Clone High’s writers explain what happened to Gandhi and their ‘trickiest’ episode yet
Do you think a time traveler from 2003 could hack it in today’s world? This is the question driving the premiere of Clone High’s long-awaited second season (and, by extension, the revival of the show itself): Here is a show that hasn’t been around in 20 years, about clones of historical figures in high school together who have all been literally frozen since their winter prom two decades ago. It’s the sort of thing that might leave people finding themselves behind the times (if you can believe it). The world looks starkly different, and the first episode, “Let’s Try This Again,” tackles that head-on, going straight into the contrast of the show’s tone, then and now.
Turns out, by 2023 standards, even nice guy Abe Lincoln (Will Forte) isn’t such a nice guy. As he heads over to the school’s field day, he invokes a slew of 2003 slang that is not “politically correct” (as Abe puts it) and has been “retired” (as newly made clone of Christopher Columbus, “Topher Bus,” cuts in to head off a dated, offensive slur from Abe).
As co-showrunner Erica Rivinoja notes, this wasn’t just an exercise for the clone kids. It’s part of what made the second season premiere the “trickiest episode” of Clone High yet: balancing not only the exposition for fans new and old, but also the time that’s passed.
“To come back 20 years later and address it — we also sort of wanted to talk about what it’s like to look back on your work 20 years ago. And then, you know — what would you do better, 20 years later?” Rivinoja says. “So that was a really important thing to us, to have our characters going through that experience of learning, Oh, wow. What I used to say was not good. And so it was a tricky episode to do, because it was just a lot; there was a
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