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| Category Advertising - Broadcast Date 6/14/2006 |
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Cranky doctor 'House' wins fans
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| By KEVIN WILLIAMSON - Calgary Sun |
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 There's one medical mystery the creator of House never wants to solve.
Namely, what does he do when he runs out of diseases for his cranky, cane-bound hero to diagnose?
"That was a concern," admits executive producer David Shore at the Banff television festival yesterday.
"I really thought that was going to be a huge problem, but somehow we've managed to do it. I guess we've learned medicine is less than an exact science, which has been a blessing for us."
And, of course, the show's scribes all read up on obscure, unheard-of ailments. "We also have a researcher who looks for stories. One of our writers is a doctor and he's constantly looking for ideas. And we have three outside doctors who review all our scripts (for accuracy)."
Yet even armed with reams of research and a commanding anchor in actor Hugh Laurie, few thought House boasted a prescription for success. For one, it's far more cerebral than, say, Crossing Jordan. For another, Laurie's House only has his piercing intellect to compensate for his cantankerous bedside manner.
Despite this, though, the series is enormously popular.
Some of that in the U.S. is due to its post-American Idol timeslot. But in Canada, the drama is even hotter.
In Toronto and Vancouver, House, which airs on Global Tuesdays, is higher rated than Idol.
"You do have your doubts," Shore recalls of the days prior to the series' premiere in 2004. "But you write what you want to write and what you find interesting ... If you're calculating where the audience is, then you're doomed because even if it works, you're not going to enjoy it because it's not interesting to you."
As for House not being as warm and fuzzy as other TV protagonists, Shore says audiences appear more willing to accept flawed characters.
"Maybe HBO has changed things. There was always the potential for this, but networks play it safe. They like a nice, warm, fuzzy character because if it fails, then they can say, 'I don't know what we did wrong.' House is a little more nasty ...
"I think they're fascinated by House, what he does, what he has to say.
He's complicated.
"I know it's popular to bash Fox and I get that, but I think we were lucky to wind up on Fox and I wouldn't have predicted that."
As for Laurie, Shore reports the actor "is signed for years and years.
Don't worry -- he ain't going anywhere. It was stupid, really, to name the show House. Hugh actually didn't want to have that be the name of the show. He didn't want it front and centre ... We're pretty dependent on Hugh Laurie. Or we need another character with the same last name."
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