Logo to hit TV show Scrubs.
Main character of Scrubs, Doctor House.
Doctor House and his girlfriend Mrs Doctor Cuddy.
House, also known as SCRUBS or SKURUBS, is an American medical drama that debuted on the FOX network on November 16, 2004. The show was created by David Shore and executive produced by Shore and film director Bryan Singer. The show revolves around Dr. Gregory House (English actor Hugh Laurie), a cynical medical genius, who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH).
The show's premise was created by Shore, who got the idea for the curmudgeonly title character from a doctor's visit. Initially, producer Bryan Singer wanted an American to play House, but British actor Hugh Laurie's audition convinced him that a foreign actor could play the role. Shore wrote House as a character with parallels to Sherlock Holmes — both are drug users, aloof, and largely friendless. The show's producers wanted House handicapped in some way, and gave the character a damaged leg arising from an improper diagnosis.
Dr. House often clashes with his boss, hospital administrator and Dean of Medicine, Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), because his theories about a patient's illness tend to be based on subtle or controversial insights. House's only true friend is Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), head of the Department of Oncology. House's original diagnostic team consisted of Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps). In the fourth season, this team is disbanded and House gradually winnows a field of forty applicants to a new team consisting of Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley (Olivia Wilde), Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson), and Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn).
House received heavy critical acclaim and has been a ratings hit since its premiere. During the 2007–08 United States television season, the series was the most-watched scripted program on TV and the third-most-watched program overall, behind American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.[1] The show has also received various awards and nominations, including a Peabody Award, two Golden Globe Awards and three Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2008, Shore announced that a spin-off, centering around a character introduced in House's fifth season will be created. House is currently in its fifth season of broadcasting.
Development
In 2004, David Shore, the creator of the show, and executive producers Katie Jacobs and Paul Attanasio, pitched House to FOX as a medical detective show, a hospital whodunit where the doctors would be the sleuths looking for the source of symptoms.[2] Once the pilot was sold, the idea of Dr. House was added.[2] Shore traced the concept for House to his background as a patient at a teaching hospital.[3] Shore recalled that "I knew, as soon as I left the room, they would be mocking me relentlessly [for my cluelessness...] and I thought that it would be interesting to see a character who actually did that before they left the room."[4] House was created under the working title Chasing Zebras, Circling the Drain.[5] Shore originally intended for the show to be a CSI-type show where the "germs were the suspects",[6] but has since shifted much of the focus to the characters rather than concentrating solely on the environment.[6] A central part of the show's premise was that the main character would be handicapped in some way.[7] Initially, House was to be confined to a wheelchair, but FOX turned down this interpretation (for which the crew was later grateful.) The wheelchair became a scar on House's face, which later turned into a bad leg necessitating the use of a cane.[7] Shore's ideas for House are inspired by the writings of Berton Roueché, a The New Yorker staff writer who chronicled intriguing medical cases, between 1940 and 1990.[2][8]
[edit] Parallels to Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes serves as an inspiration for the series.
Similarities between House and the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes appear throughout the series;[9] Shore explained that he was always a Sherlock Holmes fan, and found the character's traits of indifference to his clients unique.[4] The resemblance is evident in various elements of the series' plot, such as House's reliance on psychology to solve a case, his reluctance to accept cases he does not find interesting and House's home address (apartment 221B, the same number as Holmes' home).[10] Other similarities between House and Holmes include the playing of an instrument (Holmes plays the violin, House the piano and guitar), drug addiction (House to Vicodin and Holmes to cocaine) and House's relationship with Dr. James Wilson, who parallels Dr. John Watson.[11] Robert Sean Leonard, who portrays Wilson, has said that House and his character were originally intended to play the roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in the series although he believes that House's team has assumed the Watson role.[12]
Various characters on the show have names similar to characters from the Sherlock Holmes universe, in the season two finale "No Reason", House is shot by a crazed gunman credited as "Moriarty", which is the same name as Holmes' nemesis.[13] Also, the main patient in the pilot episode is named Rebecca Adler, after Irene Adler, a female character from the first Sherlock Holmes short story.[14] David Shore has said that Dr. House's name is meant as "a subtle homage" to Sherlock Holmes (i.e., homes).[5][15] In the season four episode "It's a Wonderful Lie", House receives a "second edition Conan Doyle" as a Christmas gift.[16] In the Season 5 episode "Joy to the World", House receives a book by Joseph Bell (who served as inspiration for Sherlock Holmes),[17] as a Christmas present from Wilson, along with a message that says "It makes me think of you". It is also noteworthy that Wilson made mention to Irene Adler as the alleged sender of the present before he took credit for it.[18]
[edit] Crew
House is a co-production of Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions, and Bad Hat Harry Productions in association with the NBC Universal Television Group for FOX.[19][20] David Shore, the head of Shore Z Productions, Bryan Singer, the head of Bad Hat Harry Productions and Paul Attanasio and Katie Jacobs, the heads of Heel and Toe Films, serve executive producers for the show, since its first season,[3] as well as Thomas L. Moran, who joined after the initial airing of the pilot episode.[21] Russel Friend and Garret Lerner are executive producers from the second season onwards.[22] As of the start of House's fifth season, lead actor Hugh Laurie also started working as an executive producer for the series.[23] House was inspired by a monthly column called Diagnosis, written by Lisa Sanders, M.D., published in The New York Times Magazine. Sanders, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, was hired as a technical advisor to the show,[24] along with two other technical advisors.[25] Bobbin Bergstrom, who is a registered nurse in real life, works as a medical advisor for the show and has a small recurring role on the series as a nurse.[25]
[edit] Casting
"It wasn't a massive move when I first considered (doing House). What usually happens is you do a pilot and of the very few picked up, only about a quarter go to a second year. So I thought I'll have three fun weeks. I never dreamt I'd be here three-and-a-half-years later".
