House M.D.
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
| House, M.D. | |
| |
| From left -- Front: Dr. House, Dr. Cuddy Back: Dr. Cameron, Dr. Chase, Dr. Foreman, Dr. Wilson | |
| Format | Drama |
| Run time | approx. 0:46 (per episode) |
| Creator | David Shore |
| Starring | Hugh Laurie Omar Epps Lisa Edelstein Robert Sean Leonard Jennifer Morrison Jesse Spencer |
| Country | USA |
| Network | Fox |
| Original run | November 16, 2004 – Present |
| No. of episodes | 22 (Season 2 will begin in late summer, 2005) |
House, M.D. (commonly promoted as just House) is an American television series produced by the Fox Broadcasting Company. The hour-long medical drama debuted in the fall of 2004 and stars British actor Hugh Laurie.
Laurie plays Dr. Gregory House, a curmudgeonly medical genius who heads up 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. Most episodes start outside the hospital, showing the events that lead imminently up 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. 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.
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 the 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 Heal & Toe Production in association with Bad Hat Harry Productions and the NBC Universal Television Studio for the Fox Broadcasting Company.
As of March, 2005, Fox has commissioned a second season.
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Ratings and Schedule
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.
House currently airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. (Eastern) on Fox. A second season is in production, and will begin airing in the late summer of 2005. During the summer, Fox will air re-runs of House in the series' usual timeslot, an honor rarely awarded to a series by Fox.
Fox has also 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 – department head: diagnostic medicine. Specialities: infectious disease, nephrology. Played by Hugh Laurie.
- Dr. Allison Cameron – department: diagnostic medicine. Specialty: immunology. Played by Jennifer Morrison. In a few episodes of season one, she was seen as a potential love interest for House.
- Dr. Eric Foreman – department: diagnostic medicine. Specialty: neurology. Played by Omar Epps. House told him that one reason he was hired was the fact that he broke into houses.
- Dr. Robert Chase – department: diagnostic medicine. Specialty: intensive care. Played by Jesse Spencer. Mildly unloyal (in the episodes with Vogler) man from Australia.
- Dr. James Wilson – department head: oncology. Played by Robert Sean Leonard. House's best(only?) friend.
- Dr. Lisa Cuddy – administration: Dean of Medicine. Played by Lisa Edelstein.
Other characters
- Edward Vogler – played by Chi McBride. Billionaire, House's nemesis and former board chairman. 5 episodes, 1x13 -- 1x17.
- Stacy Warner – played by Sela Ward. Dr. House's past love interest. Now remarried. 2 episodes, 1x21 -- 1x22. Fox has announced that Sela's character will join the cast of House for at least several episodes at the beginning of season two, working for the hospital as an attorney.
- Dr. Rowan Chase – played by Patrick Bauchau. Dr. Chase's estranged father. Specialty: rheumatology. 1 episode, 1x13.
Comparison to Sherlock Holmes
The series is an analogue for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series. Dr. House is the Holmes figure, and an infectious disease specialist.
- Dr. James Wilson (an oncologist) is his Watson.
- Where Holmes solved crimes, House solves medical mysteries.
- Holmes was famous for solving cases no one else could unravel; just so House.
- Where Holmes used cocaine, House uses Vicodin.
- Both play musical instruments, for their private pleasure only.
One difference between the Conan Doyle books and the Fox television series is that Holmes worked primarily with Watson; House, in contrast, has a team of three young doctors who work with him, and Wilson is not officially part of that team. That said, the House/Wilson connection seems as strong, and as relevant to the characters, as the Holmes/Watson one was.
Trivia
The opening theme is "Teardrop" by Massive Attack.
The building used for external shots of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital is actually Princeton University's Frist Campus Center. It is named after the family of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN).
Hugh Laurie auditioned for the role as Dr. Gregory House in a restroom in Namibia. He was rehearsing his role for the film 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.
External links
- Fox Network's House M.D. website (http://www.fox.com/house/)
- "House, M.D." (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt412142/) at the Internet Movie Database
- Official Message Board by Fox (http://forums.prospero.com/foxhouse/)
- TV Tome show info and episode capsules (http://www.tvtome.com/House/guide.html)
- "House M.D." Cinematographer Roy H. Wagner, ASC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_H._Wagner)
Categories: Drama television series | Fox network shows | 2000s TV shows in the United States | Five television programmes
