“House M.D.” debuted on Fox back in 2004 and, despite some decrease in audiences, it is still riding the high wave of popularity. In fact, the television drama starring a ruggedly unkempt Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House is so popular that it was just named world’s most watched television show, as The Examiner can confirm.
Figures from Eurodata TV Worldwide put “House” at the lead of all television shows that ran last year, ahead of former winners “CSI: Las Vegas” and “CSI: Miami.” Speaking strictly numbers, in 2008 alone, “House” had 81.8 million viewers from 66 countries glued to their TV screens to see what would happen next, which is far more than the winners in previous years got, the aforementioned publication explains. The potential numbers of viewers for “House” in 2008 is actually of 1.6 billion.
When the medical drama premiered 5 years ago, critics were not exactly pleased with how it was going, fans might remember. The unlikely lead character, the fact that he had little to no redeeming quality (his brilliant mind not included) and the somewhat complicated storyline of each episode seemed to hint that it would not fare well with the audience. Two episodes later, the public was hooked, and producers – and Fox, implicitly – learned that they had made the right choice when deciding to present audiences with something entirely different from what was aired at that point in time.
It could very well be that this is exactly why the public is still hooked on “House,” The Examiner believes. Both “House” (Hugh Laurie) and “CSI: Miami” (David Caruso) feature leading men who have almost nothing to do with the commercial version of a “hottie,” which actually makes them more appealing to audiences. The fact that episodes are rarely connected to one another in storyline also helps greatly, because it makes both shows more approachable by all segments of the public, the publication further says.
As of now, “House M.D.” is gearing up to enter into its sixth season. The first spoiler as to what’s next for Gregory House and his team has already been made public when Michael Ausiello of The Ausiello Files revealed that Tony winner Lin-Manuel Miranda had been cast as House’s roommate at the mental institution he checked in at the end of the fifth season. For more on this, do keep an eye on this space.
Monday, Sept. 21
8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT HOUSE (2-Hour Season Premiere)
While Fox is yet to announced a premiere date for the sixth season premiere of House, the network has confirmed that the opening episode will air for two hours. As fans might expect, it will also prominently feature the main character inside his new home: a mental institution.
Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello speculates that House will do his best to get along with his fellow patient there, even going so far as forming a hospital band. On what is the TV columnist basing this predicition? Producers are searching for older actor who “stomps to his own beat” and is a “real percussionist” (we’ve assumed this role would fall to Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda, but it appears that he will portray a different character.)
The show is also seeking for a young actress that can play the cello. As loyal viewers know, House himself is a quasi-master at the piano, guitar, harmonica and saxophone. Sounds like a band worth lining up for to us!
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[STOMP] - male, AFRICAN AMERICAN or CAUCASIAN, 50s-70s, patient in a mental hospital. ACTOR DOES NOT SPEAK but constantly stomps to his own beat. looking for actors who are REAL PERCUSSIONISTS. Actors MUST be available the entire shoot and rehearsal (6/15-7/16).
Tony winner Lin-Manuel Miranda has been cast as House’s psych hospital roomie, sources confirm to me exclusively.
Miranda, best known for writing and starring in the Broadway musical In The Heights, will appear in at least two episodes beginning with the show’s sixth season premiere this fall.
A House insider tells me producers are looking for other “interesting actors” to populate the psychiatric facility that became House’s home in last month’s finale. So if you’re an actor who excels at riding the crazy train, forward this story to your agent ASAP.
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire/ - OVERVIEW: America’s favorite doctor is back for more puzzling medical mysteries in the Primetime Emmy(R) winning series “House”! Hugh Laurie returns to his two-time Golden Globe-winning and Primetime Emmy-nominated role as Dr. Gregory House. Watch the perplexing Dr. House, whose biting and sarcastic wit have driven his staff to quit, in this exciting new season. This 5-disc set includes all 24 episodes from the compelling fifth season, plus exclusive bonus features including behind-the-scenes featurettes, episode commentaries and interviews with cast, writers and producers. House: Seasons 1-5 Collection also available on August 25th!
Bonus Features:
* HOUSE MEETS A MILESTONE: THE 100TH EPISODE - Executive Producers David Shore and Katie Jacobs talk about this latest landmark for “House” and about their hopes for the future of the show.
* KEEPING IT REAL: THE WRITERS AND MEDICAL CONSULTANTS - David Foster speaks about how they diligently keep the scripts and sequences actual and factual. In short, we’ll learn how the writers and consultants “keep it real” week after week.
* DR. MOM: CUDDY’S STORYLINE - In this featurette Lisa Edelstein speaks about the powerful Adoption/Becoming a Mother storyline written specifically for her character about how she thinks that being a mom will affect her character and her relationship with House.
* ANATOMY OF A TEASER: The “Anatomy of” DVD feature takes a step further to explore the weekly teaser - its purpose and development - which opens each new episode of “House.”