—Hugh Laurie.[26]
Producer Bryan Singer originally demanded that an American actor play the role of House; according to Singer, the more foreign actors he watched audition for the part, the more sure he was that an American was needed.[27] At the time of the casting session, actor Hugh Laurie was filming the movie Flight of the Phoenix.[28] He put together an audition tape of his own in a Namibian hotel bathroom, the only place with enough light,[27] and apologized for its appearance (which Singer compared to a "bin Laden video").[29] Laurie improvised by using an umbrella for a cane.[30] Singer was impressed by Laurie's performance and commented on how well the "American actor" was able to grasp the character, not realizing Laurie is British.[4] After being cast for the part, Laurie, whose father Ran Laurie, was a doctor himself, said he felt guilty for "being paid more to become a fake version of my own father".[27] Laurie later stated that his original impression was that the show was about Dr. James Wilson. The script referred to Wilson as a doctor with "boyish" looks, and Laurie assumed that Wilson was the central character 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.[31][32]
Aside from having received the script for House, actor Robert Sean Leonard (Dr. James Wilson), had also received the script for the CBS show Numb3rs.[33] He thought the script was "kind of cool" and planned to audition for the show.[33] However, he changed his mind because the character he would portray, Charlie Eppes, was in too many scenes, as Leonard commented "The less I work, the happier I am".[33] He didn't believe he auditioned well, but that his longtime friendship with Singer helped him get the part.[33] Leonard already knew a lot about doctors, because his father, just like Laurie's father, was a doctor himself.[34] Australian actor Jesse Spencer's agent suggested that Spencer audition for the role of Chase, but he was hesitant, fearing the show might be similar to General Hospital. Once the actor saw the scripts, he changed his mind;[35] Spencer then persuaded the producers to change his character into an Australian.[36] Omar Epps, who plays Dr. Eric Foreman on the show, says that he was inspired by his earlier portrayal of a troubled intern the NBC medical drama ER.[37]
In the season three finale, "Human Error", House fires Chase, and Foreman and Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) both quit their job.[38] Following these events, House is required to hire a new diagnostic team out of 40 applicants.[39] As House randomly fires some of them, he narrows the group down to seven applicants; Travis Brennan (Andy Comeau), an epidemiologist,[40][41] Jeffrey Cole (Edi Gathegi), a geneticist,[42] a former Medical School Admissions Officer named Henry Dobson (Carmen Argenziano),[43] Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn), a sports medicine specialist,[44] Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson), a former plastic surgeon,[45] "Thirteen" (Olivia Wilde), an Internal medicine specialist[46] and Amber Volakis (Anne Dudek), an interventional radiologist.[47] Producers were originally planning to hire two new players full-time (with Foreman, who returned in "Mirror Mirror", adding the team back up to three members), but instead decided to hire three.[48] The writers of the show fired a character in each episode, this resulting that neither the producers nor the cast knew who was going to be hired until the very last minute.[49] As revealed in the episode "Games", House's new team consists of Dr. Kutner, Dr. Taub and Dr. "Thirteen".[50][51] None of the actors that were not hired have returned on the show since their departure, however, since the crew was so fond of Dudek, they hired her to recur until the season finale.[52] On the show, her character returned, due to having started a relationship with Dr. Wilson.[53]
[edit] Opening Sequence
The show's title is shown with Dr. House watching through an MRI (a scene from the show's pilot episode).[54] The opening sequence has a different background for each cast member's name. For instance, Omar Epps' name appears with a rib cage on the background, and Jesse Spencer's name is shown with a drawing of a spine in the background. Executive producer Katie Jacobs explained that the backgrounds don't have any "specific" meaning; however, the last shot, that says "Created by David Shore" on the neck of a body, explains that Shore is "the brain of the show".[55] Originally, the producers of the show wanted to use shots of a cane and of a Vicodin bottle, but FOX did not agree with those, this resulting that, as a replacement, Jennifer Morrison's name has a shot of rowers on a river in the background.[55]
