Pilot (House)
Encyclopedia
"Pilot", also known as "Everybody Lies", is the first episode of the U.S. television series House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...

. The episode premiered on the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 network on November 16, 2004. It introduces the character of Dr. Gregory House
Gregory House
Gregory House, M.D., or simply referred to as House, is a fictional antihero and title character of the American television series House, played by Hugh Laurie. He is the Chief of Diagnostic Medicine at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, where he leads a team of diagnosticians...

 (played by Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...

)—a maverick antisocial doctor—and his team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital
Teaching hospital
A teaching hospital is a hospital that provides clinical education and training to future and current doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, in addition to delivering medical care to patients...

 in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. The episode features House's attempts to diagnose a kindergarten teacher after she collapses in class.

House was created by David Shore
David Shore
David Shore is a Canadian writer, best known for his work writing and producing in television. As a former lawyer, Shore became known for his work on Family Law, NYPD Blue, and Due South...

, who got the idea for the curmudgeonly title character from a doctor's visit. Initially, producer Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer
Bryan Singer is an American film director and film producer. Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects, and is especially well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.-Early life:Singer was born in New...

 wanted an American to play House, but British actor Hugh Laurie's audition convinced him that a foreign actor could play the role. Shore wrote House as a character with parallels to Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

—both are drug users, aloof, and largely friendless. The show's producers wanted House handicapped in some way and gave the character a damaged leg arising from an improper diagnosis.

The episode received generally positive reviews; the character of House was widely noted as a unique aspect of the episode and series, though reviewers such as Sherwin Nuland of Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...

believed that such a cruel character would not be tolerated in real life. Other complaints with the episode included stereotyped supporting characters and an implausible premise. The initial broadcast of "Pilot" was watched by approximately seven million viewers, making it the 62nd-most-watched show of the week.

Plot

Shortly after the start of class, kindergarten teacher Rebecca Adler (Robin Tunney
Robin Tunney
Robin Jessica Tunney is an American actress. She is best known for her lead roles in the movie The Craft and the television series Prison Break and The Mentalist.-Early life:...

) becomes dysphasic, falls to the floor, and experiences seizures. Dr. James Wilson
James Wilson (House)
James Evan Wilson, M.D., is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama House. He is played by Robert Sean Leonard. The character first appears in the show's pilot episode when he introduces a medical case to Dr. Gregory House, the protagonist of the show. Wilson is Dr. House's only true friend,...

 (Robert Sean Leonard
Robert Sean Leonard
Robert Sean Leonard is an American actor, who has regularly starred in Broadway and off-Broadway productions. Since 2004 he has played the role of Dr. James Wilson on the TV series House...

) attempts to convince the misanthropic Gregory House to treat Adler, but House dismisses him, believing that the case would be boring. When Wilson claims that the patient is his cousin, House agrees to take the case. Hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy
Lisa Cuddy
Dr. Lisa Cuddy, M.D., is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama House. She is portrayed by Lisa Edelstein. Cuddy was the Dean of Medicine and hospital administrator of the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. She also becomes House's love interest through the...

 (Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the television drama House.-Early life and education:...

) approaches House in the elevator and attempts to persuade him to fulfill his duties at the hospital's walk-in clinic, a task House loathes because the cases are usually simplistic. House refuses, claiming that Cuddy cannot fire him due to tenure, and hurriedly leaves. When House's team attempts to perform an MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , or magnetic resonance tomography is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures...

 on Adler, they discover that House's authorization for diagnostics has been revoked; Cuddy restores his authorization in exchange for his working at the clinic.

Adler's throat closes up during the MRI, prompting two members of House's team, Dr. Robert Chase
Robert Chase
Dr. Robert Chase is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama House. He is portrayed by Jesse Spencer. His character was a part of the team of diagnosticians who worked under Gregory House until the end of the third season when House fires him. However, he was then re-hired in season 6...

 (Jesse Spencer
Jesse Spencer
Jesse Gordon Spencer is an Australian actor and musician. He is best known for his current portrayal of Dr. Robert Chase on the medical drama House and for playing Billy Kennedy in the Australian soap-opera Neighbours....

