House (TV series)
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| House | |
|---|---|
| Image:HouseMD.jpg House title screen </small> | |
| Genre | Medical drama |
| Picture format | 720p HDTV |
| Running time | approx. 43 minutes/episode |
| Creator(s) | David Shore |
| Starring | Hugh Laurie Jesse Spencer Omar Epps Robert Sean Leonard Jennifer Morrison Lisa Edelstein |
| Opening theme | "Teardrop" by Massive Attack |
| Country of origin | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States |
| Original channel | Fox |
| Original run | November 16, 2004–present |
| No. of episodes | 55 |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
House, also known as House, M.D., is an American medical drama television series created by David Shore and executive produced by film director Bryan Singer. The Emmy- and Peabody-award-winning medical drama debuted on November 16, 2004, on the FOX Network.
House stars British actor Hugh Laurie as the title character, a role for which he received a 2006 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama. The third season of House premiered on September 5, 2006, in the United States and Canada. Laurie plays Dr. Gregory House, a maverick medical genius who heads a team of young diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. Each episode typically starts with a cold open somewhere outside the hospital, showing the events leading to the onset of illness for that week's patient, then features the team going to extraordinary lengths to diagnose and treat unusual ailments.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
- Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) – The show's protagonist, he is the head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine, an infectious disease specialist, and nephrologist.
- Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) – Administration: Dean of Medicine.
- Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) – Department Head: Oncology.
- Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) – Diagnostic Medicine fellow, intensivist.
- Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) – Diagnostic Medicine fellow, neurologist.
- Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) – Diagnostic Medicine fellow, immunologist.
[edit] Recurring characters
- Stacy Warner (Sela Ward) – Dr. House's ex-girlfriend and former lawyer for Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.
- Mark Warner (Currie Graham) – Stacy's husband.
- Edward Vogler (Chi McBride) – Billionaire owner of a pharmaceutical firm and former board chairman of the hospital.
- Brenda Previn (Stephanie Venditto) – Head Nurse
- Michael Tritter (David Morse) – Police officer who bears malice against Dr. House.
- Coma Guy – Nameless character who House 'visits' for lunch, or to watch a TV show. Not to be confused with "Vegetative State Guy" Gabe Wasniak, who was awoken by House in an effort to get a better medical history for his son, Kyle Wasniak.
[edit] Plot
Dr. House's begrudging fulfillment of his mandatory clinic duty is a recurring subplot on the show. During clinic duty, House confounds patients with his eccentric bedside manner and often unorthodox treatments, but impresses them with rapid and accurate diagnoses after seemingly not paying attention. In one episode, House diagnoses an entire waiting room full of patients on his way out of the clinic. Often, some of the simpler problems House faces in the clinic help him solve the main case of the episode.
Many of the illnesses and conditions encountered during the series could have been solved earlier if the patient/patients' families had not lied or hidden other symptoms (lying about having an affair that led to the mystery disease, lying about an underlying disorder, lying about jobs that lead to the mystery disease, and so on), thus every episode lends more and more backing to House's beloved stock phrase, "Everybody lies".
The opening sequence of each episode introduces the patient who will be the focus of the story, but this sequence is often deliberately misleading, causing the viewer to assume that another (often secondary or background) character will be the one to fall victim to illness.
Several episodes feature the unusual practice of entering a patient's house with or without their 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 "germs were the suspects"<ref>Frum, Linda (2004). Q&A with 'House' creator David Shore. Macleans.ca.</ref>, but has since shifted much of the focus to the characters rather than concentrating solely on the environment.