In North America (and some countries elsewhere) the opening theme of the series is "Teardrop" by Massive Attack.[56][57] "Teardrop" has 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.[58] The satirical British television show Dead Ringers, which sometimes spoofs House, uses "Teardrop" for the spoof's opening theme. In the fourth-season finale, an acoustic version of "Teardrop" performed by José González (with lyrics) is heard during the episode as part of the background music.[59] The version was later made available as a free download via the music-sharing website Last.fm.[60]
[edit] Filming Style and Locations
The back entrance of Frist Campus Center
House episodes often use the "walk and talk" filming technique (also called "pedeconferencing") made popular by Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme in television series such as Sports Night and The West Wing.[61][62] The technique consists of tracking two or more characters backwards as they walk from one location to another, usually discussing the topic of the meeting they are heading to, or in this show's case, the patient's condition, test results, and diagnosis.
This was referred to jokingly in the season four episode "Ugly", in which a documentary crew follows Dr. House and his team throughout the episode. At one point House starts walking with his team and the camera crew follows, shooting in the "walk and talk" style. As House and his team are walking away, Dr. Foreman asks where they are going. House responds: "Walks look good on camera. They give the illusion of the story moving forward."[63]
Exterior shots of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital are actually of Princeton University's Frist Campus Center, which is the University's student center.[a] Filming does not, however, take place there. Instead, it takes place on the FOX lot in Century City,[25] with the exception of the pilot episode, which was shot in Canada.[29]
[edit] Series overview
See also: List of House episodes
"Anytime you try to summarize a show in one word, you sound like an a**. It's about truth".
—Creator David Shore.[64]
Gregory House, M.D., is an antisocial medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. Most episodes start with a cold open, or in medias res, somewhere outside the hospital, showing the events leading to the onset of symptoms for that episode's main patient. The episode follows the team in their attempts to diagnose and treat the patient's illness but most of the time they do not succeed until the patient is critical. House's world-renowned department typically only sees patients who have failed to receive a correct diagnosis, making the patient cases complex. Furthermore, House resists cases that he does not find interesting.
The team arrives at diagnoses using differential diagnosis,[65] with House guiding the deliberations, using a whiteboard, on which he writes and strikes off possible symptoms and diseases with a marker. House often discounts and challenges the opinions of his team, pointing out that their contributions have missed various relevant factors. The patient is usually misdiagnosed over the course of the episode and treated with medications appropriate to the misdiagnosis. This usually causes further complications in the patient, but in turn helps lead House and his team to the correct diagnosis by using the new symptoms.
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.
Because House's theories about a patient's illness tend to be based on subtle or controversial insights, he often has trouble obtaining permission from his boss, hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy, to perform medical procedures he thinks are necessary, especially when the procedures themselves involve a high degree of risk or are ethically dubious.[66]
Cuddy also requires House to spend time treating patients in the hospital's walk-in clinic so that the interactions will improve his bedside manner.[67] House's grudging fulfillment of this duty or creative methods of avoiding it is a recurring subplot on the show. During clinic duty, House confounds patients with unwelcome insights into their personal lives, eccentric prescriptions and unorthodox treatments, but impresses them with rapid and accurate diagnoses after seemingly not paying attention. Realizations made during some of the simple problems House faces in the clinic often help him solve the main case.
"It's not a show about addiction, but you can't throw something like this into the mix and not expect it to be noticed and commented on, there have been references to the amount of his consumption increasing over time. It's becoming less and less useful a tool for dealing with his pain, and it's something we're going to continue to deal with, continue to explore".