) and Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison
Jennifer Morrison
Jennifer Marie Morrison is an American actress, model and film producer. She is best known for her role as Dr. Allison Cameron in House, whom she played for five-and-a-half years, and also as Zoey Pierson in the sixth season of How I Met Your Mother...

), to perform a tracheotomy
Tracheotomy
Among the oldest described surgical procedures, tracheotomy consists of making an incision on the anterior aspect of the neck and opening a direct airway through an incision in the trachea...

. Working in the hospital's clinic, House treats a ten-year-old boy whose mother allows him to use his asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...

tic inhaler
Inhaler
An inhaler or puffer is a medical device used for delivering medication into the body via the lungs. It is mainly used in the treatment of asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease . Zanamivir , used to treat influenza, must be administered via inhaler...

 only intermittently instead of daily as prescribed. House scolds the mother for making such a drastic medical decision without first learning more about asthma. During his monologue, House stumbles on an idea and leaves quickly to treat Adler; he diagnoses her with cerebral vasculitis
Vasculitis
Vasculitis refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders that are characterized by inflammatory destruction of blood vessels. Both arteries and veins are affected. Lymphangitis is sometimes considered a type of vasculitis...

, despite having no proof. House treats Adler with steroids, which improves her condition greatly for a time; however, she soon becomes even more ill than before.

On House's insistence, neurologist Dr. Eric Foreman
Eric Foreman
Eric Foreman, M.D., is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama House. He is portrayed by Omar Epps.-Background:A neurologist, Foreman was a member of Dr. Gregory House's handpicked team of specialists at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital's Diagnostic Medicine Department...

 (Omar Epps
Omar Epps
Omar Hashim Epps is an American actor, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His film roles include Major League II, Juice, Higher Learning, Scream 2, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love and Basketball. Epps' television work includes the role of Dr. Dennis Gant on the US medical drama series ER,...

) and Cameron break into Adler's house to find anything that might account for Adler's symptoms—seizures, dysphasia, and airway constriction. They find an opened package of non-kosher
Kashrut
Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed...

 ham in Adler's kitchen, leading Foreman to reveal that Wilson had lied to House to convince him to treat Adler: Wilson is Jewish, and Jews eat only kosher meat. House dismisses the lie and concludes that Adler is suffering from cysticercosis
Cysticercosis
Cysticercosis refers to tissue infection after exposure to eggs of Taenia solium, the pork tapeworm. The disease is spread via the fecal-oral route through contaminated food and water, and is primarily a food borne disease. After ingestion the eggs pass through the lumen of the intestine into the...

 due to eating undercooked pork; when the tapeworm
Cestoda
This article describes the flatworm. For the medical condition, see Tapeworm infection.Cestoda is the name given to a class of parasitic flatworms, commonly called tapeworms, of the phylum Platyhelminthes. Its members live in the digestive tract of vertebrates as adults, and often in the bodies...

 inside of her reproduced, its larvae were absorbed into her blood stream, infesting her brain. Adler, wishing to die with dignity, refuses to accept more treatments unless there is evidence that the diagnosis is correct, but House attempts to persuade her otherwise. During the conversation, Adler asks for the cause of the limp in House's right leg. House reveals he had an infarction
Infarction
In medicine, infarction refers to tissue death that is caused by a local lack of oxygen due to obstruction of the tissue's blood supply. The resulting lesion is referred to as an infarct.-Causes:...

 in his thigh muscles that led to muscle death, which could have been avoided if his doctor had made the correct diagnosis. House continues, claiming that death is ugly and that Adler cannot die with dignity, but she still refuses treatment. House is ready to dismiss the case when Chase provides an idea for noninvasive evidence of Adler's tapeworm infection; by taking an X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...

 of her leg, House proves that Adler is infested with tapeworms and her condition is treatable. After seeing the evidence, Adler happily agrees to take her medication to kill the tapeworms.

