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Template:House (TV series) episode

"Pilot" is the first episode of the television series House, which premiered on the FOX network on November 16, 2004. It introduces the characters of Dr. Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie)—a maverick antisocial doctor—and his team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. The episode features Dr. House's attempts to diagnose a young grade-school teacher after she collapses in class. The episode was filmed in Canada.

House was created by David Shore, who got the idea for the curmudgeonly title character from a doctor's visit. Initially, producer Bryan Singer wanted an American to play House, but British actor Hugh Laurie's audition convinced him that a foreign actor could play the role. Shore wrote House as a character with parallels to Sherlock Holmes—both are drug users, aloof, and largely friendless.

The episode received generally positive reviews; the character of House was widely noted as the defining positive aspect of the episode. Complaints with the episode included stereotyped supporting characters and an implausible premise. "Pilot"'s initial broadcast was watched by approximately seven million viewers, making it the 62nd most-watched show of the week.

Plot

Shortly after the start of class, kindergarten teacher Rebecca Adler (Robin Tunney) becomes dysphasic and falls to the floor. Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) attempts to convince the misanthropic Gregory House to treat Adler, but House dismisses him, citing boredom. However, Wilson claims that the patient is his cousin, and House agrees to take the case. Afterward, House is approached at the elevator by hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), who attempts to persuade House to fulfill his duties at the hospital's walk-in clinic, a task he loathes because of the uncomplicated nature of the cases brought to him. House refuses, claiming that Cuddy cannot fire him, and hurriedly leaves. Later, when House's team attempts to perform an MRI on Adler, they discover that House's authorization has been revoked. House confronts Cuddy, accusing her of disrespect and risk to a patient's life. Cuddy grants him authorization for diagnostics in exchange for his required attendance in the clinic.

During the MRI, Adler's throat closes up, which forces Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison)—two members of House's team—to perform a tracheotomy. House, while working in the hospital's clinic, treats a ten-year-old boy whose mother allows him to use his asthmatic inhaler only intermittently, instead of daily, as her son's doctor prescribed. The mother's reasoning is that the idea of children taking such strong medicine so frequently bothers her greatly. House sarcastically scolds her for making such a drastic decision without first learning more about asthma. During his rant on the effects of steroids, House stumbles on an idea and leaves quickly to treat Adler; he diagnoses her with cerebral vasculitis, despite having no proof. Adler temporarily improves greatly on the steroids.

On House's insistence, neurologist Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) and Dr. Allison Cameron break into Adler's house to find anything that might account for Adler's symptoms—seizures; dysphasia; airway constriction; and positive, if transient, response to steroids. They find an opened package of sliced ham (which is not kosher) in Adler's kitchen, leading Foreman to reveal that Dr. Wilson had lied to House to convince him to treat Adler, because Wilson is Jewish and Adler is not. House dismisses the lie and concludes that Adler is suffering from cysticercosis due to eating undercooked pork; the tapeworm inside of her reproduced, and its larvae were absorbed into her blood stream, infesting her brain. However, wishing to die with dignity, Adler refuses to accept more treatments unless there is evidence that the related diagnoses are correct, but House attempts to persuade her otherwise. During the conversation, Adler asks for the cause of the limp in House's right leg. House reveals he had an infarction in his thigh muscles that led to muscle death, which could have been avoided if his doctor had the correct diagnosis. House continues, claiming that death is inevitably ugly and that Adler cannot die with dignity, but still she refuses treatment. House is ready to dismiss the case when Chase provides an idea for non-invasive evidence of Adler's tapeworm infection: using an X-ray, House proves that Adler is infested with tapeworms and therefore her condition is treatable. After the revelation of this evidence, Adler happily agrees to take her medication, thus ending the case.

Production

Conception and filming

Series creator David Shore traced the concept for House to his background as a patient at a teaching hospital. Shore recalled that "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." In 2004, Shore and executive producers Katie Jacobs and Paul Attanasio pitched House to Fox as a medical detective show, a hospital whodunit where the doctors would be the sleuths looking for the source of symptoms. After the show was sold, the idea for House was added.

A central part of the premise was that the main character would be handicapped in some way. Initially, House was to be confined to a wheelchair, but FOX turned down this interpretation (for which the crew was later grateful.) The wheelchair became a scar on House's face, which later turned into a bad leg necessitating the use of a cane.

The episode was written by the series creator David Shore, and was shot in Canada (while later episodes were shot on soundstages in California). Shore said that the writings of the Berton Roueché, a The New Yorker staff writer who chronicled intriguing medical cases, inspired the plots for "Pilot" and other early episodes.

Casting

Producer Bryan Singer originally demanded that an American actor play the role of House; according to Singer, the more foreign actors he watched audition for the part, the more set he was that an American was needed. At the time of the casting session, actor Hugh Laurie was filming Flight of the Phoenix. He put together an audition tape of his own in a Namibian hotel room, the only place with enough light, and apologized for his appearance (which Singer compared to a "bin Laden video"); Singer was impressed by Laurie's performance and commented on how well this "American actor" was able to grasp the character, not realizing Laurie is British.

Laurie stated in an interview that he was initially under the impression the show was about Dr. James Wilson, with Dr. House as the "sidekick", because the script referred to him as a doctor with "boyish" looks. Laurie did not realize that House was the protagonist until he read the full teleplay. According to Shore, "it's easy to make an asshole character unlikable. What's tricky is to make them watchable. And Hugh came in and brought everything that was there to the part, the nastiness, the not politically correct stuff. And yet you wanted to watch him, you wanted to spend time with him."