—Shore on House's Vicodin addiction.[68]
Episodes frequently feature the 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. Another large portion of the plot centers on House's abuse of Vicodin to manage pain stemming from an infarction in his quadriceps muscle some years earlier, an injury that forces him to walk with a cane.[69] House admits he is addicted to Vicodin, but says he does not have a problem because, "[The pills] let me do my job, and they take away my pain." His addiction has led two of his colleagues, doctors James Wilson and Lisa Cuddy, to encourage him to go to drug rehabilitation several times, but no attempts have successfully gotten House off the drug.[70] Sometimes when House does not have access to Vicodin, or when he perceives the Vicodin alone is not enough to relieve his pain, he self-medicates with other narcotic pain relievers such as oxycodone and morphine.
During the first three seasons, House's Department of Diagnostic Medicine consists of three other doctors: Eric Foreman, Allison Cameron, and Robert Chase.[54] At the end of the third season, Foreman announces his resignation, telling House, "I don't want to turn into you."[c] Soon after, in the season three finale, House fires Chase saying that he has either learned everything he can, or he has not learned anything at all.[38] Cameron subsequently resigns, having developed a soft spot for Chase.[38][72] This leaves House without a team for the season four premiere.[73]
At the end of the fourth season premiere, House considers forty new doctors for the Department of Diagnostic Medicine, assigning them all numbers from one to forty.[39][74][75] Early episodes of season four focus on cases that House uses to narrow the forty applicants down to three new employees.[39] He makes a reality TV-style game out of it using diagnostic cases as contests.[76] He eventually eliminates thirty-seven of them, hiring Chris Taub, Lawrence Kutner, and Remy "Thirteen" Hadley as his new team members.[77][78] Dr. Foreman rejoins the team after getting fired from a new job at a different hospital.[79] Cuddy rehires Foreman at the same salary after she determines he won't be able to get a job anywhere else because he has become too much like House.[74] Chase and Cameron are still employed at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) in different departments although Wilson and Cuddy briefly attempt to convince House otherwise.[75]
* Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), the maverick and misanthrope protagonist of the show.[80] House is the head of the Department of Diagnostic Medicine at the PPTH, and is specialized in Infectious Disease and Nephrology.[81]
* Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), the Chief Hospital Administrator and Dean of Medicine at the PPTH.[70] She is both a member of the Hospital's Board of directors and a member of the PPTH organ transplant Committee.[82]
* James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), the head of the department of oncology,[83] and House's only friend.[84] Wilson is also a member of the Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital Board and a member of the Organ Transplant Committee.[82]
* Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), a neurologist at the department of diagnostic medicine throughout seasons one to four.[54] He resigned from the PPTH in "Human Error",[38] and became the head of diagnostic medicine at the New York Mercy Hospital.[75] However, he got fired, with his boss telling him that he "confused saving a patient's life with doing the right thing".[75] He was hired back by Cuddy in "Guardian Angels",[74] and returned to his original position as physician at the PPTH in "Mirror Mirror".[79]
* Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), is an immunologist and part of House's original diagnostic team.[54] She was hired six months prior to the pilot episode.[85] In "Human Error", she quits her job working for House, having developed a soft spot for Chase (who was fired in the same episode).[38] Cameron became a senior attending physician (possibly Head of Department, but is not yet confirmed throughout the series) in the emergency room, from season four onwards. Is also a member in the Budget Committee.[39]
* Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), an intensive care medicine specialist and part of House's original team along with Cameron and Foreman.[54] He was hired a year prior to the Pilot episode. Got fired by House in the season three finale (see above),[38] and went on to become a Senior Surgeon at the PPTH. Is often mocked by House for his "pretty looks" and his Australian accent.[39]
* Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson), is a former plastic surgeon[63] who is hired by House in the episode "Games" out of forty applicants.[86] Cuddy suggested Taub become a member of House's new diagnostic team because his knowledge and combative nature would be able to keep House focused.[86]
* Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn) is a Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine specialist, who is hired by House in the episode "Games" out of forty applicants.[86] He was initially fired by House after reporting Amber Volakis' (Anne Dudek) recording of patient information.[75] However he flipped his #6 (the number he was assigned) into a #9 and refused to leave.[75][87] He came up with an unconventional method to stress-test a liver (tequila) and an impressed House decided to let him stay.[87]
* Remy "Thirteen" Hadley[88] (Olivia Wilde) is an Internist, who was hired as a member of House's diagnostic team along with Kutner and Taub.[86] She was nicknamed "Thirteen" by House in a reference to the number she was assigned during the competition for her job.[39]
