Doogie Howser, M.D.

Doogie Howser M.D.
The Cast of Doogie Howser M.D.
Format	Drama/Sitcom
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
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 19, 1989 – March 24, 1993
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

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.

Contents 1 Production 2 Cast 3 Episodes 4 Ratings 5 Plot 6 DVD releases 7 Cultural impact 8 References 9 See also 10 External links

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

Main article: List of Doogie Howser M.D. 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.

Season 1: #30, 14.5 [1]

Season 2: #24, 14.7 [2]

Plot

The main character is Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser (Harris), the son of David and Catherine Howser. At the age of five, he was diagnosed with early-stage pediatric leukemia 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.

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. ^{[2] [3]}

• 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" 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 Houser."

• 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.

References

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

• Doogie Howser, M.D. at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e TV Series created or produced by David E. Kelley 1980s Doogie Howser, M.D. • L.A. Law 1990s Picket Fences • Snoops • Chicago Hope • Ally McBeal • The Practice • Ally 2000s Girls Club • The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire • Boston Public • The Wedding Bells • Boston Legal

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