WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.899 Okay, picture the scene. It is the mid -2000s. 00:00:04.459 --> 00:00:07.019 You turn on your TV, you're flipping past the 00:00:07.019 --> 00:00:08.839 news and all the reality shows, and you land 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:11.279 on a hospital drama. Right, the classic network 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.580 medical show. Exactly. But instead of a heroic 00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:18.079 surgeon with perfect hair giving this motivational 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:21.059 speech to a patient... You see a guy who looks 00:00:21.059 --> 00:00:22.719 like he slept in his clothes for three days. 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:25.559 He really does. He's unshaven. He's popping pills 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:28.019 like they're breath mints. He's limping down 00:00:28.019 --> 00:00:31.219 a hallway with a cane, and he is actively insulting 00:00:31.219 --> 00:00:34.619 a patient to their face. Just brutal insults, 00:00:34.619 --> 00:00:37.320 too. Yeah. And somehow this guy isn't the villain. 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:39.679 He is the hero. In fact, he wasn't just the hero. 00:00:39.780 --> 00:00:41.479 At one point, he was the most popular man on 00:00:41.479 --> 00:00:43.679 television. Which is still wild to think about. 00:00:43.979 --> 00:00:46.060 Today on the Deep Dive, we are cracking open 00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:49.899 the patient file on House MD, as it's formally 00:00:49.899 --> 00:00:52.719 known. The defining medical drama of the 2000s. 00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:55.039 We're going through a massive stack of production 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:56.979 notes, casting histories and some really interesting 00:00:56.979 --> 00:00:59.539 critical reviews to figure out how a show about 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:02.920 a misanthropic drug dependent doctor became the 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:05.219 most watched TV program on the entire planet 00:01:05.219 --> 00:01:08.599 in 2008. It really is a massive outlier in TV 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:10.359 history when you think about it. Oh, completely. 00:01:10.359 --> 00:01:12.500 Usually to get that kind of global audience. 00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:14.879 You know, you need a character people want to 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:16.700 be friends with. You want to have a beer with 00:01:16.700 --> 00:01:18.459 the cast of Friends. You want to be treated by 00:01:18.459 --> 00:01:21.540 the doctors in ER. Nobody in their right mind 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:24.120 wants to have a beer with Gregory House. Definitely 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:26.760 not. He'd probably tell you exactly why your 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:29.780 choice of beer indicates some deep -seated childhood 00:01:29.780 --> 00:01:33.200 trauma. And he'd be right. Right. But that's 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:35.370 what we're here to unpack. We're going to uncover 00:01:35.370 --> 00:01:39.010 the hidden DNA of this character because there 00:01:39.010 --> 00:01:42.530 is a huge literary secret hiding in plain sight 00:01:42.530 --> 00:01:45.790 that explains exactly why this formula worked. 00:01:45.950 --> 00:01:48.890 It's the key to the whole show. It is. But before 00:01:48.890 --> 00:01:50.810 we get to the secret identity of Housers, let's 00:01:50.810 --> 00:01:52.530 start with the basics of the show's philosophy. 00:01:53.129 --> 00:01:55.950 Why did this character work when he was so actively 00:01:55.950 --> 00:01:57.790 unlikable? Well, it starts with the premise. 00:01:58.359 --> 00:02:01.099 In almost every medical drama before House Thinks 00:02:01.099 --> 00:02:04.120 Chicago Hope or Grey's Anatomy ER, the drama 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:06.540 comes from the emotional connection. The bedside 00:02:06.540 --> 00:02:09.620 man. Exactly. It's about doctors holding hands 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:13.740 the tragedy of loss. The empathy. House flicked 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:16.360 that completely. The creator, David Shore, had 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:18.460 a very specific vision for the character, which 00:02:18.460 --> 00:02:21.240 was indifference. Indifference. That seems like 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:23.180 a terrible trade for a doctor. For a traditional 00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:25.699 doctor, yeah, absolutely. But for a detective, 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:28.539 it's essential. Oh, that makes sense. Shore wanted 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:31.319 a character who was indifferent to the client, 00:02:31.419 --> 00:02:33.759 meaning the patient, so he could be completely 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:37.419 obsessed with the puzzle. The disease. In the 00:02:37.419 --> 00:02:40.039 logic of the show, the disease is the criminal 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:42.500 and the patient is just the crime scene. The 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:45.159 patient is the crime scene. That is such a great 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:47.280 way to frame it. And that actually leads us right 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:49.680 into the biggest Easter egg of the entire series. 