House, M.D: The Best Medical Drama on TV

If you like medical mysteries, or just strong characters, then House is for you! Hugh Laurie is joined by fellow cast members Robert Sean Leonard, Lisa Edelstein, Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison, and Jesse Spencer Tuesdays at 8pm central time on FOX. The setting is at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey, and each week the team attempt to save the life of yet another patient with a seemingly impossible condition to diagnose.

The cases House chooses to take on are usually extraordinarily interesting to him because they provide a rather difficult puzzle to solve, which most often involve several non-related symptoms. House will often avoid direct contact with patients outside of clinic duty to maintain objectivity, but also because he can be very impersonal and anti-social. His belief that "everyone lies" is quite cynical, but also holds an element of truth that many of us tend to ignore on an everyday basis.However, that mistrust and objective detachment often allow him to diagnose rather difficult cases.

As a consequence of his attitude, Laurie's character is perhaps both the most hated and most admired on television. The friction that House's personality creates over the course of an episode, mixed in with just enough humor, complements the drama provided by the newest medical mystery waiting to be solved. Also, the various interplay between the characters makes the series fascinating in and of itself, but the genius diagnosing abilities of House and CSI-esque nature of the medical mysteries just adds to the magnetism of the show. Learning a little about each regular cast member may further tweak your interest.

Hugh Laurie (Dr. Gregory House, Diagnostic Medicine, Department Head, nephrology) has been a household name in England for the last two decades, but only recently achieved the same status in the U.S. since House aired in November of 2004. He is best known in the U.K. as an actor and comedian for his roles in Blackadder and his comedic partnership with Stephen Fry.

He was actually filming Flight of the Phoenix when he auditioned for the part of House. His American accent was very convincing to House executive producer Bryan Singer, who was not even aware that Laurie is English. Interestingly Hugh's father , Ran Laurie, was actually a doctor, and won an Olympic gold medal in rowing, an interest Hugh took up while in school and the university at Sewlyn College, Cambridge. However, during a bout of mononucleosis Hugh abandoned rowing and joined the Cambridge Footlights where he met future Academy-award winner Emma Thompson who first introduced Laurie to Fry, thus launching a successful comedic career stretching across Europe to Australia and New Zealand.

Robert Sean Leonard (Dr. James Wilson, Oncologist, Department Head) first gained recognition for his role as Nick Perry in the 1989 movie Dead Poet's Society. He has since won a Tony award for Best Actor - Featured Play in The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard as A.E. Housman in 2001. Leonard was also nominated for a Tony on two other occasions. Just like their characters House and Wilson, Laurie and Leonard are close friends.

Lisa Edelstein (Dr. Lisa Cuddy, Dean of Medicine, Administration) was born to Jewish parents in Boston, raised in New Jersey where her father is a doctor, and moved to New York City at age 18 to study theater at Tisch School of Fine Arts. While there, Edelstein got involved in a group called club kids, became known as "Lisa E" and was dubbed 'Queen of the Night." She used her "celebutante' status to launch her career in musicals, and television appearances, before making an appearance in the 1997 movie As Good As It Gets. Her best known movie roles was as Dina in 2000's What Women Want and as Ali Decker in Keeping the Faith . Edelstein made appearances in episodes of Seinfeld, ER, Frazier, The West Wing, Ally McBeal, and The Practice. She is a practicing vegan and likes animals and yoga.

Omar Epps (Dr. Eric Foreman, fellow, Diagnostic Medicine, neurologist) was born in Brooklyn, New York and before acting belonged to the rap group Wolfpak, which he formed in 1991 with his brother. Epps began writing screenplays at the age of ten, eventually attending the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. He has appeared on another TV medical drama ER for several episodes as Dr. Dennis Grant. Epps first movie was Juice in 1992 as Quincy, also appearing in Major League II, Higher Learning, Scream 2, The Mod Squad, The Wood, Dracula 2000, and Love and Basketball. Epps has a daughter with former member of the R&B group Total, Keisha Spivey, and is a cousin of actor/comedian Mike Epps.

Jennifer Morrison (Dr. Allison Cameron, fellow, Diagnostic Medicine, immunologists) was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from Loyola University Chicago in 2000 with a major in Theater and minor in English. She also studied with the Steppenwolf Theater Company before moving to Los Angeles. Morrison was a child model, appearing in print ads for JCPenny, Montgomery Ward, and in Rice Krispies commercials. She also appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids with Michael Jordan at the age of ten.

Making her film debut at fifteen in Intersection she followed that up with Stir of Echoes and her first lead role in 2000's Urban Legends: Final Cut, having since appeared in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Surviving Christmas. In television, she worked on Touched by an Angel and Dawson's Creek. Morrison has even appeared in music videos for Nich Lachey and The Donnas. TV Guide selected her as on the Top 10 of TV's Sexiest Stars for 2007. Fascinatingly, she is now engaged to fellow co-star Jesse Spencer.

Jesse Spencer (Dr. Robert Chase, fellow, Diagnostic Medicine, intensivist) was born in Melbourne, Australia, ironically comes from a family of doctors, with both parents and all three siblings practicing medicine. While attending Scotch College, he auditioned for the soap opera Neighbours and won the part of Billy Kennedy, a role he played from 1994-2000. He has since appeared in such films as Uptown Girls, Swimming Upstream, and Flourish alongside fiance Morrison. Spencer made People Magazine's 2007 list of the 100 Most Beautiful People.

House is currently wrapping up its third season, now totaling 69 episodes, with the first two seasons having been already released on DVD. Since being moved to its current time slot following American Idol in the spring of their first season of 2005, high ratings and critical praise have flourished for the hit show. House has been awarded a Peabody in 2006 for its "unorthodox lead character - a misanthropic diagnostician" with "cases fit for Sherlock Holmes." Creator David Shore won an Emmy for writing in 2005 for the episode "Three Stories." Hugh Laurie won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama in both 2006 and 2007, and also won the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for Best Male Actor in a Drama Series this year. Laurie was also nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2005.

Manipulating every situation to his advantage, House uses his team to play off of each other to achieve his objective of solving each case. With occasional clinic duty, which House tries to avoid whenever possible, much to the chagrin of Cuddy, he demonstrates his amazing ability of observation and deduction diagnosing a patient's needs in record time, sometimes being quite rude in the process. Nevertheless, Cuddy and Wilson often find themselves defending House when he is challenged by the Hospital board, by patients, and even the law, simply because he is the best at what he does. Recently, House has even shown a romantic interest in Cuddy in his own way, but so has Wilson, who is perhaps House's only friend and whom has been married more than once.

Over the course of the show, House has dealt with his relationship with his ex-wife, having been shot by a patient, a Vicodin addiction due in part to his chronic leg pain, being threatened with termination for his impersonal approach to patients and for disrespect of hospital rules, and now most recently Dr. Foreman's apparent resignation, who fears he is turning into a jerk, just like House. When a patient died due to a misdiagnosis by the House team, Dr. Foreman began to question their methods, and gave House his two week notice, all leading up to the third season finale. Will House show enough humility, show he is capable of changing, and convince Foreman to stay in order to keep his team intact?