Conception and filming

Series creator David Shore traced the concept for House to his background as a patient at a teaching hospital. Shore recalled that "I knew, as soon as I left the room, they would be mocking me relentlessly [for my cluelessness...] and I thought that it would be interesting to see a character who actually did that before they left the room." In 2004, Shore and executive producers Katie Jacobs and Paul Attanasio pitched House to Fox as a medical detective show—a hospital whodunit
Whodunit
A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...

 where the doctors would be the sleuths looking for the source of symptoms. The ideas behind House's character were added after Fox bought the show. Shore wrote the pilot with a vivid memory of a doctor's visit: he once had to wait two weeks to get a doctor's appointment for a sore hip, by which point his pain had disappeared. Nevertheless, Shore stated that the doctors were "incredibly polite". Shore later stated that, as he wrote the pilot, he fell in love with a character who, as a doctor, would actually ask the question "Why am I wasting your time?".

A central part of the show's premise was that the main character would be handicapped. The initial idea was for House to use a wheelchair, but Fox turned down this interpretation (for which the crew was later grateful). The wheelchair idea turned into a scar on House's face, which later turned into a bad leg necessitating use of a cane. The original script called for House to be 34 years old; however, Shore later explained that he did not want the character to be that young.

The episode was written by the series creator David Shore, and was shot in Canada; later episodes would be shot on soundstages in California. Shore said that the writings of Berton Roueché
Berton Roueché
Berton Roueché was a medical writer who wrote for The New Yorker magazine for almost fifty years. He also wrote twenty books including Eleven Blue Men , The Incurable Wound , Feral , and The Medical Detectives...

, a The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

staff writer who chronicled intriguing medical cases, inspired the plots for "Pilot" and other early episodes.

Casting

Producer Bryan Singer originally demanded that an American actor play the role of House; according to Singer, the more foreign actors he watched audition for the part, the more sure he was that an American was needed. At the time of casting, Hugh Laurie was filming the movie Flight of the Phoenix
Flight of the Phoenix (2004 film)
Flight of the Phoenix is a 2004 remake of a 1965 film, both based on the 1964 novel The Flight of the Phoenix, by Elleston Trevor, about a group of people who survive a plane crash in the Gobi Desert and must build a new plane out of the old one to escape. The film stars Dennis Quaid, Tyrese...

. He put together an audition tape in a Namibian hotel bathroom, the only place with enough light, and apologized for its appearance (which Singer compared to a "bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

 video"). Laurie improvised by using an umbrella for a cane. Singer was impressed by Laurie's performance and commented on how well the "American actor" grasped the character, not realizing Laurie was British.

Laurie initially believed that House was merely the "sidekick" of Wilson, because the script referred to Wilson as a doctor with "boyish" looks. Laurie did not realize that House was the protagonist until he read the full teleplay. According to Shore, "it's easy to make an asshole character unlikable. What's tricky is to make them watchable. And Hugh came in and brought everything that
was there to the part, the nastiness, the not politically correct stuff. And yet you wanted to watch him, you wanted to spend time with him."

Similarities between House and the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

 appear in the pilot; Shore explained that he was always a fan of Holmes, and found the character's traits of indifference to his clients unique. House and Holmes have only one real friend (Wilson and Watson, respectively) who connects the cerebral hero to human concerns. This Holmes and Watson dynamic was something the producers were looking for in the characters of House and Wilson, especially in terms of chemistry.

Robert Sean Leonard (Dr. James Wilson) read the pilot scripts to Numb3rs
NUMB3RS
Numb3rs is an American television drama which premiered on CBS on January 23, 2005, and concluded on March 12, 2010. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, and follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes , who helps Don solve crimes...

and was planning to audition for the part, but was drawn to auditioning for House because he enjoyed the role of being "the guy [the protagonist] counts on", as well as the similarities to Sherlock Holmes. Leonard felt he did not audition well, and thought his long friendship with Singer helped land him the role. When asked in an interview why his character would ever be friends with House, Leonard replied:
Australian actor Jesse Spencer's agent suggested that Spencer audition for the role of Chase, but he was hesitant, fearing the show might be similar to General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....

. Once the actor saw the scripts, he changed his mind; Spencer then persuaded the producers to change his character into an Australian. Omar Epps, who plays Foreman, found influence from his work as a troubled intern on the TV show ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

. Epps and co-star Jennifer Morrison read the scripts and believed that the show would be either a hit or miss.

