‘Doogie Howser’ Reboot in Development at Disney+

It’s been announced that a reboot of Doogie Howser, M.D. is in development at Disney+. The new series is being planned under the working title Doogie Kealoha, M.D., according to Variety. It will reportedly feature a half-Asian, half-white 16-year-old female as the lead, who works as a doctor in Hawaii. The series is being developed by Kourtney Kang, who was a producer on shows such as How I Met Your Mother and Fresh Off the Boat.

The hit ’90s series starred Neil Patrick Harris as the titular kid-genius who earned his medical degree at a very young age. It ran for four seasons on ABC, airing a total of 97 episodes between 1989 and 1993. The series was co-created by Steven Bochco — who passed away in 2018 — and David E. Kelley. It is reported that, at this time, neither Kelley nor Harris are attached to the reboot. Notably, Bochco’s wife Dayna and and his son Jesse will be executive producing the new show. They are joined by Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar, who worked on Fresh Off the Boat with Kang.

Doogie Howser, M.D. celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019, with Harris reflecting on the career-making role in an interview with USA Today. “Is that right? 30 years? Wow, no – as you can hear by my stunned reaction, I haven’t given it much thought at all,” he told the outlet, then adding that the big anniversary made him “feel like I’ve lived a whole lot of chapters.” He went on to say, “I look back on that with fondness. That was a very remarkably wonderful chapter for somebody who had never really been in the entertainment business before.”

Interestingly, in 2018, Harris spoke about the possibility of a Doogie Howser M.D. — or How I Met Your Mother — revival, but he did not seem keen on it. “Well, they tried a How I Met Your Father pilot on CBS and it didn’t get picked up. But with How I Met Your Mother, we had a bonus ninth season and I appreciated that so much thought was given to the ending. It would seem strange to revisit it so soon.”

He then went on to comment on the show that launched his career, saying, “And the conceit of Doogie Howser was that it was a teenager struggling with the juxtaposition of an adult work load and adolescent feelings. Even if you put a new kid in there, he’d just be a guy going to work every fourth day and pontificating. I think there are better ideas.” At this time, there is no announced time-line on when Doogie Kealoha, M.D. may premiere.