Doogie Howser

Sprung from the typewriter of Emmy award winning Steven Bocho, (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue) "Doogie Howser, M.D." is a good show from the very late 80s and early 1990s. As you probably know the series is about 16 year old Douglas "Doogie" Howser, the boy genius who is a medical doctor. I just bought the DVD and this is the first time I've watched the series since it went off the air in 1993. I'm watching the 1989 episodes now, and surprisingly it doesn't seem all that dated. I mean sure it's dated in that you can tell it's from 1989, but it's not dated in that cheesy way. It's dated the same way Miami Vice is dated. When viewed through the lens of this show, the fashions and styles of that era seem simply more like something that's time has passed, rather then a horrible campy memory. Make no mistake though, this is no half hour sitcom with a laugh track. Steven Bocho went through great pains to make this an accurate, mature show with humorous elements in it rather then a screwball comedy. In the 1989 episodes Neil Patrick Harris is 16 years old, but he looks and acts like a 12 or 13 year old, 14 tops. Neil wasn't very emotionally mature for 16, and he had his this odd nerdy quality to him----which actually helped the series because it made Doogie seem even younger then he really was. But this was basically only the case for the 1st season.

The series wasn't without it's faults though, the show started going down the toilet when the child physician started sporting a 5 o'clock shadow. If I remember correctly, a big problem with the show was that "the joke" of the series, the child prodigy kid doctor who walked around in acid washed blue jeans, Nike high top sneakers and an over-sized lab coat wore off pretty quickly. After the 1st season Doogie was already a typical adult height of 5'6 to 5'8 inches tall. Sure he looked really young because he was a 17 year old teenager, but it wasn't too outrageous to see him in a hospital setting. But Doogie kept on growing unlike his best friend Vinnie Delpino. By 1992 and 1993 Neil Patrick Harris was a 19 and 20 year old grown man who was now standing around an amazing 6'4 inches tall. Doogie was no longer a cute kid trying to be a doctor, he now looked like any medical school student and there was nothing at all weird about him being a physician. By 1991, Doogie had turned into a legal 18 year old adult. He moved out of his parents house and into an apartment with Vinnie. They both started having regular sex. OK, so there goes the concept of the "child prodigy". After 2 years we were treated to watching an over 6ft guy and his friend living an apartment and dealing with older teenager/young adult problems. The premise behind Doogie was gone after 2 seasons, and truth be known it was on shaky ground by the 2nd season anyways.

Perhaps if they had started the series in 1987 when Neil was 14 it would have given the series more longevity. Or cast someone who was a little younger, like 14 or better yet 12 or 13 back in 1989. It really was a shame they didn't start Doogie off in the age range of 12-14 instead of 16. But otherwise, this is another well written series from the acclaimed TV writer Steven Bocho. The 1st and 2nd season are well worth checking out.

I remember Doogie Howser, a sitcom that ushered the world into the 90s. It had its charms and fantasy element, and a young Neil Patrick Harris who would become a massive star later on in life. There's one minor character in the series, an African-American, who befriended Doogie and his Italian friend, but I forget his name. I look forward to watching the Disney reboot Doogie Kamealoha, M. D.

I suppose it must be different when you first watched this, but I only started watching this in 2013 when there were suddenly a few cultural references to Doogie Howser on TV and in the movies.

It was fun watching it at first - a boy genius who is a doctor. It's a show about growing up pains, with the quirk that the growing boy is smarter than his father and is an accomplished and respected doctor. I enjoyed the episodes where he is saving lives and learning adult perspectives in a medical setting, but the normal growing pains part are too normal to be interesting. I actually liked Vinny better as the normal kid with the genius friend - if you think it is easy being a genius, try being his friend!

By the second half of the second season, the show did not interest me as much as it initially did. I would have given it a 5, but thought 6 was more appropriate for the excellent first season.

NPH is a genius even if he's not a 16 year old doctor in real life. He's a phenomenal actor since young age and this series shows that. It's really simple and 80s series without laugh track or anything. Very raw footage too not too much work just good acting

Before there was Dr. Sean Murphy on "The Good Doctor," there was "Doogie Howser M.D." Doogie Howser was the child prodigy that was a doctor by the time he was 14-years-old or so. I just remember thinking how cool that was. Plus, I liked how at the end of each episode he'd type in his computer journal what he'd learned that day about life.