Of the 177 episodes of House that aired on Fox network from 2004 to 2012, its star Hugh Laurie has only seen about twenty. Five years later, Laurie still seems uncomfortable with the laud surrounding his portrayal of Gregory House, M.D., one of television’s most iconic anti-heroes. But one could argue if he’s turned on a television recently, he’s seen likenesses of himself everywhere. We’ve seen the show that House built a dozen times over; brilliant but damaged protagonists live on in the forms of How to Get Away with Murder's Annalise, 24's Jack Bauer, House of Card's Francis Underwood, Breaking Bad's Walter White, and more. But show creators David Shore and executive producer Katie Jacobs credit House with doing it first and doing it best.
“I am personally tired of smart fuck-ups,” says Jacobs, “but if House premiered today, I still think it would stand out. Hugh, in that role, circled a square as a complete character—one that’s complicated and funny and deep and sexy beyond all get out.”
In some capacity, House was nominated for Emmys, SAG awards, and Golden Globes every year from 2005 to 2011, and it was the most watched television show in the world in 2008. (Laurie mounted the Guinness Book of World Records page on his study wall, but clarifies that somebody framed it for him: “It would be a bit sad if I was going out framing my own world records.”)
Inspired by the “Diagnosis” column in The New York Times magazine and “what doctors really say when you leave the room,” Jacobs pitched a medical mystery with an unusual lead to Fox, called upon David Shore to fulfill the blind writing deal he’d made with her production company, and, as she notes, “The rest is history.”
Hugh Laurie (Gregory House): It’s strange, but there was very, very little sex in the show—which is why it was sexy. Once people actually start having sex, it rapidly ceases to become interesting. On television, sex is unsexy. I can just see that being a quotation, but you know what I mean. The camera is in a situation the camera would never be. I don’t want to be in the room with two people when they’re having sex. I hardly want to be in the room when I’m having sex. The sex on House was rare and unspoken and often unseen, and I thought that was better. But that makes me sound like a repressed Englishman.
Katie Jacobs (House executive producer): When we were making the show, alongside The O.C. and the like, Fox used this word in casting: “Fox-ilicious.” So when we were bringing Hugh in, he wore this pin that said, “Sexy?” It was funny then, but he actually became a huge sex symbol.
Jennifer Morrison (Allison Cameron): We, the cast and the crew, all loved when people started calling Hugh “sexy” because he really is the sexiest. The thing is, he is obviously an incredibly handsome man, but he’s also truly a Renaissance man, something that they highlighted in the show. He’s an incredible musician. He’s an incredible writer. He’s also a director. He’s smart. He’s charming. We all felt he was rightfully endowed with his sex-symbol title.
Sela Ward (Stacy Warner): My biggest contribution to the journey of House was having the distinction of being Hugh Laurie’s first on-screen kiss. Truly his first. I like to think it set him up nicely seasoned for the cheerleader “ménage a six” in the finale.
Laurie: Oh, Lord. Five years later, you’re asking me to choose a woman for House? I can’t. I’m slightly blushing at the idea of comparing romantic loves. It seems ungallant. I will say I thought the character of Cuddy was absolutely brilliant. Lisa Edelstein was astounding the way that she was able to withstand the appalling way that House treated her somewhere between bullying and teasing and obsessive—like that kid who’s got a crush but doesn’t know how to say it.
Jacobs: Have you ever seen those pictures of House and Cuddy on the beach that had everyone asking, “Where was that episode?” It was a big thing getting House and Cuddy together, and we shot one thing and it wasn’t right. The season opener of seven was completely different, a worthy effort in the style of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. When I looked at the cut, I realized that’s not how we see House and Cuddy—goofy, light, romantic comedy. It was not their sweet spot. And I said, “We’ve earned the right to change this.” So, we shot another thing, and I still don’t know if it’s right. Is it always better to leave it to people’s imagination?
David Shore (House creator): The question I get the most is about Huddy, and that’s not one I love. People hated that he drove his car into her house. It was intended that he looks in, and knows there’s nobody in the room before he drives into it. But that may have been a mistake. We may have not done everything exactly ideally. You quote me on that, they’ll go crazy. I really do love that relationship and I’m glad we explored it. Lisa did Cuddy so beautifully. A boss character of somebody that outrageous could easily turn into a caricature. She had to walk that line of trying to control him, but simultaneously appreciating his genius. I think she was the perfect boss, and I think in some ways she was the perfect girlfriend. But the question is, is there a perfect girlfriend for House?
