MOLI VIEW™

I never set out to become a Magnum P.I. fan — it happened by way of a long, slow attrition. For lack of anything better to watch in the ‘80s, I found myself tuning in regularly to enjoy the tropical antics of Higgins, T.C., and, the mustachioed man himself, Thomas Magnum. It was schlocky, brainless fun.

The show went off the air in 1988, giving me a year breather before my next small-screen idle amusement: Doogie Howser, M.D. The series, which followed the exploits of a genius teenage doctor, was a guilty, guilty pleasure for its three and a half year run. Plot-wise, it was kind of a weird mash-up of My So-Called Life and ER (both of which would come later). But there was something oddly attractive about its fresh-faced, wide-eyed star, Neil Patrick Harris. If the show were cast today, it would feature some poofy, dreamboat like Zac Efron. But Harris, with his markedly un-sexy physique and (I have to say it) cartoonishly misshapen teenage head, was hardly the stuff big Hollywood careers are made of. When the show went off the air in '93, I figured we would be waving a big "bon voyage" to Neil Patrick Harris.

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