I just read this today in the TV-TV forum.

This is a crock. Fox bought a pilot for a TV show about a grown up Doogie Howser. It received luke warm response from a young screening audience who had never seen the original series. So, Fox decided to make changes that their surveys requested. Mainly, an edgier, more in-your-face main character (think CSI Miami’s David Caruso). The end result is Fox’s new show House MD. They originally tried pushing for the title “Howser MD”, but Micheal Verns, president of the Official Doogie Howser MD Fan Club and member since 1989, launched a succesful internet campaign to stop them. Fox caved and changed the name to House MD. No need to describe the end result.

What? I saw a sample of the original script. It looked promising. Apparently, Doogie’s childhood friend Vinnie struck it rich during the Dot Com boom only to loose it all. He’s now living over Doogie’s garage unable to get another job. Doogie is married and has two kids but fails to connect with them. He insists that when he was their age he was doing much better things with his time.