Disney+ is going all-in with a straight to series order for a female-led Doogie Howser, M.D. reboot called Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. (working title). The streamer is giving the series a 10-episode order.
The series, which reboots the Neil Patrick Harris-starring half-hour medical dramedy with a female lead, comes from How I Met Your Mother and Fresh Off the Boat alumna Kourtney Kang and its lead character’s ethnicity reflects Hawaii-born Kang’s own background. The show will follow Lahela “Doogie” Kameāloha, a mixed-race 16-year-old girl, juggling a budding medical career and life as a teenager. Guiding Lahela (and also complicating things) is her family, including her spit-fire Irish mother who’s also her supervisor at the hospital, and her Hawaiian “Local Boy” father struggling to accept that his daughter is no longer his little girl.
The intention is to shoot the show in Hawaii and production is gearing up to begin later this year for a release in 2021. Ricky Strauss, president, Content and Marketing, Disney+, had this to say about the series:
“Thirty years ago, a young medical prodigy took the world by storm and left a lasting impact on pop culture. Kourtney and the team at 20th Television have created a very modern take on this beloved property which will resonate with our global Disney+ audience. We can’t wait to introduce the world to the new Doogie!”
The original series, which starred Harris as a teenage physician balancing the challenge of practicing medicine with the everyday problems of teenage life, was created by two of TV’s top showrunners of the past three decades, the late Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley. The show ran for four seasons on ABC from 1989 to 1993.
