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House (TV series)

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House
File:Housepr.jpg
From left — Front: Dr. House, Dr. Cuddy
Back: Dr. Cameron, Dr. Chase, Dr. Foreman, Dr. Wilson
Created byDavid Shore
StarringHugh Laurie
Lisa Edelstein
Omar Epps
Robert Sean Leonard
Jennifer Morrison
Jesse Spencer
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes25
Production
Running timeapprox. 43 minutes
Original release
NetworkFox
ReleaseNovember 16, 2004 –
present

House, M.D. (commonly promoted as just House) is an American television series aired by the Fox Broadcasting Company. The hour-long medical drama debuted in the fall of 2004 and stars British Emmy-nominated actor Hugh Laurie.

Laurie plays Dr. Gregory House, a maverick medical genius who heads a team of young diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Despite his abrasive personality, the members of his team remain steadfast in their loyalty, going to extraordinary lengths to accomplish a common task: diagnosing and treating unusual ailments. As either a running joke or a coincidence, vasculitis is considered as a cause at least once in almost every episode. Most episodes start outside the hospital, showing the events that will imminently lead to the onset of the week's patient's illness.

A recurring subplot on the show is Dr. House's begrudging fulfillment of his mandatory clinic duty, confounding patients with an eccentric bedside manner and often unorthodox treatments, but impressing them with rapid and accurate diagnoses after seemingly not paying attention. Often some of the rather simple problems House faces in the clinic helps him solve the main case of the show. In one episode, House diagnosed an entire waiting room full of patients on his way out of the clinic.

Dr. House is arguably misanthropic and never misses an opportunity to exercise his cutting wit, often in phrases which have come to be referred to in the series' fandom as "House-isms". It's possible some of his crankiness can be attributed to the chronic pain in his leg (the result of an infarction in his right thigh muscle) for which he takes Vicodin regularly — whether he takes it too regularly was the subject of an entire episode in the first season. He does not suffer fools gladly; as a corollary, he seems to regard most people as fools, and is on record that, in his opinion, "everybody lies." However, in the season one finale, he remarked that he was lying when he said that.

Template:Spoilers

For five episodes in season one, the writers introduced a nemesis for Dr. House in the form of a new hospital chairman — billionaire Edward Vogler (Chi McBride). Vogler is a businessman who donated 100 million dollars in hopes of advancing research into life-threatening diseases. However, as the episodes featuring Vogler advanced, it became clear that the businessman may have had several ulterior motives, including unethically profiting from the hospital's promotion of his drug company. Vogler, acting in his new position as chairman of the board, also declared that he was 'going to run Princeton-Plainsboro as a business'.

High on his list of expense cuts was Dr. House and his Department of Diagnostic Medicine. Vogler offered House Hobson's choice: fire one of his team members and take on more clinic hours or risk losing the entire department. How this choice plays out was the focus of several episodes. In the end, the hospital board of directors votes Vogler off the board after Vogler effectively forced them to vote to remove Dr. House and Dr. Wilson, and threatened to do the same to Dr. Cuddy.

House, M.D. is a Heel and Toe Films production in association with Bad Hat Harry Productions and the NBC Universal Television Studio for the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Ratings and Schedule: U.S.

The show finished its first season on May 24, 2005. Though it started slowly, it began consistently ranking at the top in its time slot, and in the top ten highest rated programs almost every week. This jump has been credited to word-of-mouth advertising and placement right after American Idol. It is now one of the top-rated shows on FOX.

The second season premiered on September 13, 2005. The previous summer, Fox aired reruns of House in its usual timeslot, an honor rarely awarded to a series by Fox.

House currently airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. (Eastern) on Fox. Many fans of the show have taken to calling Tuesday Hughsday in honor of Hugh Laurie. Fox announced that beginning in January 2006, House will move to Monday nights at 8 p.m., to lead into new episodes of 24.

List of episodes

Main characters

  • Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) – department head: diagnostic medicine. Specialties: infectious disease, nephrology. Lived with Stacy Warner for five years.
  • Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) – administration: Dean of Medicine. Though commonly seen as a thorn in House's side, she is an ally and frequently acquiesces to House's (often outlandish) medical requests.
  • Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) – department: diagnostic medicine. Specialty: neurology. House told him in the pilot that one reason he was hired was because he was a former juvenile delinquent who once broke into houses.
  • Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) – department head: oncology. House's best (and only) friend. Currently married to his third wife, Julie, though it has been insinuated that the marriage isn't a happy one.
  • Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) – department: diagnostic medicine. Specialty: immunology. She was seen as a potential love interest for House in the first season, although she now claims to "hate [him] like everybody else." Became a widow whilst in college.
  • Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) – department: diagnostic medicine. Specialty: intensive care. Secretly traded details about House's activities to Vogler for job security in the first season. An Australian from a wealthy family.

Other characters

  • Edward Vogler (Chi McBride) – Billionaire, House's nemesis, and former board chairman for the hospital. 5 episodes, 1x14 – 1x18.
  • Stacy Warner (Sela Ward) – Dr. House's past love interest and a Constitutional lawyer. Now married. 4 episodes, 1x21 – 1x22; 2x01, 2x03. Fox has announced that Sela's character will join the cast of House for at least seven episodes at the beginning of season two, working for the hospital as an attorney.
  • Dr. Rowan Chase (Patrick Bauchau) – Dr. Chase's estranged father and acclaimed rheumatologist. 1 episode, 1x13.

Awards

Won

Nominated

  • 2005 Emmy — Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series - Hugh Laurie;
  • 2005 Emmy — Outstanding Music Composition For A Series (Dramatic Underscore);
  • 2005 Emmy — Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series;
  • 2005 Emmy — Outstanding Main Title Design;
  • 2005 Image Awards — Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Omar Epps ;
  • 2005 Motion Picture Sound Editors — Golden Reel Award: Best Sound Editing in Television Short Form: Sound Effects/Foley (for the episode, "Paternity");
  • 2005 Television Critics Association Awards — Outstanding Achievement in Drama;
  • 2005 Television Critics Association Awards — Outstanding New Program of the Year.

Trivia

  • Hugh Laurie auditioned for the role as Dr. Gregory House in a restroom in Namibia. He was rehearsing his role for the film The Flight of the Phoenix and claimed that the restroom was the only place with enough light.
  • Hugh Laurie's own father was a real doctor. Laurie commented that he feels bad that he's being paid more than his father was for pretending to do his job.
  • Hugh Laurie is English, despite Dr. House's Northeast-American accent. Laurie's American accent was convincing enough that when House producer/director Bryan Singer (unaware of Laurie's true nationality) saw his audition tape, Singer pointed to him as an example of a compelling American actor.
  • The show's creator, David Shore, has said in an interview [1] that the character of Dr. House is partly inspired by Sherlock Holmes. Among the characteristics the two characters share are their ability to come to rapid conclusions after the briefest examination of a client/patient, and their drug use (cocaine for Holmes, Vicodin for House).

See also

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