[edit] Character traits
House is victim to an infarction in his right leg, which was misdiagnosed by his doctors and resulted in muscle death prior to the events of the series. Despite a corrective operation, House is in near-constant pain and walks with a severe limp, carrying a trademark cane. He bears a terrible scar on his thigh where the dead muscle was excised. He develops an addiction to Vicodin through the course of the series. His colleagues frequently suggest that his physical pain affects his medical judgment and exacerbates his irritable personality, although his ex-girlfriend Stacy later says House had the same personality before he was in constant pain. In Season 3, Episode 4 it is suggested that he might have Asperger syndrome, although this is quickly revealed by Wilson to be a ploy to get the blood-stained carpet House was standing on when he was shot, back into his office. Unlike many (though not all) with Asperger's, House has a strong ability to read people and social cues. However, he simply doesn't care about the feelings behind them except when he can use them to his advantage. Also, it is suggested throughout the series by fans and sometimes by Dr. Cuddy that House's pain may be psychosomatic, and be brought on by an unconscious need for the pain instead of his leg hurting himself.
In the season 2 finale, House is shot by a man who he believes is a former patient's husband, and receives an experimental ketamine treatment that results in a complete recovery of function in his leg and the absence of pain. Nearly the entire episode is later revealed to have been hallucinated in the minutes between the actual shooting and being wheeled into the emergency room, where upon House asks to be given ketamine. This results in the cessation of House's leg pain, albeit temporary. The early episodes of season 3 concern House's struggles with his recurring leg pain and ongoing Vicodin addiction.
One of House's distinctive traits is his low tolerance for boredom, which results in his unusual role in the series' hospital. When unoccupied or thinking, he has been seen juggling, listening to music, watching soap operas, constructing elaborate contraptions from objects in his office,playing with a ball or yo-yo and, most frequently, twirling his cane with one hand. In many episodes, House can be seen playing a handheld video game console (typically Metroid Zero Mission on the Game Boy Advance SP at the beginning of Season 1 and Metroid Prime Hunters on the Nintendo DS towards the end of the series). At the end of Season 3, Episode 4 (Lines in the Sand), House acquires a patient's Sony PSP.
In spite of this apparent frivolity and impatience (with a "nine to three" job), House is nevertheless dedicated once a problem takes his attention, and he cannot resist a challenge. Many of the critical diagnoses in the show come at the end of a long night's study. True to his tenacity, he enacts an elaborate plot and learns Hindi in order to avenge a slight, by a former colleague, from decades previous.
House also shares a number of personality quirks with the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The show's creator, David Shore, has said in an interview <ref>Zap2it - TV news - Building 'House' Is Hard Work</ref> that the character of Dr. House is indeed partly inspired by Holmes. This comes full circle as Arthur Conan Doyle modeled Holmes on his mentor and gifted surgeon, Dr. Joseph Bell.
Among the characteristics the two characters share are
- the characters' surnames (Holmes and House) are homophonically-related synonyms;
- their ability to come to rapid conclusions after the briefest examination of a client/patient;
- opiate addiction (opium for Holmes and Vicodin for House) Holmes also used cocaine; House also has used morphine and LSD, as seen in Who's Your Daddy and Distractions respectively;
- heavily misanthropic personalities and a desire for solitude;
- the fact that each character has only one real friend (Dr. Wilson being a direct reference to Dr. Watson) who connects the cerebral hero to human concerns;<ref>The drug Vicodin is often distributed by Watson Laboratories, Inc., with Watson written on the backside of each pill.</ref>
- both House and Holmes play a musical instrument, House plays the piano and guitar, and Holmes plays the violin.
- their use of deductive and inductive reasoning
Incidental parallels include:
- In one episode House's apartment number is revealed to be 221B, Sherlock Holmes's Baker Street address.
- On the pilot episode, the main patient is named Rebecca Adler, possibly after Irene Adler, a well known female character from the first published Sherlock Holmes short story "A Scandal in Bohemia";
- Another patient, whom House failed to diagnose twelve years ago, has the name Ester Doyle which evokes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories;
- In the third season opener, the name of House's attacker, although it is never stated in the episode, is listed in the script as Moriarty; in Conan Doyle's short stories, Holmes' celebrated nemesis was Professor James Moriarty.
