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Doogie Howser, M.D.
Doogie Howser, M.D. is an American medical sitcom that ran for four seasons on ABC from September 19, 1989, to March 24, 1993, totaling 97 episodes. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, the show stars Neil Patrick Harris in the title role as a teenage physician who balances the challenge of practicing medicine with the everyday problems of teenage life.
Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser (Harris) is the son of David (James B. Sikking) and Katherine Howser (Belinda Montgomery). As a child, he twice survived early-stage pediatric leukemia after his father—a family physician—discovered suspicious bruising. The experience contributed to the younger Howser's desire to enter medicine.
Possessing a genius intellect and a photographic memory, Doogie participates in a longitudinal study of child prodigies until his 18th birthday. He earned a perfect score on the SAT at the age of six, completed high school in nine weeks, graduated from Princeton University in 1983 at age 10, and finished medical school four years later. At age 14, Howser was the youngest licensed physician in the country. As a newspaper article (one of several noting some of Doogie's aforementioned accomplishments that are shown in the series' opening title sequence) stated, he "can't buy beer... [but] can prescribe drugs".
The series begins on Doogie's 16th birthday; the cold open of the pilot episode shows him stopping his field test for his driver's license to help an injured person at the scene of a traffic accident. Doogie is a second-year resident surgeon at Eastman Medical Center in Los Angeles, and still lives at home with his parents. Doogie's best friend and neighbor, Vinnie Delpino (Max Casella), is a more typical teenager who often climbs through Doogie's bedroom window to visit and connects him to life outside of medicine. Doogie has kept a diary on his computer since 1979; episodes typically end with him making an entry in it, writing observations about the situations or lessons he had experienced or learned in the episode.
Doogie seeks acceptance both from children his age and from his professional colleagues. Many episodes also deal with wider social problems: AIDS awareness, racism, antisemitism, homophobia, sexism, gang violence, access to quality medical care, and losing one's virginity are topics, along with aging, body issues, and friendship.
Doogie initially has a girlfriend, Wanda Plenn (Lisa Dean Ryan), but they break up after she leaves for college; he also begins a trauma surgery fellowship and moves into his own apartment. Bochco intended to end the show with a "season-long story arc for Doogie where he becomes disaffected with the practice of medicine and quits medicine to become a writer". ABC abruptly canceled the show due to low ratings, preventing Bochco and the show's writers from implementing that storyline, other than Howser's resignation from Eastman and departure for Europe in the final episode.
The weekly, half-hour dramedy was created by Steven Bochco. He originated the concept and asked David E. Kelley to help write the pilot, earning Kelley a "created by" credit. Harris was the first actor the show's staff had found that could convincingly play a teenage doctor, but ABC executives opposed his casting. Bochco's contract required that the network pay an "enormous" penalty if it canceled the project, so ABC was forced to let him film the pilot. The network still opposed Harris's casting and disliked the pilot, but after positive reception during test screenings, ABC greenlit the show.
In the United States, reruns of Doogie Howser, M.D. ran in syndication between September 1994 and September 1996. Repeats of the show aired on cable on the Odyssey Network (now Hallmark Channel) from 1999 to 2001. The Hub began airing reruns of the show on October 11, 2010 lasting until May 26, 2013. Antenna TV aired reruns from January 5, 2015 to January 1, 2018.
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Doogie Howser, M.D.
Doogie Howser, M.D. is an American medical sitcom that ran for four seasons on ABC from September 19, 1989, to March 24, 1993, totaling 97 episodes. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, the show stars Neil Patrick Harris in the title role as a teenage physician who balances the challenge of practicing medicine with the everyday problems of teenage life.
Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser (Harris) is the son of David (James B. Sikking) and Katherine Howser (Belinda Montgomery). As a child, he twice survived early-stage pediatric leukemia after his father—a family physician—discovered suspicious bruising. The experience contributed to the younger Howser's desire to enter medicine.
Possessing a genius intellect and a photographic memory, Doogie participates in a longitudinal study of child prodigies until his 18th birthday. He earned a perfect score on the SAT at the age of six, completed high school in nine weeks, graduated from Princeton University in 1983 at age 10, and finished medical school four years later. At age 14, Howser was the youngest licensed physician in the country. As a newspaper article (one of several noting some of Doogie's aforementioned accomplishments that are shown in the series' opening title sequence) stated, he "can't buy beer... [but] can prescribe drugs".
The series begins on Doogie's 16th birthday; the cold open of the pilot episode shows him stopping his field test for his driver's license to help an injured person at the scene of a traffic accident. Doogie is a second-year resident surgeon at Eastman Medical Center in Los Angeles, and still lives at home with his parents. Doogie's best friend and neighbor, Vinnie Delpino (Max Casella), is a more typical teenager who often climbs through Doogie's bedroom window to visit and connects him to life outside of medicine. Doogie has kept a diary on his computer since 1979; episodes typically end with him making an entry in it, writing observations about the situations or lessons he had experienced or learned in the episode.
Doogie seeks acceptance both from children his age and from his professional colleagues. Many episodes also deal with wider social problems: AIDS awareness, racism, antisemitism, homophobia, sexism, gang violence, access to quality medical care, and losing one's virginity are topics, along with aging, body issues, and friendship.
Doogie initially has a girlfriend, Wanda Plenn (Lisa Dean Ryan), but they break up after she leaves for college; he also begins a trauma surgery fellowship and moves into his own apartment. Bochco intended to end the show with a "season-long story arc for Doogie where he becomes disaffected with the practice of medicine and quits medicine to become a writer". ABC abruptly canceled the show due to low ratings, preventing Bochco and the show's writers from implementing that storyline, other than Howser's resignation from Eastman and departure for Europe in the final episode.
The weekly, half-hour dramedy was created by Steven Bochco. He originated the concept and asked David E. Kelley to help write the pilot, earning Kelley a "created by" credit. Harris was the first actor the show's staff had found that could convincingly play a teenage doctor, but ABC executives opposed his casting. Bochco's contract required that the network pay an "enormous" penalty if it canceled the project, so ABC was forced to let him film the pilot. The network still opposed Harris's casting and disliked the pilot, but after positive reception during test screenings, ABC greenlit the show.
In the United States, reruns of Doogie Howser, M.D. ran in syndication between September 1994 and September 1996. Repeats of the show aired on cable on the Odyssey Network (now Hallmark Channel) from 1999 to 2001. The Hub began airing reruns of the show on October 11, 2010 lasting until May 26, 2013. Antenna TV aired reruns from January 5, 2015 to January 1, 2018.