Shore: I love that we started the series with House and Wilson and we ended it with House and Wilson. Ending with a non-traditional romantic story is atypical, and that exploration of male friendship is something you don’t see on TV very often. You see a lot of wingmen giving each other crap, and House most certainly did that. But, the idea of guys giving each other crap who loved each other was new.
Laurie: Way before this idiot word “bromance” was coined—I wish people wouldn’t jam words together like that, there are enough words—I think it’s true that there was a great sort of weird romantic love between House and Wilson. I suppose that was the show’s central core relationship, and it was irresistible to me. I certainly did grow… I’d stop short of saying romantically involved with Robert Sean Leonard, but we became very close and enjoyed each other’s company. He made me laugh an indecent amount. I think the writers too enjoyed writing that relationship. Shore, in particular, had a real knack for it. There was a scene in which House has been suspended from the hospital, so he’s taken the role of the housewife in Wilson’s apartment. Wilson gets home one day, and House has got a basket of laundry and he says something like, “Your shirts aren’t dry yet, but you’ve got plenty of underwear.” Shore changed the line to “We’ve got plenty of underwear,” in what I thought was one of the funniest rewrites you could possibly have in the smallest number of letters.
Jacobs: You can’t really separate Hugh from House from House. The thing about TV at the time was that you bring in many choices; Hugh was the only one who came in for House because it was clear he was the only one. He’s a gunslinger. He’s a superhero. The cane is his secret weapon. First season I remember saying, “He’s Mick Jagger with a stethoscope.” The tennis shoes were Hugh’s idea—a brilliant fucking addition.
Anne Dudek (Amber Volakis aka Cutthroat Bitch): We’re in what people are calling “the Golden Age of TV.” There’s so much good TV, and so much good writing for TV right now. But during the era of House, there wasn’t a lot of entertaining television that was shooting so high in terms of its quality, its writing, and dealing with complicated issues. They really trusted that the audience was smart and looking for smart content. It wasn’t escapist television so much as thought-provoking. Of course, that’s Hugh Laurie 100 percent. He anchored the show and its ability to address deep things people wanted to think about and be moved by. Who else can play that character and have you love him and hate him so passionately?
Olivia Wilde (“Thirteen,” Remy Hadley): Hugh is a mensch. Every day he gave us humor, love, and intense focus on creating the best possible show. He set the bar for professionalism and raised our standards for our own work. To this day my process is formed by lessons I learned from him, and he’s one of the funniest humans alive.
Odette Annable (Jessica Adams): I was such a fan of Hugh Laurie, I was actually shitting myself first day on set. Hugh looked at me and said, “I have a feeling you’re sticking around, so I’m giving you a nickname.” He still calls me Thumper to this day. Our trailers was parallel, so sometimes I’d see him in his window playing the piano and it was the most beautiful playing I’d ever heard. And every time, without fail, he would look up and give me a little nod. I’ll never forget it. It made me feel so special and welcomed, and he was just, without knowing it—because he's the most self-deprecating person ever—the perfect leader.
Charlyne Yi (Chi Park): I remember having to hit Hugh over the head with a cane. He’s kind of an intimidating guy, and right after I hit him for the first time, he turned around and I remember being scared. He was smiling and asked me to hit him harder.
Amber Tamblyn (Martha M. Masters): The week before my last episode, Hugh said, “Let’s get a drink on your last night.” We’d gone and had drinks before. I actually wrote a poem “Headlock, Heartchoke” for him about us having some bourbon together. I went to meet him at a local bar near Fox Studios in LA, and he had set up on entire going-away party for me. The cast and crew were there. He invited my family. He went way, way out of his way and paid for a huge dinner for everybody. I’m talking 80, 100 people. He toasted me. It meant so much to me because you know it was a tough show, especially for Hugh as the title character. For him to do such a grand gesture for somebody else on a work night… I’ll never forget that. It was the sweetest thing that anyone’s ever done for me. If Hugh wanted to go skydiving without a parachute, I’d probably do it.