* VISITORS TO THE HOUSE: CASTING GUEST STARS - Delve into the weekly casting process, the importance of securing the right guest actor for the right role, any specific challenges encountered, and how it feels when a guest star knocks his/her performance out of the park!
* EPISODE COMMENTARIES WITH CAST AND CREW
SYNOPSIS: Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is devoid of bedside manner and wouldn’t even talk to his patients if he could get away with it. Dealing with his own constant physical pain, he uses a cane that seems to punctuate his acerbic, brutally honest demeanor. While his behavior can border on antisocial, House is a maverick physician whose unconventional thinking and flawless instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect. An infectious disease specialist, he’s a brilliant diagnostician who loves the challenges of the medical puzzles he must solve in order to save lives.
www.HouseDVD.com
TECHNICAL INFORMATION:
Street Date: August 25, 2009
Copyright: 2009 Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Price: $59.98 SRP
Running Time: 18 Hours 25 Minutes
Layers: DVD-9 (Single Sided)
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Technical Info: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, English SDH, Spanish Subtitles
Universal Studios Home Entertainment is a unit of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios (www.universalstudios.com). Universal Studios is a part of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80%-owned by General Electric, with 20% owned by Vivendi.
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Was the Cuddy sex a fantasy? Was Cameron and Chase’s wedding real? We asked House executive producer David Shore to answer our burning questions about the finale.
After House’s detox and the Huddy sex turned out to be his fantasies, what was real in the episode? The Chase/Cameron wedding? The conversations with Wilson?
There has been some speculation about this, but we weren’t trying to pull any fast ones on the viewers. Every scene that House wasn’t in was real. But even the stuff that House was in was real—it was just his perception of the lipstick/pills that was distorted. And there was no detox or sex.
Will House really get sober this time?
He’s certainly going to purse that. We want to treat this seriously and we want to go down that road.
Why did he enter a psychiatric institution rather than rehab?
The problems are deeper than just the drugs, which are obviously an essential element of it. The fact is he used plenty of Vicodin before, but until Kutner’s death, on top of Amber’s death, he was somehow able to cope with it. He knows he needs to be locked up somewhere or it’s just not going to work. He realizes he has a problem and he has to do something about it. How that will manifest itself is what next season is all about.
What’s the future for a Cuddy/House romantic relationship?
Initally, there are bigger issues on the table, but it would be dishonest to just let that disappear. Obviously House has feelings for her. Even though the love affair didn’t happen, in House’s mind it did.
Will House be back at work when the season begins?
No. We want to deal with this in as realistic way as possible. We are going to be with House, but it’s not going to be at Princeton-Plainsboro. We want to take it through the process that House is going through.
How will House’s group at work function without his presence?
It’s always nice to pull the central cog out of something and see what happens. How Foreman and Thirteen react; how Cameron and Chase react. Those are all the things that will make this fun.
We love House. And we understand what they were trying to do with this end-of-the-season storyline. But in the end, it was a cheap trick to play on viewers. We’ll get to that shortly. In the meantime, an overview of other developments from the fifth season finale…
The Patient of the Week was a guy whose right and left brains weren’t communicating. He couldn’t control his left hand. Pretty cool stuff. As we’ll get to momentarily, this was clear foreshadowing for House’s condition, as the idea of who we really are and what sort of tricks our minds can play on us was at the center of this patient’s tale.
Also, Cameron initially agreed to do away with her ex-husband’s sperm in order to marry Chase. But he soon had a realization: she didn’t have doubts about him or their marriage. She just didn’t wanna kill the final reminder of a man she once loved. As a result, he kindly told her to keep the sperm (how often do you see that sentence, or sentiment, written?).
As part of the ending montage, Cameron and Chase got married.
On to the main, controversial storyline: throughout the episode, House tried to make Cuddy angry in order to determine her true feelings for him. He couldn’t figure out her reaction to the hot sex they shared the night before. This was actually hilarious, as House tried to get actual evidence (such as a thermal scan) of Cuddy’s feelings, with Wilson partly enbaling and partly scoffing at his BFF.
Late in the episode, though, it all became clear to House: the sex never happened. Everything from last week’s episode - about Cuddy helping House detox from Vicotin - was made up. It was in House’s head. Cuddy never came over, they never slept together and the real kicker, as House stood in Cuddy’s office and realized all this, was that Amber never left his mind. She (and Kuter for a split second) showed up again and basically taunted House.
He had to admit he had a serious problem. He told Cuddy, who went and told Wilson. The episode ended with Wilson dropping House at a psychiatric hospital. Look, the episode was well done and Hugh Laurie was tremendous, as always. But it’s a very cheap trick to actually show a series of events (from last week) that never took place. It’s tricking the audience. Yes, we’re excited to see where this storyline goes and, yes, it was executed well by the show.
But there’s no way we can ever fully get behind the concept of actually showing numerous scenes and then basically saying to loyal viewers: Fooled you!
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