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House, also known as House, M.D., is an 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.

Plot

Gregory House is a maverick medical genius, who heads a team of young diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. 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 over the course of each episode and treated with medications appropriate to 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. Realizations made during some of the simple problems House faces in the clinic often help him solve the main case.

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. The creator, David Shore, originally intended for the show to be a CSI-type show where the "germs were the suspects," but has since shifted much of the focus to the characters rather than concentrating solely on the environment.

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. 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.

House is in many respects a medical Sherlock Holmes. This resemblance is evident in various elements of the series' plot, such as House's reliance on psychology to solve a case, House's drug addiction, House's playing of an instrument, and House's encounter with a crazed gunman credited as "Moriarty" which is the same name as Sherlock's nemesis.

Characters

The first three seasons had Foreman, Cameron, and Chase as House's team members. At the end of season 3 Foreman & Cameron resigned and Chase was fired. For season 4 House hired 40 doctors that he will narrow down by firing the rest. Chase and Cameron are still employed at Princeton–Plainsboro hospital and as of "Guardian Angels" Foreman returned.

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.

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." 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." 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.

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. 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 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. 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.

Theme music

In most countries the opening theme of the series 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. Instead, it takes place on the FOX lot in Century City and on location in Vancouver, BC.

DVD releases

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. The Second Season DVD set, on the other hand, presents the show in its original widescreen format in all regions.

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. Frum, Linda (2006-03-14). "Q&A with 'House' creator David Shore". Macleans.ca. Rogers Media Inc. Retrieved 2007-01-02.
4. Zap2it ? TV news ? Building 'House' Is Hard Work
5. House and Holmes parallels - Radio Times, January 2006
6. "Final audience and ratings figures". May 27, 2005. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
7. "2005-06 primetime wrap". May 26, 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
8. "Hollywood Reporter: 2006-07 primetime wrap". May 25 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
9. 65th Annual Peabody Winners
10. Guide to the 2005 Emmy Awards Retrieved 2006-11-05.
11. http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=936
12. Casting Session with Hugh Laurie House DVD Special Feature,
13. Radio Times magazine, 23 March 2007
14. Inside the Actor's Studio Hugh Laurie Interview, BRAVO Network,
15. Keveney, Bill (2004). Hugh Laurie gets into 'House'. USA Today.
16. McCosh Health Center, the University's infirmary, is situated adjacent to Frist, and can be seen in some shots.
17. Vancouver's downtown is seen through Wilson's apartment window in Season 3 Episode 1.
18. http://forum.quotenmeter.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3442&start=1900

See also

• St. Elsewhere
• ER (TV series)‎
• Grey's Anatomy

External links

• Official website
• House at Yahoo! TV
• House Medical Reviews A physician reviews House on medical accuracy
• House episode reviews on TV Squad

• House (TV series)
• 2000s American television series
• 2004 television program debuts
• Drama television series
• Five television programmes
• Fox network shows
• Medical television series
• Television series by NBC Universal Television
• Television shows set in New Jersey
• Peabody Award winners