Lin-Manuel Miranda (Juan Alvarez aka Alvie): I was living in Spain when my first episode aired, and I couldn't figure out how to watch it there. I ended up Skyping my friends in New York as they pointed their computer at the TV. The next morning I'm on the train in Madrid, and someone comes up to me, "Are you Alvie!?" It turns out House was, like, the most bootlegged show on planet earth at that point. There was nothing else like it at the time, though it did spawn a cottage industry of TV imitators—“troubled genius, but, man, is he/she good at the job.” Throw a rock and you’ll hit 50 procedurals like that now, but it still really carved out its own space. I wrote this secret rap after I finished my episode on the occasion of Hugh’s Emmy nomination, a “thank you” for having me along for a small part of the ride. Hugh is just brilliant. Full stop.
Jesse Spencer (Robert Chase): Hugh had a photographic memory and would think on the same levels that House could, observing and entertaining complex ideas at the same time very succinctly. He was fantastic to work with and watch. And, Hugh actually got me back into playing music, which I’ve been playing pretty solidly for the last ten years now. We did Band from TV, and I still bring the tailored travel guitar, with the House logo on the top, that he gave us on sets.
Peter Jacobson (Chris Taub): The big wrap gift from Hugh was a motorized moped bicycle. I remember a crane bringing in the crates of these things into the back of the studio. It was so generous. But my favorite one that I still have, that I live on, is the automatic foot massager. For me, though, the greatest moment of all was when we begged Hugh to convince Fox to take us to the Super Bowl—me, Jesse, Omar, Hugh and David Shore—when House was literally the most watched show in the world, and we had the spot after. Next thing you know, we’re on a private plane to Dallas with others from the network. Fifty-yard line. Tenth row. Hugh doesn’t even care about football.
Shore: Hugh had the ability to walk into a scene where he was telling somebody they’re dying, and make a joke, and the scene was no less serious, no less dramatic, no less powerful. Hugh Laurie freed us up to write however we wanted. With virtually any other actor on the planet, those scenes could not have been written the way they were. I still have the Nikes he got us in my closet. I want them to last forever. He got us all canes at the very end. Everybody who comes in my house thinks it’s the cane. It’s not.
Jacobs: He gave us so many presents, I don’t even know. He’s English and embarrassed of his success, so he’s trying to apologize. Maybe they’re not really similar, House and Hugh.
Laurie: How are House and I most alike? I loved and recognized the weird, intriguing combination of the very dark self-loathing character, and essentially an 8-year-old boy who delights in messing with people and creating mayhem. I felt, “Yeah. I have both of those.” I am eight years old, but I do also recognize some of the very dark places that House goes to in his head, that his life, or almost any human life, is secondary to his pursuit of truth and fact. I thought that—in its peculiar, twisted way—was a rather noble calling and a rare one.
We’ve very different in terms of intelligence. As you can tell from the way I speak, I’m operating in a much lower gear. But actors are almost always required to play people cleverer than they are. We’re there to be pretty, though I don’t do that well either. I think that was probably the fun of it: playing someone with such an agile brain who was able to get in and out of metaphors and very complicated, nuanced abstract ideas and then instantly swivel to the most childish possible prank that he would play on Wilson. I think that was David Shore’s great triumph: the agility of it, the fact that he was able to combine so many different tones and moods. The thing could turn on a dime, and it never felt forced or unbelievable. It felt like it was all part of one brain, one intellect.
Why does House still stand? Maybe people sensed the reverence that the show and character had for truth above sentiment, and that struck a chord somewhere. But the truth is that I don’t know if people really care about genres or messages or that kind of thing. I think they just care that a thing’s done well. Whether it’s a reality show, or a sitcom, or a Western—if it’s done well, people respond to it. And I’d like to think that we did it well.
Shore: In Season One, somebody asked how House was going to end, and I said, “A phone call from the network saying the ratings have gone down and it’s not staying on the air.” What happened was, the end of season seven was fraught internally. There were contractual issues and the thing almost blew up, and I just decided I didn’t want to go through that again. As Hugh said, “House would be the type of guy who would leave a party before he was asked to leave the party, before anybody wanted him to go.” When we wrapped, I took the chair and the whiteboard.
Jacobs: I secretly have the door to House’s office with his name on it to give to Hugh when he wants it. I think he plans to use it as a shower door. Speaking of secrets, the Season Nine that was going to be was based on a piece that I read in The New Yorker about a pharmacist in a small, forgotten town called Nucla. House no longer had his medical license but he’s practicing medicine in a pharmacy because the hospitals are all shut down and there’s no place for anyone to go for help here. Essentially, he is the local pharmacist, doctor, psychiatrist, and secret-keeper of that town. It was going to be 13 episodes and out—a very cowboy-ish, Western kind of thing.