00:02:49.780 --> 00:02:52.259 The big reveal. Yeah, I have to admit, I watched 00:02:52.259 --> 00:02:54.460 this show for years. I mean, literally multiple 00:02:54.460 --> 00:02:57.240 seasons before I realized this. And when I did, 00:02:57.319 --> 00:02:59.120 it was a total aha moment. You're referring to 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:02.080 the literary connection. I am. Gregory house 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:05.060 is essentially a cover version of another famous 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:08.580 character a very famous character He is and once 00:03:08.580 --> 00:03:11.280 you see it you realize it's not just a vague 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:14.919 inspiration David Shore built the entire character 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:17.919 architecture on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:21.219 Holmes. It's undeniable. Gregory House is a medical 00:03:21.219 --> 00:03:23.639 Sherlock Holmes. Let's break down the parallels 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:26.020 because they go way deeper than just, you know, 00:03:26.020 --> 00:03:29.080 smart guy who solves mysteries. It's embedded 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:31.719 in the actual framework of the show. Start with 00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:35.060 the names. Holmes creates House. House is just 00:03:35.060 --> 00:03:37.620 singular for Holmes. Exactly. It's a subtle linguistic 00:03:37.620 --> 00:03:41.360 nod, but it's definitely there. Then look at 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:43.949 the sidekick. Sherlock Holmes has Dr. John Watson. 00:03:44.530 --> 00:03:47.310 Gregory House has Dr. James Wilson. Wilson is 00:03:47.310 --> 00:03:49.990 totally the Watson. He really is. He's the only 00:03:49.990 --> 00:03:52.150 friend, the moral compass. Yeah. The guy who 00:03:52.150 --> 00:03:55.090 tolerates the genius and sort of translates him 00:03:55.090 --> 00:03:56.830 for the rest of the normal world. Right. But 00:03:56.830 --> 00:03:58.610 it gets even more granular than that. Look at 00:03:58.610 --> 00:04:00.849 the address. In the show house lives at apartment 00:04:00.849 --> 00:04:03.310 221B. Which is the famous Baker Street address. 00:04:03.409 --> 00:04:05.569 I cannot believe I missed that for so long. Don't 00:04:05.569 --> 00:04:07.270 feel bad. A lot of people did. And then you have 00:04:07.270 --> 00:04:09.110 the vices. This is where it gets psychologically 00:04:09.110 --> 00:04:11.189 really interesting. Right. Because Holmes had 00:04:11.189 --> 00:04:14.129 his own issues. Exactly. Sherlock Holmes in the 00:04:14.129 --> 00:04:17.189 original Victorian stories was a user of cocaine 00:04:17.189 --> 00:04:19.490 and morphine. Which was pretty shocking for the 00:04:19.490 --> 00:04:22.290 time. Very. And he used them to escape the boredom 00:04:22.290 --> 00:04:25.449 of not having a case. His brain revved so high 00:04:25.449 --> 00:04:27.829 that without a puzzle he needed a chemical dampener. 00:04:28.029 --> 00:04:31.709 Wow. Now House uses Vicodin. And yes, House has 00:04:31.709 --> 00:04:34.350 a physical reason, his leg pain, but the narrative 00:04:34.350 --> 00:04:37.050 function is the exact same. It's chemical management 00:04:37.050 --> 00:04:39.889 of a brilliant, restless mind that just cannot 00:04:39.889 --> 00:04:42.610 handle the mundane. They even share the music 00:04:42.610 --> 00:04:45.009 habit, too. Holmes played the violin to help 00:04:45.009 --> 00:04:47.610 him think. House plays the piano, the guitar, 00:04:47.689 --> 00:04:50.050 and the harmonica. It's the same coping mechanism. 00:04:50.250 --> 00:04:52.829 You occupy the conscious mind with music so the 00:04:52.829 --> 00:04:54.889 subconscious can work on solving the riddle. 00:04:54.889 --> 00:04:56.990 That's fascinating. But the most important parallel, 00:04:57.129 --> 00:04:59.230 the one that really drives every single script, 00:04:59.329 --> 00:05:01.689 is the methodology. It's called inductive reasoning. 00:05:02.009 --> 00:05:03.509 Okay, for those of us who skipped Philosophy 00:05:03.509 --> 00:05:05.790 101, let's unpack that in the context of The 00:05:05.790 --> 00:05:08.399 Medical Show. Sure. Inductive reasoning is taking 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:11.019 specific observations and forming a general conclusion. 00:05:11.379 --> 00:05:14.100 But Holmes and House specifically use a method 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:16.379 of elimination. You remember the famous Holmes 00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:18.459 quote? When you have eliminated the impossible. 