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Template:House (TV series) episode

"Pilot" is the first episode of the television series House. The episode premiered on the FOX network on November 16, 2004. It introduces the character 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 grade-school teacher after she collapses in class.

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 show's producers wanted House handicapped in some way, and gave the character a damaged leg arising from an improper diagnosis.

The episode received generally positive reviews; the character of House was widely noted as a unique aspect of the episode and series, though reviewers such as Sherwin Nuland of Slate believed that such a cruel character would not be tolerated in real life. Other complaints with the episode included stereotyped supporting characters and an implausible premise. The initial broadcast of "Pilot" was watched by approximately seven million viewers, making it the sixty-second 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. When Wilson claims that the patient is his cousin, House agrees to take the case. Hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) approaches House in the elevator and attempts to persuade him to fulfill his duties at the hospital's walk-in clinic, a task House loathes because of the uncomplicated nature of the cases brought to him. House refuses, claiming that Cuddy cannot fire him due to tenure, and hurriedly leaves. When House's team attempts to perform an MRI on Adler, they discover that House's authorization has been revoked by the administrator; Cuddy grants House authorization for diagnostics in exchange for his required attendance in the clinic.

During the MRI, Adler's throat closes up, prompting two members of House's team, Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), to perform a tracheotomy. Working in the hospital's clinic, House treats a ten-year-old boy whose mother allows him to use his asthmatic inhaler only intermittently instead of daily as prescribed. House scolds the mother for making such a drastic medical decision without first learning more about asthma. During his monologue, 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 a steroid treatment.

On House's insistence, neurologist Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) and Cameron break into Adler's house to find anything that might account for Adler's symptoms—seizures, dysphasia, and airway constriction. 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 (Wilson is Jewish). 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. Adler, wishing to die with dignity, refuses to accept more treatments unless there is evidence that the diagnosis is 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 made the correct diagnosis. House continues, claiming that death is ugly and that Adler cannot die with dignity, but she still refuses treatment. House is ready to dismiss the case when Chase provides an idea for noninvasive evidence of Adler's tapeworm infection; using an X-ray, House proves that Adler is infested with tapeworms and her condition is treatable. After seeing the evidence, Adler happily agrees to take her medication to kill the tapeworms.

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 show's 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; later episodes would be 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 sure he was that an American was needed. At the time of the casting session, actor Hugh Laurie was filming the movie 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 its appearance (which Singer compared to a "bin Laden video"). Singer was impressed by Laurie's performance and commented on how well the "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 House 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 to audition 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 stated that he did not 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 withBuddyTV

Australian actor Jesse Spencer's agent suggested that Spencer audition for the role of Chase, but he was hesitant, fearing the show might be similar to General Hospital. Once the actor saw the scripts, he changed his mind; Spencer then persuaded the producers to change his character into an Australian. Omar Epps, who plays Foreman, was influenced by his work as a troubled intern on the TV show ER. Epps and costar Jennifer Morrison read the scripts and believed that the show would be either a hit or miss.

Reception

House's premiere episode was generally well received. Critics reacted positively to the character of House; Tom Shales of The Washington Post called him "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 come to 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 the characters might be a turn-off to some viewers, the gore and "derivative gall" of the show were positives to fans of procedural dramas; TV Guide's Matt Roush stated House was an "uncommon cure for the common medical drama". Critics considered the series to be a bright spot among FOX's otherwise reality show-based broadcast schedule.

The episode's format was compared to a rival television series, Medical Investigation. USA Today favorably stated House as more character-driven than Investigation's "plot-driven procedural", and the San Francisco Chronicle felt that House was the better show due to the title character. Variety's Brian Lowry, meanwhile, stated that the two shows 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." Kay McFadden of The Seattle Times felt that Laurie's portrayal of House humanized the character, but also revealed the show's deepest flaw: "a reliance on shallow cuteness for comic relief". Other complaints included a lack of characterization for the supporting characters in the first few episodes.

The premiere attracted approximately seven million viewers in the United States, making it the sixty-second most-watched show for the week of November 15–21, 2004. The United Kingdom terrestrial premiere was broadcast on June 9, 2005 by Five and garnered a ten percent share, 1.8 million viewers. Christopher Hoag, who composed the music for "Pilot" and the first season of House, was nominated in the 2005 Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Music Composition for the episode.

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. Keveney, Bill (2004-11-16). "Hugh Laurie gets into 'House'". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-10-26.
7. "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)
8. Werts, Diane (2006-09-04). "'House' thrives with inspiration from Sherlock Holmes". The Philadelphia Inquirer. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
9. Leonard, Robert (2006). "Robert Sean Leonard On His Audition". Hulu.com. The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
10. Wolk, Josh (2007-07-03). "A Summer Away from the 'House'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
11. Kubicek, John (2007-10-09). "Exclusive Interview: 'House' Star Robert Sean Leonard". BuddyTV. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
12. Staff (2007-09-17). "Doctor in the house". The Star. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
13. Marquand, Sarrah (2006-10-04). "Young doctor". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
14. "Omar Epps Is Back in the 'House'!". AOL-Time Warner. 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
15. Dahl, Oscar (2007-10-16). "Exclusive Interview: Omar Epps and Jennifer Morrison, from 'House'". BuddyTV. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
16. Davies, Hugh (2004-11-20). "Dr Laurie has viewers of US TV in stitches". The Daily Telegraph. p. N9.
17. ^ Bianco, Robert (2004-11-14). "There's a doctor worth watching in 'House'". USA Today. p. D1. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
18. 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)
19. Leonard, John (2004-11-15). "Scrub Par". New York Magazine. p. 1. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
20. Gilbert, Matt (2004-11-16). "Strong Prognosis for medical show". The Boston Globe. p. D1.
21. ^ Stanley, Alessandra (2004-11-16). "With Terminal Witticism, Even Cancer Can Be Fun". The New York Times. p. E5.
22. Roush, Matt (2004-11-08). "Roush Review, Doctor Feel bad; Don't ask this grouch to make house calls". TV Guide. p. 1. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
23. ^ Franklin, Nancy (2004-11-29). "Playing Doctor". The New Yorker. p. 168.
24. Bianculli, David (2004-11-16). "'House' gets fine treatment". Daily News. p. 107.
25. ^ Goodman, Tim (2004-11-15). "Network meddling by Fox execs starts the deathwatch for 'House'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-10-24. Cite error: The named reference "sfgate-review" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
26. ^ Lowry, Brian (2004-11-21). "Fox prescribes edgy Rx for a dramatic improvement". Variety. p. 57.
27. Nuland, Sherwin (2004-11-30). "Is There a Doctor in the House?". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
28. McFadden, Kay (2004-11-15). "It's worth making a "House" call tomorrow". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2008-10-25.
29. "Viewer numbers for the week of November 15–21, 2004". American Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2007-01-01.
30. Brook, Stephen (2005-06-10). "Springwatch gives BBC2 a natural high". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
31. "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

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