Doogie Howser, M.D. is an American comedy-drama television series created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, and starring Neil Patrick Harris in the title role as a teenage physician who also faces the problems of being a normal teenager. The half-hour dramedy began airing on the ABC from 1989 to 1993 for four seasons totaling 97 episodes.
Plot
Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser (Harris) is the son of David (James B. Sikking) and Katherine Howser (Belinda Montgomery). As a child, he twice survived early-stage pediatric leukemia[1] after his father—a family physician—discovered suspicious bruising. The experience contributed to Howser's desire to enter medicine.
Possessing a genius intellect and an eidetic memory,[2] Howser participates in a longitudinal study of child prodigies until his 18th birthday.[3] He earned a perfect score on the SAT at the age of six, completed high school in nine weeks at the age of nine,[4] graduated from Princeton University in 1983[5] at age 10, and finished medical school four years later. At age 14, Howser was the youngest licensed doctor in the country. As a newspaper article stated, he "can't buy beer but can prescribe drugs".
The series begins on Howser's 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. Howser is a resident surgeon[6] at Eastman Medical Center in Los Angeles, and still lives at home[7] with his parents. His best friend and neighbor, Vinnie Delpino (Max Casella), is a more typical teenager—climbing through Howser's bedroom window to visit—and connects him to life outside medicine. Howser has kept a diary on his computer since 1979;[8] the episodes typically end with him making an entry in it.
Howser seeks acceptance by both others his age and his professional colleagues. Many episodes also deal with wider social problems: AIDS awareness, racism, homophobia, sexism, gang violence, access to quality medical care, and losing one's virginity are topics, along with aging, body issues, and friendship.
Howser initially has a girlfriend, Wanda Plenn (Lisa Dean Ryan), but they break up after she leaves for college; he also begins a trauma surgery fellowship and moves into his own apartment. Bochco intended to end the show with a "season-long story arc for Doogie where he becomes disaffected with the practice of medicine and quits medicine to become a writer".[9] ABC abruptly canceled the show due to low ratings, preventing Bochco and the show's writers from implementing the storyline other than Howser's resignation from Eastman and departure for Europe in the final episode.
Doogie Howser, M.D. won the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Emmy Award three years in a row for Best Sound.
Production
The weekly, half-hour dramedy was created by Steven Bochco. He originated the concept and asked David E. Kelley to help write the pilot, giving Kelley a "created by" credit. Harris was the first actor the show's staff found that could convincingly play a teenaged doctor, but ABC opposed his casting. Bochco's contract required that the network pay an "enormous" penalty if it canceled the project, so ABC was forced to let him film the pilot. The network still opposed Harris's casting and disliked the pilot, but after successful test screenings ABC greenlit the show.
Cast
From left to right, Lawrence Pressman as Dr. Canfield, Neil Patrick Harris as Doogie Howser, Mitchell Anderson as Dr. McGuire and Kathryn Layng as Nurse Spaulding
Main cast
- Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser.
- Max Casella as Vincent "Vinnie" Salvatore Delpino, Howser's best friend since they were five years old.[11] Delpino resists his father's demands to join the family business and attends film school instead.
- James B. Sikking as Dr. David Howser, Doogie Howser's father. The Vietnam War MASH veteran has a family practice.
- Belinda Montgomery as Katherine Howser, Doogie Howser's mother. The housewife returns to work as a patient advocate at her son's hospital.[12]
- Lisa Dean Ryan (seasons 1–2, recurring in season 3) as Wanda Plenn, Delpino's high-school classmate and Howser's girlfriend. After her mother dies in an automobile accident Plenn's relationship with Howser suffers, and after she leaves for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago they end their relationship.
- Lucy Boryer (seasons 1–3, two episodes in season 4) as Janine Stewart, Delpino's girlfriend and Plenn's best friend. She drops out of college[13] and becomes a buyer for a department store.
- Lawrence Pressman as Dr. Benjamin Canfield, head of Eastman Medical. Canfield is an old friend and classmate of David Howser, and persuades him to join the hospital to run its family practice.[14]
- Mitchell Anderson (seasons 1–2) as Dr. Jack McGuire, a resident at Eastman and Howser's friendly rival. A visit to rural Mexico inspires him to leave the hospital to serve the poor overseas.[15]
- Kathryn Layng as Mary Margaret "Curly" Spaulding, a nurse at Eastman. Spaulding occasionally dates McGuire and, briefly, both Canfield[16] and Howser.[17]
- Markus Redmond (seasons 2–4) as Raymond Alexander, an orderly (and later an EMT) at Eastman. Alexander meets Howser after taking him hostage during a convenience-store robbery;[18] after finishing his sentence, Howser helps him get a job at the hospital.[19]
Recurring cast
- Rif Hutton as Dr. Ron Welch, a fellow doctor who is also friends with Howser.