Similarities between House and the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes appear in the pilot; Shore explained that he was always a Sherlock Holmes fan, and found the character's traits of indifference to his clients unique. House and Holmes have only one real friend (Dr. Wilson and Dr. Watson, respectively) who connects the cerebral hero to human concerns. Both come to rapid conclusions after the briefest examination of a client or patient, and both use drugs (cocaine for Holmes, Vicodin for House). House and Holmes share the same address, 221B. The main patient in the pilot is named Rebecca Adler, after Irene Adler, a female character from the first Sherlock Holmes short story.

Robert Sean Leonard (Dr. James Wilson) read the pilot scripts to Numb3rs and was planning on auditioning for the part, but was drawn to auditioning for House because he enjoyed the role of being "the guy counts on", as well as the similarities to Sherlock Homes. Leonard states that he didn't think he auditioned well, but that his long friendship with Singer helped land him the role. When asked in an interview why his character would ever be friends with House, Leonard replied:

I think Wilson puts up with House for the same reason that millions of people watch him every week. I think he’s really dynamic and fun and audacious and self-deprecating. All those things that I think make people really appealing, and he tells it like it is. The money things, he doesn’t tend to pay you back, but I have a lot of friends like that. So I don’t find it that much of a mystery. I think House is a very attractive character. I think most people would want to be friends with him.

— Robert Sean Leonard, interview with BuddyTV

Reception

House's premiere episode was generally well received. Critics reacted positively to the character of House; Tom Shales of The Washington Post called House "the most electrifying character to hit television in years". The New York Magazine called the series "medical TV at its most satisfying and basic", and stated that the cast consisted of " actors playing doctors who care about their patients", while The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert appreciated that the episode did not sugarcoat the flaws of the characters to assuage viewers' fears about "HMO factories". Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times said that though they might be a turn-off to some viewers, the gore and "derivative gall" of the show were positives to fans of procedural dramas. Critics considered the series to be a bright spot among FOX's otherwise reality show-based schedules.

The episode's format was positively and negatively compared to a rival television series, Medical Investigation. USA Today favorably stated House as more character-driven than Investigation's "plot-driven procedural", while Variety's Brian Lowry stated that the two were too similar and House was mismatched among FOX's other programs. Other complaints included perceived stereotypes of young, attractive doctors. Sherwin Nuland of Slate gave the first episodes of the series a highly negative review, stating that "Of all the medical errata in this series (and there are some whoppers), the greatest is surely the conceit that a physician so remote, so neglectful of duty, so sadistic, so downright cruel as Gregory House would be tolerated in any hospital."

The premiere attracted approximately seven million viewers, making it the 62nd most-watched show for the week of November 15–21, 2004. Christopher Hoag, who composed the music for Pilot and the first season of House, was nominated for a 2005 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore). Jon Ehrlich and Jason Derlatka (show composer of ABC's Invasion) scored all subsequent episodes.

References

1. ^ Shore, David (2006). "Developing The Concept". Hulu.com. The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
2. ^ Gibson, Stacy (2008). "The House that Dave Built". University of Toronto Magazine. Retrieved 2008-09-28. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
3. Shore, David; Jacobs, Katie (2006). "House's Disability". Hulu.com. The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved 2008-09-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. ^ Brioux, Bill (2004-11-14). "Compelling 'House' Doctor". The Toronto Sun. p. TV2.
5. Staff (2006-01-29). "Behind the Scenes of 'House'". Entertainment Tonight. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
6. ^ Chauncey, Sarah. "House, M.D.: Season One". Reel.com. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
7. Keveney, Bill (2004-11-16). "Hugh Laurie gets into 'House'". USA Today. p. D8.
8. "Hugh Laurie Interview". Inside the Actor's Studio. Season 12. Episode 189. 2006. BRAVO Network. {{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |episodelink=, |seriesno=, and |serieslink= (help)
9. Werts, Diane (2006-09-04). "'House' thrives with inspiration from Sherlock Holmes". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
10. Leonard, Robert (2006). "Robert Sean Leonard On His Audition". Hulu.com. The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
11. Wolk, Josh (2007-07-03). "A Summer Away from the 'House'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
12. Kubicek, John (2007-10-09). "Exclusive Interview: 'House' Star Robert Sean Leonard". BuddyTV. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
13. Davies, Hugh (2004-11-20). "Dr Laurie has viewers of US TV in stitches". The Daily Telegraph. p. N9.
14. ^ Bianco, Robert (2004-11-14). "There's a doctor worth watching in 'House'". USA Today. p. D1. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
15. Shales, Tom (2004-11-16). "'House': Watching Is the Best Medicine". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-12-30. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
16. Leonard, John (2004-11-15). "Scrub Par". New York Magazine. p. 1. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
17. Gilbert, Matt (2004-11-16). "Strong Prognosis for medical show". The Boston Globe. p. D1.
18. ^ Stanley, Alessandra (2004-11-16). "With Terminal Witticism, Even Cancer Can Be Fun". The New York Times. p. E5.
19. ^ Franklin, Nancy (2004-11-29). "Playing Doctor". The New Yorker. p. 168.
20. ^ Lowry, Brian (2004-11-21). "Fox prescribes edgy Rx for a dramatic improvement". Variety. p. 57.
21. Nuland, Sherwin (2004-11-30). "Is There a Doctor in the House?". Slate Magazine.
22. "Viewer numbers for the week of November 15–21, 2004". American Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
23. "57th annual Emmy awards". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 2005-09-18. Retrieved 2008-08-27.

External links

• "Pilot" at the House, MD Guide
• House M.D. Pilot at IMDb
• Medical Reviews of House: Pilot
• Extended Medical Review of House 101: Pilot

• House (TV series) episodes
• Television pilots
• 2004 television episodes