House: The Best Medical Drama on TV

[GenerationX]

Anyone else watch House? The main character, Dr. Gregory House, is a brilliant, cranky, misanthropic, obnoxious, condescending, negative jerk. What's not to like?

The supporting characters play off of House and each other perfectly - his staff (Foreman, Chase, and Cameron), Wilson (his only friend), and Cuddy.

The dialogue is sharp, the plots play like medical whodunnits, and the patients are always lying about something.

I rarely watch dramas (I watch mostly sports, comedy, and I've been known to occasionally watch a reality show), but this one has me completely hooked. I'm also very impressed with Hugh Laurie's American accent. I have yet to hear him slip up.

Anyone else watch this show?

 

[Timothy Q Mouse]

I totally agree! And thank God for reruns on Friday nights on USA, because I just got hooked this year on that show. I think it is the best drama on TV. ER has just become so boring....

I think I did hear him slip on the accent once. He was saying "figure" and pronounced it more like "figger". But otherwise it is totally convincing. In fact, I think I heard a story about when the show was first in production, someone at the network had complimented Hugh Laurie about being one of our best American actors. :lol:

 

[Safari Giraffe]

I watch it every week! I love it. I'm a medical freak anyway.:lookaroun :lol:

 

[MouseMadness]

The drama part is awesome, the medical part, notsomuch. :lol: :lookaroun

 

[Amber]

I love that show too! I don't have many season passes in my Tivo, but House is definitely one of them. I didn't catch on to it right away, so after I did I rented the DVDs to catch up. By the second disk, I knew what House's sarcastic remarks were going to be before he said them. It makes me wonder, does that make me as much of a smarta** as House? :lol:
What did everyone think of this week's two-parter? It was weird seeing House actually care about the patient from the beginning - and some of his changes in judgement because of it.

 

[ogryn]

I saw one last night where he found a tick in some ladies unmentionables.

I find it very hard to watch him without expecting him to do something silly though.

 

[TAC]

Great show! My wife and I tape it and usually have to rewind in a few places to hear the line that makes us ROFL.

House M.D. trivia:

• Hugh Laurie auditioned for the role as Dr. Gregory House in his hotel room bathroom in Namibia. He was rehearsing his role for the film The Flight of the Phoenix and claimed that the bathroom was the only place with enough light. He also apologized for his appearance on tape before the audition as he'd just come back from filming. The fact that House has a somewhat scruffy and unkempt look, particularly his constant five o'clock shadow, has been attributed by creator David Shore to Laurie's appearance in this audition tape.
• Bryan Singer was looking for an American actor to play House and when he saw Hugh Laurie's audition tape said that he had found his American actor. Hugh Laurie is in fact British.
• During a guest appearance on The Tonight Show on 16 November 2005, Laurie revealed that he took the highly-addictive painkiller Vicodin in order to get into character for his role as Dr. House.
• The character of House is based on Sherlock Holmes. Both suffered drug addictions (House - pain killers, Holmes - cocaine). Both focus on the patient/criminal's motives and actions rather than physical evidence. Neither can cope with normal society and have sociable sidekicks (Wilson and Watson - Dr Wilson actually gets called Dr Watson once by a patient in the first series). Both are extremely lazy when not on a case (Holmes read the agony aunt columns in the paper, House watches Soaps). Both never call anybody by their first names and finally both live at No 221B.
• Jesse Spencer, who plays Dr. Chase, grew up in a family of Doctors. His father and two brothers are doctors while his sister is going through med school. When they see one of the episodes they not only try to figure out the cause before him but note all his medical mispronunciations.
• The show takes place in the Mercer County area of New Jersey. In the opening credits, there are shots of various locations around the area of Princeton, Trenton, West Windsor, and Plainsboro, including Princeton University. The hospital, Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, is based on a real hospital in Princeton, Princeton Hospital, the University Medical Center at Princeton. The creator and director of the pilot episode, Bryan Singer, is from the area, and attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School.
• The theme song is an edited version of the Massive Attack song "Teardrop" from their 1998 album "Mezzanine."
• Hugh Laurie's own dad was a doctor, and he feels a twinge of guilt at "being paid more to become a fake version of my own father".

 

[MouseMadness]

I saw one last night where he found a tick in some ladies unmentionables.

I find it very hard to watch him without expecting him to do something silly though.

So he is more known as a comedic actor?

I can't tell you how many times I had to watch before it clicked that he looked an awful lot like the guy who played Mr. Palmer, the husband of Mrs. Jennings' daughter in Sense and Sensibility.

:lookaroun

Then someone said on the radio he was, in fact, British, and I had my AHA! moment. :lol:

 

[MommytoMJM]

Love, love, love this show!!!!

It is so bizarre though to see Hugh Laurie in an interview because he is English. My brain has a hard time reconciling him and House

 

[MommytoMJM]

I watch it every week! I love it. I'm a medical freak anyway.:lookaroun :lol:

Me too.... :lookaroun

 

[ogryn]

So he is more known as a comedic actor?

I can't tell you how many times I had to watch before it clicked that he looked an awful lot like the guy who played Mr. Palmer, the husband of Mrs. Jennings' daughter in Sense and Sensibility.

:lookaroun

Then someone said on the radio he was, in fact, British, and I had my AHA! moment. :lol:

To me yeah. Blackadder and Fry & Laurrie.

 

[MouseMadness]

To me yeah. Blackadder and Fry & Laurrie.