- Robyn Lively as Michele Faber (seasons 2 and 4), a nursing student. She becomes Howser's girlfriend shortly before he decides to leave Eastman and go to Europe.
- Barry Livingston as Dr. Bob Rickett (seasons 2–4), a fellow doctor working at Eastman.
Episodes
Main article: List of Doogie Howser, M.D. episodes
DVD releases
Anchor Bay Entertainment released all 4 seasons of Doogie Howser, M.D. on DVD in Region 1 between 2005–2006.[20][21][22][23] These releases have since been discontinued and are out of print. Before the DVDs were discontinued, there were plans for a Complete Collection release which was announced on August 28, 2008, which was eventually canceled .[24]
Revelation Films has released all four seasons on DVD in Region 2 (UK).
Television ratings
The first two seasons were in the top 30.
Season Season premiere Season finale TV Season Ranking Viewers
(in millions) 1st September 19, 1989 August 4, 1990 1989–1990 #30[25][26] 13.34[25][26] 2nd September 12, 1990 July 5, 1991 1990–1991 #24[27][28] 13.68[27][28]3rdSeptember 25, 1991July 13, 19921991–1992#3511.994thSeptember 23, 1992July 28, 19931992–1993#509.67
Cultural influence
- Harris has satirized his years playing a teenage medical doctor several times.
- In an episode of Roseanne, Roseanne has a dream after having undergone breast reduction surgery. She goes to the mirror and realizes that she has comically larger breasts than before. Doogie Howser (Harris) comes in and asks an upset Roseanne if they were supposed to be bigger than they are in the dream. Roseanne screams but then is woken up by her husband Dan. To make sure she was dreaming, she looks under her bedsheet, sees the surgery went as planned, and sighs, "Way to go, Doogie!"
- Barney Stinson (also played by Harris) writes in his computerized diary at the end of the How I Met Your Mother episode "The Bracket" while the Doogie Howser theme music plays.[29] In "The Stinsons" he also comments, "Call me crazy but child actors were way better in the '80s".
- In the 2004 comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harris—playing a fictionalized version of himself—claims to have "humped every piece of ass ever on that show" (except the hot nurse, over whom he expresses regret). Harris is referred to as "Doogie Howser" while stealing Harold's car from the convenience store. In Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Harris remarks, after taking psychotropic mushrooms, "Dude, I was able to perform an appendectomy at 14, I think I can handle a few 'shrooms".
- In 2008, Harris appeared in commercials for Old Spice deodorant, claiming to be an expert because he "used to be a doctor for pretends".
- During the opening of the 2009 TV Land Awards, Harris, the host, travels through "The TV Land Zone" (a spoof of The Twilight Zone), where he finds himself the star of TV classics. At one point, Harris walks into a doctor's office, dressed as Doogie, while the Doogie Howser, M.D. theme plays. After realizing where he is, he storms out, saying, "No no no, not gonna happen! Check my contract!"
- On the January 10, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live, the "SNL Digital Short" featured guest host Harris leading a full orchestra version of the Doogie Howser theme. When the song concludes, he turns toward the camera and sheds a tear.[30]
- On the March 14, 2011 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a "real doctor" played by Harris endorses Kimmel's Jim-Miracle Diet, as the Doogie Howser theme plays.[31]
- Neil Patrick Harris played Doogie Howser in The Earth Day Special during 1990. In the special, Doogie along with two other doctors (played by Dana Delany and James Brolin) are informed by Emmett L. Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd) on how to save Mother Nature (played by Bette Midler).[32]
- In Anthony Bourdain's New York Times bestselling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, any blond, good-looking waiter working in his restaurant is immediately nicknamed 'Doogie Howser'.[33]
- Smart mice obtained by genetic engineering have been named "Doogie mice" in honor of Harris's character.[34][35]
Real life comparisons
Balamurali Ambati graduated from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and obtained his medical license when he was only 17 years old, a Guinness World Record, and has been compared to the fictional Doogie Howser, though Ambati himself disliked the association.[36]
Sho Yano who became the youngest student to attain an M.D. from the University of Chicago at 21 years old has also been called a real-life Doogie Howser.
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Marcus Welby, M.D. is an American medical drama television program that aired on ABC from September 23, 1969, to July 29, 1976. It starred Robert Young as a family practitioner with a kind bedside manner and James Brolin as the younger doctor he often worked with, and was produced by David Victor and David J. O'Connell. The pilot, A Matter of Humanities, had aired as an ABC Movie of the Week on March 26, 1969.
