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House (TV series)

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House
File:HouseMD.jpg
House title screen
Created byDavid Shore
StarringHugh Laurie
Lisa Edelstein
Omar Epps
Robert Sean Leonard
Jennifer Morrison
Jesse Spencer
Opening theme"Teardrop" by
Massive Attack (varies from country to country)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes73 (list of episodes)
Production
Running timeapprox. 43 minutes
Original release
NetworkFOX
ReleaseNovember 16, 2004 –
present
Releasepremier: september 25, 2007 8/7c
Releasepremier: september 25, 2007 8/7c
Releasepremier: september 25, 2007 8/7c
Releasepremier: september 25, 2007 8/7c
Releasepremier: september 25, 2007 8/7c
Releasepremier: september 25, 2007 8/7c
Releasepremier: september 25, 2007 8/7c

House, also known as House, M.D., is a critically-acclaimed American medical drama television series created by David Shore and executive produced by Shore and film director Bryan Singer. The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning medical drama debuted on the FOX Network on 16 November 2004. The series is currently the most watched program on FOX.

House stars British actor Hugh Laurie as the American title character, a role for which he received the 2006 and 2007 Golden Globe Awards and 2007 Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor in a Drama. In February 2007, House was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on September 25, 2007 in the United States and Canada.[1][2]

Characters

Main article: List of House characters

Cast

Character Actor Position Field
Gregory House Hugh Laurie Head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine Infectious disease; Nephrology
Lisa Cuddy Lisa Edelstein Chief Administrator; Dean of Medicine; member of the board of the hospital Endocrinology
James Wilson Robert Sean Leonard Head of the Department of Oncology; member of the board of the hospital Oncology
Eric Foreman Omar Epps Department of Diagnostic Medicine (former); Head of Neurology at Mercy Hospital (former); Unemployed Neurology
Allison Cameron  Jennifer Morrison Department of Diagnostic Medicine (former); Emergency Room Immunology
Robert Chase Jesse Spencer Department of Diagnostic Medicine (former); Surgery Intensive care; Cardiology

Recurring characters

Character Actor Character information Season
Edward Vogler Chi McBride Billionaire owner of a pharmaceutical firm
Former chairman of the board of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital 		1
Stacy Warner Sela Ward House's former girlfriend [3]
Former attorney for Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital 		1, 2
Mark Warner Currie Graham Stacy's husband 1, 2
Det. Michael Tritter  David Morse Criminal investigator with a grudge against House 3
Amber Volakis Anne Dudek One of seven doctors who makes it onto House's second shortlist of potential new fellows, Interventional radiologist 4
Chris Taub Peter Jacobson One of seven doctors who makes it onto House's second shortlist of potential new fellows, Plastic Surgeon[1] 4
Henry Dobson Carmen Argenziano One of seven "doctors" who makes it onto House's second shortlist of potential new fellows, Former Medical School Admissions Officer. Never received a medical school diploma; but House agrees to him being an "assistant" 4
Lawrence Kutner Kal Penn One of seven doctors who makes it onto House's second shortlist of potential new fellows, Sports Medicine Specialist[2] 4
"Thirteen" Olivia Wilde One of seven doctors who makes it onto House's second shortlist of potential new fellows, Internist[3] 4

Plot

Gregory House is a maverick medical genius, who heads a team of young diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (based directly on the Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, the teaching hospital affiliated with Yale University) in New Jersey. Most episodes start with a cold open somewhere outside the hospital, showing the events leading to the onset of symptoms for that week's main patient. The episode follows the team in their attempts to diagnose and treat the illness.

The team arrives at diagnoses using the Socratic method and differential diagnosis, with House guiding the deliberations. House often discounts the information and opinions from his underlings, pointing out that their contributions have missed various relevant factors. The patient is usually misdiagnosed two or three times over the course of each episode, often with sarcoidosis, lupus, cancer, or an infection, and treated with medications appropriate to those diagnoses that cause further complications. Often the ailment cannot be easily deduced because the patient has lied about symptoms and circumstances. House frequently mutters, "Everybody lies," or proclaims during the team's deliberations: "The patient is lying," or "The symptoms never lie." Even when not stated explicitly, this assumption guides House's decisions and diagnoses.

House's begrudging fulfillment of his mandatory walk-in clinic duty is a recurring subplot on the show. During clinic duty, House confounds patients with an eccentric bedside manner and unorthodox treatments, but impresses them with rapid and accurate diagnoses after seemingly not paying attention. He often plays video games on either his PSP, GBA SP, or DS while patients or one of his colleagues talk to him, and in one episode House diagnoses five patients in the waiting room in under a minute on his way out of the clinic. Realizations made during some of the simple problems House faces in the clinic often help him solve the main case of the episode—ironic, because he claims to hate working in the clinic.