House's pilot gained various positive reviews, TV Guide's Matt Roush stated House was an "uncommon cure for the common medical drama".[89] Critics of The A.V. Club called House the "nastiest" black comedy from FOX since the 1996's short-living television series Profit.[90] Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle described the show as a mixture of CSI:Crime Scene Investigation and ER.[91] The New York Magazine called the series "medical TV at its most satisfying and basic", and stated that the cast consisted of "[professional] actors playing doctors who come to care about their patients",[92] while The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert appreciated that the episode did not sugarcoat the flaws of the characters to assuage viewers' fears about "HMO factories".[93] In a recap of the show's pilot, Variety's Brian Lowry said that House was a "A well-made medical hour with an intriguing star".[94] Critics considered the series to be a bright spot among FOX's otherwise reality show-based broadcast schedule.[95][96][97]
Critics reacted positively to the character of Gregory House.[98][99] Tom Shales of The Washington Post called him "the most electrifying character to hit television in years".[100] With Barbara Wellner, entertainment vice chair of the Television Academy activities committee, calling him "the most terminally malcontent television doctor since Ben Casey".[9] Critics have compared Dr. House to Adrian Monk, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe and Perry Cox.[84][101][102] In 2005, House was selected as the number 9 primetime show among women,[103] that same year, Laurie appeared on the cover of TV Guide as "TV's Sexiest Man".[103] In 2008, House was voted second sexiest television doctor ever, behind Dr. Doug Ross (George Clooney), from ER.[104][105] Hugh Laurie's performance of the character was praised by critics.[101][106] San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman said "Laurie is in short, about the only reason to watch House".[91] Gabrielle Donnelly of The Daily Mail said that because of Laurie's complex personality he was "perfectly cast" for the part of House.[105]
Since its premiere House has been a ratings hit, having an average 13.3 million viewers per episode during its first season.[111] The show had an average 17.3 million viewers during its second season,[112] and had a 19.4 million viewers average for its third season.[113] The show's fourth season was ranked seventh, with an average nielsen rating of 16.2 viewers per episode.[1] The most-watched episode of House to date is the season four episode "Frozen",[114] the episode that followed Super Bowl XLII.[115][116] it attracted slightly more than 29 million viewers.[117] It was ranked third for the week, tied with that week's seventh season episode of American Idol (also on FOX) and outranked only by the Super Bowl game and the Super Bowl post-game show.[118]
Below is a table of the seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of House on FOX.
Awards
Main article: List of House (TV series) awards and nominations
House has received many awards and nominations. The show received a 2005 Peabody Award 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."[119] The American Film Institute (AFI), included House in their 2005 list of 10 Television Programs of the Year.[120] The show has also been nominated for various Golden Globe Awards, Hugh Laurie has received the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama in 2006 and again in 2007,[121][122] But it was not until 2008, when the show was first nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series - Drama, however, the award was won by Mad Men.[123] Currently, the show is nominated for both Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama and Best Television Series - Drama.[124]
Creator David Shore won a writing Emmy in 2005 for the first season episode "Three Stories".[125] Shore also received a Humanitas Prize for the episode[126]. Writer Lawrence Kaplow won a Writers Guild of America Award in 2006 for his season two episode "Autopsy".[127]
House was also honoured by the Screen Actors Guild, awarding Laurie the 2007 award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series.[128] In 2005, 2007, and 2008, Laurie was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.[129] The Emmy board also nominated House for Outstanding Drama Series in 2006, 2007 and 2008, but the show has not yet won the award.[130][131][132]
Rumors of a spin-off of the series began in 2008, when TV Guide's Michael Ausiello reported that a private investigator introduced during House's fifth season would be getting his own show if he was "embraced" by the audience.[133][134][135] In May that same year, IGN reported that this character would be portrayed by Michael Weston,[136] with The Hollywood Reporter saying that the character would be named Lucas Douglas and would be "as intelligent but not as abrasive as Dr. House".[137][138] The rumors were confirmed by Entertainment Weekly[139] and Blog Critics.[140] In a late 2008 interview with The Star-Ledger, creator David Shore confirmed plans about the spinoff and said that it would be inspired by The Rockford Files.[141][142]
House M.D. Original Television Soundtrack was released on September 18, 2007, by Nettwerk.[144] The soundtrack includes full length versions of songs featured in the television series and previously unreleased songs especially recorded for the series.[145] There was also a House game for mobile phones released by Exelweiss, in Spanish and English.[146] American Apparel 100% cotton T-shirts with the phrase "Everybody Lies" printed on them were sold in limited numbers from April 23 to April 30, 2007.[147] The shirts were sold for $19.95 a piece on Housecharitytees.com, and proceeds went to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.[147]