00:05:18.860 --> 00:05:21.879 Whatever remains, however improbable, must be 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:25.019 the truth. That is literally the script of every 00:05:25.019 --> 00:05:27.300 single episode. Every single one. They spent 00:05:27.300 --> 00:05:30.050 40 minutes. eliminating the impossible. Like 00:05:30.050 --> 00:05:32.670 it's not cancer. The biopsy was negative. It's 00:05:32.670 --> 00:05:34.350 not an infection. The white count is normal. 00:05:34.470 --> 00:05:37.449 They just do that until they are left with the 00:05:37.449 --> 00:05:40.649 crazy improbable truth. Precisely. The show essentially 00:05:40.649 --> 00:05:44.089 medicalized the detective novel structure and 00:05:44.089 --> 00:05:45.870 the writers knew exactly what they were doing 00:05:45.870 --> 00:05:47.910 from day one. They even winked at the audience 00:05:47.910 --> 00:05:49.850 about it. Right. The pilot episode. Yeah. The 00:05:49.850 --> 00:05:52.230 patient in the very first episode was named Rebecca 00:05:52.230 --> 00:05:55.709 Adler. Which is a nod to Irene Adler. The woman 00:05:55.709 --> 00:05:58.029 from the Holmes stories. Correct. And it keeps 00:05:58.029 --> 00:06:00.649 going. In season two, House is actually shot 00:06:00.649 --> 00:06:03.730 by a gunman who is credited simply as Moriarty. 00:06:03.810 --> 00:06:06.269 That is amazing. And there's a great moment in 00:06:06.269 --> 00:06:07.970 season four where House receives a Christmas 00:06:07.970 --> 00:06:10.449 gift and it's a second edition Conan Doyle book. 00:06:10.689 --> 00:06:14.310 So the DNA is 100 % Sherlock Holmes. But here's 00:06:14.310 --> 00:06:16.730 the thing that really surprises me. David Shore 00:06:16.730 --> 00:06:19.029 didn't actually start out trying to make Sherlock 00:06:19.029 --> 00:06:20.769 in a hospital. That wasn't the initial pitch, 00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:23.860 was it? No, it wasn't at all. The origin story 00:06:23.860 --> 00:06:26.800 of the show is actually much weirder and, frankly, 00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:30.459 a bit more ridiculous. It started as a police 00:06:30.459 --> 00:06:34.079 procedural. A cop show. Sort of. Right. The producer 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:36.939 Paul Adonacio came up with an idea for a CSI 00:06:36.939 --> 00:06:39.579 -style medical detective program. Right, because 00:06:39.579 --> 00:06:42.259 CSI was huge then. This was the early 2000s, 00:06:42.259 --> 00:06:45.980 so CSI was the biggest thing on the planet. Adonacio's 00:06:45.980 --> 00:06:48.980 pitch was... Quite literally CSI with germs. 00:06:49.220 --> 00:06:51.839 CSI with germs. Yeah, he wanted a cop show structure 00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:54.480 where the suspects were bacteria and the setting 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:56.860 was the microscopic body. I mean, I can totally 00:06:56.860 --> 00:06:59.300 see why a network executive would buy that in 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:02.500 2004, but there's a pretty big flaw in that concept. 00:07:02.779 --> 00:07:05.060 A massive flaw. David Shore pointed it out immediately. 00:07:05.259 --> 00:07:07.259 He just looked at the pitch and said germs don't 00:07:07.259 --> 00:07:09.540 have motives. Right. You can't interrogate a 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:12.019 virus. It doesn't have an alibi. It didn't kill 00:07:12.019 --> 00:07:13.860 the patient for the insurance money. Exactly. 00:07:13.860 --> 00:07:18.189 If the bad guy is just a germ. There's zero psychological 00:07:18.189 --> 00:07:20.769 drama. It's just pure biology. So how did they 00:07:20.769 --> 00:07:23.069 fix it? Well, they realized they needed a really 00:07:23.069 --> 00:07:25.670 strong human element to drive the investigation. 00:07:26.069 --> 00:07:28.170 That's how they pivoted. They started reading 00:07:28.170 --> 00:07:30.230 the diagnosis column from the New York Times 00:07:30.230 --> 00:07:32.670 magazine written by Dr. Lisa Sanders. Oh, I love 00:07:32.670 --> 00:07:35.329 that column. It's great. And that column gave 00:07:35.329 --> 00:07:37.670 them the real world inspiration for the medical 00:07:37.670 --> 00:07:40.569 mysteries, but they still needed a title. Do 00:07:40.569 --> 00:07:42.350 you know what the working title was before they 00:07:42.350 --> 00:07:44.569 settled on Hoskosian? I'm guessing it wasn't 00:07:44.569 --> 00:07:48.170 just Dr. Jerk. It was chasing zebras circling 00:07:48.170 --> 00:07:50.310 the drain. Wow, that just rolls right off the 00:07:50.310 --> 00:07:53.610 tongue. Chasing zebras circling the drain. It's 00:07:53.610 --> 00:07:56.610 a total mouthful, but it is authentic medical 00:07:56.610 --> 00:07:58.490 slang. We should probably explain that for anyone 00:07:58.490 --> 00:08:01.670 who isn't a doctor. What is a zebra in a hospital 00:08:01.670 --> 00:08:03.990 context? It's a classic teaching tool used in 00:08:03.990 --> 00:08:06.410 medical school. Students are taught when you 00:08:06.410 --> 00:08:09.550 hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. Meaning 00:08:09.550 --> 00:08:13.129 go with the obvious answer. Exactly. If a patient 00:08:13.129 --> 00:08:16.079 comes in with a cough and a fever, Assume it's 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:19.160 the fleur, the horse, not some rare tropical 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:22.259 lung fungus, the zebra. Common things are common. 