CAPSULE KEYNOTE
A Dream Come True
The creator of the rebooted Disney+ show, Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., Kourtney Kang, describes her journey of reimagining a 30-year-old television show to reflect diversity and inclusion. Muireann Bolger reports.
The lack of authentic representations of people with mixed Asian-American backgrounds on U.S. television shows was an issue that writer, producer, showrunner, and director Kourtney Kang has always been keenly aware of.
With a Korean father and an Irish mother, Ms. Kang was inspired by her mixed background while growing up in the United States—in Hawaii and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—to create stories that reflect diversity.
She provided insights into her life and the broader topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion during yesterday’s Capsule Keynote: Making the Show She Always Wanted to Make.
“As a child, there weren’t a lot of families that looked like mine on television, so I always wanted to see a family like that portrayed on screen,” she explained in the interview with Monique Cheng Joe, senior vice president, head of Brands and Content IP, NBCUniversal Media, LLC (US).
Her dream came true in 2020 when she was tasked with creating the Doogie Howser, M.D. reboot, Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., for Disney+.
Played by Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.’s main character is Lahela “Doogie” Kamealoha, a mixed-race 16-year-old girl in modern-day Hawaii who juggles a budding medical career with life as a teenager. The original show, which premiered in 1989, focused on the trials and tribulations of a white male teenage doctor.
An Unmissable Opportunity
After a successful screenwriting career on shows such as How I Met Your Mother, Pretty Smart, and Fresh Off the Boat, Ms. Kang grasped the opportunity to remake the TV show with a more contemporary edge.
In particular, Ms. Kang said she relished the challenge of reimagining a 30-year-old piece of intellectual property and making it relevant to today’s audience.
“I became very excited about creating a family that resembled my own,” she said with enthusiasm. “I wanted to create my own TV show and being able to create this world and these characters and have them interact in ways that I wanted to, has been a dream of mine.”
Ms. Kang added that switching the show’s original setting from Los Angeles, California to Hawaii, her childhood home, was motivated by a desire to feature and celebrate the island’s diverse culture.
“I really enjoyed being able to infuse the show with some of that local Hawaiian flavor.”
Kourtney Kang (US)
The Role of Hawaii
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the Pacific island state is the most diverse in the United States. The largest proportion of Hawaii’s population is Asian (36.5%), followed by white (21.6%), native Hawaiian and other Pacific (10.2%), and Hispanic or Latino (9.5%). Just over 20 percent of Hawaiians reported they were two or more races.
To celebrate the region’s unique blend of cultures and to counter the perception of Hawaii as a holiday destination for the wealthy, Ms. Kang determined that her show would accurately reflect the daily life she knew and loved.
“Many images of Hawaii depict it as a picture-perfect postcard destination, but there is so much more to it than that,” she explained.
“The folks there are so warm, and the island’s residents are such a great cross-section of people. I really enjoyed being able to infuse the show with some of that local Hawaiian flavor,” she said.
In response to Ms. Cheng Joe’s question regarding Asian-American representation in television shows, Ms. Kang noted that there had been a “minor cultural revolution” over the past few years. This contrasts with when she was involved in the writing of Fresh Off the Boat.
Premiering in 2015, the series depicted a Chinese-heritage family in the 1990s. It became the first network television sitcom in more than 20 years in the United States to feature Asian-Americans as main characters.
“When we worked on Fresh Off the Boat, there was a sense that if it didn’t do well, there wouldn’t be more shows with Asian folk—that it might take another 20 years for that to happen again,” Ms. Kang explained.
But now, with the advent of Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. and other shows that reflect diversity, Ms. Kang believes that the cultural pendulum is swinging in the right direction.
“It’s exciting that there are more shows with diverse casts; some are great, some are less great. But that’s OK because that is also how it is with shows that are dominated by white characters.
“The good news is that if they are not perfect that does not stop the making of these types of shows,” she said. “There are now more interesting shows than there were 20 years ago and a variety of voices telling their stories.”
Cultural Considerations
Asked whether she faced any particular diversity challenges during the creation of Doogie Kamealoha, M.D., Ms. Kang recalled that she and her team were acutely conscious about making the right decisions during the casting process.
“There were a lot of different cultural considerations, and we took none of them lightly. We wanted to be as respectful as we could to the make-up of this family we were creating,” she said.
Providing a behind-the-scenes look at the show, Ms. Kang cited the casting of Jason Scott Lee, an actor and martial artist, to play the father in the show as a particular coup for the casting team’s aspirations.
Mr. Scott Lee’s character was based on Ms. Kang’s own father, who was born and raised in Hawaii, and his casting reflected the fact that Asian-American Hawaiians have a “distinctive cultural identity.”
“We were so excited when Jason expressed interest in the role, because he is a native Hawaiian, and he has just the right vibe,” Ms. Kang said.
“There are now more interesting shows than there were 20 years ago and a variety of voices telling their stories.”
Kourtney Kang (US)
Personal Sacrifices
As enthusiastic as she is about the show, she noted that its creation and production presented some personal challenges: with the show shooting in Hawaii, she was separated from her husband and three daughters—in kindergarten, fifth and eighth grades—for two months in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was excruciating because I had never been away from them for that long,” Ms. Kang recalled.
The experience encapsulates a dilemma faced by many working mothers, and she offered an important perspective on her experience.
“Moms often make the mistake of explaining why they are not around by saying ‘Mommy has to work,’ as if work is a bad thing that is pulling you away,” she noted.
Instead, Ms. Kang took a different approach. “We tried to frame it as ‘Mommy has a dream and she has always wanted to make TV shows, and she now has a chance to do it.’ But there are sacrifices we all have to make,” she said.
Reflecting on her future hopes of how her daughters will perceive her actions, Ms. Kang said: “I hope they feel that I managed this major achievement and that they were a part of that and helped, and I hope they take a bigger message from this period of time than my absence.”
Video courtesy of Adobe Stock / Right Cameraman
Friday, November 19, 2021
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