Living in a ‘House’ built for one

Let's get it over with: There's a new doctor in the House, and though he never makes house calls, he's seen in millions of homes each week, and his creators insist they didn't come up with the name for its punning possibilities.

Officially, the name of  Dr. Gregory House, on Fox's Tuesday medical drama "House," is an indirect homage to Sherlock Holmes, a diagnostic detective with at least as colorful a personality as the fictional sleuth. At least he's not related to the last semi-successful show about a medical genius: Doogie Howser.

There's a long TV tradition of medical shows about the exploits of a star doctor, from Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare, through Marcus Welby and that illegitimate child of "M*A*S*H," "Trapper John, M.D." All of these doctors either had an older mentor, or mentored a younger doctor who ended up stealing the show. But it was actually "M*A*S*H" with its ensemble cast that turned out to be the model for medical shows in recent years, from "St. Elsewhere" to "Chicago Hope" to "E.R." to that new batch of interns on "Grey's Anatomy." On doctor shows, there is indeed safety in numbers.

One-man show
You just don't invest too much in any one doctor while watching a show like "E.R." Your favorite might just walk away (like Dr. Ross) or die on you (like Dr. Greene) or go away and come back after everyone's forgotten her (Dr. Lewis). On the other hand, a particularly unlikable doctor will either be dismembered by a stray helicopter blade (Dr. Romano), or they'll find some way to make the character more likable — Dr. Kerry Weaver was the first character on TV ever to be 'softened' by turning lesbian. At least that's what Dr. House would say if he watched "E.R."  instead of daytime soap operas.

Shortly before "House," NBC premiered "Medical Investigation," a show about medical investigators (surprise) with an ensemble cast that seemed to share a time slot with "Third Watch," an ensemble drama about firefighters, cops and several other occupations that somehow all blurred together until both shows were canceled.

In contrast, "House, M.D." (its official title) is all about this guy named House, M.D., V.I.P. and S.O.B. There are other characters on the show, including a trio of young doctors on House's team, but don't expect any of them to become his mentor and end up stealing the show. They, along with everyone else surrounding Dr. House, spend most of their time responding to him, and the rest of their time responding to the Impossible-to-Diagnose Sick Person of the Week, who usually is too ill to do very much acting. The show pulls off a kind of dramatic sleight-of-hand that makes it feel like Dr. House is in every scene when he actually has less face time than most title characters.

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