00:08:22.420 --> 00:08:25.160 But House is different. Right. House is the guy 00:08:25.160 --> 00:08:28.500 who explicitly hunts for the zebras. He assumes 00:08:28.500 --> 00:08:30.259 the other doctors have already checked for the 00:08:30.259 --> 00:08:32.559 horses. And circling the drain? That's a bit 00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:35.519 more grim, right? That's dark ER humor for a 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:38.419 patient who is terminal and in irreversible decline. 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:41.000 Their health is failing fast, so they are literally 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:43.039 circling the drain. I could definitely see why 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:45.879 they changed it. House is punchier. It focuses 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:48.019 the show on the man instead of the jargon. Much 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:50.580 better marketing. But once they had the concept, 00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:53.960 they ran into a pretty big network problem. Fox 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:56.220 bought the show, but the network president at 00:08:56.220 --> 00:08:58.320 the time, Gail Berman, had one very specific 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:01.600 role. She told the creative team, I want a medical 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:03.480 show, but I don't want to see white coats going 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:05.360 down the hallway. She was very firm on that. 00:09:05.539 --> 00:09:07.740 Wait, no white coats? That's the uniform. That's 00:09:07.740 --> 00:09:09.580 like asking for a cop show without badges or 00:09:09.580 --> 00:09:12.360 guns. True, but she wanted to avoid the visual 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:15.899 cliches. She was just tired of the doctor in 00:09:15.899 --> 00:09:18.240 a white coat looking solemnly at a clipboard 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:21.019 trope. OK, fair enough. And that mandate actually 00:09:21.019 --> 00:09:24.139 defined the show's entire aesthetic. If you notice, 00:09:24.259 --> 00:09:26.620 House and his team almost never wear white coats. 00:09:26.940 --> 00:09:30.480 They wear blazers, leather jackets, jeans, T 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:33.159 -shirts. It makes them look way more like detectives 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:35.370 than doctors, doesn't it? It fits the Sherlock 00:09:35.370 --> 00:09:38.289 vibe perfectly. Exactly. It reinforces the genre 00:09:38.289 --> 00:09:40.929 shift. So now they had the concept, the look, 00:09:40.950 --> 00:09:43.149 and the character. They just needed the guy. 00:09:43.529 --> 00:09:46.950 And this casting story, it's arguably one of 00:09:46.950 --> 00:09:49.649 the best happy accidents in TV history. This 00:09:49.649 --> 00:09:52.149 is the Hugh Laurie story. It is. So the producers 00:09:52.149 --> 00:09:54.350 were looking for a very specific type of actor. 00:09:54.490 --> 00:09:56.710 Bryan Singer, who directed The Usual Suspects, 00:09:56.710 --> 00:09:58.889 and X -Men was directing the pilot, and he was 00:09:58.889 --> 00:10:01.299 adamant. What do you want? He told everyone he 00:10:01.299 --> 00:10:03.580 wanted a quintessentially American person. He 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:05.679 literally went on record saying, I don't want 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:08.879 to hire a non -American actor. He felt the character 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:11.659 needed a specific type of American cynicism. 00:10:11.659 --> 00:10:14.440 Which is absolutely hilarious considering who 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:17.159 they actually hired. Yeah, it is. So at the time, 00:10:17.159 --> 00:10:20.740 Hugh Laurie, who is very British, went to Eaton. 00:10:21.049 --> 00:10:23.269 And Cambridge, he's practically comedy royalty 00:10:23.269 --> 00:10:25.929 in the U .K. He was in Namibia. Namibia. Yes. 00:10:25.990 --> 00:10:28.730 He was in Africa filming an action movie called 00:10:28.730 --> 00:10:30.970 Flight of the Phoenix. He's out in the middle 00:10:30.970 --> 00:10:33.070 of the desert. He can't exactly fly to L .A. 00:10:33.090 --> 00:10:35.509 for a screen test, so he has to film a self -tape. 00:10:35.529 --> 00:10:38.350 Right. But he's in a hotel where the lighting 00:10:38.350 --> 00:10:41.350 is just terrible. The only place with decent 00:10:41.350 --> 00:10:43.740 light is the bathroom. I just love the image 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:47.240 of this highly distinguished British actor sitting 00:10:47.240 --> 00:10:50.159 on a toilet in a Namibian hotel trying to get 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:52.299 the lighting right for a career -defining role. 00:10:52.519 --> 00:10:55.620 And the video quality was garbage. Bryan Singer 00:10:55.620 --> 00:10:57.960 later compared the tape quality to a Bin Laden 00:10:57.960 --> 00:11:00.480 