre- and post-show montage) that teach us viewers important lessons, including that ADD isn't like AIDS, girls can play basketball, and litter is dangerous. Scudworth tends to have his own adventures with his robotic butler, Mr. Butlertron (originally called Mr. Belvetron, which explains his mannerisms parodying the character of Mr. Belvedere) which do everything from parody mad scientist stories, old Warner Bros. cartoons, and old sitcoms (right down to the laugh track, which only supplemented scenes that were sitcom parodies).
A lot of the humor was derived from the exaggerated situations the clones found themselves in and the comments they made regarding the situations. As teenagers, the clones were very susceptible to suggestion and believed that things that are supposed to matter to teens are matters of life and death. When a rock star told the clones that raisins can be smoked to induce intoxication, raisins became contraband at Clone High, and when prom was upon the clones, Cleopatra demanded an utterly perfect "prom-posal" from her boyfriend (which involved numerous animals performing acrobatic stunts). The characters' relationships were played up to parody the way teens interact in teen shows; people often forget the crazy things people would do from week to week and if the characters were extremely oblivious to other people's feelings. Joan of Arc harbored a huge crush on Abe, and explicitly told him a few times, only for him to not comprehend because his own feelings for Cleopatra got in the way.
Finally, for such a small show, Clone High got a fair number of big-name guest stars, many of which played themselves. Most of the cast of Scrubs acted in recurring roles and Andy Dick also had recurring roles. Marilyn Manson, John Stamos, and Tom Green all guest star as themselves (this was when Tom Green was "popular"), Jack Black plays a thinly veiled version of himself, and Luke Perry features prominently in one episode (Michael J. Fox also made a cameo).
Up next: Commenting on the penultimate season finale of LOST...
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