Shore: I would be open to a reunion, but I don’t want to over-promise because the chances are remote. As much as I’d like to replicate that world again, I’m happy with how it ended. I’ve thought about what happened to the characters, but I'd rather hear the actors' takes. I don’t want to limit those stories. I love the idea that I’ve launched this character into the world and that people are taking him where they want him to go in their imaginations.
Laurie: House extricates himself from the practice of medicine. He devoted himself to sculpting in clay, and started brewing “X3,” some ungodly form of illicit alcoholic spirit. It’s the trippiest tequila you’ve ever had, but it’s not just tequila. He tried “X1” on a goat and the goat died; “X2” put him in a coma for about three weeks. House does come back to America and runs for political office. His campaign slogan is “Kill or Cure,” which is going to get him precisely four votes nationally, but I don’t think he cares. Or, maybe House later serves two terms as the 47th president of the United States. That would be quite something, wouldn’t it?
Omar Epps (Eric Foreman): Foreman picked up and tried to carry Cuddy’s torch, constantly challenging the norm if it’s all for the greater good. Anyone who’d work for someone like House can never go back to vanilla. He and House run into each other again, but there’s no happenstance with House. When Foreman’s getting married and the best man is about to speak, a different mic comes on…
Morrison: Cameron went on to be her own version of House, rising to a position of leadership in another hospital. She kept up with Foreman and Chase, like their kids would’ve known her kids. At some point, House heard about a case that she was working on and wasn’t getting the right answer. In a sideways way of letting her know he’s around, and that he’s been secretly running surveillance on her, he sent a research file to save her from making a mistake.
Spencer: Chase stayed single; the unrequited love plays better. When he took over House’s department, he also took on a lot of House’s radical methods. I reckon he would’ve gotten into trouble, gotten sued, and ended up in jail. House had to come and break him out using, like, “logic and science” and put Chase back in his position…somehow.
Wilde: In my mind, Thirteen moved to Mexico and opened a taco shack on the beach. House went and joined her after a few years. He runs the margarita station. It's very Shawshank.
Jacobson: Taub would’ve been House’s press secretary or risen to the top of the hospital, right into House’s position. He brushes Chase aside like a tall weed, fires everybody, hires the cast of Games of Thrones and brings in two actual ducks as “ducklings.” Or, Taub is just happily married with Rachel, because ultimately that was a mistake to leave her.
Kal Penn (Lawrence Kutner): I still have no idea why Kutner killed himself. I remember asking writers, “How do I ground this?” and I truly think the writers themselves didn’t know. They wanted the audience to feel the same anger and loss that you’d feel if this happened in real life. Sometimes, especially in the workplace, you don’t see signs of depression, and they wanted to shine the light on that. It seems it’s held up. When the episode reruns, I still have people who have discovered the show tweet at me like crazy, “Oh my God! I just got to the episode where your character kills himself. What the hell is going on?” Almost everything has an answer on that show, especially in the last act. This is still something that nobody has an answer for.
Tamblyn: Honestly, I think Masters is now a dominatrix. She probably still does some pro bono work because she’s so smart, but there was always a side to her that was type-a dominating. House is her number one client. What a shitty, amazing president he would be.
Annabel: Adams got the fuck out of there. She started her own practice or picked up where she left off, doing some great impossible charity work. House haunts in a good way, playing tricks. He leaves a baseball bat and some goggles in Adams’s kitchen, and when she finds them she smiles the biggest grin from deep in her belly.
Yi: Chi Park and Chase had a fling, but sadly they broke up because Chase was clingy. Chase ended up getting transferred because the heartache was too painful, but they ended up reconnecting five years later and now have two kids, Giblet and Elaine. Park has kept in touch with Adams and House, meeting for whiskeys in a park once a year. Park can’t remember Taub, but Taub can’t forget her. Apparently he had a crush.
Lisa Edelstein (Lisa Cuddy): It turned out that Cuddy had a second, secret life in LA where she was called Abby and married the whole time to a man named Jake. She wrote self-help books about motherhood and marriage. Sadly, she and Jake got divorced. Luckily for all, however, it became a hit Bravo series called Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. (Also on Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes.)