Reception

Houses premiere episode was generally well received. Critics reacted positively to the character of House; Tom Shales
Tom Shales
Thomas William "Tom" Shales is an American critic of television programming and operations. He is best known as TV critic for The Washington Post; in 1988, Shales received the Pulitzer Prize...

 of The Washington Post called him "the most electrifying character to hit television in years". The New York Magazine called the series "medical TV at its most satisfying and basic", and stated that the cast consisted of "[professional] actors playing doctors who come to care about their patients", while The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...

s Matthew Gilbert appreciated that the episode did not sugarcoat the flaws of the characters to assuage viewers' fears about "HMO
Health maintenance organization
A health maintenance organization is an organization that provides managed care for health insurance contracts in the United States as a liaison with health care providers...

 factories". Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

said that though the characters might be a turn-off to some viewers, the gore and "derivative gall" of the show were positives to fans of procedural dramas; TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...

s Matt Roush stated House was an "uncommon cure for the common medical drama". Critics of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...

called House the "nastiest" black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

 from Fox since the 1996's short-lived television series Profit
Profit (TV series)
Profit is an American television series that originally aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company in 1996. The series was created by David Greenwalt and John McNamara, and starred Adrian Pasdar as the titular character, Jim Profit. In February 2008, episodes began airing on Chiller in the USA...

. Critics considered the series to be a bright spot among Fox's otherwise reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...

-based broadcast schedule.

The episode's format was compared to a rival television series, Medical Investigation
Medical Investigation
Medical Investigation was an American medical drama television series that began September 9, 2004, on NBC. It ran for 20 one-hour episodes before being cancelled in 2005...

. USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

favorably stated House as more character-driven than Investigations "plot-driven procedural", and the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

felt that House was the better show due to the title character. Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

s Brian Lowry, meanwhile, stated that the two shows were too similar and House was mismatched among Fox's other programs. Other complaints included perceived stereotypes of young, attractive doctors. Sherwin Nuland of Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...

gave the first episodes of the series a highly negative review, stating that "Of all the medical errata in this series (and there are some whoppers), the greatest is surely the conceit that a physician so remote, so neglectful of duty, so sadistic, so downright cruel as Gregory House would be tolerated in any
hospital." Kay McFadden of The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...

felt that Laurie's portrayal of House humanized the character, but also revealed the show's deepest flaw: "a reliance on shallow cuteness for comic relief". Other complaints included a lack of characterization for the supporting characters in the first few episodes.

The premiere attracted approximately seven million viewers in the United States, making it the 62nd-most-watched show for the week of November 15–21, 2004. The United Kingdom terrestrial premiere was broadcast on June 9, 2005, by Five and garnered a ten percent share (1.8 million viewers). Christopher Hoag, who composed the music for "Pilot" and the first season of House, was nominated in the 2005 Primetime Emmy Awards
57th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held on September 18, 2005, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The 2005 Primetime Emmy Awards show was broadcast on CBS....

 for Outstanding Music Composition
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series
This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-Total Awards:* CBS - 10* ABC - 7* NBC - 6* FOX - 3* Syndicated - 3* Discovery Channel - 2...

 for the episode. Shore received a Humanitas Prize
Humanitas Prize
The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious...

 nomination for writing the episode, but lost out to John Wells
John Wells (TV producer)
John Marcum Wells is an American theater and television producer, writer and director. He is best known for his role as executive producer and show runner of the television series ER, Third Watch, and The West Wing. His company, John Wells Productions, is currently based at Warner Bros. studios in...

, who wrote the episode of the The West Wing entitled "NSF Thurmont
NSF Thurmont (The West Wing)
-Plot:The start of the episode shows a military honor guard carrying a coffin containing the body of Admiral Fitzwallace.The world watches the aftermath of the Gaza attack on U.S. officials. The President learns that 82% of the American people, almost all of Congress, Vice President Bob Russell,...

".

External links

  • "Pilot" at Fox Broadcasting Company
    Fox Broadcasting Company
    Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

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