So, imagine if you will… you’re really, really sick and you wander into a hospital to see a doctor. Hours go by while you’re waiting and eventually you make it into one of the examination rooms. There you wait again for what seems to be an interminable amount of time, and then some kid walks in and starts asking you questions about what seems to be the trouble. Immediately you wonder why it’s any of his business, and where his parents are… until you realize that he IS the doctor! That’s primarily the situation many patients found themselves in when they visited Eastland Hospital in television’s “Doogie Howser, M.D.” “Doogie Howser, M.D.” starred Neil Patrick Harris as Douglas Howser, a 14 year old certifiable genius who opts to follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming a doctor. And while it’s great to be able to step up and help people, bypassing most of the required years of schooling, there’s something to be said about being able to grow up first. You see, though ‘Doogie’ is a genius, he still has all the pent up emotional turmoil that goes along with being a teenager and he must learn to deal with it at a very early age.

He has his friend Vinnie (Max Cassella), whose friendship is both a blessing and a curse seeing as how despite their closeness, he always ends up getting Doogie into some kind of trouble.

This was another one of the long list of shows to come out of the mind of Steven Bochco. It hit the TV airwaves back in 1989 and was popular enough to stay on the air for a full four seasons. While I used to watch most of Bochco’s shows, this was one I missed. I’m not sure why, but it just never made it into my schedule. Earlier this year, Anchor Bay released the 1st season set of the series, and is now following it up with the 2nd. So far I have been very impressed with both seasons, and am looking forward to catching the next two.

I was familiar with Neil Patrick Harris by name from this series, but more so for his later work in the film “Starship Troopers”, and on Broadway in “Rent.” He is also set to return to Network Television this season in the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.” Watching him in the old “Doogie Howser, M.D.” series, I was surprised to see that he was as talented as he was at such a young age. Despite the excellent work of his co-stars, which also included James B. Sikking and Belinda Montgomery, it was pretty much fully on his shoulders to carry the series and make it as believable as possible.

He did a great job during the 1st season, but had actually improved in the 2nd. The storylines started getting a little heavier and more dramatic, and he took to the task admirably. In this 2nd season, we see Doogie in his third year of residency and through it all he finds that his childhood is becoming ever harder to grasp. He deals with the death of a patient, which proves to him that despite his I.Q., he is not perfect and cannot save everyone. He further comes to he realization that this will probably not be the first of his patients that he will see die. That’s a heavy concept for a young person to handle. He further has to cope with the death of his girlfriend’s mom and her subsequent depression.

Don’t get me wrong, “Doogie Howser, M.D.” is not some big, dramatic series, as it carries with it a quite a bit of humor to balance it out. Bochco really did a great job of telling a story of a young person in an adult’s world through the eyes of that person.

This new 2nd season set includes all 25 episodes as well as new interview footage with Harris and Max Casella. I’ll mention again that while Harris definitely looks like an adult now, he still carries with him some of the boyish features that will forever link him to the character of Doogie Howser. The same goes for Max Casella, who was actually already in his twenties when he did the series. He has gone on to do his share of feature film work, including “Ed Wood”, and did a bit of a stint on Broadway originating the role of Timon in Disney’s live action “The Lion King.” Both appear to have fond memories of the experience of working on the series, and it was fun hearing from them. You’ll also find a Trivia Quiz and photo gallery, but I warn you… if you haven’t seen the series, you won’t get most of the answers!

I wouldn’t say that “Doogie Howser, M.D.” was one of Bochco’s best series, but it was still good enough to rank pretty high. Watching these DVD sets, I really had to wonder again why I didn’t watch the series before.

Episodes:
Doogenstein
Guess Who’s Coming to Doogie’s
Ask Dr. Doogie
C’est La Vinnie
Car Wars
Doogie Sings the Blues
Academia Nuts
Revenge of the Teenage Dead
Nautilus for Naught
Don’t Let the Turkeys Get You Down
Oh Very Young
TV or Not TV
A Woman Too Far
Presumed Guilty
To Live and Die in Brentwood
Air Doogie
A Life in Progress
My Two Dads
Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition
Fatal Distraction
The Doctor, The Wife, Her Son, and the Job
Planet of the Dateless
Doogie’s Wager
A Kiss Ain’t Just a Kiss
Dances with Wanda

Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Max Casella, James B. Sikking, Belinda Montgomery
Extras: Brand New Interviews with Stars Neil Patrick Harris & Max Casella, Trivia Quiz, Color Photos
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital Stereo
Studio: Anchor Bay
Release Date: 9/6/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Doogie Howser, MD: Season 2 a B-.