The series follows the life of anti-social, pain killer addict, witty and arrogant medical doctor Gregory House with only half a muscle in his right leg. He and his team of medical doctors try to cure very ill ordinary people in the United States of America.
David Shore has said that the character of House is inspired by the fictional character Sherlock Holmes, particularly with regard to drug use and his desire (and capacity) to solve the insolvable. House uses Holmesian deductive techniques to diagnose his patients’ problems. References to the sleuth range from the obvious (House’s apartment number being 221B) to the subtle (his friendship with Dr. James Wilson and the similarities between the names House and Holmes, and Wilson and Watson). In the very first (pilot) episode the patient’s last name is Adler, and in the last episode of season two, the last name of the man who shot House is Moriarty. House’s act of faking cancer in “Half-Wit” (Episode 15 of Season 3) is similar to the Holmes story, “The Adventure of the Dying Detective” in which Holmes fakes a deadly eastern disease to catch a criminal.
The aerial shots of the hospital are actually of the back of Frist Student Center at Princeton University.
Hugh Laurie’s own father was a doctor, and he feels a twinge of guilt at “being paid more to become a fake version of my own father.”
The motorcycle that Dr. House owns is a 2005 Honda CBR1000RR Repsol Replica.
Although the Diagnostic Medicine team deal with all types of diseases, House and his colleagues hold titles in various subspecialties: Dr. Foreman is a neurologist; Dr. Cameron is an immunologist/allergist; Dr. Chase is an intensivist. As for Dr. House, he is double-certified in infectious disease and nephrology (as mentioned in episode #1.3).
The show was inspired by The Diagnosis Column in the New York Times Magazine which spotlights unusual medical cases. Executive Producer Paul Attanasio came up with the concept and pitched it to the networks as a medical procedural. Creator David Shore revised the idea into a character drama where the medical cases became the instrument instead of the focus of the storytelling.
In his office, Dr. Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) has posters from movie Robert Redford’s Ordinary People (1980) and the classic films Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil (1958) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958).
The Production Company credit at the end of the show for Bad Hat Harry productions (“That’s some bad hat, Harry”) is a reference to the movie Jaws (1975).
Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) is an intensivist, a doctor who specializes in intensive care. This specialty is new and uncommon in the United States, but well-established in Australia, where the character is from.
Jesse Spencer and Jennifer Morrison became engaged in December of 2006. This was at roughly the time they were shooting the first episodes in which their characters, Dr. Chase and Dr. Cameron, began a romantic relationship.
Dr. Gregory House was based on Sherlock Holmes… but Holmes, in turn, was based on a Doctor that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle knew while studying medicine, Dr. Joseph Bell, whose specialty was diagnosis.
Robert Sean Leonard was the first actor to be cast.
Sándor Szakácsi, the Hungarian voice of Dr. House died in March 2007, he could only finish the dubbing of 11 episodes of the second season. As a tribute to him, the TV channel decided to use the unfinished work, therefore in the first half of episode 12 of season 2 we still hear Sándor, then the new voice, János Kulka takes over the job. The commercial break (there is only one in Hungary) is inserted where the change takes place – actually in the middle of a scene.
From a promo picture for the show’s fourth season, it was discovered that Dr. Wilson received his undergraduate degree from McGill University in Montreal, QC. He’d been seen previously wearing a McGill sweater. He also received a degree from Columbia University’s “School of Oncolgy” [sic].
On “Inside the Actors Studio” (1994), Hugh Laurie admitted that when he first read the script for House (which did not have the title of “House M.D.” at the time) he believed that the character of Wilson was the lead. He just couldn’t believe that a man such as House could be the star of the show.
In the episode where Wilson moves in with House (Season 2), House’s Tivo list is shown. One of the saved programs is “Black-Adder II”(1986), featuring Hugh Laurie.
During Hugh Laurie’s audition, producer David Shore told how Bryan Singer, one of the executive producers, said, “See, this is what I want; an American guy.” Singer was completely unaware of the fact that Hugh Laurie is British.
Hugh Laurie auditioned for the part of Dr. House via video shot in a hotel bathroom in Namibia, where he was shooting Flight of the Phoenix(2004). “It was the only place with enough light,” the actor claimed.
When a student in the audience of Hugh Laurie’s edition of “Inside the Actors Studio” (1994) asked Laurie if he thought Dr. House should be romantically involved with Cameron, Cuddy or Wilson, Laurie said, “I suspect that if the show runs long enough, he’s going to run through all of them. What order that unfolds in is not for me to say. I think any of those relationships is, of course, believable. Two people can always find some comfort or attraction, so I think all are possible. I think Robert [Robert Sean Leonard, who plays Dr. Wilson] might have something to say about it . . . I don’t know how Robert would take that. But you know, I’m game.”
