‘Doogie Howser’ Female-Fronted Reboot Coming to Disney+
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“Doogie Howser, M.D.” is getting a female-fronted reboot on Disney+.
Variety reported that the series is getting rebooted as “Doogie Kealoha, M.D.” (working title) and will take place in Hawaii. Kourtney Kang (“How I Met Your Mother,” “Fresh Off the Boat”) will write and executive produce the series. “Doogie Kealoha, M.D.” will reportedly center on a 16-year-old half-Asian, half-Caucasian girl who works as a doctor, reflecting Kang’s own Hawaiian background.
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The project has not been officially announced but sources close to production confirmed the news to IndieWire.
Jake Kasden and Melvin Mar will also executive produce the upcoming series, according to Variety. Dayna and Jesse Bocho will serve as producers. 20th Century Fox Television, which produced the original series, will also produce. Kang, Kasden, and Mar all have overall deals at the studio. Additional details about the project, including casting, are not yet available.
The original “Doogie Howser, M.D.” series was a hit on ABC. Running for 97 episodes, the show ran for four seasons from 1989 to 1993 and starred Neil Patrick Harris as a young genius and medical prodigy.
“Doogie Kealoha, M.D.” is the latest in a string of reboots and revivals to hit Disney+. The streaming service launched with “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” and a live-action version of “Lady and the Tramp,” and a variety of old films are expected to be remade for the platform, including “Three Men and a Baby,” “Home Alone,” and “Peter Pan,” among several others.
The upcoming series isn’t the first ABC project to get a new lease on life at the House of Mouse’s streaming platform: Disney recently announced that is was reviving ABC’s short-lived “The Quest” fantasy competition series for Disney+. Meanwhile, another popular franchise that was slated to return to Disney+ in the future was Hilary Duff’s “Lizzie McGuire” revival. Production on that series was halted in February, allegedly due to Disney’s distaste for the show’s mature themes.
Disney+ has continued to enjoy increased popularity since its November 2019 launch. Though the streaming service does not boast the same quantity of originals as some of its competitors, Disney+ is gearing up to release Season 2 of its popular “The Mandalorian” series later in the year and also has several Marvel Cinematic Universe shows in the works.
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