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HOUSE MEDICAL EXAM

House MD was first broadcast on Fox in the United States on the Sixteenth of November 2004, since then House MD and the title character Dr Gregory House have become one of the most successful prime time drama series in history.

House MD was created by canadian born writer David Shore who commented in 2005 "...Anytime one says 'puzzle' and 'brilliant deduction' in the same sentence, one can't help but think of the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick, Dr. Watson. And indeed, Holmes -- and the real-life physician that inspired him, Dr. Joseph Bell -- were very much inspirations for 'House.'".

And this similarity between Dr Gregory House and the great detective Sherlock Holmes goes a long way to explaining the lasting success of the show. House is not a nice, kind, thoughtful. fatherly, doctor like so many seen on St Elsewhere, ER and Grey Anatomy, he is an arrogant, inconsiderate, misanthropic, diagnostic genius, with a chronic pain problem and a drug addiction. His team and his very few friends put up with his appalling behaviour, both professional and personal, because he is simply the best and he saves lives. They also like to think that deep down he really cares, this last part, the bit about caring is probably not true.

The comparison with the novels of Conan Doyle and the great detective Sherlock Holmes, can be applied to the basic premise of the show. Dr Gregory House M.D. is the chief diagnostician at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) he takes cases that other "lesser doctors" are unable to solve, he hunts down the cause of the disease and solves the case through intuition, intelligent guess work and deduction. In effect the symptoms are the crime the disease/cause the criminal and House the master detective.

The casting of Hugh Laurie in the role of Dr Gregory House was inspired, it happens rarely that a part was made for an actor or an actor made for a character but when it does the result is immediate lasting popular success. In the case of Hugh Laurie and Dr Gregory House the casting was not immediately obvious, Hugh Laurie had been famous in his home country of Britain as a comic actor and one half of a double act with Stephen Fry. In the US he had been seen in a few family movies, mostly light comedyies like 101 Dalmations and Stuart Little and a few comedies like Friends.

Hugh Laurie was in Namibia filming Flight of the Phoenix when he recorded the audition tape for the show, He was dishevelled and unshaven and had to use his hotel to film it, as nowhere else offered the peace and quiet needed. Rumour has it he was going for the role of Dr Wilson, but his perfect accent and his intense dishevelled good looks was so convincing that executive producer Bryan Singer pointed to him as an example of just the kind of compelling American actor he had been looking for. Since taking the role of House Hugh Lauries own skills especially as a talented musician have been used in the role.

But the character of House alone would not make the series such a huge success, the supporting cast for the show is superb, House's boss Lisa Cuddy played by Lisa Edelstein and Dr James Wislon (House's own Dr Watson) played by Robert Sean Leonard try to keep their friend and colleague out of trouble. His diagnostic team, played in the first few series by Omar Epps and Dr Foreman, and Jennifer Morrison as Dr Cameron and Jesse Spencer as Dr Chase are battered and bruised by the experience of working for House, their intellect and their ethics are challenged continuously. In Season 4 and 5 House builds a new team, Dr Remy Hadley (Olivia Wilde), Dr Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson) and Dr lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn). They easily match up to the original team in character depth and the ability of the actors to bring the new team onto the screen.

A particularly enjoyable facet of the show are the so called Housisms, one off phrases and put downs House throws out to offend, educate and generally mess with the Doctors patients around him, see the short clip at the top of this page.

With 111 episodes broadcast to date, five seasons distributed to over 60 countries globally, House MD is one of the most viewed shows on the planet. Season 5 was broadcast in the UK on Sky and will be released on DVD on October 5th. Season 6 is already in production and will be on our screens in 2010.

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