video. Yeah. Laurie even apologized on the tape 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:02.539 for how bad it looked. But he obviously did something 00:11:02.539 --> 00:11:04.600 right. He did two things that sealed the deal. 00:11:04.970 --> 00:11:07.210 First, he improvised a cane using an umbrella 00:11:07.210 --> 00:11:09.929 he had with him. Second, he put on this flawless 00:11:09.929 --> 00:11:12.250 American accent. An accent he apparently learned 00:11:12.250 --> 00:11:14.809 just from watching too much TV. Too much American 00:11:14.809 --> 00:11:17.789 TV in his youth, yes. Singer watched the tape, 00:11:17.889 --> 00:11:19.429 turned to the room full of producers and said, 00:11:19.470 --> 00:11:21.649 see, this is what I'm talking about. This guy 00:11:21.649 --> 00:11:24.809 is the real deal. A true American actor. You 00:11:24.809 --> 00:11:26.929 have no idea. None. He was completely fooled. 00:11:27.549 --> 00:11:29.450 And honestly, that deception is kind of perfect 00:11:29.450 --> 00:11:31.769 for a character who lies for a living. It really 00:11:31.769 --> 00:11:34.070 is. Now, once he got the part, they had to figure 00:11:34.070 --> 00:11:37.230 out the physicality. Because the cane isn't just 00:11:37.230 --> 00:11:40.909 a prompt, right? It changes how he moves, how 00:11:40.909 --> 00:11:43.929 he acts, how people perceive him. Right. Originally, 00:11:43.950 --> 00:11:45.809 the idea was for House to be in a wheelchair. 00:11:46.070 --> 00:11:48.529 Oh, really? Yeah. But Fox rejected that. They 00:11:48.529 --> 00:11:50.370 probably thought it limited the movement too 00:11:50.370 --> 00:11:52.809 much for a fast -paced network show. So they 00:11:52.809 --> 00:11:55.360 gave him an infarction. basically tissue death 00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:58.539 in his quadriceps muscle, that leads to the chronic 00:11:58.539 --> 00:12:01.100 pain. And the pain is crucial. Without the pain, 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:03.259 you don't have the Vicodin. Without the Vicodin, 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:05.320 you don't have the erratic behavior. It's the 00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:08.580 engine of the entire show. It grounds his nastiness. 00:12:08.659 --> 00:12:11.100 He's not just a jerk for fun. He is constantly 00:12:11.100 --> 00:12:14.399 in agony. But interestingly, putting him on his 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:16.779 feet created a production problem. Hugh Laurie 00:12:16.779 --> 00:12:20.419 is tall. He's 6 '2". He is. He always looks so 00:12:20.419 --> 00:12:22.840 hunched over on the show. That's just the acting. 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:25.980 But because he's tall executive producer Katie 00:12:25.980 --> 00:12:28.340 Jacobs, realized he was perfect for the walk 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:30.539 and talk. Ah, the West Wing thing. Right. In 00:12:30.539 --> 00:12:32.440 a hospital, people are usually lying in beds. 00:12:32.519 --> 00:12:34.799 That's visually static. It's boring to watch. 00:12:35.179 --> 00:12:38.490 To create urgency, you need movement. The walk 00:12:38.490 --> 00:12:40.750 and talk allows for exposition while moving between 00:12:40.750 --> 00:12:43.570 rooms. And he's towering over everyone. Having 00:12:43.570 --> 00:12:46.250 this tall, limping figure flanking down the hall 00:12:46.250 --> 00:12:48.549 with his team practically jogging to keep up, 00:12:48.629 --> 00:12:51.669 it creates a visual hierarchy. He is the sun 00:12:51.669 --> 00:12:53.970 and they are the planets orbiting him. Speaking 00:12:53.970 --> 00:12:55.429 of visuals, we have to talk about the internal 00:12:55.429 --> 00:12:58.350 shots. I remember being blown away by the camera 00:12:58.350 --> 00:13:00.490 zooming inside a vein or diving into an ear. 00:13:00.690 --> 00:13:04.039 It felt like... Fantastic voyage. It really set 00:13:04.039 --> 00:13:06.860 the show apart visually from ER or anything else. 00:13:06.940 --> 00:13:09.399 It showed us what House was seeing in his mind's 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:12.259 eye. And here's a fun fact about, they weren't 00:13:12.259 --> 00:13:15.139 all CGI. Really? I just assumed it was all early 00:13:15.139 --> 00:13:18.419 2000s computer graphics. A lot of it was practical 00:13:18.419 --> 00:13:21.580 effects using motion control in miniatures. They 00:13:21.580 --> 00:13:24.460 found that CGI looked way too clean for biology. 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:27.419 They wanted it to look wet and organic and gross. 00:13:27.779 --> 00:13:29.539 Give me an example of how they did that. Okay, 00:13:29.620 --> 00:13:32.820 so think about the sound of kidney failure. How 00:13:32.820 --> 00:13:35.879 do you visualize in sound design a kidney failing 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:39.220 inside a human body? I have no idea. According 00:13:39.220 --> 00:13:41.159 to production notes from The New Yorker, the 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:43.519 sound designers used bubble wrap. Just regular 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:46.759 bubble wrap popping. Yep. They recorded it, slowed 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:49.419 it way down, distorted it. It gives you that 00:13:49.419 --> 00:13:52.299 visceral organic pop. It's that blend of high 00:13:52.299 --> 00:13:55.039 concept scripts and low tech execution that makes 00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:58.159 the production side so fascinating. That is brilliant. 