House (TV series)
House is an American medical drama television series created by David Shore for Fox. It originally aired for eight seasons from November 16, 2004 to May 21, 2012. It features the life of Dr. Gregory House, an unconventional, misanthropic, cynical medical genius who, despite his dependence on pain medication, successfully leads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. House often clashes with his fellow physicians, including his own diagnostic team, because many of his hypotheses about patients' illnesses are based on subtle or controversial insights, and his flouting of hospital rules and procedures frequently leads him into conflict with his boss, hospital administrator and Dean of Medicine Dr. Lisa Cuddy. House's only true friend is Dr. James Wilson, head of the Department of Oncology.
During the first three seasons, House's diagnostic team consists of Dr. Robert Chase, Dr. Allison Cameron, and Dr. Eric Foreman. At the end of the third season, this team disbands. Rejoined by Foreman, House gradually selects three new team members: Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley, Dr. Chris Taub, and Dr. Lawrence Kutner. Chase and Cameron continue to appear occasionally in different roles at the hospital. Kutner dies late in season five; early in season six, Cameron departs the hospital, and Chase returns to the diagnostic team. Thirteen takes a leave of absence for most of season seven, and her position is filled by medical student Martha M. Masters. Cuddy and Masters depart before season eight; Foreman becomes the new Dean of Medicine, while Dr. Jessica Adams and Dr. Chi Park join House's team.
The premise of House originated with Paul Attanasio, while Shore was responsible for conceiving the titular character. The series' executive producers included Shore, Attanasio, Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, and film director Bryan Singer. It was filmed largely in a neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles County's Westside called Century City. The series was produced by Attanasio and Jacobs' Heel and Toe Films, Shore's Shore Z Productions, Singer's Bad Hat Harry Productions, and Universal Television.
House was among the top 10 series in the United States from its second through fourth seasons. Distributed to 71 countries, it was the most-watched TV program in the world in 2008. It received numerous awards, including five Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Peabody Award, and nine People's Choice Awards. On February 8, 2012, Fox announced that the eighth season, then in progress, would be its last. The series finale aired on May 21, 2012, following an hour-long retrospective.
Production
Conception
In 2004, David Shore and Paul Attanasio, along with Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, pitched the series to Fox as a CSI-style medical detective program, a hospital whodunit in which the doctors investigated symptoms and their causes; the main character would be loosely based on Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes". Attanasio was inspired to develop a medical procedural drama by The New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis", written by physician Lisa Sanders, who is an attending physician at Yale–New Haven Hospital ; the fictitious Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital is modeled after this teaching institution. Fox bought the series, although the network's then-president, Gail Berman, told the creative team, "I want a medical show, but I don't want to see white coats going down the hallway." Jacobs has said that this stipulation was one of many influences leading to the show's ultimate form.After Fox picked up the show, it acquired the working title Chasing Zebras, Circling the Drain. The original premise of the show was of a team of doctors working together trying to "diagnose the undiagnosable". Shore felt it was important to have an interesting central character who could examine patients' personal characteristics and diagnose their ailments by figuring out their secrets and lies. As Shore and the creative team explored the character's possibilities, the program concept became less of procedure and more focused upon the lead role. The character was named "House", which was adopted as the show's title as well. Shore developed the characters further and wrote the script for the pilot episode. Bryan Singer, who directed the pilot episode and had significant input in casting the primary roles, has said that the "title of the pilot was 'Everybody Lies', and that's the premise of the show". Shore has said that the central storylines of several early episodes were based on the work of Berton Roueché, a staff writer for The New Yorker between 1944 and 1994, who specialized in features about unusual medical cases.
Shore traced the concept for the titular character to his experience as a patient at a teaching hospital. He recalled, "I knew, as soon as I left the room, they would be mocking me relentlessly and I thought that it would be interesting to see a character who actually did that before they left the room." A central part of the show's premise was that the main character would be disabled in some way. The original idea was for House to use a wheelchair, but Fox rejected this. Jacobs later expressed her gratitude for the network's insistence that the character be reimagined—putting him on his feet added a crucial physical dimension. The writers ultimately chose to give House a damaged leg arising from an incorrect diagnosis, which requires him to use a cane and causes him pain that leads to a narcotic dependency.
Production team
House was a co-production of Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions, and Bad Hat Harry Productions in association with Universal Network Television for Fox. Paul Attanasio and Katie Jacobs, the heads of Heel and Toe Films; David Shore, the head of Shore Z Productions; and Bryan Singer, the head of Bad Hat Harry Productions, were executive producers of the series for its entirety. Lawrence Kaplow, Peter Blake, and Thomas L. Moran joined the staff as writers at the beginning of the first season after the making of the pilot episode. Writers Doris Egan, Sara Hess, Russel Friend, and Garrett Lerner joined the team at the start of season two. Friend and Lerner, who are business partners, had been offered positions when the series launched, but turned the opportunity down. After observing the show's success, they accepted when Jacobs offered them jobs again the following year. Writers Eli Attie and Sean Whitesell joined the show at the start of season four; Attie would stay on the show's writing staff through the series finale, which he co-wrote. From the beginning of season four, Moran, Friend, and Lerner were credited as executive producers on the series, joining Attanasio, Jacobs, Shore, and Singer. Hugh Laurie was credited as an executive producer for the second and third episodes of season five.Shore was Houses showrunner. Through the end of the sixth season, more than two dozen writers had contributed to the series. The most prolific were Kaplow, Blake, Shore, Friend, Lerner, Moran, and Egan. The show's most prolific directors through its first six seasons were Deran Sarafian, who was not involved in season six, and Greg Yaitanes. Of the more than three dozen other directors who have worked on the series, only David Straiton directed as many as 10 episodes through the sixth season. Hugh Laurie directed the 17th episode of season six, "Lockdown". Elan Soltes was the visual effects supervisor since the show began. Lisa Sanders, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, was a technical advisor to the series. She writes the "Diagnosis" column that inspired Houses premise. According to Shore, "hree different doctors ... check everything we do". Bobbin Bergstrom, a registered nurse, was the series' on-set medical advisor.