Ahh (never heard of it :lookaroun )

It's always amazing, though (along this same line) to learn what actors had real, thriving careers BHP (Before Harry Potter) :lol: :hammer: They pop up all the time in my BBC miniseries DVD's that I watch obsessively. :lol:

 

[MKCP 1985]

Current list of Favorite Medical TV shows:

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. ER
3. House
4. Scrubs

:wave:

 

[Tigggrl]

Current list of Favorite Medical TV shows:

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. ER
3. House
4. Scrubs

:wave:

Grey's Anatomy all the way...I only watch House when I am totally bored....

 

[GenerationX]

Great show! My wife and I tape it and usually have to rewind in a few places to hear the line that makes us ROFL.

House M.D. trivia:

• Hugh Laurie auditioned for the role as Dr. Gregory House in his hotel room bathroom in Namibia. He was rehearsing his role for the film The Flight of the Phoenix and claimed that the bathroom was the only place with enough light. He also apologized for his appearance on tape before the audition as he'd just come back from filming. The fact that House has a somewhat scruffy and unkempt look, particularly his constant five o'clock shadow, has been attributed by creator David Shore to Laurie's appearance in this audition tape.
• Bryan Singer was looking for an American actor to play House and when he saw Hugh Laurie's audition tape said that he had found his American actor. Hugh Laurie is in fact British.
• During a guest appearance on The Tonight Show on 16 November 2005, Laurie revealed that he took the highly-addictive painkiller Vicodin in order to get into character for his role as Dr. House.
• The character of House is based on Sherlock Holmes. Both suffered drug addictions (House - pain killers, Holmes - cocaine). Both focus on the patient/criminal's motives and actions rather than physical evidence. Neither can cope with normal society and have sociable sidekicks (Wilson and Watson - Dr Wilson actually gets called Dr Watson once by a patient in the first series). Both are extremely lazy when not on a case (Holmes read the agony aunt columns in the paper, House watches Soaps). Both never call anybody by their first names and finally both live at No 221B.
• Jesse Spencer, who plays Dr. Chase, grew up in a family of Doctors. His father and two brothers are doctors while his sister is going through med school. When they see one of the episodes they not only try to figure out the cause before him but note all his medical mispronunciations.
• The show takes place in the Mercer County area of New Jersey. In the opening credits, there are shots of various locations around the area of Princeton, Trenton, West Windsor, and Plainsboro, including Princeton University. The hospital, Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, is based on a real hospital in Princeton, Princeton Hospital, the University Medical Center at Princeton. The creator and director of the pilot episode, Bryan Singer, is from the area, and attended West Windsor-Plainsboro High School.
• The theme song is an edited version of the Massive Attack song "Teardrop" from their 1998 album "Mezzanine."
• Hugh Laurie's own dad was a doctor, and he feels a twinge of guilt at "being paid more to become a fake version of my own father".

Cool factoids! I see the Sherlock Holmes connection.

 

[TheOneVader]

"House, what are you doing here so late? Patient?"
"No, hooker went to my office insetad of my house."

:lol: :lol:

 

[TAC]

Dr. Lisa Cuddy: When I hired you, I knew you were insane. I will continue to try and stop you from doing insane things, but once they're done, trying to convince an insane person not to do insane things is, in itself, insane. So when I hired you, I also set aside fifty thousand a year for legal expenses. So far, you've come in under budget

..........


Dr. Gregory House: [to the crowd in the walk-in clinic's waiting area] Hello, sick people and their loved ones! In the interest of saving time and avoiding a lot of boring chitchat later, I'm Doctor Gregory House; you can call me "Greg." I'm one of three doctors staffing this clinic this morning.
Dr. Lisa Cuddy: Short, sweet, grab a file.
Dr. Gregory House: This ray of sunshine is Doctor Lisa Cuddy. Doctor Cuddy runs this whole hospital, so unfortunately she's much too busy to deal with you. I am a board... certified diagnostician with a double specialty of infectious disease and nephrology. I am also the only doctor currently employed at this hospital who is forced to be here against his will.
[to Lisa]
Dr. Gregory House: That is true, isn't it?
[to crowd]
Dr. Gregory House: But not to worry, because for most of you, this job could be done by a monkey with a bottle of Motrin. Speaking of which, if you're particularly annoying, you may see me reach for this: this is Vicodin. It's mine! You can't have any! And no, I do not have a pain management problem, I have a pain problem... but who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too stoned to tell. So, who wants me?
[nobody moves]
Dr. Gregory House: And who would rather wait for one of the other two guys?
[everybody raises their hand]
Dr. Gregory House: Okay, well, I'll be in Exam Room One if you change your mind.
Dr. Lisa Cuddy: Jody Matthews?
[Jody raises her hand]
Dr. Lisa Cuddy: Please accompany Doctor House to Exam Room One

...............

"House, what are you doing here so late? Patient?"
"No, hooker went to my office insetad of my house."

:lol: :lol:

 

[MommytoMJM]

Current list of Favorite Medical TV shows:

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. ER
3. House
4. Scrubs

:wave:

I do't watch Scrubs, but I do all the others... also a lot of the Discovery Health Channel and reruns of Chicago Hope...

 

[taramarie]

We watch every time it is on!!!! I love the fact that it is a drama and a comedy at the same time.

It took me a while to get over seeing Stuart Little's Dad.....but I quickly got over that!

Tara

 

[GenerationX]

I loved when Ed Vogler (the hospital boss at the time) forced House to give a speech at a press conference backing a new drug from his company:

House: You know how I know the new ACE inhibitor is good? Because the old one was good. The new one is really the same, it’s just more expensive. A lot more expensive. See, that’s another example of Ed’s brilliance. Whenever one of his drugs is about to lose its patent he has his boys and girls alter it just a tiny bit and patent it all over again. Making not just a pointless new pill, but millions and millions of dollars. Which is good for everbody, right?