00:13:58.340 --> 00:14:00.200 Okay, let's pivot to the philosophy of the show. 00:14:00.340 --> 00:14:02.799 We touched on the phrase, everybody lies. That's 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:05.019 his big catchphrase. But it's more than just 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:07.049 a catchphrase, isn't it? Oh, it's the central 00:14:07.049 --> 00:14:09.970 thesis of the entire series. House believes that 00:14:09.970 --> 00:14:12.070 patients are unreliable narrators of their own 00:14:12.070 --> 00:14:14.529 lives. They lie about affairs, they lie about 00:14:14.529 --> 00:14:16.490 drug use, they lie about dietary supplements, 00:14:16.690 --> 00:14:18.169 they even lie about where they went on vacation. 00:14:18.830 --> 00:14:21.809 Which directly prevents the diagnosis. Because 00:14:21.809 --> 00:14:24.389 if you don't know they went to the tropics, you 00:14:24.389 --> 00:14:26.549 don't test for the tropical parasite. Exactly. 00:14:26.690 --> 00:14:29.730 In House's view, social niceties like privacy, 00:14:29.929 --> 00:14:32.690 politeness, shame, those are just obstacles to 00:14:32.690 --> 00:14:34.789 the truth. That's why he constantly orders his 00:14:34.789 --> 00:14:36.950 team to break into patients' homes. Which we 00:14:36.950 --> 00:14:39.149 should be clear is wildly illegal. Oh, completely. 00:14:39.309 --> 00:14:42.190 He loses license and be in jail by episode two 00:14:42.190 --> 00:14:45.129 in the real world. Yeah. But in the show's universe, 00:14:45.409 --> 00:14:47.230 the home search is the equivalent of the police 00:14:47.230 --> 00:14:56.299 detective's search. But dealing with all that 00:14:56.299 --> 00:14:59.200 requires a team to execute it. And the team dynamic 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:02.399 in Houses was so fascinating because he basically 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:04.940 abused them into being better doctors. He did. 00:15:05.059 --> 00:15:08.360 He was a terrible boss. But the show took a massive 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:10.720 narrative risk with that team in season four. 00:15:10.899 --> 00:15:14.419 Think about sitcoms or dramas like Friends or 00:15:14.419 --> 00:15:17.120 ER. You usually try to keep your core cast together. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:19.740 as long as humanly possible, people tune in to 00:15:19.740 --> 00:15:21.340 see the family. Right, we had Chase, Cameron, 00:15:21.379 --> 00:15:23.220 and Foreman. They were the trio. We loved them. 00:15:23.500 --> 00:15:26.000 And at the end of season three, the writers just 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:29.120 blew it up. Chase was fired. Cameron and Foreman 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:32.240 quit. The team was just gone. I remember watching 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:34.080 that when it aired. It felt like the show was 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:36.340 ending. I was sitting there thinking, who is 00:15:36.340 --> 00:15:38.320 he even going to talk to next season? Right, 00:15:38.340 --> 00:15:40.519 but instead of panicking, they turned season 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:44.059 four into a reality show. House brings in 40 00:15:44.059 --> 00:15:46.580 candidates for the open positions and eliminates 00:15:46.580 --> 00:15:49.480 them one by one, survivor style. It was brilliant 00:15:49.480 --> 00:15:51.919 because it gamified the job interview process. 00:15:52.220 --> 00:15:55.419 It did two major things. One, it injected fresh 00:15:55.419 --> 00:15:57.700 energy in characters. That's how we got 13 Taliban 00:15:57.700 --> 00:16:00.519 Kutner. True. But two, it allowed... house to 00:16:00.519 --> 00:16:03.600 be house on a massive scale judging people assigning 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:06.299 arbitrary meaningless tasks playing mind games 00:16:06.299 --> 00:16:09.899 with 40 people at once it was the absolute purest 00:16:09.899 --> 00:16:11.960 distillation of his character and it worked so 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:14.179 much better than their earlier attempt to introduce 00:16:14.179 --> 00:16:16.320 a traditional villain didn't it oh much better 00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:18.340 in season one they brought in a billionaire named 00:16:18.340 --> 00:16:21.000 edward vogler to try and fire house it completely 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:23.899 flopped the fans hated it why didn't that work 00:16:23.899 --> 00:16:26.639 though because usually heroes need a villain 00:16:27.070 --> 00:16:30.009 Batman needs the Joker. Because House is the 00:16:30.009 --> 00:16:33.169 antagonist. Oh. He is the protagonist and the 00:16:33.169 --> 00:16:36.149 antagonist residing in the exact same body. He 00:16:36.149 --> 00:16:38.590 fights the disease, but he also fights his own 00:16:38.590 --> 00:16:41.830 self -destructive nature. You don't need a billionaire 00:16:41.830 --> 00:16:44.690 villain when the hero is already his own worst 00:16:44.690 --> 00:16:48.009 enemy. The conflict is entirely internal. That's 00:16:48.009 --> 00:16:51.230 a really deep point. But he does have some tethers 00:16:51.230 --> 00:16:54.250 to humanity. We mentioned Wilson, his best friend, 00:16:54.370 --> 00:16:56.870 but we have to talk about Cuddy. The Dean of 00:16:56.870 --> 00:16:59.990 Medicine. Ah, the Huddy dynamic. Yes. It's the 00:16:59.990 --> 00:17:02.350 classic will -they -want -they television trope. 