- In Failure to Communicate, in explaining his understanding of what his patient with aphasia is actually saying, House gives a relatively common riddle about a room with an all southern view and a polar bear to his lackeys. This is the exact same riddle given by Sherlock Holmes to Watson in Young Sherlock Holmes.
- When one of a patient's symptoms has itchy feet, House jokingly writes "The game is a itchy foot," echoing Holmes' catch phrase.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Response
Before it premiered on November 16, 2004, House received early critical acclaim - so much so, that FOX used a quote from the Washington Post in its ads for House stating that the show is "the best medical drama since the debut of E.R.."
The show's procedural structure, bizarre scenarios, and headlong dives into controversy via the hazardous and sometimes blatantly illegal conduct of the characters has gained the show some detractors.
Professional critics, however, have focused their attention on the complex inner life that British actor Hugh Laurie brings to the title role, and much of the media's attention has been focused on him. The characterization of House himself, as a brilliant, irascible, grating and oddly sympathetic personality, as played by Laurie, is what has been credited with the show's success:
- New York Magazine: "With House, we are in the hands of professionals: accomplished actors playing doctors who come to care about their patients, whose afflictions range from tapeworms to brain tumors." <ref>New York Magazine Television Review - House</ref>
- USA Today: "Any series that matches a great actor with a great character is halfway home."<ref>USATODAY.com - There's a doctor worth watching in 'House' </ref>
- Washington Post: " "House" introduces us to the most electrifying new main character to hit television in years. No, the show is not about a house or even life as a house; it's about life as Dr. Gregory House, who, as played perilously close to perfection by Hugh Laurie, catapults this Fox series into a select group: the finest shows of the season." <ref>Washington Post - 'House': Watching Is the Best Medicine</ref>
Numerous publications have named it one of the best shows of the year. <ref>http://www.metacritic.com/tv/bests/2005/</ref>
[edit] Production information
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 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. <ref>http://mchip00.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/roueche936-des-.html</ref>
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.
[edit] Airing
House currently airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. (Eastern/Pacific) on Fox, and is simulcast on Global in Canada. The second season premiered on September 13, 2005 and ended on May 23, 2006. During the summer of 2006, Fox showed reruns of the show in its current timeslot. The show was then renewed for a third season and premiered on September 5, 2006<ref>courier-journal.com - Fall TV: Fox's lineup</ref>, moving up to the 8 p.m. slot for its four episodes in September.
For four weeks in October, House moved to Wednesdays at 9 p.m. and was replaced by Major League Baseball in the Tuesday time slot; however, the episodes aired were not new, but rather reruns from earlier in the season. New House episodes returned to Tuesdays on October 31, 2006, but back at its older 9 p.m. time slot (switching places with the FOX show Standoff).<ref>TiVoCommunity.com - HOUSE, MD moving to Weds (versus LOST)</ref>
Before the fall 2005 television season, FOX planned to move House from Tuesdays 9 p.m. to Mondays 8 p.m. for January 2006. However, the surprising success of the serial drama Prison Break (which later occupied the Monday 8 p.m. timeslot) nixed the plan. House remained airing Tuesdays 9 p.m., gaining an even bigger audience and cracking into the top 10 of most-watched primetime shows.
In a rare move for the network, FOX continued to air the series in reruns over the summer of 2006, rather than preempting it for summer series.
The cable station USA (an NBC Universal sister network) began airing Season 1 in syndication on January 6, 2006 at 11/10c. The USA Network began airing repeats of Season 3 episodes on September 15, 2006 (One week post their first run on Fox). House is scheduled to air in syndication in the fall of 2008[1].