Overview
As with most medical dramas of the day, the plots often concerned a professional conflict between well-meaning physicians. Here, Dr. Welby's unorthodox way of treating patients was pitted against the more strait-laced methods of Dr. Steven Kiley (James Brolin). The catch with this particular program was that the roles were reversed in that Dr. Kiley was much younger than Dr. Welby. In the similar series Medical Center, it is the older doctor who is more orthodox and the younger who is radical. The opening credits of "Welby" for each episode reminded viewers of the generation gap between the two doctors, Welby driving his long sedan and Kiley riding a motorcycle. Welby had served in the US Navy as a doctor during the war, and was a widower. He owned a sail boat and enjoyed the ocean.
The doctors worked alongside each other in their private practice in Santa Monica, California, regularly working in conjunction with the nearby Lang Memorial Hospital. (This was later revealed in exterior shots to be the real-life St. John's Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, California now renamed simply as Saint John's Health Center.) At the office, their loyal secretary-nurse and friend, and Welby's hinted at secret lover was Consuelo Lopez (Elena Verdugo). Other characters that appeared throughout the years included Dr. Welby's frequent girlfriend Myra Sherwood (Anne Baxter), his daughter Sandy and her son Phil (first Christine Belford, then Anne Schedeen, as Sandy and Gavin Brendan as Phil), and Kathleen Faverty (Sharon Gless), another secretary. Dr. Kiley met and married public relations director Janet Blake (Pamela Hensley) in 1975, at the beginning of the show's last season on the air.
Young and Wyatt on Marcus Welby, M.D.
In the episode Designs which aired on March 12, 1974. Young was reunited with his Father Knows Best co-star, Jane Wyatt; she played a fashion designer whose marriage to an embittered paraplegic led her to fall in love with the gentle doctor while keeping her marriage a secret most of the episode.
Medical features
Its handling of many varied medical cases – some common, some uncommon – made it an instant hit for ABC. Story lines included impotence, depression, brain damage, breast cancer, mononucleosis, sexually transmitted diseases, epilepsy, leukemia, dysautonomia, rape, Alzheimer's Disease and addiction to painkillers, among others. At its second season (1970–1971), it ranked #1 in the Nielsen ratings, becoming the first ABC show to top the list. The same year, both Young and Brolin won Emmy Awards for their work, as did the show for Outstanding Dramatic Series. Young won a Golden Globe in 1972 for his performance. Members of the American Academy of Family Physicians served as technical advisers for the series and reviewed every script for medical accuracy.
Controversy
The show twice found itself at the center of controversy and protests by gay activists. In response to the 1973 episode "The Other Martin Loring", about a middle-aged man whom Welby advised to resist his homosexual impulses, the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) zapped ABC, occupying its New York headquarters and picketing.[1] The next year, "The Outrage" sparked nationwide demonstrations because its story of a teenage student's being sexually assaulted by his male teacher conflated homosexuality with pedophilia. Seven sponsors refused to buy television advertising time, and 17 television network affiliates refused to air the episode.[2][3] This was the first known instance of network affiliates refusing a network episode in response to protests.[4]
Episodes
Crossovers with Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law
During its run, Marcus Welby, M.D. had two crossover stories with Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law. In "Men Who Care", Marshall defends the father of Welby's patient when the man is accused of murdering his daughter's boyfriend. In "I've Promised You a Father", Marshall defends Kiley in a paternity suit filed by a nurse claiming that Kiley is the father of her child.
Nielsen ratings
season Ranking 1969–70 #8[5] 1970–71 #1[6] 1971–72 #3[7] 1972–73 #13[8]
It was the first show in ABC's history to become the #1 show on television.
Cancellation
By the mid-1970s, the popularity of medical dramas began to wane. Ratings for both Marcus Welby, M.D. and CBS' Medical Center began to drop, as did the ratings for daytime dramas General Hospital and The Doctors. Previous episodes initially went into syndication in the fall of 1975 as Robert Young, Family Doctor (to avoid confusion with the first-run episodes still airing on ABC). The show ended its run in 1976 after a total of 169 episodes were made.
Television movies
In 1984, the reunion movie The Return of Marcus Welby, M.D. aired, with Young and Verdugo reprising their roles. Another movie was made in 1988, Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Holiday Affair.
DVD releases
Shout! Factory (under license from Universal Studios Home Entertainment) has released the first two seasons of Marcus Welby, M.D. on DVD in Region 1.[9][10]
Mill Creek Entertainment released a 10-episode best-of set entitled Marcus Welby, M.D.- The Best of Season One on March 22, 2011.[11]
DVD Name Ep # Release Date Season 1 26 May 4, 2010 Season 2 24 October 12, 2010