00:17:02.570 --> 00:17:04.589 But it represents something structural for the 00:17:04.589 --> 00:17:07.509 show. Cuddy represents order administration rules 00:17:07.509 --> 00:17:10.420 liability. House represents chaos and results. 00:17:10.819 --> 00:17:13.079 Their attraction is the ultimate attraction of 00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:15.579 opposites. But the show didn't give them a fairytale 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:17.619 happy ending. No, they didn't. And this brings 00:17:17.619 --> 00:17:19.380 us back to the addiction element. The show was 00:17:19.380 --> 00:17:22.180 actually very brave about this. It didn't treat 00:17:22.180 --> 00:17:24.579 his Vicodin addiction as just a cool quirk or 00:17:24.579 --> 00:17:27.339 a Sherlock superpower. It showed the heavy cost. 00:17:27.539 --> 00:17:29.299 The relationship with Cuddy actually falls apart 00:17:29.299 --> 00:17:32.640 because he relapses. Right. The addiction escalates 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:35.279 to other narcotics like oxycodone and methadone. 00:17:35.710 --> 00:17:37.910 And in season five, he starts hallucinating. 00:17:38.009 --> 00:17:40.410 It leads to the Mayfield arc, where he checks 00:17:40.410 --> 00:17:42.670 himself into a psychiatric hospital. That was 00:17:42.670 --> 00:17:45.829 a dark season. It was. The show argued that his 00:17:45.829 --> 00:17:48.970 method using drugs to numb the physical and emotional 00:17:48.970 --> 00:17:52.529 pain just so he could work was completely unsustainable. 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:54.640 He eventually breaks. We should also mention 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:56.660 how they grounded him with normal patients, too. 00:17:56.920 --> 00:17:59.619 The walk -in clinic duty. Oh, the clinic scenes 00:17:59.619 --> 00:18:02.119 are the best. They really are. It was a recurring 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:05.240 comedic subplot where he's forced to treat minor 00:18:05.240 --> 00:18:08.619 ailments like a runny nose or a rash, and it 00:18:08.619 --> 00:18:11.119 often leads to these massive epiphanies for his 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:13.759 major life -or -death cases. It shows the contrast 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:15.799 between the horses and the zebras perfectly. 00:18:16.059 --> 00:18:18.359 Exactly. I want to ask about the reception, though. 00:18:18.589 --> 00:18:21.450 because we're talking about a dark complex show 00:18:21.450 --> 00:18:24.329 about an addicted jerk but the numbers were insane 00:18:24.329 --> 00:18:27.549 distributed in 66 countries why did this translate 00:18:27.549 --> 00:18:30.210 globally i think it taps into a universal human 00:18:30.210 --> 00:18:32.150 fantasy we all live in societies with strict 00:18:32.150 --> 00:18:34.980 rules We have to be polite to our boss. We have 00:18:34.980 --> 00:18:37.200 to smile when we don't want to. We have to endure 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:40.200 incompetence. House is the fantasy of saying 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:42.740 what you really think. It's the fantasy of being 00:18:42.740 --> 00:18:45.579 a jerk, but being completely indispensable. Exactly. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.359 If you are good enough at what you do, you can 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:50.599 get away with anything. That's a powerful, seductive 00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:53.220 idea. Plus, structurally, it's a procedural. 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:56.440 No matter how chaotic House's life is, by minute 00:18:56.440 --> 00:18:59.589 42... The puzzle is solved. Neatly wrapped up. 00:18:59.730 --> 00:19:02.430 It provides a sense of order in a chaotic world. 00:19:02.670 --> 00:19:05.670 And Hugh Laurie got very rich proving it. Very 00:19:05.670 --> 00:19:08.430 rich. By the final season, he was making $700 00:19:08.430 --> 00:19:12.829 ,000 per episode. Wow. That is a lot of Vicodin 00:19:12.829 --> 00:19:15.150 money. But I have to ask the actual doctor question. 00:19:15.450 --> 00:19:17.970 How accurate was the medicine on the show? You 00:19:17.970 --> 00:19:19.970 mentioned Dr. Mike earlier, the YouTuber who 00:19:19.970 --> 00:19:23.339 reviews medical dramas. Yeah, Dr. Mikhail Varshavsky. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:25.920 His take on House was pretty nuanced. He said 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:27.940 the diseases they featured were real, the symptoms 00:19:27.940 --> 00:19:30.339 were generally accurate, but the process was 00:19:30.339 --> 00:19:32.700 absolutely insane. Insane House. House orders 00:19:32.700 --> 00:19:36.200 highly invasive tests like brain biopsies or 00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:38.759 incredibly dangerous treatments way too fast. 