Disney is not shy about rebooting or retooling its big movies, and that drive is continuing with TV titles the Mouse House is plucking from its extensive library to make new versions of the shows for Disney+. One that will catch the attention of readers of a certain age is Doogie Howser, MD.
The show, which ran from 1989 until 1993, made a young star out of Neil Patrick Harris, who plays a teenage genius who blazes his way through college and then ends up working as a student doctor from the age of 14. The show charts his coming-of-age issues, dealing with life, love and medicine and usually ended with him tapping away on a word processor to chronicle what he's learned. More of you younger lot will probably know it more through jokes about the show in the likes of the Harold And Kumar movies.
As for the new version, it'll instead be set in Hawaii and focuses on a 16-year-old half Asian, half white girl who works as a doctor. The working title for this one? Doogie Kealoha, MD. And the Harris connections continue with the showrunner, as Kourtney Kang, who worked on How I Met Your Mother (which helped continue the second wave of Harris' career), is in charge here. That makes us think that the original Doogie himself might just show up for a cameo. And talking of, he features heavily in a new video from Olivia Wilde, who has rounded up (remotely) a group of those who have played doctors on screen to thank real-life medical workers putting their lives on the line in the midst of the Corona-crisis.