Episodes frequently feature the unusual practice of entering a patient's house with or without the owner's permission in order to search for clues that might suggest a certain pathology. The creator, David Shore, originally intended for the show to be a CSI-type show where the "germs were the suspects,"[4] but has since shifted much of the focus to the characters rather than concentrating solely on the environment.

A running joke in the series is that lupus is suggested as a cause of the patient's symptoms in many episodes, although invariably this is quickly dismissed. In one episode, House produces some of his secret Vicodin stash from inside a hollowed-out medical textbook on lupus; by way of explanation, he says, "It's never lupus." Lupus is one of the medical conditions known as The Great Imitator, because it can present with a wide variety of symptoms.

Another large portion of the plot centers on House's abuse of Vicodin and other drugs to manage pain stemming from an infarction in his quadriceps muscle some years prior which causes him to walk with a cane (ironically, House was unable to diagnose his own infarction before it damaged his leg). The pain and drug abuse act to increase many of his more objectionable character traits while not impairing his medical acumen, which leads him to often self-medicate. Overall, House is thus presented as a classic flawed hero.

House is in many respects a medical Sherlock Holmes[5][6]. This resemblance is evident in various elements of the series' plot. House, like Holmes, often relies (particularly in his clinic cases) on apparent minutiae to make accurate snap judgments about his subject's lives. He also displays a keen interest in individual psychology as a piece of his larger analytic method. House is addicted to Vicodin, but he can get along without it when the case is interesting; similarly, Holmes used cocaine out of boredom when he did not have a good case. Both play a musical instrument: House plays the piano and the guitar, Holmes plays the violin. These thematic parallels are confirmed, and hammered home, by various otherwise-trivial plot details. For example, Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street, and House's street address, as shown in "Hunting" Season 2 Episode 7, is also 221B. Moreover, the name "House" itself can be read as a pun on "Holmes" ("homes") and the name of House's friend James Wilson is a direct reference to Holmes' side-kick John Watson. Another confirmation is in House's encounter with a crazed gunman credited as "Moriarty"--the same name as Sherlock's nemesis.

Reception

USA TV Ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of House on FOX. Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Season Timeslot Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Rank Viewers
(in millions)
1 Tuesday 9:00P.M. November 16, 2004 May 24, 2005 2004-2005 #24 13.3[7]
2 Tuesday 9:00P.M. September 13, 2005 May 23, 2006 2005–2006 #10 17.3[8]
3 Tuesday 8:00P.M. (2006)
Tuesday 9:00P.M. (2006-2007) 		September 5, 2006 May 29, 2007 2006–2007 #7 19.4[9]
4 Tuesday 9:00P.M. September 25, 2007 TBD 2007–2008 TBD TBD

Awards

Main article: List of House awards

House received a Peabody Award in 2006, for what the Peabody board called an "unorthodox lead character – a misanthropic diagnostician" and for "cases fit for a medical Sherlock Holmes," both of which helped make House "the most distinctive new doctor drama in a decade."[10] At the 2005 American Film Institute Awards, House was an official selection as TV Program of the Year.

Creator David Shore won a writing Emmy in 2005 for the first season episode "Three Stories."[11] The Writer's Guild of America honored Lawrence Kaplow for his episode "Autopsy."

In 2005 and 2007, lead actor Hugh Laurie was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama in 2006 and again in 2007, when he also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Male Actor in a Drama Series.

Production

House is aired by the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a co-production of Heel and Toe Films (Paul Attanasio and Katie Jacobs), Shore Z Productions (David Shore), and Bad Hat Harry Productions (Bryan Singer) in association with the NBC Universal Television Studio (formed after General Electric, the owners of NBC, bought Universal Studios from Vivendi Universal) for FOX. All three companies are responsible for production and all four people are executive producers of the show. David Shore's ideas for House, M.D. are inspired by the writings of Berton Roueche.[12]

The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards and Creative Arts Emmy awarded the Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special Award to Dalia Dokter, Department Head Prosthetic Makeup Artist,Jamie Kelman, Prosthetic Makeup Artist, and Ed French, Prosthetic Makeup Artist for the House, M.D. episode entitled "Que Sera Sera". for FOX, produced by Heel and Toe Productions, Shore Z Productions and Bad Hat Harry Productions in association with Universal Television Studios.

The 58th Primetime Emmy Awards and Creative Arts Emmy nominations recognized Derek R. Hill, Production Designer and Danielle Berman, S.D.S.A., Set Decorator for their "Outstanding Art Direction For A Single-Camera Series" As of season 2, episode "TB or Not TB," a German production company, Moratim, is credited in the copyright notice instead of Universal Network Television. (Moratim Produktions GmbH & Co. KG, of Pullach im Isartal, Germany). Moratim produced five episodes.

