If there’s a unanimously agreed-upon criticism of Disney+, it’s that The Simpsons needs to be in its right aspect ratio and that Disney and company should have fixed it sooner rather than the nebulous “at the end of May” that they keep talking about. Oh, and there’s also the issue that the service’s stream of new content — beyond The Mandalorian, which everybody gorged themselves on in the hours after each episode’s release, and High School Musical: The Musical, which no one over the age of 20 watched — seems to have come to a stop in recent weeks. And, as you know, there’s only so many times one can watch Mr. Boogedy before they go crazy. So how about a Doogie Howser, M.D. reboot? Will that sate your urge for new things to watch?
Yes, that’s right: the House of Mouse is getting very, very close to the bottom of their content barrel, and, according to Variety, they’ve decided to bring back the “classic” TV show, formerly led by Neil Patrick Harris, for a brand new generation. Well, actually, it’ll be for the parents of that brand new generation, who will have a few neurons fire when they read the words “Doogie,” “Howser,” and “reboot,” and be reminded of a time long ago when they were loved by their own folks. They’ll be reminded of the inevitability of the passing of time, and attempt to recapture the magic of that moment with their own children, but it’ll be different — not bad, just kind of weird — as they’re the elder now.
Anyway, here’s what it’s about:
“The new show will focus on a 16-year-old half-Asian, half-white female lead who works as a doctor in Hawaii. The working title for the new show is ‘Doogie Kealoha, M.D.'”
No word on whether or not NPH will be involved at all, but here, also according to Variety, are the people behind the reboot:
“The reboot hails from writer and executive producer Kourtney Kang. Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar will also executive produce along with Dayna and Jesse Bochco. 20th Century Fox Television will produce, with the studio also having produced the original series. Kang, Kasdan, and Mar are all under overall deals at the studio.”
So, who knows how this will turn out? We don’t, and we don’t really have much invested in it — Doogie Howser is a bit before this section’s editor’s time, all things considered. We are curious as to who will become a pop-culture irony icon like Neil Patrick Harris did, though. Bring on that Honey, I Shrunk the Kids reboot, though.