Doogie Howser reboot will star a female lead

The Disney+ project comes from How I Met Your Mother writer-producer Kourtney Kang

Doogie Howser reboot will star a female lead 1

Disney+ is developing a reboot of ABC’s medical dramedy Doogie Howser, M.D. But unlike the original series that made Neil Patrick Harris a household name, the reboot will star a female lead.

The project, which has a working title of Doogie Kealoha, M.D., comes from How I Met Your Mother and Fresh Off the Boat alumna Kourtney Kang and 20th Century Fox TV. Set in Hawaii, Doogie Kealoha, M.D. centers on a half-Asian, half-white 16-year-old girl with a genius-level intellect who has breezed through college and medical school and is now working as a doctor. The lead character’s ethnic background reflects that of Kang, who was born in Hawaii.

The original half-hour series, which ran for four seasons from 1989 to 1993 on ABC, starred Harris as a young physician balancing the challenge of practicing medicine with the everyday problems of teenage life. Created by the late Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, it also starred James B. Sikking and Belinda Montgomery as Doogie’s parents as well as Max Casella, Lisa Dean Ryan and Lucy Boryer as his friends.

Bochco’s widow, Dayna, and son Jesse serve as executive producers on the reboot along with Kang, Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar. Kasdan and Mar have an overall deal at 20th Century Fox, which is now owned by Disney.

As expected, people on the Internet have different thoughts about the reboot. There are those who are excited about it, and there are those who think that rebooting the classic TV series is a mistake.

Some fans, on the other hand, doesn’t care much about the reboot’s gender-swapped lead, as they would support the new series as long as Harris would be part of the cast and the reboot would use the original series’ theme song.

Doogie Kealoha, M.D. is the latest series reboot of a TV title at Disney+, joining Turner & Hooch, The Mighty Ducks, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and a Beauty and the Beast spinoff, which is also in development.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline
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