Casting
At first, the producers were looking for a "quintessentially American person" to play the role of House. Bryan Singer in particular felt there was no way he was going to hire a non-American actor for the role. At the time of the casting session, actor Hugh Laurie was in Namibia filming the movie Flight of the Phoenix. He assembled an audition tape in a hotel bathroom, the only place with enough light, and apologized for its appearance. Laurie improvised, using an umbrella for a cane. Singer was very impressed by his performance and commented on how well the "American actor" was able to grasp the character. Singer was not aware that Laurie was English, due to his American accent. Laurie credits the accent to "a misspent youth too much TV and too many movies". Although locally better-known actors such as Denis Leary, David Cross, Rob Morrow, and Patrick Dempsey were considered for the part, Shore, Jacobs, and Attanasio were as impressed as Singer and cast Laurie as House.Laurie later revealed that he initially thought the show's central character was Dr. James Wilson. He assumed that House was a supporting part, due to the nature of the character, until he received the full script of the pilot episode. Laurie, the son of medical doctor Ran Laurie, said he felt guilty for "being paid more to become a fake version of own father". From the start of season three, he was being paid $275,000 to $300,000 per episode, as much as three times what he had previously been making on the series. Laurie was earning around $400,000 per episode by the fifth season, and $700,000 per episode for the final season, making him one of the highest-paid actors on network television.
Robert Sean Leonard had received the script for the CBS show Numb3rs as well as that for House. Leonard thought the Numb3rs script was "kind of cool" and planned to audition for the show. However, he decided that the character he was up for, Charlie Eppes, was in too many scenes; he later observed, "The less I work, the happier I am". He believed that his House audition was not particularly good, but that his lengthy friendship with Singer helped win him the part of Dr. Wilson. Singer had enjoyed Lisa Edelstein's portrayal of a high-priced call girl putting herself through law school on The West Wing, and sent her a copy of the pilot script. Edelstein was attracted to the quality of the writing and her character's "snappy dialogue" with House, and was cast as Dr. Lisa Cuddy.
Australian actor Jesse Spencer's agent suggested that he audition for the role of Dr. Robert Chase. Spencer believed the program would be similar in style to General Hospital but changed his mind after reading the scripts. After he was cast, he persuaded the producers to turn the character into an Australian. Patrick Dempsey also auditioned for the part of Chase; he later became known for his portrayal of Dr. Derek Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy. Omar Epps, who plays Dr. Eric Foreman, was inspired by his earlier portrayal of a troubled intern on the NBC medical drama ER; his character was given the name "Eric Foreman" despite the fact that Fox was still airing That '70s Show when House premiered and had the similarly named Eric Forman as that series' main protagonist. Jennifer Morrison felt that her audition for the part of Dr. Allison Cameron was a complete disaster. However, before her audition, Singer had watched some of her performances, including on Dawson's Creek, and already wanted to cast her in the role. Morrison left the show when her character was written out in the middle of season six.
At the end of season three, House dismisses Chase, while Foreman and Cameron resign. After an episode in which he "borrows" a janitor whom he calls "Dr. Buffer" to assist in a diagnosis, House must then recruit a new diagnostic team, for which he identifies seven finalists. The producers originally planned to recruit two new full-time actors, with Foreman, who returns in season four's fifth episode, bringing the team back up to three members; ultimately, the decision was made to add three new regular cast members. Along with Epps, actors Morrison and Spencer remained in the cast, as their characters moved on to new assignments. During production, the show's writers dismissed a single candidate per episode; as a result, said Jacobs, neither the producers nor the cast knew who was going to be hired until the last minute. In the season's ninth episode, House's new team is revealed: Foreman is joined by doctors Lawrence Kutner, Chris Taub, and Remy "Thirteen" Hadley. The candidates rejected by House did not return to the show, with the exception of the last one cut: Amber Volakis, who appeared in a recurring role for the rest of season four as Wilson's girlfriend, a recurring role in season five as a hallucination of House's, returning as such in the series finale. While Penn and Wilde had higher profiles than the actors who played the other finalists, Jacobs said they went through an identical audition process and stayed with the show based on the writers' interest in their characters. Kutner was written out of the series in episode 20 of season 5 after Penn took a position in the Obama White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.
The contracts of Edelstein, Epps, and Leonard expired at the end of season seven. As a cost-cutting measure, the three actors were asked to accept reduced salaries. Epps and Leonard came to terms with the producers, but Edelstein did not, and in May 2011, it was announced that she would not be returning for the show's eighth season.