Doogie Howser, M.D.
| Doogie Howser, M.D. | |
|---|---|
 The Cast of Doogie Howser M.D. | |
| Created by | Steven Bochco David E. Kelley |
| Starring | Neil Patrick Harris Max Casella Lisa Dean Ryan Lucy Boryer Belinda Montgomery James Sikking Markus Redmond Lawrence Pressman Mitchell Anderson Robyn Lively Kathryn Layng |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 97 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | September 19, 1989 – March 24, 1993 |
Doogie Howser, M.D. is a television comedy-drama starring Neil Patrick Harris as a brilliant teenage doctor who was also faced with the problems of being a normal teenager. The show ran from September 1989 to March 1993.
Production
Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, the weekly, half-hour "dramedy" starred Neil Patrick Harris as Douglas "Doogie" Howser, a child prodigy who became the youngest practicing physician in the country. The show was set in Los Angeles, California, and ran for four years on ABC. The soundtrack of the series is by Mike Post and uses Post's trademark mid to late 1980s Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Neil Patrick Harris | Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser |
| Max Casella | Vincent "Vinnie" Delpino |
| James Sikking | Dr. David Howser |
| Belinda Montgomery | Katherine Howser |
| Robyn Lively | Nurse Michele Faber |
| Lisa Dean Ryan | Wanda Plenn |
| Lucy Boryer | Janine Stewart |
| Lawrence Pressman | Dr. Benjamin Canfield |
| Mitchell Anderson | Dr. Jack McGuire |
| Kathryn Layng | Nurse Mary Margaret "Curly" Spaulding |
| Markus Redmond | Raymond Alexander |
Episodes
There were four seasons of Doogie Howser, M.D., totaling 97 episodes. Steven Bochco revealed that the show's cancellation (due to a big ratings drop in its last season) came abruptly at the hands of ABC executives—before he and the show's staff had a chance to complete the story line. Bochco believed Doogie would have left the pressures of medicine to become a writer.[1]
Ratings
The first two seasons were successful and were in the top 30.
Plot
The main character is Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser (Harris), the son of David and Catherine Howser. As a child, he was was diagnosed with early-stage pediatric leukemia, "first when I was four and then...again when I was six",[4] after suspicious bruising was discovered by his father, who is also a medical doctor. After successful treatments, he began to express a genius level of intelligence. At age six, he got a perfect score on the SAT. He completed high school in nine weeks, graduated from Princeton University at age 10 and finished medical school four years later. At age 14, he was the youngest licensed doctor in the country. The series picks up on his 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.
In the series, Doogie works as a resident surgeon at a hospital in Los Angeles, and still lives at home with his parents. He also has a best friend, Vinnie Delpino (Max Casella), who is a more typical teenager and keeps him grounded in life outside his profession. He keeps a diary on his computer; episodes typically end with him making an entry in it. A trademark of the show was Vinnie climbing in through his window, to visit his friend. Doogie initially has a girlfriend, Wanda Plenn, but they break up in the course of the series.
Many of the episodes deal with problems beyond just "Doogie is a teen-aged genius". There are also episodes which deal with things like AIDS awareness, gang violence and losing one's virginity, along with more mundane things, like aging, body issues and friendship. Doogie is faced, repeatedly, with dealing with his own perceptions of the world, along with over coming other people's perceptions of him.
Also, repeatedly, the show reminds the viewer that there are people close to home (Central and South America) who need medical care. His father, actually, goes on two trips over the course of the series to do medicine in poorer communities south of the border.
DVD releases
Anchor Bay Entertainment has released all 4 seasons of the TV series on DVD in Region 1.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Doogie Howser, M.D.: Season One | 26 | March 22, 2005 |
| Doogie Howser, M.D.: Season Two | 25 | September 6, 2005 |
| Doogie Howser, M.D.: Season Three | 24 | January 17, 2006 |
| Doogie Howser, M.D.: Season Four | 22 | April 18, 2006 |
Cultural impact
- Smart mice obtained by genetic engineering have been named "Doogie mice" in reference to this character. [5] [6]
- The computer-entry sequence at the end of an episode of the T.V. series How I Met Your Mother entitled "The Bracket" is an allusion to the end of each Doogie Howser M.D. episode, where the character Barney Stinson is also played by Neil Patrick Harris.
- In Veronica Mars, when Wallace is in Chicago, Veronica complains about feeling like Doogie Howser due to their one-sided e-mail exchanges.
- In 2008, Neil Patrick Harris appeared in commercials for Old Spice deodorant, claiming to be an expert because he "used to be a doctor for pretend".
- In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, "Help", Willow alludes to writing Doogie Howser fan fiction in her teens.
- In the 2004 comedy Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Neil Patrick Harris plays a fictionalized version of himself and is asked if he had ever got it on with Wanda off the set. Harris, in character, claims he has "humped every piece of ass ever on that show" (except the hot nurse, who he expresses regret over) and is referred to as "Doogie Howser" in a scene where he steals Harold's car from the convenience store.
- In his 106 & Park freestyle, rapper Lil Wayne claims that "shorty give me brain like she smart as Doogie Howser."
- In an episode of Roseanne, Roseanne has a dream after having a breast reduction and she goes to the mirror and looks at herself and realizes she has bigger boobs than before and then Doogie comes in and says he wanted to go bigger, and she says, "Way to go, Doogie!" and passes out, only to realize it was only a dream.
- The Family Guy episode "Fifteen Minutes of Shame" parodies Doogie's computer journal entries at the end of the episode.
- The promo for Saturday Night Live featuring Neil Patrick Harris and Taylor Swift mentioned Doogie Howser. Taylor Swift said the show made her cry. NPH asked if it moved her, to which Taylor responds that she was just a baby during the show's run.
References
- ^ Doogie Howser M.D., Season 1 DVD
- ^ Top Rated Programs - 1985-1990
- ^ Top Rated Programs - 1990-1995
- ^ Doogie Howser, M.D. Pilot Episode 15:00
- ^ Marc D. Hauser, "Swappable Minds", in "The Next Fifty Years" (Ed. J. Brockman), Vintage Books (2001)
- ^ Tang YP, Shimizu E, Dube GR, Rampon C, Kerchner GA, Zhuo M, Liu G, Tsien JZ (1999). "Genetic enhancement of learning and memory in mice". Nature. 401: 63–69. PMID 10485705.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
See also
- Balamurali Ambati, who in 1995 became the world's youngest doctor at the age of 17.
- Akrit Jaswal
- Sho Yano, who matriculated in the University of Chicago's Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D./Ph.D.) at the age of 12
External links