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:41.259 In real life, you wait for the lab work to come 00:19:41.259 --> 00:19:43.660 back. You don't drill into a patient's skull 00:19:43.660 --> 00:19:46.180 on a hunch. Right. Dr. Mike also pointed out 00:19:46.180 --> 00:19:48.160 that finding that many one in a million rare 00:19:48.160 --> 00:19:50.779 diseases in a single hospital in New Jersey is 00:19:50.779 --> 00:19:53.640 statistically impossible. It's never lupus. Except 00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:56.619 for the one time it actually was lupus. But generally, 00:19:56.799 --> 00:19:59.279 House ignores the horses to hunt the zebras every 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:01.380 single week. That's terrible medicine, but it 00:20:01.380 --> 00:20:03.299 makes - for great television. If he followed 00:20:03.299 --> 00:20:05.700 standard hospital protocol, the patient would 00:20:05.700 --> 00:20:08.079 just get better in act one and we'd have no show. 00:20:08.339 --> 00:20:10.980 So how did they wrap it all up? Eight seasons 00:20:10.980 --> 00:20:13.660 is a really long run for a show like this. They 00:20:13.660 --> 00:20:16.079 went right back to the source material. The series 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:19.579 finale is called Everybody Dies, which is a play 00:20:19.579 --> 00:20:22.500 on his catchphrase, Everybody Lies. And the plot 00:20:22.500 --> 00:20:24.880 heavily mirrors the Sherlock Holmes story, The 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:27.259 Final Problem. Which is the one where... Holmes 00:20:27.259 --> 00:20:29.859 fakes his own death. Exactly. House fakes his 00:20:29.859 --> 00:20:32.559 own death. He destroys his entire life, his medical 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:35.279 career, his identity. The hospital and almost 00:20:35.279 --> 00:20:37.779 everyone he knows thinks he's dead. And why does 00:20:37.779 --> 00:20:40.240 he do it? To spend the last few months of freedom 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:42.880 with Wilson, who is tragically dying of cancer. 00:20:43.450 --> 00:20:45.769 Wow, that's actually heartbreaking. It really 00:20:45.769 --> 00:20:48.569 is. For a character who spent eight years aggressively 00:20:48.569 --> 00:20:51.349 saying he only cared about the puzzle, he ultimately 00:20:51.349 --> 00:20:54.309 gives up the puzzle for a person. It validates 00:20:54.309 --> 00:20:57.009 that the central love story of the show wasn't 00:20:57.009 --> 00:20:59.269 House and Cuddy, it was always House and Wilson. 00:20:59.569 --> 00:21:02.609 So looking back in the notes, what is the ultimate 00:21:02.609 --> 00:21:05.970 legacy here? I think it completely reinvented 00:21:05.970 --> 00:21:08.309 the procedural format. It proved you don't need 00:21:08.309 --> 00:21:10.410 a nice lead character to capture an audience. 00:21:10.730 --> 00:21:12.970 But philosophically, it asks us a really hard 00:21:12.970 --> 00:21:16.509 question. Is it better to be kind or is it better 00:21:16.509 --> 00:21:18.970 to be right? That is the core tension right there. 00:21:19.089 --> 00:21:21.930 We value bedside manner so much. We want the 00:21:21.930 --> 00:21:24.279 doctor to be nice and comforting. We do. But 00:21:24.279 --> 00:21:26.420 the show suggests that being well -adjusted might 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:28.880 be highly overrated if you have the rare ability 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:32.279 to save lives. House was deeply miserable, but 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:34.579 he saved people literally no one else could. 00:21:34.759 --> 00:21:37.700 It forces you to make a choice as a viewer. And 00:21:37.700 --> 00:21:39.000 that's the question we should probably leave 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:41.700 the listener with today. Right. Think about this 00:21:41.700 --> 00:21:45.819 as you go about your day. If you were sick, I 00:21:45.819 --> 00:21:48.759 mean mysteriously, terrifyingly sick, who do 00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:50.519 you want walking through that hospital door? 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:53.019 In a world of information overload and social 00:21:53.019 --> 00:21:55.519 niceties, do you want a doctor who holds your 00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:57.599 hand, looks you in the eye, and speaks softly 00:21:57.599 --> 00:21:59.859 to you while you die? Or do you want a doctor 00:21:59.859 --> 00:22:02.380 who mocks your lifestyle, insults your intelligence, 00:22:02.460 --> 00:22:04.299 and breaks into your house but actually saves 00:22:04.299 --> 00:22:06.500 your life? I think I know my answer, but I'm 00:22:06.500 --> 00:22:10.079 not sure I'd enjoy the process at all. That is 00:22:10.079 --> 00:22:12.619 it for this deep dive into HouseMD. And remember, 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:15.619 everybody lies. But the truth is out there somewhere. 00:22:16.039 --> 00:22:16.799 Thanks for listening.