Article: "Being shot won't make caustic House any nicer, says serie  
Posted by: "Cyane" cyane12@... northernlightspaintedsky  
Date: Mon Jun 19, 2006 12:57 pm (PDT)
http://www.680news.com/news/entertainment/article.jsp?content=e061433A
<http://www.680news.com/news/entertainment/article.jsp?content=e061433A>
Being shot won't make caustic House any nicer, says series creator June
14, 2006 - 14:57
By: JUDY MONCHUK
BANFF, Alta. (CP) - Don't expect acerbic Dr. Gregory House to adopt a
caring bedside manner after his near-death experience.
Being shot by an angry widower in the season finale won't trigger an
epiphany for the cynical and sarcastic master diagnostician, says the
Canadian-born creator of the hit show House.
"We're going to go down that road a little bit, but people don't
change," David Shore said at the Banff Television Festival.
Audiences adore the caustic House (Hugh Laurie), whose inclination is to
insult patients as he and his medical detective team deduce whatever
bizarre malady is triggering the confusing, usually grotesque and
generally life-threatening disease of the week.
"This character's bread and butter is shocking people and he's shocking
people for a reason," said the Emmy-winning Shore, executive producer on
the hit Fox show, which is broadcast in Canada on Global.
Many of the good doctor's flippant observations and retorts, deemed
"Housisms" on one fan website, flow out of his personal credo:
"Everybody lies."
That's the core of the series and Shore says what helps keep it from
slipping into a disease of the week format.
"Often now it starts without the medicine - it starts with the character
and a lie or a secret," he said.
"House looking at a blood test and seeing something on that blood test
that shouldn't be there isn't that interesting. House realizing
something about a person that we didn't know and thus coming up with the
ultimate answer because of that character flaw: that's interesting."
Not that House doesn't have his own character flaws. The brilliant
pill-popping doctor, who munches Vicodin for pain in his leg, will see
his addictions escalate during Season 3.
"He's going to get in trouble with the drugs," said Shore.
There were fleeting moments last season when House appeared to show
glimmers of humanity and decency. Don't get used to that.
"If we were making him softer, I'm sorry," laughed the self-effacing
Shore, a former lawyer from London, Ont., who was honoured at the
festival with the award of excellence. "That was a mistake."
Although Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), part of the elite medical team,
became much happier and nicer after his own brush with death late in the
season, that won't work with the arrogant House.
"I think in TV that rather than have characters evolve, you want to peel
more of the onion away," said Shore. "It's still the same onion, but you
show surprising aspects of it. You want to raise as many questions as
you answer."
Shore cut his writing chops with a far more likeable character: Mountie
Benton Fraser on cult favourite Due South, which was created by
Oscar-winning Crash director Paul Haggis - who has the same Ontario
hometown.
Haggis, who is returning to the small screen with NBC's The Black
Donnellys in January, was also honoured at the Banff festival with the
award of distinction.
The fact that two writers from one medium-sized Canadian city are
currently the hottest thing in the entertainment industry is an anomaly.
"It's very annoying for me to be stuck in the other Londoner's shadow,"
joked Shore, who also worked with Haggis on EZ Streets.
"I was very lucky to have Paul be the first to hire me," he said. "You
learn as you're going along and I could have ended up on a show that
wasn't as good as Due South and learned from lesser writers."
Shore's resume includes writing stints on some of the strongest dramas
of the last generation: NYPD Blue and The Practice. He was twice
nominated for Emmys as a producer on Law and Order before winning for
writing an episode of House.
Some aspects of the show are highly implausible, such as members of
House's team breaking into a patient's home to look for medical clues.
But Shore says it's not a bad idea.
"Frankly I think it makes perfect sense," he said. "If you tell my
mother you're bringing somebody over, she starts cleaning up. If you -
want to know what people are really doing, don't tell them what to look
at."
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(CP) - The sarcastic comments of caustic television doctor Gregory House
have spawned several websites devoted to "Housisms." A sampling of some
of lines from the character on the hit Fox show:
-"Everybody lies."
-"Hey, I can be a jerk to people I haven't slept with. I am that good."
-"Starving babies is bad ... and illegal in many cultures."
-"If a person talks to God, he's religious. If God talks to him, he's
psychotic."
-"I teach you to lie, cheat, and steal, and as soon as my back's turned
you wait in line?"
-"Like I always say, there's no 'I' in team. There's a 'me,' though, if
you jumble it up."
-"You're orange, you moron. And it's one thing for you not to notice,
but if your wife hasn't picked up on the fact that her husband has
changed colours, she's just not paying attention."