Talking with 'House' cast members, producer

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For five seasons, a grumpy doctor has been in the "House," curing the ill while popping pain meds. The Fox series, now airing at 8 p.m. EST Mondays, celebrates its 100th episode this week in an episode about a cancer researcher who collapses and is admitted to the hospital. Just don't expect anything special about the episode, despite what's likely to be on-air "100th episode" hype by Fox's promotions department.
"I don't know why I sort of draw arbitrary points of principle here and there. I don't know why I picked this one, but it just annoyed me that everybody was getting excited about the 100th episode," said "House" executive producer David Shore. "I'm glad we are getting the publicity, but I'm kind of going, 'Why is this episode different than 90 -- if we had nine fingers, would episode 81 be the big one?"
When "House" began back in 2004, it was much more a procedural focusing on medical mysteries solved by Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie). But in recent years, "House" has evolved into a series with one foot in the procedural universe (the medical case of the week) and another foot in the serialized character universe (the soap opera of romances and relationships). The series embarked most dramatically on a binge of serialized stories last season when House played "Survivor" with his replacement interns, whittling them down from dozens to just a few.
"We did not know where it would end up," said actor Peter Jacobson, who joined the cast last season as Dr. Chris Taub. "So it was just sort of about being thrown in and riding along with it."
His wife thought signing on to possibly be tossed off the show was a mistake.
"She thought I was insane initially because ... most actors are afraid of getting fired and not making it," Jacobson said. "So to be in every day, every week, every episode kind of wondering whether you're going to make it is sort of crazy, but it was really a lovely atmosphere to play that out in."
Of course, the additions of Taub, Kutner (Kal Penn) and Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) last season resulted in less screen time for some of the show's original characters, most notably Dr. Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Dr. Chase (Jesse Spencer). But the actors don't seem to mind.
"I actually prefer what I'm doing now to what I did before, not that it wasn't good," Spencer said. "I kind of like the new established relationship I have with House and the new team. The team comes to me, and House comes to me, and I'm sort of on the side, doing my thing. For some reason, it's different energies and a different feel, and I feel like the scenes that I do now are actually more pertinent to the episodes in general."
Morrison said moving Cameron and Chase to new positions in the hospital reinvigorated their roles on the show. "And I get more time one-on-one with (series star) Hugh (Laurie), which I would never complain about," she said.
A romantic relationship that's gained prominence this season is the one between Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) and House. Edelstein said she liked the way that their first kiss came in a moment of deep pain for both characters.
"I thought that was really brilliant because I always pondered how would these people ever cross that line with each other," she said. "They couldn't get drunk or run into each other in the hallway and then suddenly just smash together and start making out. None of it really sounded very good. Through pain seemed absolutely perfect."
Laurie agreed.
"It wasn't conventionally romantic, but then nothing this fellow does is conventional, and that's the joy of it," he said. "It's a twisty thing, and there was something about the loneliness of these two characters. It's very poignant, really, to see people who, almost without realizing it themselves, need each other."
Producer Shore said that, "unluckily for humanity," there are plenty of medical mysteries to keep "House" going for another 100 episodes, but Laurie dismissed notions of the series running for 15 years like a "Law & Order."
"I can't see myself physically going 15 years on this planet, actually, and doing a television show," he said. "It seems very unlikely to me."
The show may not make it to 15, but Shore expects "House" to continue for many years.
"(Fox is) going to want to keep this show on the air as long as they possibly can," he said, "even if it's little Jimmy House, Gregory House's nephew, in season 12."

(Contact Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV editor Rob Owen at rowen(at)post-gazette.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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