Casting

The producers were reportedly dissatisfied with early auditions for the role of House. When Hugh Laurie auditioned, he apologized for his appearance as he was filming Flight of the Phoenix at the time.[13] Laurie's American accent was reportedly so flawless that Bryan Singer singled him out as an example of a real American actor, being unaware of Laurie's background.[14] Laurie later stated that his original impression was that the show was about James Wilson, as the script referred to him as a doctor with "boyish" looks, assumed this to be the star and that House was the "sidekick" (the show was not yet titled House at that point). It was not until he received the full teleplay of the pilot that he realized that House was the protagonist.[15] Laurie, whose father was a doctor himself, said he felt guilty for "being paid more to become a fake version of my own father" after being cast as House.[16]

Theme music

The opening theme is "Teardrop" by Massive Attack. "Teardrop" itself does have lyrics, sung by guest vocalist Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins; however, the version used in the opening credits uses only the beginning and ending sections, which are solely instrumental. Due to rights and licensing issues this music is only used for the show in North America with some exceptions. In other countries, a piece of music named "House End Credits" is used, which was composed specifically for the show by: Jon Ehrlich, Jason Derlatka, and Leigh Roberts. With the second season, this was replaced with a similar track by only Ehrlich and Roberts. This theme tune, however, is only used in the televised broadcast. In the DVD release (Season 2) the original (American) theme is used. In Italy opening themes for season 1–2 and season 3 are switched, so that the original 'Teardrop' is used for season 3, while both Season 1 and 2 use the edited version. The parodic British television show Dead Ringers, which sometimes spoofs House, uses "Teardrop" for the spoof's opening theme. "Teardrop" is also used in the season 2 region 2 and region 4 release, replacing the "House" theme at the beginning of the episode.

Filming

Exterior shots of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital are actually of Princeton University's Frist Campus Center, which is the University's student center. Filming does not, however, take place there.[17] Instead, it takes place on the FOX lot in Century City and on location in Vancouver, BC.[18]

DVD releases

Title Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4
Season One
 August 30 2005 February 27 2006 PAL version, Singapore November 28 2005
Season Two
 August 22 2006 October 23 2006 NA October 23, 2006
Season Three
 August 21 2007 November 4 2007 NA September 17 2007

Despite the series being filmed for widescreen (16:9) television, the First Season DVD set is in 4:3 format, although the Region 1 release has letterboxes, thereby still presenting images in their entirety, whereas the other regions have a cropped fullscreen format, thereby losing the later portions of the image. [19] The Second Season DVD set, on the other hand, presents the show in its original widescreen format in all regions.

Original broadcast

First run episodes of House are broadcast on FOX in the United States and on Global in Canada. Reruns are also frequently broadcast on FOX and the USA Network.

Notes

  1. ^ Fox renews 'House', 'Bones'
  2. ^ Boedeker, Hal (2007-07-10). "Fox announces premiere dates; "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" returns Aug. 30". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2007-07-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Stacy Warner character profile". USA Network. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
  4. ^ Frum, Linda (2006-03-14). "Q&A with 'House' creator David Shore". Macleans.ca. Rogers Media Inc. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
  5. ^ Zap2it ? TV news ? Building 'House' Is Hard Work
  6. ^ House and Holmes parallels - Radio Times, January 2006
  7. ^ "Final audience and ratings figures". May 27, 2005. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
  8. ^ "2005-06 primetime wrap". May 26, 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
  9. ^ "Hollywood Reporter: 2006-07 primetime wrap". May 25 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
  10. ^ 65th Annual Peabody Winners
  11. ^ Guide to the 2005 Emmy Awards Retrieved 2006-11-05.
  12. ^ http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=936
  13. ^ Casting Session with Hugh Laurie House DVD Special Feature, [2005]
  14. ^ Radio Times magazine, 23 March 2007
  15. ^ Inside the Actor's Studio Hugh Laurie Interview, BRAVO Network, [2006]
  16. ^ Keveney, Bill (2004). Hugh Laurie gets into 'House'. USA Today.
  17. ^ McCosh Health Center, the University's infirmary, is situated adjacent to Frist, and can be seen in some shots.
  18. ^ Vancouver's downtown is seen through Wilson's apartment window in Season 3 Episode 1.
  19. ^ http://forum.quotenmeter.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3442&start=1900
Wikiquote has quotations related to House (TV series).
Preceded by
Criminal Minds
2007 		Super Bowl
lead-out program
2008 		Succeeded by
TBD
2009
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