In Australia, House is broadcast on Channel Ten, Wednesdays at 7:30pm.In December 2006 House Season One will be airing on Foxtel and Austar Channel TV1
[edit] Casting
The producers were reportedly dissatisfied with early auditions for the role of House. When Hugh Laurie cast on the audition tape, he apologized for his appearance as he was filming Flight of the Phoenix at the time of the casting session.<ref name="Casting"> Casting Session with Hugh Laurie House DVD Special Feature, [2005]</ref> Laurie's audition tape compelled director Bryan Singer to get up out of his chair to get as close to the television screen as he could. 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. Laurie later stated that his original impression was that the show was about Dr. James Wilson, as the script referred to him as a doctor with "boyish" looks, assumed this to be the star and that Dr. House was the "sidekick" (the show was not yet titled House at that point). It wasn't until he received the full teleplay of the pilot did he realize that House was the protagonist.<ref name="Inside"> Inside the Actor's Studio Hugh Laurie Interview, BRAVO Network, [2006]</ref> 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.<ref>Keveney, Bill (2004). Hugh Laurie gets into 'House'. USA Today.</ref>
[edit] 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 not used for the show in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland (German version), Belgium, Denmark, Australia, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Hungary, Latin America, Greece, Hong Kong, and Turkey. In those countries, a piece of music named "House," composed by Scott Donaldson and Richard Nolan, is used, which was written specifically for the show. With the second season, this was replaced with a similar, but modified, track. 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 release, replacing the 'House' theme at the beginning of the episode.
An extended version of the song's instrumental was used during the final montage in Episode 20 ("Tonight"), Season 1 of Prison Break, another FOX Network television series.
Another common theme is "Any Other Name" by Thomas Newman, which typically plays during the melancholy moments in the show.
[edit] Filming
Exterior shots of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital actually are of Princeton University's Frist Campus Center, which is the University's student center (a disproportionate number of these shots show a UPS truck sitting in the hospital driveway, implying that several of the overhead shots of the hospital that are used in all three seasons were actually taken on the same day). Filming does not, however, take place there.<ref>McCosh Health Center, the University's infirmary, is situated adjacent to Frist, and can be seen in some shots.</ref> Filming takes place on the Fox lot in Century City. Exterior shots of the university campus are filmed at UCLA.
[edit] Dubbing
Parts of the script are regularly changed in content during translation in order to make contexts understandable also for people unfamiliar with American culture. For example in the episode "Honeymoon" (1-22) Dr. Cameron asks Stacy about people with mental diseases in her husband's family. In the original version she answers: "His sister voted for Nader - twice!" while in the German dubbed version Ralph Nader's name is replaced by that of George W. Bush. The show's title has also been changed in order to conform with the local language. For instance, in Mexico it was changed to "Dr. Casa". (Casa being Spanish for house.)
[edit] DVD releases
| Cover Art | DVD Name | Ep # | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image:HouseDVD.jpg | The Complete First Season | 22 | August 30 2005 | February 27 2006 | November 28 2005 |
| Image:House s2dvd.jpg | The Complete Second Season | 24 | August 22 2006 | October 23 2006 | October 25 2006 |
[edit] Awards
[edit] International broadcasters
Outside the US, Canada and the United Kingdom House is aired under the title Dr. House, House, M.D. or (in Italy) Dr. House - Medical Division and has been broadcast by the following stations:
[edit] Notes
<references/>
[edit] External links
- Official website
- The House Guide
- House Medical Reviews discussion of medical accuracy
- "Complete List of the Commercial Tracks Used on House"
- The Brazilian Fan Site
- House episode reviews on TV Squad
| ||||
| Main Page | Episode Guide | Awards | Soundtrack | ||||
| Cast And Crew | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Shore | Hugh Laurie | Lisa Edelstein | Robert Sean Leonard Omar Epps | Jennifer Morrison | Jesse Spencer | ||||
| Characters | ||||
| Gregory House | Lisa Cuddy | James Wilson | Eric Foreman | Allison Cameron | Robert Chase | ||||
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Categories: House (TV series) | Medical television series | Drama television series | Fox network shows | 2004 television program debuts | 2000s TV shows in the United States | Running television shows | Television shows set in New Jersey | Television series by NBC Universal Television | Peabody Award winners
